on the bank, the little settlement of Livingstone being on the opposite shore, in North-Western Rhodesia, between which and Southern Rhodesia the Zambesi forms the boundary. In North-Western Rhodesia, which is of course under a separate Administration, there are at present no Custom dues, and rebate of duties is given on imports from the South, so that supplies are no dearer, and in some instances are a little cheaper, at this remote spot, despite the heavy cost of transport, than they are in Bulawayo. In this province no hut-tax has yet been levied on the natives; but I believe that the tax will be imposed next year, and it is only fair that a people who are already benefiting greatly from the development of the country should contribute something towards the administration that enriches them and protects them against oppression. We found several waggons from the South unloading on the bank, their loads consisting for the most part of supplies for the white population, material for the Northern Copper Mines and articles for the native trade, such as cloth, wire, and beads.

As soon as we reached the bank a little steam launch put out to us from the further shore, took in tow the canoes containing the mail bags, ourselves, and our baggage, and landed us in front of the little collection of huts that composes the township of Livingstone, a place of future importance though now so insignificant to look on, for this is the natural port of entry for the vast yet-to-be developed North, and by this route the bulk of the trade must ever pass. We were now in Barotseland, the King of which, Lewanika, was so gratified with the reception he received when visiting Great Britain at the Coronation that he is now, I am informed, preparing a wonderful and regal gift indeed

TOWNSHIP OF LIVINGSTONE

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for King Edward VII., a zoological collection consisting of a living specimen of every wild creature in Barotseland, from lion and buffalo down to snakes and crocodiles. The ship that carries them across the seas will be a veritable Noah's Ark.

Livingstone at present consists of two stores-that of the Bechuanaland Trading Company and that of Mr. Clark, the agent for the Northern Copper Company-a small station of the Paris Evangelist Protestant Mission, and a little nursing hospital under the charge of a lady who was the pioneer of nursing in Rhodesia. There is no doctor in the place, and in the case of serious illness it would take a week to summon one. It is an unhealthy little settlement, being within reach of the cold river mists, and apparently no white man living here can escape the fever. This embryo township at the Drift, as this crossing-place of the river is called, is one of the three camps occupied by the white men settled at the Falls. Three miles lower down the river, and thus half way between the Drift and the Falls, is the camp of the Comptroller of North-Western Rhodesia, and here, too, is a beautiful little vegetable garden tended by a native of Madras. The garden is maintained by the subscription of all the officials and traders at the Falls, and supplies them with an abundance of fruit and vegetables. The third camp is that of the District Commissioner, which is three miles from the river, and at about an equal distance from the other two camps, forming a triangle with them. This camp is healthily situated on a height commanding a fine view over the dark woodland, the eternal 'smoke,' and the reaches of the Zambesi above the Falls. Near the District Commissioner's residence are the huts of the native police and the Post Office.

Such are the three camps that constitute the present settlement, set in the midst of this uninhabited wilderness, for there are no native kraals in this part of the country. The community is even a smaller one than one would imagine after gazing at the scattered huts, for the white people in the three camps put together number something under twenty. Where the new township of Livingstone will be has not yet been decided by the Chartered Company; but probably it will be on the southern or right bank of the river, in Southern Rhodesia, on a sandy ridge near the Falls.

CHAPTER XXVI

DESCRIPTION OF THE VICTORIA FALLS-THE ZAMBESI GORGE-THE VOLCANIC RIFT-DIMENSIONS OF THE FALLS-VIEW OF THE FALLS FROM THE LEFT BANK OF THE RIVER-THE GREAT CAÑON-THE EXIT THE PROPOSED RAILWAY BRIDGE-VIEW OF THE FALLS FROM THE RIGHT BANK-RIVER SCENERY-THE DEVIL'S CATARACT-LIVING PRAYERSLIVINGSTONE ISLAND-THE RAIN FOREST-AMONG THE RAINBOWS-IN THE WHIRLING SPRAY-ON DANGER POINT-THE BOILING POT.

I SPENT nine days at the Victoria Falls and viewed them from several points under various conditions. Each day the grandeur of them impressed me the more; the fascination of them grew stronger, and I discovered new awful wonders in them. The sublimity of the scenery can be but dimly comprehended at one's first visit. A spectator feels as if he had entered a universe where the phenomena are so far vaster and more majestic than those of his previous earthly experience that his limited mundane senses fail to grasp them at first, and can only gradually, by extending their ception, adapt themselves to that larger nature.

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I had as my companion in these wanderings Mr. F. W. Sykes, the District Commissioner, who has become -as who would not who had lived like him for two years within sight of the cataract?-an enthusiast with regard to it, knowing it and loving it, familiar with its ever-changing phases and moods, having explored its mysteries as no man else has done. Mr. Sykes is also the only man who has explored the awful gorge through which the Zambesi thunders for forty

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five miles below the Falls. This gorge, a profound volcanic fissure in the level land, with precipitous mountains hemming in the raging flood, has many tributary gorges running into it, also volcanic clefts as precipitously walled as itself. Thus the explorer, while attempting to descend the main gorge, found himself frequently faced by inaccessible cliffs, and had to make long détours in order to turn these impassable side ravines. The natives only know four entrances- doors' they call them by which the Zambesi gorge can be entered for all its forty-five miles in length. This labyrinth of fearful ravines, where the black cliffs rise from a chaos of fallen rocks and boiling water, covers hundreds of square miles, a region such as Dante might have pictured, uninhabited by men or animals, bare of vegetation, and desolate as the surface of the moon. Soon, I hope, Mr. Sykes will give his story to the world.

Of the practical value of the Falls, of the great scheme by which it is proposed to utilise their incalculable power for the generation of electricity, which will be distributed among the townships and mines of Rhodesia, and make a manufacturing centre of Livingstone, I will say nothing for the present, but confine myself to a description of the cataract itself. The nature of the extraordinary volcanic fissure that created the Falls cannot easily be realised without reference to a map. The accompanying sketch map will serve the purpose. It will be seen that at the point under consideration the mighty Zambesi flows, roughly, from north to south. At about half a mile above the Falls the river is a mile and a half in breadth. Then it contracts, and the breadth at the Falls themselves is a little over a mile, or, to be exact, 1,936 yards. And here, to one looking over the edge of the Falls, the great river