nd once more in another chasm towards the east. In
this gigantic, zigzag, yet narrow trough, the rocks are all so sharply
cut and angular, that the idea at once arises that the hard basaltic trap
must have been riven into its present shape by a force acting from
beneath, and that this probably took place when the ancient inland seas
were let off by similar fissures nearer the ocean.

The land beyond, or on the south of the Falls, retains, as already
remarked, the same level as before the rent was made. It is as if the
trough below Niagara were bent right and left, several times before it
reached the railway bridge. The land in the supposed bends being of the
same height as that above the Fall, would give standing-places, or points
of view, of the same nature as that from the railway-bridge, but the
nearest would be only eighty yards, instead of two miles (the distance to
the bridge) from the face of the cascade. The tops of the promontories
are in general flat, smooth, and studded with trees. The first, with its
base on the east, is at one place so narrow, that it would be dangerous
to walk to its extremity. On the second, however, we found a broad
rhinoceros path and a hut; but, unless the builder were a hermit, with a
pet rhinoceros, we cannot conceive what beast or man ever went there for.
On reaching the apex of this second eastern promontory we saw the great
river, of a deep sea-green colour, now sorely compressed, gliding away,
at least 400 feet below us.

Garden Island, when the river is low, commands the best view of the Great
Fall chasm, as also of the promontory opposite, with its grove of large
evergreen trees, and brilliant rainbows of three-quarters of a circle,
two, three, and sometimes even four in number, resting on the face of the
vast perpendicular rock, down which tiny streams are always running to be
swept again back by the upward rushing vapour. But as, at Niagara, one
has to go over to the Canadian shore to see the chief wonder--the Great
Horse-shoe Fall--so here we have to cross over to Moselekatse's side to
the promontory of evergreens, for the best view of the principal Falls of
Mosi-oa-tunya. Beginning, therefore, at the base of this promontory, and
facing the Cataract, at the west end of the chasm, there is, first, a
fall of thirty-six yards in breadth, and of course, as they all are,
upwards of 310 feet in depth. Then Boaruka, a small island, intervenes,
and next comes a great fall,