chap. XXVI. VICTORIA FALLS. 341 



Sekeletu intended to accompany me, but, as only one canoe 

 had come instead of the two he had ordered, he resigned it to 

 me. After twenty minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight 

 of the columns of vapour, rising at a distance of five or six 

 miles. There were five of them, their white bases standing 

 out distinctly against a dark background of wooded hill, 

 while their summits seemed to mingle with the clouds, and, 

 apparently becoming darker as they ascended, made the re- 

 semblance to smoke remarkably exact. The whole scene is 

 extremely beautiful ; the banks and islands dotted over the 

 river are adorned with sylvan vegetation of every variety of 

 colour and form, and at the period of our visit several trees 

 were spangled over with blossoms. Here, towering over all, 

 stands the great burly baobab, each of whose enormous arms 

 would form the trunk of a large tree ; there, beside it, are 

 groups of graceful palms, with their feathery-shaped leaves 

 depicted on the sky, reminding us by their foreign appearance 

 that we are far away from home. In another spot the silvery 

 mohonono, which resembles the cedar of Lebanon, contrasts 

 with the dark colour of the motsouri, whose cypress-form was 

 then dotted over with its pleasant scarlet fruit. Some trees, 

 again, resemble the great spreading oak, while others assume 

 the character of our elms and chesnuts. The falls are bounded 

 on three sides by ridges 300 or 400 feet in height, covered with 

 forest, with the red soil appearing here and there among the 

 trees. When about half a mile from the falls I left the canoe 

 by which I had come thus far, and embarked in a lighter one, 

 manned by natives well acquainted with the rapids, who, 

 availing themselves of the eddies and still pools caused by the 

 jutting rocks, brought me to an island in the middle of the 

 river, and on the very edge of the lip over which the watei 

 rolls. In coming hither there was danger of being swept 

 down by the currents which rushed along on each side of the 

 island ; but the river was now low, otherwise it would have 

 been impossible to reach the spot. From the end of the 

 island where we first landed, though it was within a few 

 yards of tho falls, yet no one could perceive where the vast 

 body of water went ; it seemed to lose itself in the earth, 

 disappearing into a transverse fissure only 80 feet wide. 

 Creeping with awe to the extremity of the island, I peered 



