full four
hundred feet in height. I stood upon a cliff nearly level with the top
of the fall, and directly in front of it. The beams of the evening sun
fell upon the cascade, and occasioned a most splendid rainbow; while the
vapoury mists arising from the broken waters, the bright green woods
that hung from the surrounding cliffs, the astounding roar of the
waterfall, and the tumultuous boiling and whirling of the stream below,
striving to escape along its deep, dark, and narrow, path, formed
altogether a combination of beauty and grandeur, such as I never before
witnessed. As I gazed on this stupendous stream, I felt as if in a
dream. The sublimity of nature drowned all apprehensions of danger; and,
after a short pause, I hastily left the spot where I stood to gain a
nearer view from a cliff that impended over the foaming gulf. I had just
reached this station, when I felt myself grasped all at once by four
Korannas, who simultaneously seized hold of me by the arms and legs. My
first impression was, that they were going to hurl me over the
precipice; but it was a momentary thought, and it wronged the friendly
savages. They are themselves a timid race, and they were alarmed, lest
my temerity should lead me into danger. They hurried me back from the
brink, and then explained their motive, and asked my forgiveness. I was
not ungrateful for their care, though somewhat annoyed by their
officiousness.--_Thompson's Travels in Southern Africa._

SETTING IN OF AN INDIAN MONSOON.

The shades of evening approached as we reached the ground, and just as
the encampment was completed the atmosphere grew suddenly dark, the heat
became oppressive, and an unusual stillness presaged the immediate
setting in of the monsoon. The whole appearance of nature resembled
those solemn preludes to earthquakes and hurricanes in the West Indies,
from which the east in general is providentially free. We were allowed
very little time for conjecture; in a few minutes the heavy clouds burst
over us.... I witnessed seventeen monsoons in India, but this exceeded
them all in its awful appearance and dreadful effects.

Encamped in a low situation, on the borders of a lake formed to collect
the surrounding water, we found ourselves in a few hours in a liquid
plain. The tent-pins giving way, in a loose soil, the tents fell down,
and left the whole army exposed to the contending elements.

It requires a lively imagination to conceive the situation of a