240 



THE CATARACT. 



Of all natural objects the cataract most requires 

 that first element of sublimity — size. Yet, as it 

 is, the Panga-ni Ealls, with the white spray and 

 light mist, set off by a background of black jungle 

 and by a framework of slaty rain-cloud, offer a 

 picture sufficiently effective to save us from dis- 

 appointment. 



As we jogged onwards the heat became in- 

 tense. The clouds lay close upon the cool mount- 

 ain-tops : there it was winter, but the fount of 

 life, the Soter Kosmou, the grand differentiator 

 between Africa and Greenland, whose rays shot 

 stingingly through the well-washed air, still 

 parched the summer plains. At 10 a. m. our 

 Baloch, clean worn-out by famine and fatigue, 

 threw themselves upon the bank of a broad deep 

 Nullah, in whose rushy and jungly bed a little 

 Avater still lingered. Wild bees had hived in the 

 tree-trunks, but none of us coveted the fate of 

 plundering bears. The bush was rich in the 

 'Melon of Abu Jahl' (Coloquintida),and the slaves 

 chewed the dried pulp of the calabash gourd. 

 Ilalf-an-hour's rest, a cocoa-nut each, a pipe, and 

 above all things the spes finis, somewhat restored 

 our vigour. We resumed the march over a roll- 

 ing Avaste of thin green grass, enlivened by occa- 

 sional glimpses of the river, whose very aspect 



