Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/309

 THE VICTORIA FALLS. 848 cliffs, which gradually converge, soon leaving a 8i)ace from bank to bank of from 60 to 100 yards. Pent up within this rocky bod, the current, which during the rainy season rises from 50 to GO feet above the normal level, rushes along in furious eddies at a speed which renders all navigation impossible. But above these rapids, known as the " Gonye Falls," there is a free stretch of over 250 miles as far as the neighbourhood of the waterparting towards the Kassai affluents which is accessible to riverain craft, doubtless one day to be replaced by steam. Below the Gonye Falls the Zambcse is continually interrupted by reefs and rocky ledges, some of which are disposed athwart the current, forming connecting ridges between the cliffs on either bank. Here every rapid, every cataract, pre- sents a different aspect. One reef crosses from side to side at a perfectly uniform height, the water gliding over it without a ripple as over on artificial barrier ; another is pierced with gaps and openings, through which the water pours as through the gates of a lock. Elsewhere the current is obliquely stemmed by boulders piled up in disorder, or broken by rocky islets rising amid the seething whirlpools. In a stretch of about 12 miles Ilolub reckoned no less than forty-six cataracts and rapids of all sorts, some of which are extremely dangerous either to shoot or to turn. It would even be quite impossible to make the attempt but for the fact that the crocodiles themselves are obliged to avoid the neighbourhood of the cascades. The boatmen ascending the stream are thus enabled to approach the reefs, deposit their cargo on some convenient ledge, and haul their boats up to the smooth stretch above the fall ; then nimbly resxmiing their seats, they safely continue the journey up this reach amid these voracious saurians swimming about in the still, deep waters. The last of the series of cataracts is the Katima Molelo, above which the Zambese presents an open course free from all obstruction for a distance of nearly 120 miles, as far as the network of channels ramifying south- wards in the direction of the Chobe lagoons above the great falls. The Victoria Falls. The Mosi-oa-Tunya, or " Thimdering Smoke," * which afforded an escape to the great inland sea of which Ngami is but a puny remnant, presents aa abso- lutely unique spectacle. Doubtless many other streams" plunge at a single bound into a deeper abyss, or roll down a mightier liquid volume. But nowhere else is a great river seen to suddenly disappear in a narrow rocky chasm, whose very bed is completely veiled by the overhanging vapours, and whence the timiultuous waters escape through a fissure which is not even visible except from the vantage-ground of some dangerous headland. The Zambese seems, as it were, suddenly to vanish in the very bowels of the earth. Discovered, or at all events rediscovered, in November, 1855, by Livingstone, and by him named the Victoria Falls, this stupendous spectacle is thus described by the illustrious traveller: — " After twenty minutes' sail from Kalai we came in sight, for the first time, of ing, " Smoking caldron."
 * The expression meana literally " Smoke doee eound there," answering to Livingstone's £ree render-