8 Timehri. 



But all interest centres on Kaietuerk and we hurried across the 

 plateau to the brink of the gorge to gaze for the first time upoD this 

 titanic waterfall. All my life I have prided myself upon being able to look 

 down from dirzy heights without any sensation of giddiness or fear. I 

 have climbed to the trucks of ships' masts at sea ; I have gazed from the 

 skeleton frames o skyscrapers at the ant-like humans in the busy streets 

 five hundred feetbelow, and I have stood on the brink of many a terrific 

 precipice ; but when I walked boldly to the edge of Kaietuerk gorge I 

 gave one glance and beating a hasty retreat sat down at a safe distance. 



I expected to look down for a vast distance ; but I also expected to 

 see a slope or a precipice, or some tangible connection between the top 

 and bottom of the gorge. Instead I gazed straight down through space 

 for a thousand feet and I could not overcome the sensation of the entire 

 overhanging ledge tumbling into the awful abyss beneath. The feeling- 

 soon wore off' to large extent, however ; but still I preferred to get 

 down on all fours, or hold on to a bush when near the verge. 



In all the pictures of Kaietuerk the falls appear dwarfed and disap- 

 pointingly small, but this is due to the fact that there is nothing for com- 

 parison and one has the same feeling, the same lack of power to grasp 

 the size of things, when actually looking at the falls. The valley far 

 below seems clothed with soft, green moss dotted with pebbles and not 

 until you realize that the seeming moss is a forest of giant trees and the 

 apparent pebbles are great masses of rock weighing hundreds of tons 

 each, Jo you realize the stupendous size of the falls and the depth of the 

 gorge. 



So high are the falls that not an atom of real water over reaches the 

 pool beneath, the falling mass being transformed to vapour long before it 

 reaches the end of its descent and looking far more like volumes of 

 smoke than liquid. 



But to obtain a true idea of the size of Kaietuerk note the man in 

 the picture. Once we realize that this speck is a human being the 

 stupendously overwhelming proportions of the cataract are impressed 

 upon us. 



I mentioned my sensations when looking over the brink of the gorge 

 but Father Cary-Elwes was absolutely unconscious ol' any such feelings. 

 He was anxious to secure a picture from a certain viewpoint and 

 approached nearer and nearer the edge, finally planting his camera with one 

 triprd leg resting on a jutting pebble beyond the verge of the plateau. 

 Then all forgetful of his surroundings, he stooped down to adjust his lens 

 with his back to the gorge and actually balancing on one foot on the very 

 brink of eternity. 



I have been asked by many to give my impressions of Kaietuerk, to 

 describe the falls; but there are things which defy description and one of 

 these is Kaietuerk, for words utterly fail to convey any adequate idea 



