20 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
“ What’s the matter, Fritz : are yon ill ? ” 
“ I don’t know abond dat ill, bud I vas preddy sick : 
I vas perspire just like die vatter, und dem cold chill 
creep my back up. If I don’t got to I never play too 
much mit dead.” 
“ That’s where the fun is. But you need not be 
afraid on our account. It’s easy enough to us. You’re 
like the rest of the world— what you cannot do yourself, 
and don’t understand, you think wonderful. Come 
along, we must explore the chasm as far down as we 
can see ; I’m anxious to find out what causes those 
tower-like rocks to stand out so boldly at the end of 
the gorge.” 
Our way lay over, under, or around, huge rocks, and 
through deep gullies. A narrow chasm would now and 
then yawn at our feet, completely barring our progress, 
and forcing us to exercise our jumping powers to the 
full. After about two hours of this work we found our- 
selves on the point of a narrow strip of precipitous 
rock, not more than eighteen feet wide. To our right, 
some 400 feet below, ran the river : to the left, at about 
half that depth, were masses of broken rocks, with pools 
of water between, altogether as rough and wild a place as 
we had yet seen. The sun had already traversed three 
parts of its half-circle, and was casting deep shadows on 
the rocky sides of the canon, so we deferred any further 
exploration till next day. Concealing the camera and 
ropes behind an old brown rock that had withstood the 
storms and burning sun for ages, we struck out a new 
route to the waggons, at each turn finding some fresh 
beauties in the floral decorations and rock-work. But 
when we reached the outermost stream, which we had 
crossed in the morning, we were surprised to find that 
the river had risen considerably ; not a stone was to be 
seen all the way across, and we had great difficulty in 
getting over, knocking elbows, knees, and toes against 
sharp-edged rocks. 
Fritz said it would all subside again before morning, 
as the floods were not of much account at this time of 
year ; but next day the water was still so high that we 
