Chap. XII. GREAT DEPTH OF THE FALLS. 253 



Falls have been formed by a crack right across the river, in 

 the hard, black, basaltic rock which there formed the bed of 

 the Zambesi. The lips of the crack are still quite sharp, save 

 about three feet of the edge over which the river rolls. The 

 walls go sheer down from the lips without any projecting 

 crag, or symptom of stratification or dislocation. When the 

 mighty rift occurred, no change of level took place in the 

 two parts of the bed of the river thus rent asunder, conse- 

 quently, in coming down the river to Garden Island, the 

 water suddenly disappears, and we see the opposite side of 

 the cleft, with grass and trees growing where once the 

 river ran, on the same level as that part of its bed on 

 which we sail. The first crack is, in length, a few yards 

 more than the breadth of the Zambesi, which by measure- 

 ment we found to be a little over 1860 yards, but this 

 number we resolved to retain as indicating the year in 

 which the Fall was for the first time carefully examined. 

 The main stream here runs nearly north and south, and the 

 cleft across it is nearly east and west. The depth of the rift 

 was measured by lowering a line, to the end of which a few 

 bullets and a foot of white cotton cloth were tied. One of 

 us lay with his head over a projecting crag, and watched the 

 descending calico, till, after his companions had paid out 310 

 feet, the weight rested on a sloping projection, probably 50 

 feet from the water below, the actual bottom being still 

 further down. The white cloth now appeared the size of a 

 crown-piece. On measuring the width of this deep cleft by 

 sextant, it was found at Garden Island, its narrowest part, to 

 be eighty yards, and at its broadest somewhat more. Into 

 this chasm, of twice the depth of Niagara-fall, the river, a 

 full mile wide, rolls with a deafening roar ; and this is Mosi- 

 oa-tunya or the Victoria Falls. 



