Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-16
RAIN FOREST OF AFRICA
GLIMPSE OF SOME OF THE
WORLDS GREAT WONDERS.
Natives of the Dark Continent
Long Terrified by Mysterious
Columns of Vapor.

| From ST. Nicholas.
! Until only few years ago the greatest,
wonder of the world lay hidden away in
one of the most savage parts of Africa.
The natives of that region. terrified by its
mysterious columns Of vapor and its sub
| terranean thunder. did not venture with
in many miles of it.. The white men who
had looked upon it could be counted on
the fingers of one hand.
And yet more than fifty years have
passed since the explorer Livingstone,
| journeying eastward along the Zambesi.
first beheld that rainbow mist rise above
the forest. OF its cause he could learn
nothing from the savages: and So ex
cepl for his own conjectures, he came
quite unprepared upon his splendid dis
| covery. He approached it by the river,
which above the falls Is mile wide. and
below them runs for fifty miles at the bot
| tom of gorge between four and five hum
| dred feet deep. whose twin walls of
| black, precipitous rock show for all that
| distance scarcely ledge or slope where
| the smallest plant may cling. So. after
| peep downward at the falls from the Is
land on their brink which now bears his
name. he LETT his newly found marvel less
| than half seen, and departed whence he
came.
| coming OF cecil hQOQeS.
And the loneliness of those vast soli-
| tudes brooded once more over forest and
| river, to be broken only at rare intervals
by some wandering hunter. or perhaps by
party of men adventuring through end
less toll and danger to behold a wonder
| whose fame, even then. spread as far as
| that tiny portion of South Africa where
white men dwelt and civilization held
sway. So things remained until the day of
| Cecil Rhodes. under whose auspices went
| forth the voortrekkers, or pioneers. to
colonize the vast land now called Rhode
| STA, in the heart Of which Victoria falls
| lie. Many Of these voortrekkers. and
| their wives and children, died at the
! hands of the savage Amatabele tribe of
| natives; but the survivors in the end were
victorious. and the country became their
own.
Cecil Rhodes died, and was laid in his
lonely grave among the Matopo hills. on
rocky summit which looks far out over
the land he loved. But his wishes were
remembered. the greatest and the least
| of them: and still. year by year. the Cen
| trail African railway grows. every year
| little northward through the forests. And
now it has reached the Zambesi, and over
that hitherto unconauerable gorge has
| been thrown one of the most wonderful
| railway bridges ever built. and close by
has sprung up a great hotel, SO that the
| Victoria falls and their surroundings are
Views in the Forest.
For many days the approaching traveller
has been flying through a mighty tropical
| forest in which a path has been cut for
the railway line, but which is otherwise
so undsturbed. SO vast and silent and
lonely, that it Is hard to believe white
| men can ever make home in it. Here
the lion prowls at his own sweet will
and legions OF antelopes. great and small,
craze on the sweet veldt. And here ele-
plants wander in troops of fifty or more.
and in the swamps the hippopotamus
| plows his way through the papyrus reed
and the ten-foot Rhodesian grass. The
little iron shanties of the railway men
are the only signs Of civilized life. The
natives of the country are few and far
between; their kraals, with the conical
huts peculiar to this race of Africans.
look down from the rare slight emil
nences.
There is no change in the scenery, lit
tie to give warning of the wonder that
one approaches. Only, above the noise
OF the train a far-off murmur of sound
grows upon. the ear. and little while
after, f1oating upward from out the forest.
there comes in sight a long line OF snowy
vapor, which, as the low sun touches 1t,
glows with soft. manycolored lights. This
mist-cloud is caused by the sudden mar
| rowing of the great Zambesi river in
the chasn, not 900 yards wide, which re-
ceives the falls at the end Of their leap.
The cloud rises at times as much as 800
| feet into the air and there condenses into
rain. which falls in eternal showers glori-
Gus in this thirsty land. and makes in
| the country close about the falls one
| perpetual spring
This tract of land Is known as the rain
| forest, and in its tropical magnifcence,
its soft and delicate beauty. can surely
be surpassed by nothing on earth.