The Victoria Falls. — Zambesi River, 
7 
merely snorts loudly in the act of rising, ejects the condensed 
breath, like the blowing of a porpoise, from each nostril, and 
sinks again to his refuge so quickly that the sharpest eye and 
steadiest hand may fail to strike him. I hit one behind the 
ear so effectually, that my guide at once proposed to ask the 
chief for a canoe to look for the body in the morning. 1 wanted 
to go upon the edge of the chasm opposite the Falls, so as to 
complete my view of the whole front, but he led me by 
a path past that to the beginning of the long promontory I 
had sketched the other day as dividing the waters of the Tarn 
bend. I was now nearly opposite Buffalo point, from which I 
had previously sketched the Falls through the outlet, and I 
found the distance from this bend of the river to the next, 
across that narrow slip of cliff, only 115 yards, though its course 
in the interval must have been a couple of miles. The next 
promontory seemed even more narroM'' at its extremity, and 
certainly more picturesque than the first — in fact, if one may 
compare great things with small, the tall thin cliffs, showing 
their rich red and yellow tints in the declining sunlight looked 
rather hke profile scenes in a gigantic theatre, than real and 
solid rocks. (View No. 11.) 
August 5th. — I again shaped my course for the Falls, deter- 
mined this time to penetrate the dense forest on the southern cliff, 
and stand face to face with the eastern portion of the cataract 
as I had already done with the western. For two or three 
hundred yards the ground was dry, the prevalent wind driving 
the spray from it, and the tall, narrow, aloe-like Moghotse leaf, 
of which cord is made, reared its thorny points like bayonets, 
three feet long, set upright in the ground in a most objection- 
able manner. 
The ground sloped suddenly, and my guide quietly but 
decidedly sat down upon the bank. All I could see below 
was thick dark foliage and blackened trunks, but I tried it, and 
finding a practicable descent, called my bushn)an to follow, 
and proceeded through the now wet and dripping covert along 
the neck formed by the thickly wooded hollow I had noticed 
from Buffalo Point. The ground became lower and narrower 
as we advanced, the rank grass concealing the treacherous 
inequalities of the rocks beneath. At length the forest ceased, 
the grass covered slopes dipped and contracted suddenly, till 
a narrow wall of black rock, perfect on the side next the Falls, 
where it still presented a precipice of 300 feet, but broken 
into rough blocks toward the hollow on the south, formed the 
sole connecting link between the eastern cliffs and the head- 
land of the outlet. Possibly I might have crossed it, but I 
was already drenched with spray, and nothing in the way of 
art could have been gained by pushing still farther into the 
cloud. My paper was already soaked, and my folio going to 
pieces, although I held it above my head, face downward, 
during the few minutes I spent in making a hasty outline, and 
my bushman had already received permission to retire to a 
drier part. I made another sketch of a portion of the eastern 
Falls as I returned, but both are very imperfect, and the 
pictures made from them are much indebted to memoiy. 
(View No. 10.) 
The old boatman of the rapids, named Zanjueelah, had 
quite a collection of hippopotamus and other skulls, and, taking 
his formidable spear, he led us to the narrow skiff, the 
only one I believe that goes quite to the Falls. He paddled 
across, that Chapman might take his gun as well as I, and we 
glided swiftly down the river, winding as the current swept 
round the islands, or ran in rapids and races over the rocks. 
In many places the shallows extended nearly across the 
channel, and in shooting through some, although we drew only 
seven or eight inches of water, we grounded repeatedly, and 
I caught myself involuntarily saying, " Keep her end on to the 
stream ; " but old Zanjueelah knew the importance of this as 
well as I, and standing in the bows with his pole, while his 
mate did the same astern, he guided the shallow, narrow craft, 
actually balancing and preserving her equilibrium by the mere 
pressure of his feet as she rushed down each successive rapid. 
As Ave passed the end of one island a hippopotamus, or perhaps 
more than one, disturbed in some peaceful dream, launched 
down the bank, and plunged into the water just astern. 
Others appeared in the smooth water on our left where I had 
fired at them on previous days, but we did not think it 
advisable to take the old man's attention from the course of 
his boat with another rapid immediately ahead, and therefore 
left the sea-cows in peace till our return. (View No. 8.) 
The edge of the Fall was now visible, and the sun, 
beginning to decline, imbued the eastern cloud of spray with 
the prismatic colours, not in a complete bow, but in a segment 
so short as to show no visible curve, and so broad as to leave 
no portion of the cloud untinted by its delicately brilliant hues, 
which sometimes, when jets of vapour, leaving large intervals 
between, shoot upwards through the arch, assume the appearance 
of lambent, flickering fire. About ninety yards from the edge 
of the cataract our course was suddenly and skilfully changed, 
and we shot into smooth water on the eastern side of Garden 
Island, where, sticking the boat ashore without fastening of 
any kind, we walked over rocks bare up to the high-water 
line, and through the tangled little forest, to the Doctor's 
garden. We found that a hippopotamus had recently entered the 
enclosure, and could not recognize any plants among the 
rank vegetation which the moisture had caused to spring up. 
There was only one good view from the island — that 
toward the east, but it was magnificent ; the central portion of 
the perpendicular cliff projects so as to form the narrowest 
portion of the fissure, which is here about 75 yards in breadth, 
but the eastern side slopes suddenly away, so as to increase the 
breadth to 130 or 140, and to throw backward those falls that 
are nearest to the eye, and allow those beyond them to be 
seen in beautiful perspective to the eastern extremity of the 
chasm. 
The front of the cliff slopes down so as to be somewhat 
lower, but a mere trifle in comparison with the vast depth still 
below it ; and here one may stand on the very edge, as on a pier 
of solid masonry, and look not only into the dim intricacies of the 
mist-hidden distances— spanned over by a rainbow, glorious in 
its brilliant loveliness, and forming, but for the small segment 
cut out by the shadow of the rock he stands on, a perfect 
circle, surrounded by another with reversed colours, fainter and 
more indefinite as it approaches the thinner spaces in the 
mist ; — but he may peer down into the very abyss beneath him, 
see his own shadow on the troubled eddying waters four 
hundred feet below, and speculate, if he so pleases, whether 
geological ages were required to accumulate the heap of debris 
which has fallen from the receding portion of the cliff ; or 
whether, as we think, the mass crumbled down at once in the 
convulsion of nature which formed the chasm. 
Requesting his friend to measure angles and such like 
tedious but necessary details, the artist endeavours, however 
humbly and imperfectly, to reproduce the glorious scene. It 
is in vain. Hardly has half an outline been completed, when 
the prudent Charon of the rapids warns him again and again 
that paddling up the stream is a long work, and that it is not 
a road for men to travel in the dark. Reluctantly he closes 
his work, and obeys the summons. 
The water is baled from our somewhat leaky little skiff ; 
and now comes the struggle up the rushing waters, in which per- 
haps a man, who to some extent knows and can appreciate the 
nature of the various dangers, feels more when reduced to sit as a 
helpless useless passenger, than one who is totally inexperienced. 
But he, too, can understand and glory in the skill and courage 
of the veteran who commands the boat. See him now, standing 
erect and fearless in the narrow bow, as the water dances round 
her; observe how firmly, yet with what rapidity, he poles her 
against the current in the shallows ; how quickly he catches 
up his paddle in deeper water ; how carefully he guides her 
across the smoother parts, his unerring eye watching, before he 
