202 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D 



We cannot resist giving Dr. Livingstone's account of the Victoria Falls, 

 as furnished to Sir Roderick Murchison : — 



" Our convoy down to Mosioatunya consisted of the chief and about 200 

 followers. About 10 miles below the confluence of the Chobe and Leeambye 

 or Zambesi, we came to the commencement of the rapids. Leaving the canoes 

 there, we marched on foot about 20 miles further, along the left or northern 

 bank, to Kalai, otherwise called the island of Sekote. It was decided by those 

 who knew the country well in front, that we should here leave the river, and 

 avoid the hills through which it flows, both on account of tsetse and the 

 extreme ruggedness of the path. By taking a north-east course the river 

 would be met where it has become placid again. Before leaving this part of 

 the river I took a canoe at Kalai, and sailed down to look at the falls of 

 Mosioatunya, which proved to be the finest sight I have seen in Africa. The 

 distance to the ' Smoke-sounding ' Falls of the Zambesi was about 8 miles in a 

 S.S.E. direction, but when we came within 5 miles of the spot we saw five 

 large columns of ' smoke ' ascending 200 or 300 feet, and exhibiting exactly 

 the appearance which occurs on extensive grass-burnings in Africa. The river 

 above the falls is very broad, bat I am such a miserable judge of distances on 

 water that I fear to estimate its breadth. I once showed a naval officer a space 

 in the bay of Loanda which seemed of equal breadth with parts of the river which 

 I have always called 400 yards. He replied, ' That is 900 yards.' Here I 

 think I am safe in saying it is at least 1000 yards wide. You cannot imagine 

 the glorious loveliness of the scene frqm anything in England. The ' Falls,' 

 if we may so term a river leaping into a sort of straight-jacket, are bounded 

 on three sides by forest-covered ridges about 400 feet in height. Numerous 

 islands are dotted over the river above the falls, and both banks and islands 

 are adorned with sylvan vegetation of great variety of colour and form. 



" At the period of our visit many of the trees were spangled over with 

 blossoms, and towering above them all stands the great burly baobab, each 

 of whose (syemite-coloured) arms would form the bole of a large ordinary 

 tree. Groups of graceful palms, with their feathery-formed foliage, contribute 

 to the beauty of the islands. As a hieroglyphic, they always mean ' far from 

 home ; ' for one can never get over their foreign aspect in picture or land- 

 scape. Trees of the oak shape and other familiar forms stand side by side 

 with the silvery Mohonono, which in the tropics looks like the cedar of 

 Lebanon. The dark cypress-shaped Motsouri, laden with its pleasant scarlet 

 fruit, and many others, also attain individuality among the great rounded 

 masses of tropical forest. We look and look again, and hope that scenes 

 lovely enough to arrest the gaze of angels may never vanish from the memory. 

 A light canoe, and men well acquainted with the still water caused by the 

 islands, brought us to an islet situated in the middle of the river and forming 

 the edge of the lip over which the water rolls. Creeping to the verge, we 



