258 MATABELE LAND. 
was there, the vegetation of course was at its best. 
The trees on the right in this picture, though looking 
Httle larger than bushes when viewed from this side, 
rise in reality — again to quote the authority of Chap- 
man, who penetrated their shade — to a majestic height 
of from eighty to ninety feet, and constitute a dense 
forest, always moistened by the spray from the Falls. 
The remaining most characteristic feature of the 
Falls represented in this drawing is that of the double 
rainbow spanning the abyss. The marvellous colour- 
ing of these rainbows, which are frequently visible 
here, has struck all who have beheld them ; their 
"tints," says Baines, "more beautiful than in Eng- 
land's clouded climate one can ever dream of." 
Whenever the sun falls upon the clouds of spray 
these rainbows are always present, sometimes two, 
sometimes three in number, and the brilliancy of their 
colouring can scarcely be exaggerated. " Rainbows," 
writes Chapman in his description of the Falls, the 
first day he saw them, " so bright, so vivid, are never 
seen in the skies. The lower one in particular [on 
this occasion], probably from the contrast with the 
black-looking rocks below, was too vivid, nay, almost 
blinding, to look upon, defying imitation by the most 
skilful artist and all the colours at his command, yet 
imparting its heavenly tints to every object over 
which it successively passed." So marked a charac- 
teristic of the spot are these rainbows that it appears, 
according to Livingstone, the early native name of 
the Falls was " Chongwe," signifying the Rainbow, or 
the Place of the Rainbow ; a name, however, which 
