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The National Geographic Magazine 



twenty feet thick over a precipice vary- 

 ing" from 150 to 180 feet in height. Above 

 the falls is a broad expanse of river, and 

 below them a narrow gorge through 

 which the water is forced in a rapid 

 torrent. The setting of this magnificent 

 chef d'ceuvre of Nature is a cluster of 

 busy modern towns, with only the in- 

 tervening parks to put them in harmony 

 with the glorious work they serve to 

 frame. 



The Falls of Iguazu offer a notable 

 contrast to Niagara in many important 

 features. As the river makes the sharp 

 bend already mentioned, the main vol- 

 ume of water rushes round the inner 

 bank and is discharged into a long, nar- 

 row gorge, at one point making a clear 

 plunge of 210 feet. Not all the volume 

 of the river is received at this place, how- 

 ever, the rest of the water running out 

 past it into the wide elbow formed by the 

 bend, and circling along the further shore 

 among many rocks and islands before 

 reaching the edge of the cliff, over which 

 the descent is made in two great leaps of 

 a hundred feet each, in a vast semicircle 

 of 3,000 feet. The total length of Iguazu 

 Falls, if measured at the upper edge of 

 the cliff, through their broken contour, 

 including intersecting islets, is twice as 

 great as that of Niagara, including the 

 intersection of Goat Island. 



The double fall of Iguazu is the most 

 striking feature of the cataract, the rocky 

 shelf or platform that divides the leap 

 being in some places over fifty yards 

 wide and in others only a few feet. 



The scenery surrounding Iguazu Falls 

 is in peculiar harmony with the solemn 

 grandeur of the cataract and its varied 

 character. The roar of the waterfall is 

 more impressive for the solitude of the 

 spot and the eternal silence that reigns in 

 the dense forests that mark its border, 

 into which the white man has scarcely 

 penetrated. For several miles before the 

 falls are reached, the river is a mass of 

 huge frowning boulders and whirlpools, 

 and the first view of the great cataract is 

 often a disappointment, from the fact 

 that it must be seen from many different 

 points to be appreciated in all its beauty. 



