Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-11-06
FALLS OF VICTORIA
In Combination of Height and
Volume Excel All Others.
TWICE NIAGARA'S HEIGHT
Mile-Wide River Plunges Into Deep,
Narrow Crack in Earth's Crust.
SPRAY RISES HIGH IN AIR
Zambesi Below Falls as a Raging
Torrent Zigzags in a Marrow
Canyon for Forty Miles.
SPRAY RISES HIGH IN AIR
Editorial Correspondence OF The Star
BY THEODORE w. NOTES.

b1 ! I1EODOhE w. NJ ES.
w.
AS the river Zambes, grown great in its
hundreds Of miles OF journeyings from
Its source, majestically moves seward
with the lazy dignity that characterizes
and becomes a mile-wide tropical river,
1t is suddenly. without warning, for its
entire mile OF width. hurled over and
dashed to the bottom Of a deep, narrow
chasm, cleft at right angles to its course;
and at the foot of the abyss its forward
flow is checked by a basaltic precipice
which forms the opposite wall Of this
chasm.
The mass of falling water. disintegrat-
ing in air, shattered by collision with
the rocky bottom and in flood with the
opposing cliff. Is driven backward and up
ward In clouds of spray, rising hundreds
of feet in air in ever-changing forms and
in flood mounting apparently to touch the
sky. From out of the whirling spray the
rudely assaulted river thunders its start
led Indignation. The sound of its protest
can be heard and the river rising in air in
spray clouds like the smoke of a vast
fire can be seen for many miles. This Is
Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'the smoke that sounds .
as the natives POLITICALLY and aptly named
Tie ldilS IlOW hIOWH as ' 1clOIld.
An Extraordinary Transformation.
Never was there transformation more
extraordinary than that here suffered by
the Zambesi. The mile-wide compar tive
ly shallow river is in the twinkling OF an
eye turned edgewise into a cleft In the
earth's surface with a breadth between
imprisoning walls of stone Of 200 to 300
feet and nf nnknnwn
moving slowly and steadily in one direc-
ton its waters. shocked, battered, disin-
tegrated, fly and flow with incredible We
locity in every direction. They mount
scend again and are caught once more in
the rising current of wind and water
They rush wildly from each end of the
falls canyon, where the abyss is shallow
est, toward the middle, both deep and
narrow currents seeking escape from the
cramping. fmprisoning walls of the op-
posing precipices of basalt The two sec
tons meet and find this vent about three
fourths Of the distance from the west
ern to the eastern end of the
chasm. where the raging waters
force themselves through another
deep crack In the earth's surface even
narrower than the falls canyon itself.
Down this narrow opening, at right an-ies
to the falls chasm. the reunited waters
of the Zambesi rush as rapids with tre-
mendous power, and almost Immediately
dash full front against another precipice
of basalt and are thrown back on them
selves in furious boiling whirlpool Thus
diverted from its course, the raging tor
rent shoots off almost at right angles
through another narrow gorge approxi-
mately parallelng the fails chasm and
nearly reversing its direction of flow in
that chasm.
When the river is about on a level on
this course with the west end of the falls
canyon 1t doubles back upon itself at an
v,sy1n oy,d xrrhn oil ~
with the east end of the falls chasm it
repeats this Zigzag process, with the re-
suit that the ZambesiS course through the
falls canyon and the three Immediately
succeeding gorgeS lays out a great NJ, cut
into the earth's crust 400 feet deep plus
the depth of the Zambesi's channel in the
canyon.
Thus the mile-wide Zambes. flowing In
languid pride under the sun the
earth $ surface. transformed by its fall.
zigNags as narrow, raging torrent sew
eral hundred feet below the level of it's
banks. and. hemmed in by rocky walls.
follows it's devious and downward course
for forty-five miles before it is able to
resurrect itself from the canyon and to
resume the higher life of its normal
earth's surface flow toward the ocean.
The fall not only alters the Zambesis
physical appearance. but transforms it
from benefactor bestowing blessings
into a worthless, wandering tramp.
Above the falls the Zambesi irrigates
great area, giving life. freshness and
fertility to its valley and It's islands.
clothing them with towering palms and
with the infinite varieties of form and
color of luxuriant tropical vegetation and
rendering them fruitfully responsive to
the hand of man. After the fall the Fam
besis waters are buried 400 feet below
the jewellers ON earth's surface. and out
side the radius of the rivers spray that
surface is arid. For forty-five miles Of
this low life in the canyon the fallen river
Is. self-concentrated and useless.