32 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
cascade, and finally bringing itself to rest in a series 
of pools encased with perpendicular walls of granite. 
In these pools, which ran at right angles to the corner 
of the stream, the water seemed to have forgotten its 
struggles, and to be preparing to resume its journey in 
peace ; but in an unsuspected moment it fell headlong 
down a dark precipice, breaking itself into myriads of 
particles on the hard, polished rock fifty feet below ; 
then, quickly gathering itself together, it slid over, 
under, and around huge boulders, as if playing hide- 
and-seek. This gorge I named after the Resident Com- 
missioner for Korannaland, Mr. John Scott. 
To follow its course any farther we had to cross to 
the opposite side, which we did by taking a Hying leap 
across a deep, narrow channel. Then we descended into 
the grim, grey, granite gorge, where the bright sun 
never shone, and whose dark shadows were made more 
dark by the perpetual mist. The water, after running 
over another series of projecting rocks, and falling 
straight down like a mammoth shower-bath into a huge, 
seething bowl, gathered its strength and fury as if for 
a final effort, dashed past its prison walls, made its 
escape, and with one mad leap sprang over the precipice 
into the river one hundred feet below. 
To get a full-faced view of this last cataract, it was 
necessary to descend the chasm of the main river, a 
difficult and most dangerous task, which I undertook, 
and accomplished in one hour, going down the face of 
the corner formed by the two gorges joining one another 
nearly at right angles, when the least slip would have 
pulverized me on the rocks four hundred feet beneath. 
Here, in some sand between the rocks, I found half a 
dozen small diamonds, from which I gave the cataract 
the name of the Diamond Falls. The accompanying 
picture of this, as well as of the Schermbriicker Falls, 
are from photos taken by Lulu next day, when we 
lowered the camera with ropes in much the same way 
as we had done when the Hercules Falls were photo- 
graphed. In fact, all the illustrations are taken from 
photographs with the exception of one, which is from a 
