The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1905-11-03
VICTORIA CATARACT
IT IS ONE OF THE NOTABLE WON
DERs OF THE WORLD.

49, OGn0 Vt b'C OneO
There IL No Other Falls on Earth
Just Like 1t. and There Is No Pos
sibility Of Comparison Between 1t
and Our own Niagara.
It was on the 22d Of November, 1855;
that the friendly natives with whom he
was travelling brought DR.. David Lily
ingstone for the first time within sight
and sound Of the wonderful cataract
on the Zambezi river, now known as
the Victoria falls. Before finding 1t,
the good missionary had journeyed for
nearly two years, and from his point
Of departure at Thurman, in Cape Col
ony, had traversed quite 1000 miles of
hitherto unknown country.
Today one takes the train at Cape
Town on Wednesday,, passes through
Kimberley OF Thursday, reaches Bulu-
wayo on Saturday, and late in the aft
ernoon Of Sunday begins to see In the
distance the rising pillar Of mist from
the great cataract.
The natives call it "Mosi-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 a column Of smoke rising
from a burning village, and during tho
last mile Of the railway journey the
roar of the falling water becomes no
dceable. Finally, when the edge of
the chasm is reached, If the river Is in
Hood, the eye and ear are assailed by
q 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 comparison. The two are al
different as day and night. Niagara is
a perfect picture in a lovely natural
framework. Every point and line and
curve Of motionless rock, trembling
verdure and gliding water is a touch Of
majestic beauty. Victoria is simply a
phenomenon, q terrific cash in the floor
Of an apparently unending plain, which
as one gazes simply swallows a river
in a manner that produces almost a
thrill Of horror.
The Zambczi valley for a hundred
miles OF more in every direction from
the cataract is a rough and broken
plateau covered with low brush and
stunted trees, with here and there an
outcrop Of somber basaltic rock, all
thoroughly undressing. The heritage
Is but family green and the tropical
sky only family blue. 1t 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 a
nature picture-life. The absence Of
this produces in the mind a feeling of
loneliness and often Of fear. Across
this solemn scene appears a river that
in flood time Is perhaps half a 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
side of the conflagration and might
glance to he right and, left to note the
direction taken. But the panorama
changes as he gazes. The river is no
more, and there, where it 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
face Of the land again commingle, be-
fore it will be possible to walk along
the bank in company with the river.
So sudden is the Transformation.
Meantime the pillar of smoke has re-
solved itself into a dense mist forced
upward in terrible puffs from a yawn-
ing cash stretching directly across the
bed Of the river. This fearful abyss II
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 q narrow cleft in the
eastern wall, whence it escapes, foam
ing and boiling, through the zigzags
and urve Of a deep gorge leading of
to the eastward. One goes to an edge
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
ineIt mental sensation is that Of thank
fulness that even in such a 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 (July) the scene is
simply terrible. One sees nothing but