Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1858-01-02
The Falls of Mosioatunye.

Ihe Eaus OF nosAoatunye.
The following interesting extract
is from $'Livingstone's Travels in
Africa::''
After twenty minutes sail from
Kalai we came in sight for the first
time of the columns of va por APP
propriately called s<smoke,'' - rising
at d distance Of five or six miles,
exactly as when large tracts Of grass
are burned IN Africa. Five col
umns now arose, and bending in
the direction of the wind, they
seemed placed against a low ridge
covered with trees the tops of the
columns at this distance appeared
to 1ningle with the clouds. They
were white below, and higher up
became dark, SO as to simulate
smoke very closely. The whole
scene was extremely beautiful; the
banks and islands dotted over the
river are adorned with sylvan veg
citation Of great variety of color
and form. At the period Of our
visit several trees were spangled
over with blossoms. Trees have
each their own physiognomy.-
There, towering over all, stands the
great bnrly baobad, each Of whose
enormous arms would form the
trunk Of g large tree, besides groups
Of graceful palms, with, their teath-
ery-shaped leaves depicted on the
sky, lend their beauty to the scene.
| AS a hieroglypic they always mean
I" far from home," for one can never
get over their foreign air in pic
| ture Or a landscape.
The silvery nohonono, which in
the tropics is in form like the cedar
of Lebanon, stands in pleasing con-
trast with the dark color Of the mot
souri, whose cypress form is dotted
over at present with its pleasant
/ scarlet fruit. Some trees resemble
the great spreading oaks, others as
sumo the character Of our own elms
i and cnestnuts; that no one can i'm
agine the beauty Of the view from
anything witnessed in England
It had never been seen before by
European eyes; but scenes SO love
|ly must have been gazed upon an
| gels in their flight. The only want
that is felt is that Of mountains II
the back ground.
| The falls are bounded on three
Isides by ridges three hundred o.
four hundred feet in height, whicl
1are covered with forests, with th'
|red soil appearing among the trees
When half q mile from the falls,
left the canoe by which we hat
come down thus far, and embarked
in Ightes one, with men we'll ae
|quainted with rapids, who, passing
down the center of the stream, il
the eddies and still places ca1se<
by many .jutting rocks, brought n
to an island situated in the middl
Of the river, and on the edge Of th
slip over which the water rolls.
In coming hither there was dan
ger of being swept down By tn
streams which rushed along 0:
each side of the island, but the riv
er was now low, and we sailed wher
it is totally impossible to go awhe
the water is high. But, though W
had reached the island, and wer
within d few yards of the spot,
view from which: would solve tn
whole problem, I believe that n
one could perceive where the vaE
body Of water went; it seemed t
lose itself in the earth, the opposit
slip Of the fssure into which it di$
appeared being only eighty feet dii
tant. At least | did not comprt
hend it until, creeping with awe t
the verge; I peered down into
large rent which had been mac
from bunk to bank Of the .broa
Zambesi, and saw that a stream
thousand yards broad leaped dow
la hundred feet and then becan
suddenly compressed into q spa<
Of fifteen Or twenty yards II
|entire fails are simply 8 crack mac
lin q hard basaltic rock from tt
right to the left bank Of the Za1
besi, and then prolonged from Il