312 VICTORIA FALLS. Chap. XXVI 



down into a large rent which had been made from bank 

 to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream of a 

 thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet, and then 

 became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty 

 yards. The falls are simply caused by a crack made in a hard 

 basaltic rock from the right to the left bank of the Zambesi, 

 and then prolonged from the left bank away through thirty or 

 forty miles of hills. It is as though the Thames at London 

 were to plunge into a chasm running at right angles to its 

 general course (in other words in the direction of the Tunnel), 

 and were to be carried along some thirty miles in the same 

 direction, seething and roaring between steep banks of black 

 basaltic rock, only 100 feet apart from each other. In looking 

 down into the fissure on the right of the island, nothing 

 is visible but a dense white cloud, which, at the time we 

 visited the spot, had two bright rainbows on it. From this 

 cloud a great jet of vapour exactly like steam mounted up to a 

 height of 200 or 1500 feet ; and then condensing, changed its 

 hue to that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower, 

 which soon wetted us to the skin. 



From the left of the island the water at the bottom may be 

 seen moving away in a white rolling mass to the prolongation 

 of the fissure. A piece of rock has fallen oif a spot on the left 

 of the island, and juts out from the water below, and from it 1 

 judged the distance which the water falls to be about 100 feet. 

 The walls of this gigantic crack are perpendicular, and composed 

 of one homogeneous mass of rock of a dark-brown colour. The 

 fcdge of the side over which the water falls is worn off two 

 or three feet, and pieces have fallen away, so as to give it a 

 somewhat serrated appearance. The other edge is in a perfect 

 state except at the left corner, where a piece seems inclined to 

 fall off. On the left side of the island we had a good view of 

 the mass of waterwhich throws up one of the columns of vapour, 

 as it leaps quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken 

 snow-white fleece all the way to the bottom. In falling it 

 breaks up into a number of separate masses of water, each of 

 which throws off several rays of foam. I can only compare 

 the effect of these descending masses to the appearance of 

 myriads of small comets rushing on in one direction, each 

 drawing after it a long tail of foam. Of the five columns 



