The Victoria Falls. — Zambesi River. 
5 
accelerated violence as the slope increased ; till, at length, we 
stood over the very edge of the westernmost channel, and, 
looking down on the broken foaming mass tossing in wild con- 
fusion beneath our feet, could see, still further down, the 
troubled water in the deep chasm making its way toward the 
east, and as the clouds of misty spray swayed and opened, 
could catch glimpses of the remoter falls nearly as far as 
Garden Island. Edward seemed rapt in wonder, and was ready 
to declare that nothing could be more grand ; but when a 
hundred yards more brought us round the western end of the 
chasm, and face to face with the white and foaming mass of the 
Leaping- Water, with its minuter particles glittering like flakes 
of silver in the morning sun, he could not find words to 
express his feelings. 
We passed the scene of our battle with the bufialoes, 
where clusters of wild date-palm shot up their slender stems 
and graceful feathery leaves to a height of thirty or forty feet ; 
while others, shorter in the stem, spread their leafy crowns 
so as to form a dense and almost impenetrable jungle in the 
recesses of the swamp. 
The forest now terminated abruptly ; and, determined to see 
the end of the Falls this time, we walked on through swampy 
grass, till we were stopped by a deep fissure — not at the end : 
for we could still see waterfalls melting into obscure mist more 
than a quarter of a mile beyond ; but, as I suppose, nearly 
three-fourths from the western end. Impressed with ideas 
founded on Dr. Livingstone's picture and description, we 
thought at first that this must be one of the rivers we had 
seen on Wednesday ; but a glance from the precipitous 
headland at the narrow stream far down in the gorge beneath 
us showed that it was the outlet of the Zambesi itself, and 
that the waters of the cataract were flowing from the east 
end, as well as the west, to escape by it. I did not like at the 
moment to decide that no outlet could exist at the extremity 
of the fall ; but it was evident that, if there were, only a small 
portion of water could flow through it, and I subsequently found 
there was none. 
The stream was of that sombre green that indicates 
great depth, the moderate rapid formed in the narrow turn 
below the entrance rolling in that smooth glassy swell almost 
destitute of foam, which seems so gentle, and proves so over- 
powering when one tries to stem it. I could not at that time 
tell of the impediments that existed further down, but it seemed 
to me that, if that swell could be surmounted, a stout crew might 
pull a whale boat right into the chasm, and even skirt the base 
of the fall for a short distance to east and west, before the 
rapids and shallows stopped them. 
Saturday, 26th. — Chapman and I spent the day in photo- 
graphing and sketching the chasm from the brink of the 
rock overhanging the rapid of the Leaping- Water at its 
western end. The view here was magnificent, though the 
volumes of spray and mist projected from the foot of the fall, 
and, rebounding from the opposite clifi", compressed into rolling 
clouds such as might arise if the broadsides of a fleet were 
discharged in the same limits, hid from us all but a small 
portion of the nearest actual fall. Still, in the space kept clear 
by the interposition of the dark sombre wall of Three Rill Island, 
we could see far below us the troubled eddying stream, dark 
green, and of glassy smoothness in the deep pool ; or white and 
foaming as it encountered the numberless rooks and shallows 
in its way ; seeking as it were to escape by the only channel 
open to it from the rush and turmoil it had passed. At this, 
which may be called the beginning of the chasm, the rock of 
Three Rill Island on the north or upper side projects at its base 
like a huge buttress, and heaps of great fallen masses still 
further narrow the watercourse ; but there is no corresponding 
indentation in the lower part of the opposite cliff", which, on the 
contrary, has two or three horizontal ledges, showing that more 
of the upper than of the lower part must have fallen off"; we 
therefore think that a wedge-shaped mass, widest at the top, 
must either have given way in the form of debris at the time of 
the disruption, or have been then so shaken and fractured as to 
be washed down gradually afterwards. The west end of the great 
chasm falls back about fifty yards, and the sloping channel of 
the Leaping- Water, and the chasm of the Three Rills beyond it, 
have also contributed their fragments to the heap at the bottom 
of the clifii's, forming several marked shallows across the lower 
stream ; and from the general appearance we concluded that if 
the fissure at its western end has ever been any great depth 
beneath the surface of the lower waters the broken rocks have 
so far filled it up that it must now be comparatively shallow. 
The slope already mentioned in the Leaping- Water channel, 
carrying off a deeper stream, causes it gradually to become a 
foaming angry rapid, till, with the impetus it has acquired, the 
water, broken and glittering like a shower of living diamonds in 
the sunlight, leaps clear away from the edge, and shoots 
diagonally downward in masses which may be likened to the 
nuclei of comets, leaving long vapoury trains in their rear, 
while the Three Rills — which, if not contrasted with this 
mighty fall, would be themselves called cataracts — find their 
way through rock and forest on the top, and gushing down as 
perpendicularly as the jutting irregularities allow, fill their 
hollow with an indefinite grey mist, which nothing but a vertical 
sun at another period of the year can illuminate. (View No. 4.) 
The wind, the waving foliage, the drifting spray, and, 
above all, the impossibility of catching the details of the 
rushing water, were sore trials to the photographer, and, to say 
truth, not much less was the artist made to feel the incom- 
petency of his power to give even a faint idea of the grandeur 
of the scene before him. Still it seemed not quite impossible 
till the declining sun caused the rainbow to rise from beneath 
his feet, and gradually to span the entire picture, drawing its 
tints, more beautiful than in England's clouded climate one can 
even dream of, over rock, spray-cloud, waterfall, and forest. 
Then indeed the combined effect of wild and sombre magni- 
ficence in the eternal cliff's, the life-like motion of the leaping 
or the inert declension of the falling waters, the inimitable soft- 
ness of the misty cloud veiling the distant precipices, the vivid 
yet blended tints of the dense forest, and, above all, the 
surpassing loveliness of the brilliant bow, could not but impress 
him with a deep sense of the nothingness of human art in the 
presence of this mighty work of the Creator. 
Monday and Tuesday, July 28th and 29th. — I repaired to 
Buffalo Point, the promontory in the first bend of the outlet, 
and sketched as carefully as possible the portion of the 
eastern falls visible through the dark portals. On my left 
appeared the precipice from the very peak of which Barry and 
I had first looked down upon the scene, and from which, about 
two-thirds of its height, a thin wall of black cliff" jutted out ; 
still further encroaching on the narrow opening, and on my 
right, was the eastern headland, crowned with forest trees 
and date-palms, and broken more than half-way dovvn into 
rugged slopes, on which rank grass and hardy bushes seemed 
to struggle for a foothold, while the dark rocks at its base 
formed a convex line which looked as if it mio-ht again be 
fitted into the opposite hollow; beyond this, a small bay, 
wooded almost down to the cliffs upon its beach, receded so far 
that the headland stood out in bold relief, connected, as it 
seemed, only by a narrow promontory with the eastern shore. 
Subsequently, 1 spent another day, making a careful study in 
oil colours of one of the small cataracts in this scene (which, 
for the sake of distinction, we called Centre-rock Fall) ; and 
though my picture looked poor enough in the actual presence 
of the Falls, it seemed much more satisfactory when seen at 
our bivouac, more than a mile away. (View No. 7.) 
On one of these occasions, Bill, one of our Damara boys, 
without any orders from me, had boiled the kettle, cooked me 
a mess of beans, and, with a bit of heavy cake brought from 
the camp, set out a nice little picnic tiffin under the shadow of 
a tree, an agreeable variation in the day's work I had never 
c 
