The Greeley tribune., 1905-08-03
VICTORIA CATARACT
1T is ONE OF THE NorAsLE WON
DERS OF THE WORLD.
There Is No other Falls on E"r'n
just Like II. and There /. y" f"s-
sibility of Comparison Between IL
and Our Own Niagara.

01b1Iity OF Com AbOfkoOd BctN''" -
and Our Own Niagara.
1t was on the 22d Of Novenber. ls3o
that the friendly natives with whom lie
was travelling brought DIR. David LiV-
ingstone for the first time within Slsh'
and sound Of the wonderful cataract
on the Zambezi river. now known as
the Victoria falls. Before finding IT,
the good missionary had journeyed for
nearly two years. and from his point
Of departure at Kuruman. In cape Col
ony. had traversed quite 400 miles or
hitherto unknown country.
Today one takes the train at Cape
Town on Wednesday. passes through
Kimberley on Thursday. reaches Bulu-
wayo on Saturday. and late IN the aft
ernoon of Sunday begins to see in tho
distance the rising pillar Of mist from
the great cataract.
The natives call it "AlOsi-oa tuni.
meaning 1.-The roaring smoke. Twenty
miles away the spray thrown back
from the depths of the tremendous cav
ern into which the river tumbles ap-
pears like column of smoke rising
from a burning village. and during the
last mile of the railway Journey the
roar of the falling water becomes no.
ticeable. Finally. when the edge of
the chasm is reached. II the river is in
flood, the eye and ear are assailed by
combination of phenomena that prob
ably cannot be duplicated as marvels
anywhere else on the planet.
The first question that Is asked of an
American who has seen this African
wonder generally is. How does it com
pare with Niagara?" There is no pos
sibility Of comparisons The two are as
different as day and night Niagara is
a perfect picture In lovely natural
framework. Every point and line and
curve of mOtionless rock, trembling
yerdure and gliding water Is touch Of
majestic beauty. Victoria is simply a
phenomenon, a terrific cash In the floor
Of an apparently unending plain, which
as one gazes simply swallows river
in a manner that produces almost u
thrill OF horror.
The Zambezi valley for a hundred
miles or more in every direction from
the cataract Is rough and broken
plateau covered with low brush and
stunted trees, with here and there an
outcrop Of somber basaltic rock, all
thoroughly uninteresting. The heritage
is but family green and the tropical
sky only family blue. It is a hazy
half tone landscape. wanting in clear
cut lines in every direction and lacking.
above everything else, that element
We always unconsciously seek in Il
nature picture-life. The absence Of
this produces in the mind feeling Of
loneliness and often Of fear. Across
this solemn scene appears q river that
in flood time is perhaps half mile
wide. II a deaf man were following
down one Of Its banks he would notice
little but the quiet water and the odd
looking column Of smoke ahead. As
this column was approached he would
expect to see the river banks bending
and the water flowing away to one
side Of the conflagration and might
glance to the right and left to note the
direction taken. But the panorama
changes as he gazes. The river Is no
more. and there, where 1t should be.
Is only the brown plain. as lonely,
brush covered and monotonous as ever.
One must go twenty miles farther be-
fore the vanished water and the sur
race OF the land again commingle, be-
fore 1t will be possible to walk along
the bank in company with the river.
So sudden Is the transformation.
tt,o
solved itself into a dense mist forced
upward in terrible pufrs from a yawn-
ing cash stretching directly across the
bed of the river. This fearful abyss ia
every second swallowing thousands of
tons OF green and white water and
belching up blasts Of mist that rise
hundreds of feet into the air and hurry
away with the winds as if rejoicing
at their escape from the inferno be-
low. And somewhere, nearly 400 feet
below, the entrapped river is fighting
Its way between sheer walls of black
rock toward narrow cleft in the
eastern wall, whence 1t escapes, foam
ing and boiling, through the zigzags
and curxes of deep gorge leading Off
~ eAAN ctaSt"a alo oue kttS 10 uu GUIB
Of this delivering chasm and looks
down upon the tossing waters, ever
pressed from behind by other floods
struggling out of the narrow black
gateway. and perhaps the most prom
ment mental sensation is that of thank
fulness that even in such grim and
CHASTITY way nature has provided a
means by which the fearful slit-of a
throat above that has swallowed the
stream can disgorge it again without
causing an overwhelming catastrophe.
The Victoria cataract should be visit
ed at least twice before one is compe-
tent to pass an opinion upon it. When
the river Is in flood DULY the scene is
simply terrible. One sees nothing but
an enormous sheet of water disappear-
Ing into the bowels of the earth with
II noise as of mountains falling upon
one another, while from the awful cash
comes back in fierce gusts and swirls
the foamins breath of the tortured ele