VICTORIA FALLS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17740, 17 April 1923, Page 5

VICTORIA FALLS.

SCENERY IN RHODESIA.

BRIDGE THAT TRIUMPHED OVER

NATURE,

Like breakers on a wild sea shore is the greeting given when after four days and nights from Capo Town the train pulls up at Victoria Fills station, which is removed one mil© from the falls. The Rhodesian Government is alive to the advantage of having a great natural wonder within its borders. Their railway management runs most comfortably appointed trains of corridor type, well lighted by electricity, a light being disclosed for the under berth when the back of the seat is raised to form the upper berth for sleeping. The windows have full-sized screens of fine wire gauze, so excluding dust, etc. An up-to-date dining car is on every train, and each car contains a couple of coupes for two persons, and tho luxury of shower and spray baths. The Victoria Falls settlement contains a station master's office, post office, four houses, two curio huts, some native huts and compound, and the hotel, which is a white palace set down in a wilderness. It is set down to good scenic purpose five minutes from the raihvay'on a plateau facing ono of tho few slopes in the sheer cliffs, exposing the first great buttress of the gorge round which the Zambesi windb aftei leaving tho falls. Just bv such multitudinous thrusts and twists for 44 miles, between vertical gullies JoO deep, does the river pursue its journey of many hundred miles- to tho sea.

For background, airily suspended, is the railway bridge, ever which passes the train on its thrice-weekly journey of linking up the Congo with the south, writes Janet Gaff in the Melbourne "Argus." About three-quar-ters of a mile from the hotel is the western bank, where the Zambesi, at this point one mile and a. quarter wide, is cleft at right angles by a great, irregular chasm, over 400 feet deep, and varying from 50 to 80 feet in width. Hero the Devil's Cataract, a tearing, roaring cascade, is the first of tho west side falls. Cataract Island now intervenes a wedge between this and No. i main falls, a great irregular shallow horseshoe, where an immense volume of water sends clouds of spray hundreds of feet into the air.

Another small island perching on the

brink separates this from No. 2 main falls over the long straight rim of which a tremendous sweep of water thunders into the v abyss. Spray from both these sections, combining in a tropical downpour, drenches the Rain Forest on the opposite Brink of the abyss. Intervening on th© brink is Livingstone Island, where, guarded by a rail, the tree still stands bearing the great missionary and explorer's name, carved by himself on the -occasion of his discovery of the falls. The 3000 feet of Rainbow Falls, in volume like the ocean, now comes over, reaching the - chasm in lively lacelike formation. When ifc nears tli« eastern end, which it faces, it goes beyond Boiling Pot, which is the 100-feet-wide gap in the opposing wall of chasm by which the water escapes. Another small island separates Rainbow Falls from the thunderine Eastern Cataract, so a seething niass of waters converging from two points makes a very turbulent exit from the Boiling Pot. The Rain Forest, beginning opposite Devil's Cataract, ceases opposite the eastern end' of No. 2 main falls, while sodden grass, broken by rocky outcrops, continues "a track to Danger Point. From this slopes down Knife Edge, forming the western buttress to Boiling Pot. Duplicate and triplicate vivid rainbows, rising in and spanning over Boiling Pot, rest on the falls of their name. From Danger Point a path of about 200 yards leads along the gorge side to the railway bridge, from the middle of which is a superb view of Boiling Pot, a section of Rainbow Falls, and the beginning of the gorge. If near noon the tri-wcekly train from the Congo slowly passes along. "While on the other side, the white hotel, set a mile away on its terrace, makes a brighb picture.

On tho other sid'e, aTrout a quarter of a mile along tho edge of the gorge, is tho path to Palm Grove, and one leading to view the Eastern Cataract, which terminates the falls. Tliq chasm here is about fifty feet wide, and the ground trembles under one's feet as the thundering water goes by. Carefully peering over tho edge, tho bottom, much boulder strewn, and the racing, churning water, arc seen between the verti-

cal cliffs. Cautiously following the ledge it is possible to reach the great buttress forming the eastern side to the gap, whilo on tho right a section of Rainbow Falls, all garlanded with bows, makes a splendid sight. Returning to the road, and reaching tho other path, a semi-perpendicular rock-strewn descent is made through, Palm Grove. Finally, vegetation ceasing, and about thirty feet of steep boul-der-covered shore reached, the river, just escaped from Boiling Pot, swirls past. All around are th© 450 feet of towering cliffs, and further dowri the nerial-looking railway bridge, ivhilo for background a, milcr'nway gleams the hotel set so picturesquely on its plateau, and over ?11 the h.ot Rhodesian sun. . ,

Toilfully negotiating the upward path, again gaining the road, we go back over the bridge, where at the western end a trolley, pushed by natives, conveys us back to the hotel. By following the edge of the chasm from Danger Point to Rain Forest, the visitor being well waterproof, the most

superb views of the faffs may be obtained. Treading on soaked vegetation and rocky outcrops, in a continuous downpour caused by the falling

spray, the falls in their majesty, all rainbow garlanded, are just separated by the varying 50 to 80 feet of the abyss. This widens and slightlytwists, thus the whole mile and a quarter cannot be seen ai. one view, 'but must be followed on tiie opposite lip from end to end. The Rain Forest

being set opposite the Devil's Cataract, and the first and second main falls, the roar of waters drowns speech, while here tho rainbow-tinted spray rises highest. When the river is high, the islands intervening between the falls shrink to tiny islets, some being entirely under water, then only as the wind shifts the spray can views of this tremendous oeein of water be obtained. At lo.v river the spray being less densei the views are superb, but five different view]x>ints must be visited to see the whole.

{ About 100 yards from Devil's Catar- | act are the canoe sheds fxDm which, at | low river, thero is exposed a chain of | islots _ which form a breakwater to j Devil s Cataract, so making possible a ! voyage to Cataract Is:and. Four 6talwart highly-experienced natives paddie the canoes over, a. journey of five minutes oenig charged for at> the rate or is od per person. A path leads lifrht aoosa the island, and we gtand ;..y the setnnig waters as they glissade down the cataract. Then across some <-.iriss and very ancient lava past a treeto an out-crop of rock r.iOnjSide wl.ica Xo. 1 main falls 13 making its terrific plunge. Lying prona on the rock, worming our bodies forward, at last it is possible to peer cautiously into tno chaos of the abyss. With the ranlung roar of the water alongside, • iv.iu soothing 450 feet bolow, it is absojutclv bewildering. Becoming bolder, and taking a good look as the depths ( (.'now out of the spray, there sheltered 11 y the enstern buttress, tearing round i which come the waters of Devil's Cata-

raot, on a heap of fallen boujders two trees have grown to a fair height, while a cactus clings precariously to face of the cliff. Kainbows in triplicate start in the tumultuous depths, ancl arching up, go. through the spray, and rest on the falls alongsido which we arc lying. Just 80 'feet across is the rain forest, all dripping in the sunshine.

A voyage by many previous channels on the island-studded Zambesi by oil launch to Livingstone landing stage, makes a delightful interlude to gazing on the wonders of the falls. From the landing stage the remaining four miles is made on trolleys, pushed by natives, to the quite interesting and very loyal British town of Livingstone. The streets, well shaded by mango trees, show on excellent example of municipal foresight, and many new phases of life are to be seen. Returning by the same means, and regaining the launch, a couple of islands are visited, where lunch and afternoon tea are served, the meals having been sent on from the hotel. While cruising on the river by launch and canoe many crocodiles are seen basking on rocks and stumps of trees. The hippopotami, being dangerous, have been driven up the stream, so one picturesque element has been eliminated.

The most bewitching of all experiences of this unique world's wonder is to view the sparkling silvery cloud-like water of the falls by moonlight, spanned by the lunar rainbow, a band of pearly white, in size like the solar rainbow of the day, but changing to a palo yellow, and as one continues to gaze, being tinted somewhat of a pale pink. So unaccustomed is the eye to such a scene, the first thought is of the supernatural, and a feeling of profound awe is inspired, ere the vision becomes familiarised with so strange a sight; then does the exceeding beauty of this scene touch one's senses. The tremendous force of the falls is quite palpable in the earth vibration a mile distant at the hotel, and for this reason a second story to that building is impossible. Before removing the steam winches on completing the construction of the bridge, an immense weight of steel rails was lowered into the gorge in an endeavour to plumb the depths of the river, which, treating this as a plaything, would not even allow the rails to sink. When Cecil Rhodes, with his wide outlook of linking the Cape tvith Cairo by railway, launched his great railway scheme, the bridging of the Zambesi was a problem condemned bv many engineers. The great Empire builder, "desiring the bridge to be placed where the spray from the falls could reach the trains passing across, entrusted the construction to Sir C. Metcalfe, whose genius triumphed over all obstacles on this portion of the Capt-to-Cairo railway.