310 
THE KARUMA FALLS. 
the delightful sound of a cataract on either side of his 
position. The night air conveyed this sound to us 
distinctly, and when morning came, after a night of 
fever, vermin, and musquitoes, the noble sight of the 
Karuma Falls quite revived us. It was health and 
joy to convalescents ! There were three cataracts 
upon less than a mile of the river at this point, and 
each had its own music. Seated upon the rocks of 
the central fall of Karuma, we were strongly im- 
pressed with its grandeur. The cloudy sky tinted 
the river a mossy brown, and the water was broken 
into white foam by a fall of six feet over three 
channels worn in the rock. On the centre block a 
hut has been daringly placed to commemorate some 
event. Below the falls, upon an island, other huts 
are erected, but they are uninhabited, and approach- 
able only with considerable difficulty. They may 
have been placed there as stores for grain, as the 
Kidi people on the opposite shore are constantly 
plundering. The trees upon the island had their 
branches connected by cords, on which were slung the 
wings and feathers of birds, giving it the appearance 
of a charmed spot. Looking up the river from this 
fall, there is a long reach, broken by foam in two 
places ; but what gives enchantment to the scene is 
the view of the steep banks densely covered with tree 
foliage, forming a frame to the picture, and recalling 
similar scenes on our wildest Scottish rivers. 
Immediately below the Falls, where the water eddies 
amongst rushes, we observed several baskets suspended 
from trees ; they were put there to contain fowls as a 
bait for hippopotami, or rather as an inducement for 
these animals to come and fall under a trap placed not 
