July, 1905.] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



It was in this way that Livingstone, who first visited 

 tiie scone, came down stream in a " dug-out," hmding- 

 on the island, which bears his name (see Fig-, i), and 

 which is perched on the very brink of the chasm and 

 almost in the middle of the falls. The views obtained 

 from this point are by far the finest and most impres- 

 sive, and for tliis reason it is well worth the while of 

 visitors to refrain for the first day from stopping at the 

 well-placed hotel on he south bank of the river, and to 

 continue the journey until the new township of Living- 

 stone on the north bank is reached; by doing- this a 

 glimpse only is caught of the canon and falls while 

 crossing the bridge, but it is a foretaste of what 

 is to come. Then, chartering a boat on arrival, 

 the quiet beauties of the 

 upper river may be en- 

 joyed while gliding down 

 stream until Livingstone 

 Island is reached. The 

 remembrance of the first 

 view from this vantage 

 point will ever remain in 

 the mind's eye. 



Visitors are ac- 

 customed to stop on 

 the south bank, where a 

 comfortable and well- 

 managed hotel has been 

 erected by the Rhodesia 

 Railways. From here it 

 is but half a mile to the 

 west end of the chasm, 

 and all the wonders of 

 this masterpiece of 

 nature can be readily 

 approached. 



The Zambezi above 

 the falls, save for a few 

 rocky bars causing small 

 rapids, is a beautiful 

 wide river, flowing for 

 many miles and dotted 

 with numerous islands, 

 which are thickly 

 covered with tropical 

 vegetation, forming a 

 habitation not only for 

 an infinite variety of 

 waterfowl, but also for 

 the treacherous croco- 

 dile and the bellowing 

 hippopotamus. Game, 

 too, is plentiful along its 

 banks, and the tiger fish 

 affords as good sport as 

 the salmon. A particu- 

 larly fine open reach 

 about a mile above the 

 falls has lately been the 

 scene of a first regatta. 



The bridge (Fig. 2) 

 now completed, carry- 

 ing the projected Cape to 

 Cairo Railway, spans the 

 Grand Canon at a point 

 just below the whirlpool, 

 and is placed so as not 

 to interfere with views 

 of the falls. Far from 



being an eye-sore, the structure is of light and graceful 

 design, eminently fitted for its purpose and to the 

 locality; moreover, it seems to enable one to realise all 

 the better the great depth of the gorge and the enor- 

 mous scale on which Nature has wrought her work. 



It consists of one main parabolic arch of 500 feet 

 spaa, resting on blocks of concrete set in the sheer cliff, 

 and, with two subsidiary end spans, the total length is 

 brought up to 650 feet. The whole is supported on four 

 steel bearing pins six feet long and 12 inches in diame- 

 ter, and each pin takes a load of 1,640 tons. 



.Scaffolding being, of course, impossible, the bridge 

 was made to support itself, as the two halves were 

 built outwards. This was effected by attaching cables 



Plinto by PeilroUi, Siilairaiiu. 



Pig- 3.— The Victoria Falls 



The Main Fall at low water, as seen from Livingstone island. 



