DOWN THE VICTORIA NILE 141 



animal life is astonishing. Here are birds as bright as butterflies; 

 butterflies as big as birds. The air hums with flying creatures, the 

 earth fairly crawls with creeping life. Through it passes the telegraph 

 wire running north to Gondokoro, the very poles of which break into 

 bud. In the forest itself huge trees jostle each other for room to live, 

 lower plants throng the soil, and the trees are fettered together with 

 a thick tangle of twining parasites, which at intervals burst into a sea 

 of bright blossoms. 



But we must hurry on to the falls themselves, the most remark- 

 able in the whole course of the Nile. The cataracts begin many miles 

 above, the river hurrying forward in foam down a continuous stair- 

 way inclosed by rocky walls. It is still, however, a broad flood, but, 

 about two miles above Fajao, these walls suddenly contract until they 

 are less than six yards apart, and through this narrow opening the 

 whole great stream shoots like water from the nozzle of a hose, pour- 

 ing in a single jet and with a far-reaching roar down an abyss of a 

 hundred and sixty feet in depth. 



On seeing the great size of the river below the falls it is difficult 

 to believe that this vast volume of water comes through that single 

 spout. On climbing to the summit of the rock, through clouds of spray 

 and a thunder of sound, the observer can walk within an inch of the 

 edge, and lying down can look over into the torment of foam below. 

 It seems as if the rock must have been worn away to a great extent 

 below, for otherwise it seems impossible for so much water to pass 

 through so narrow a space. 



The Nile below the falls swarms with crocodiles, and farther 

 down are herds of hippopotami, so that the stream throbs with life. 

 The crocodiles haunt this spot on the lookout for the dead fish and 

 animals carried over by the water, even the great hippos from the 

 upper river being often caught and hurled down the watery cliff. So 

 numerous are the saurians that at a rifle shot hundreds of them may 

 be seen rushing from the banks into the Nile, the water of which they 

 churn into milk-white foam. 



We can perhaps best tell the story of these falls and also of the 

 lake of which they form the threshold, in the words of their discov- 

 erer. Sir Samuel Baker. On his journey of exploration into Central 



