TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT VICTORIA FALLS.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 8, 31 July 1930, Page 5

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT VICTORIA FALLS.

native and white woman. yu ZAMBESI HORROR CAPETOWN, July 26. o, Victoria Falls, where the mighty Zambesi River plunges over a precipice 4CO feet high, alooig a width ofmpre than a mile, wa® the scene of. a terrible tragedy yesterday afternoon. >. ■ : Two white women, visitors, were in the Rain Forest, where the spray, rising from the mighty cauldron, fall s hack upon the,,, ground like a continuous rain shower, when- one of them, who had just taken a photograph, turned round andl saw her friend, Mm Kirby, from Pretoria, struggling oil the ground with a native.'

' The other woman ran to the DeCataract for police assistance, hut*,, on returning with a, party, no trace of either Mrs, Kirby or the native was found. ••Ttf- is presumed that Mrs. Kirby Was either pushed 1 over the edge of the'precipice by the native, or that, in her struggles, she had slipped over. NATIVE’S DIVE TO DEATH. Asgari g guarding the bridge near the falls ,stopped a native who was attempting to cro8 p tho bridge in the dark. He wriggled free, leaving a bloodstained shirt in tho hands of tho would-be captors. A chase followed, .and when the Askar is came up with the fleeing native, he flung himself head-foremost over the gorge, cradling on to a ledge about 200 feet below. A constable was lowered by ropes, and after working for % hours, the native wa q brought up his skull was ■ smashed in, died on the ‘way to tho Iflvingston Hospital. Further search for the missing woi has ineffective. SCENE OF GRANDEUR. ■v; o v•, , t The 'Victoria Falls, kn<|wn to the natives a 8 ‘‘The Smoke that Thunders”, because of the spray clouds rising from the cataract, are about twice a broad and 2.V times th high as‘ Niagaga, Here the Zambesi precipitates itself into a chasm, only about JOO feet wide, which opens into a 40 mile stretch of narrow twisting canyons t before tho waters broaden .out again.

-A modem hotel stands on a 'site overlooking the cantilever railroad bridge;'which spans the Zambesi in ‘full view of the falls.