THE REGION SOUTH OF TEE ZAMBESI. 
285 
the flood and filled with drops of water escapes con¬ 
tinually and rises in eddies, producing the spray-clouds, 
which gleam like spectres far above this great “altar” 
of the waters. After looking down for some time into 
this raging, leaping, foaming chaos, deafened by the 
terrible noise of the maddened waters, and shaken by 
the menacing howl rising up continuously from the 
depths, which seems to pierce through bone and marrow, 
one wonders how the rocks, those hard ribs of the 
earth, can withstand the shock of such a mighty onset ! 
After I had gazed at this glorious scene for some 
time I began to feel stunned, and I went a hundred 
paces to the south in the direction of our camp. Here 
I was on a rocky ground, within the sphere of the 
spray veil, and one moment was wrapped in it as in a 
thick fog, whilst the next it was suddenly rent asunder 
by a gust of wind, the most brilliant sunbeams pouring 
through the gap, succeeded, hov T ever, almost immedi¬ 
ately by a fresh shower of spray. 
Turning round on this spot with the face to the 
north, a singular impression is produced, for the abyss 
and the long line of clouds rising from the earth are 
visible, but the waterfall is hidden by the intervening 
trees and bushes. 
Anxious to get a front view of the Falls, I now made 
my way through the forest, which may not inaptly be 
called the “ rain forest,” its luxuriance being the result 
of continual showers of spray, and found the ground 
marked by the countless footprints of elephants and 
buffaloes, attracted doubtless by the cool mud baths to 
be had there. 
The upper side of the chasm, running across the bed 
of the stream, ends in a projecting slab of rock, and 
before us on the east lies the channel—here two 
hundred and seventy feet wide—which is the only 
outlet for the whole volume of water. Stepping on to 
the slab of rock, and looking to the north-north-west, 
we have a view of the whole Ion2; line of Falls. As the 
river, owing to the late rains, was still very much 
swollen, I saw them under very favourable circum- 
