THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY 
33 
with us, while he cheerfully took charge of and cared for our 
oxen, etc., during our absence. 
We had experienced such settled weather after leaving Mon- 
gwato that we never required to pitch a tent the whole way up, 
and, trusting that the usual dry season had now set in, we left 
our tent behind us, and started, late on the 22nd, through the 
hilly and stony country on our way to the falls, in high anticipa¬ 
tion of the treat before us. What a delightful change it was, 
after the eternal tramp through the sand-belts, to feel once 
q more firm soil beneath one’s feet. The prevailing rocks of this 
country are porphyr basalt and greenwacke, with quartzite to 
the south. We camped the first night on the banks of the 
Matetse rivulet, whose gentle gurgling lulled us to sleep with 
quite new sensations, and next day put some twenty-five miles 
more behind us, in hopes to reach the Victoria falls on the 
24th, the birthday of the Queen, whose Christian name the loyal 
Livingstone thought most fit to bestow on this grand work 
of Nature. In the enthusiasm of youth, and not without per¬ 
sonal longings, we had brought some champagne with us to 
celebrate the Queen’s birthday on this unusual spot; but alas 
for our aspirations! towards midnight black clouds rolled up 
in awful grandeur, and with most terrible flashes of lightning, 
accompanied by terrific crashes of thunder, a storm, seldom 
equalled for violence even in tropical climates, broke over our 
defenceless heads. Hastily rolling our few eatables in a mac¬ 
intosh, and placing them on some cut branches to keep them 
off' the soaking ground, soon running in rivulets, I stood over 
the fire covered by a blanket to keep the dying embers alive, 
while the rest of the party hastily built a screen of boughs, into 
which they huddled, perhaps in a worse plight than I, for the 
terrific rain leaked unhindered in large drops through this 
shallow attempt at protection. However, I kept the fire alight 
through the night; nor was my position in any way made more 
comfortable by the roaring of a couple of lions, who struck up 
their tune, towards three o’clock in the morning, about half 
a mile off. 
c 
