42 
THE NEW AFRICA 
vellous, but by growing on one seem to increase in magnificence 
the longer one stays by them. 
I should, however, in justice to the comparison, acknowledge 
that we saw the Victoria falls at their best, at the end of a very 
heavy rainy season, when the water, accumulated at last in one 
bed from the great network of water in the interior, has reached 
its utmost height in the months of May and June. Rain falling 
in the watershed near the west coast during the wet season, 
ending about March, would only reach here after its long journey 
of many hundreds of miles about this time; and we learned from 
Westbeech that in the summer, while the rain is falling, the 
river is usually much lower, and that then the phenomena we 
witnessed are on a proportionately more modest scale. Owing 
to this, it is possible that others, observing the falls when the 
water is not so high, may have a less magnificent account to 
give. 
It will be seen from this that the Victoria falls are subject to 
considerable fluctuation in the volume of water according to the 
season, while the Niagara falls, I am informed, maintain their 
level, without much alteration, throughout the year, the greatest 
fluctuation being about three feet. 
