THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 321 



the day before. No damage was done except wetting their per- 

 sons and goods. The attack was so unusual an occurrence, when 

 the precaution is taken to coast along the shore, that the men 

 exclaimed, "Is the beast mad?" There were eight in the canoe 

 at the time, and the shake it received shows the immense power 

 of this animal in the water. 



THE WONDERFUL, VICTORIA FALLS. 



LIVINGSTONE continued down the river, and being: in the vicin- 



O 



ity of Victoria Falls resolved to visit them. The Leeba river had 

 now given place to the Leeambye, which is further east called 

 the Zambesi, ail being one and the same, only called differently 

 by the natives of the northeast, south, central and eastern tribes. 

 Approaching to where the rapids begin he saw an island quite 

 large enough for a considerable town, and upon going ashore he 

 found the grave of a chief, named Sekote, ornamented with 

 seventy large elephant tusks planted round it with the points 

 turned inward. This was an indication of his wealth and great- 

 ness. 



The falls of Victoria, called by the natives Mosioatunya, or 

 more anciently Shongwe, were not far off, and on the following 

 day he pushed on with only one native as a guide, and soon came 

 near enough to see five great columns of vapor ascending and 

 moving off like smoke, descending again in torrents of rain upon 

 a thick covert of trees a mile or more distant. Describing this 

 sight and the falls, Livingstone says : 



* * * " No one can imagine the beauty of the view from 

 any thing witnessed in England. It had never been seen before 

 by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have 'been gazed 

 upon by angels in their flight. The only want felt is that of 

 mountains in the background. The falls are bounded on three 

 sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet in height, which are covered with 

 forest, with the red soil appearing among the trees. When about 

 half a mile from the falls, I left the canoe by which we had come 

 down thus far, and embarked in a lighter one, with men well 

 acquainted with the rapids, who, by passing down the centre of 

 the stream in, the eddies and still places caused by many jutting 

 21 w 



