DESCRIPTION OF THE FAILS. 259 
has since given place to others. Frank Oates's boys 
spoke of the Falls as Metse-a-tunya, a compound word, 
signifying "water-sounding;" whilst the name which 
Livingstone received for them, as used by the Maka- 
lolo at the time of both his visits, was not dissimilar, 
viz., Mosi-oa-tunya, or "smoke-sounding," from the 
smoke-like appearance of the columns of spray which 
rise above the cataract. 
With regard to the other general features of the 
Falls not referred to above but little remains to be 
added. Their actual height, as estimated by Living- 
stone, is about 360 feet from the top of the precipice 
to the surface of the water in the abyss ; the columns 
of spray, which are driven upwards by the rush 
of air from the channel as the water descends into 
this narrow space, ascending to a height variously 
estimated by those who have seen them — and no 
doubt varying with the state of the atmosphere 
and the volume of water in the river at different 
times — at from six to eight hundred feet, or some- 
thing over. It is these vapour clouds which, visible 
at a distance of upwards of twenty miles, as distinctly 
observed by Livingstone, mark the position of the 
Falls long before the traveller approaches them. 
Frank Oates, as seen in the preceding chapter, dis- 
tinguished them at a distance of about eighteen miles, 
and his followers heard the roaring of the water at 
that distance, though he was not sure of doing so 
himself. Chapman, after he had left the Falls, heard 
them, he relates, " at a distance of fifteen miles on an 
elevated region in the south." 
