Chap. XXYI. 
WEAK OF THE ROCKS. 
523 
left-hand column, and that farthest off, are the smallest, and all 
ought to have been a little more tapering at the tops. 
The fissure is said by the Makololo to be very much deeper 
farther to the eastward; there is one part at which the walls 
are so sloping, that people accustomed to it, can go down by 
descending in a sitting position. Tlie Makololo on one occasion, 
pursuing some fugitive Batoka, saw them, unable to stop the im¬ 
petus of their flight at the edge, literally dashed to pieces at the 
bottom. They beheld the stream like a white cord” at the 
bottom, and so far down (probably 300 feet) that they became 
giddy, and were fain to go away, holding on to the ground. 
Now, though the edge of the rock over wliich the river falls, does 
not show wearing more than three feet, and there is no appearance 
of the opposite wall being worn out at the bottom in the parts 
exposed to view, yet it is probable that, where it has flowed 
beyond the falls, the sides of the fissure may have given way, 
and the parts out of sight may be broader than the white cord ” 
on the surface. There may even be some ramifications of tlie 
fissure, which take a portion of the stream quite beneath the 
rocks; but this I did not learn. 
If we take the want of much wear on the lip of hard basaltic 
rock as of any value, the period when this rock was riven, is 
not geologically very remote. I regTetted the want of proper 
means of measuring and marking its width at the falls, in order 
that, at some futm’e time, the question whether it is progressive 
or not, might be 'tested. It seemed as ff a palm-tree could be 
laid across it from the island. And if it is progressive, as it would 
mark a gveat natural drainage being effected, it might furnish a 
hope that Africa will one day become a healthy continent. It is 
at any rate very much changed in respect to its lakes, within a 
comparatively recent period. 
At three spots near these falls, one of them the island in the 
middle on which we were, three Batoka cliiefs offered up prayers 
and sacrifices to the Barimo. They chose their places of prayer 
within the sound of the roar of the cataract, and in sight of the 
bright bows in the cloud. They must have looked upon the 
scene with awe. Bear may have induced the selection. The 
river itself is, to them, mysterious. The words of the canoe-song 
are— 
