338 WAVES OF THE SEA 



The appearance of the water in a high waterfall 

 is quite different, for the water is more opaque or 

 milky, there are none of these brilliant stripes, and 

 ( especially if the eye be allowed to follow the water 

 in its fall) it is seen to be patchy, the patches being 

 more or less conical or V-shaped. Photographs 

 of waterfalls sometimes show them, when the 

 shutter of the camera works with sufficient rapidity. 

 Livingstone thus describes these characteristic 

 bodies as he saw them at the Victoria Falls of the 

 Zambesi : ' " On the left side of the island we 

 have a good view of the mass of water ... as 

 it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick, 

 unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom. Its 

 whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had 

 not seen for many a day. As it broke into (if I 

 may use the term) pieces of water, all rushing on 

 in the same direction, each gave off several rays 

 of foam, exactly as bits of steel, when burned in 

 oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks. The snow-like 

 sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rush- 

 ing in one direction, each of which left behind 

 its nucleus rays of foam. I never saw the ap- 

 pearance referred to noticed elsewhere. It seemed 

 to be the effect of the mass of water leaping at once 



1 " Missionary Travels in South Africa." 



