DIFFICULTIES OF SKETCHING 
41 
During the several days we spent investigating the falls, 
some natives, subjects of the Chief Masotani, from across the 
river above the falls, brought us corn, millet, pistachio nuts, 
mealies, and pumpkins, besides some goats for sale, in exchange 
for glass beads, brass wire, and common coarse calico, the 
currencyof the country. The canoes in which they came paddling 
over the river are made of some very hard wood, and are highly 
valued by the natives, who are most expert in paddling about 
in the strong Zambesi current. They do not seem to be aware 
of the use of outriggers. Some tobacco they sold us, made from 
a native weed, and pressed into nine-inch high cones A mixed 
with goat dung to give it consistency, proved excellent smoking. 
Harnmar was deeply engrossed in sketching and painting 
various aspects of the falls, an operation requiring macintoshes 
and umbrella to shield him from the ever recurring periodical 
sharp showers of rain, formed by the condensing moisture over¬ 
head. It was a very ludicrous sight to see two bare-legged 
individuals, clothed only in macintoshes, hastily endeavouring 
between the showers to commit a piece of scenery to paper, the 
one holding an umbrella over the other, who sketched for bare 
life, while casting occasional anxious glances upwards to watch 
the coming of the heavy showers, so as to be in time to place the 
partly finished sketch in dryness under his macintosh before 
the downpour came. Working this way, Harnmar succeeded in 
getting the outlines of the illustration here published. 
As I am one of the few individuals who have seen both the 
Victoria and Niagara falls, perhaps the question will occur to 
the reader, as it did to many Americans whom I met, which is 
the greater fall ? Answering this question in America greatly 
imperilled my popularity with some patriotic sons of the ‘ we go 
one better ’ country, for it seemed like a national insult to hear 
it unhesitatingly stated that the Victoria falls have at least four 
times the volume of water and over three times the height of 
the Niagara. The Victoria falls burst on one’s sensibilities 
immediately with appalling grandeur, while the Niagara, the 
Americans themselves confess, at first appear not so very mar- 
