256 DESCRIPTION OF THE FALLS. Chap. XII. 



posite, with its grove of large evergreen trees, and brilliant 

 rainbows of three-quarters of a circle, two, three, and some- 

 times even four in number, resting on the face of the vast 

 perpendicular rock, down which tiny streams are always 

 running to be swept again back by the upward rushing 

 vapour. But as, at Niagara, one has to go over to the 

 Canadian shore to see the chief wonder — the Great Horse- 

 shoe Fall — so here we have to cross over to Moselekatse's 

 side to the promontory of evergreens, for the best view of 

 the principal Falls of Mosi-oa-tunya. Beginning, therefore, 

 at the base of this promontory, and facing the Cataract, at 

 the west end of the chasm, there is, first, a fall of thirty- 

 six yards in breadth, and of course, as they all are, upwards 

 of 310 feet in depth. Then Boaruka, a small island, inter- 

 venes, and next comes a great fall, with a breadth of 573 

 yards ; a projecting rock separates this from a second grand 

 fall of 325 yards broad ; in all, upwards of 900 yards of 

 perennial Falls. Further east stands Garden Island ; then, 

 as the river was at its lowest, came a good deal of the bare 

 rock of its bed, with a score of narrow falls, which, at the 

 time of flood, constitute one enormous cascade of nearly 

 another half-mile. Near the east end of the chasm are two 

 larger falls, but they are nothing at low water compared 

 to those between the islands. 



The whole body of water rolls clear over, quite un- 

 broken ; but, after a descent of ten or more feet, the entire 

 mass suddenly becomes like a huge sheet of driven snow. 

 Pieces of water leap off it in the form of comets with tails 

 streaming behind, till the whole snowy sheet becomes 

 myriads of rushing, leaping, aqueous comets. This pecu- 

 liarity was not observed by Charles Livingstone at Nia- 

 gara, and here it happens, possibly from the dryness of 



