With the British Association in Africa. 29 



game are still sometimes seen in its neighbourhood. Two 

 hunters who came after lions were attacked in their sleeping car 

 standing on a railway siding one night, and only one hunter 

 remained in the morning. Elephants had been seen by the train 

 staff. A scarcity of bird life was noticed everywhere on the trip. 



The Victoria Falls, on the Zambesia, which is here a mile wide, 

 fall into the upper end of a zig-zag gorge, which, in the opinion of 

 geologists, has been gradually formed by the action of the river. 

 In the way of waterfalls I have not yet seen anything so grand 

 and yet so delicately beautiful. The quantity of water at Niagara 

 is more impressive. It is to be remembered our visit was at the 

 end of the dry season. We arrived before daylight on September 

 1 2th, and I saw the falls at sunrise. The water falls into the gorge 

 (380 feet deep and a mile long) in various streams and cataracts, 

 and when the sun got a little higher a beautiful rainbow appeared 

 below me in the spray which issued out of the gorge in flying 

 clouds borne by the wind from the falling water. 



A roar of many waters — mist, spray, foam — 



A mighty gorge; 



Deep in the black abyss a rainbow shone, 



Bright steadfast spirit of hope in this chaotic fall. 

 We saw the falls by moonlight, also very beautiful with mystery. 

 In the afternoon we were taken in boats manned by natives in 

 their scant costumes to Livingstone's Island in the middle of the 

 falls, where the great traveller had made a garden. A tree was 

 pointed out on which he had carved his name. 



Walking on the river bank some distance above the falls, where 

 the river was studded with islands and shoals I heard a great splash 

 and saw a large animal (no doubt a hippopotamus) raise its head, 

 and then disappear. I bathed in the Zambesi twice, and it was 

 delightful to feel and see water after the dreadfully arid country we 

 had come through. 



The Victoria Bridge, the highest in the world and carrying the 

 railway towards distant Cairo, was opened by the President. It 



daring instance of 



