64 Fuller, Some South African Scenes and Flowers. f,, 



Vict. Nat. 

 XXXII. 



seeming to spout the water through their nostrils, snorting and 

 splashing in the water. They were uncomfortably close, and 

 our oarsmen paddled vigorously to get out of their way, as 

 there have been some serious accidents through these beasts 

 upsetting the boats on the river. There are too many crocodiles 

 to make a ducking pleasant. As soon as we landed we made 

 haste to tell our friends, who, we knew, were anxious to see 

 them too. We met them at the entrance of the " rain forest " 

 for which we were bound, and they hurried along the way we 

 had come. 



When the sun is getting low, the rain forest is unique, for it 

 is then that there are three rainbows to be seen, the minor two 

 being complete circles. One must be suitably clad for the 

 rain forest, as a drenching rain blows at all angles and soon 

 saturates you through and through. It is always wet there, 

 tor it is in reality the spray scattered by the falling torrents ; 

 and, although everywhere else the heat may be very great, 

 in the rain forest it is always cooler, though wet and steamy. 

 On the edge of the forest, overlooking the abyss, it is very 

 rocky, like a sea-coast at low tide, the rocks being covered 

 with what looks like very soft bronze moss : but I found to my 

 cost that it was too slippery to walk on. There, too, the 

 little crabs scrambled about in great numbers. From the edge 

 of that precipice — which I did not reach, however — one can 

 be encircled by the rainbows. The undergrowth in the forest 

 is rank and green, maiden-hair and other ferns carpeting the 

 ground, with lovely moss coveiing the stones and fallen trees. 

 The various buck and other animals are more plentiful here 

 than in other parts. From the inner edge of the rain forest 

 the best general view of the main falls is to be seen, as well as 

 < atarad Island, where fishing is a favourite as well as profit- 

 able pastime for those who like it. 



The days simply flew past — there seemed so much still to see ; 

 but it was a week <>t pellet i en j( lyinen t . except for the gnat 



heat, the entrance hall and rooms at the hotel registering iob° 

 mosl "l the time; nevertheless, it was with greal reluctance 

 that we again took our places in the train on our return 

 journey to I ape Town. I might say here that a young puff addei 

 was caughl in the ball at the hotel, and one "i the men killed 

 it and was able to show and explain to us its interesting methods 

 of using its poison, &< 



We lefl Vi< toria Falls station one Saturday morning at 12.15, 

 and arrived at I ape Town on Thursday at 11 a.m., in time to 

 enjoy our lunch on terra firma instead oi in a train rocking and 

 swaying from side to side as i1 hurried over the 1,662 miles ol 

 country thai stretch between (ape Town and the greal 



Zambesi Falls. 



