THE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI 



563 



it finally fades into the Indian Ocean. 

 The whole vast energy of nature — all the 

 roused and slumbering elements — seem 

 to have combined in its production, for 

 nowhere has the Almighty revealed His 

 might and glory in more varied form or 

 with greater prodigality of charm. 



It has been my good fortune to see the 

 foaming waters of the Yellowstone, as 

 they rushed over its precipice 210 feet 

 to the Grand Canyon below and lost 

 themselves amid the cathedral towers 

 and picturesque spires of sandstone and 

 chrome, whose brilliant tints and artis- 

 tic grandeur are the admiration of the 

 world. In our wonderful Yosemite I 

 have gazed from the dizzy cliffs of El 

 Capitan to where the Bridal Veil and 

 Rainbow Falls dash into misty spray, 

 half a mile below. At Niagara I have 

 stood awe-struck and dumb in contem- 

 plation of the Almighty's masterpiece. 



In the Himalayas, in Japan, in Swit- 

 zerland and Lapland, in Alaska, in 

 Uganda, at the Ripan Falls, and in South 

 America I have seen waterfalls of won- 

 derful beauty and charm, and while the 

 Zambesi lacks many of the individual 

 features which make these great natural 

 attractions unique in their beauty, it 

 nevertheless possesses, in its exquisite 

 setting of emerald and tropic luxuriance, 

 its grottos and rain forests, its dancing 

 cascades and raging cataracts, its roseate 

 sprays and frolicking rainbows, a diver- 

 sity of charms surpassing them all. 



So remote is this gem of nature from 

 the beaten paths of the great world that 

 no apology is made for inviting the 

 reader to share in a further description 

 of its beauty. 



From immemorial times an atmos- 

 phere of mystery and superstition has 

 hung over the Falls, so profound that 

 Livingstone, who discovered them in 

 1855, had the greatest difficulty in per- 

 suading his followers to accompany him, 

 as they believed the region to be the 

 home of monsters and devils of destruc- 

 tion. Vestiges of these traditions still 

 exist, although the Cape to Cairo Rail- 

 road, which crosses the river less than 



half a mile below the Falls is rapidly 

 dispelling them. 



Our approach was made by rail from 

 the Indian Ocean at Beira, near the 

 mouth of the Zambesi (that hotbed of 

 micro-organisms, described by James 

 Brice as the most deadly in Africa) , and 

 across the narrow belt of swamp and 

 jungle forming the coast ; thence up the 

 gradual slope to the volcanic plateau that 

 forms the real continent of Africa. 



By morning an altitude of nearly 6,000 

 feet was reached, and a transition from 

 the excessive heat and moisture of the 

 lowlands was experienced that was most 

 grateful and exhilarating. 



This section still abounds with ante- 

 lope, elephants, lions, and other large 

 game, which find excellent cover in the 

 tall elephant grass or the dense forests 

 and jungles, while in the river hippos 

 still gambol and flounder in ungainly 

 herds amid the floating islands of rank 

 vegetation of Nile reeds and papyrus. 



With the altitude, however, came 

 another and less grateful change. The 

 forests were no longer in evidence, but 

 in their stead were vast arid, birdless 

 plains, with parched and hungry vege- 

 tation whose anaemic and stunted growth 

 bears witness to the scarcity of moisture 

 that so severely affects Rhodesia and the 

 great stretches of veldt far away to the 

 Transvaal. 



Early in the morning of the third day 

 we were suddenly awakened by the 

 guard and treated to a scene of beauty 

 never to be forgotten. Some 10 miles 

 distant five enormous columns of vapor 

 were shooting their roseate-tinted shafts 

 hundreds of feet heavenward, while the 

 faint roar of the Falls told us the Mosi- 

 oa-Tunga — the smoke that sounds — was 

 no longer a mystery. 



Each moment increased the beauty and 

 vividness of the scene. With the first 

 rays of the rising sun came a picture of 

 color of wondrous loveliness. Delicate 

 tints of violet, crimson, and beryl played 

 through the mounting spray as it shot 

 higher and higher, ultimately disappear- 

 ing as virgin clouds in heaven, while the 



