DESCRIPTION OF THE FALLS. 257 
tained of the Falls, says Chapman — that is re- 
presented in the preceding woodcut ; in the fore- 
ground are seen the gliding waters flowing through 
the escape-channel, the spray of the falling cataract 
rising up beyond ; whilst on the horizon, above that 
section of the Falls which is visible from here, ex- 
tends the distant outline of one of the river's banks. 
" This point," writes Baines, " is the only spot, with 
the exception of the west end in calm weather, that 
is free enough from spray to allow the use of water- 
colours." 
And this brings us to our second illustration of 
the Falls, the coloured one, which is taken from the 
other point here mentioned — the west end of the 
cataract. In this picture is represented the first 
portion of the Falls, at the western extremity of the 
abyss, where the flow of the water over the edge is 
more broken than it is in many places further on (in 
at least one of which it continues, says Chapman, with 
"very little interruption" for a distance of a quarter 
of a mile or more), and apparently before the water 
in the bottom of the channel has commenced that 
tumultuous course which it afterwards pursues as it 
gathers volume further eastward. In the foreground 
and on the high land to the right is seen some of that 
brilliant tropical vegetation, the absence of which, 
except the evergreen part of it, was so regretted 
by Chapman at the time of his visit. " We see the 
scenery," he wrote in July 1862, "at a great dis- 
advantage just now, as this is the time of the ' sere 
and yellow leaf.' " In January, when Frank Oates 
