Amador ledger., 1905-10-06
VICTORIA FALLS.
One Of the Most Beautiful SpeCtaCleS
In the World.

There is a fine description OF Vic
toria Fails in the Zambesi river in h.
f. Knights "South Africa After
the War; The author says: "'uhe
nature of the extraordinary volcanic
fissure that created the falls cannot
easily be realized without reference
to map, but at the point under
consideration the mighty Zamb besi
flows, roughly, from north to south.
At about half a mile above the falls
the river is mile and a half in
breadth. Then 1t contract, and the
little over mile, or, to be exact,
1885 yards. And here, to one look
ing over the edge, the great river
seems suddenly to come to an end,
no continuation of its channel being
visible. The Zambesi for it's whole
mile of breadth thunders down pre-
cipltously into comparatively mar
row, profound trench or canyon,
which extends at right angles to the
rivers course from shore to shore.
Beyond the falls one is faced by the
perpendicular wall of the canyon.
Below the madly whirling spray OBJ
scures the view of the bottom of the
canyon, and it seems as if the whole
mighty food were filling into the
center of the earth through this
awful chasm. But the river has its
exit, precipitous cleft, only ten
yards in breadth, near the eastern
end of the canyon, through which
the whole of the contracted Zambesl
rushes with incredible speed, fury
and confusion, forming at this point
what is called the Boiling Pot, surely
one of the earth's most terrible
scenes.
81 beIieve,' the author adds, "that
on that day l was gazing at the most
perfectly beautiful spectacle of all
this beautiful world. 1t was the
lovely tenderness of the rich color
ing, bathed in that translucent
atmosphere of thin, pearly haze.
rather than the awful majesty of the
scene that impressed one. At our
feet, far below, the raging flood
thundered away down the canyon to
the exit in the misty distance. On
IAft ho ~
plunging into the swirIing spray be-
meath, was clearly visible for some
way out with its white avalanches
and corruscating spray, and then
gradually became less distinct in
the thin haze until at last far off
beyond Livingstone island it disap-
peared from our vision in the lumin-'
Gus pearllike mist that formed the
background to all the landscape.
"On our right. facing the cataract,
loomed the 500 foot high wall of the
canyon, topped by the lush green
Ram forest with its ever dripping
branches. And as we looked new
wonders became gradually revealed
to our wondering gaze. l began to
perceive in hooks of the black pre-
cipices half way down strange plants
growing, as in happy confidence
their fragile rainbow hued blossoms
ever shaking in the wind and spray,
but safe and unhaImed amid this
this eternal storm. And down the
black cliff wall on my right [ saw
hundreds of tiny white streamlets
pouring, formed by the returning
spray from Rain forest. And as |
watched them | discovered a strange
thing.
"These falling streams never reach
the bottom of the chasm. They
dropped into little cascades to about
a third of the way down, and then,
as If defying the laws of gravity,
they literally turned round and came
back again, mounting vertically. 1t
was curious to see these cascades,
after breaking into spray, appear
to hesitate and falter and then begin
to rise, first slowly but soon rapidly,
shooting upward in whirIing foam
columns and teathery fountains, be-
ing carried up by the ftfuI blasts of
cold air that the dropping cataract
forced out of the narrow chasm into
which it thudered. -