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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8462, 12 June 1907, Page 5

UNKNOWN

'. * ■ AN - INTERESTING LETTER. A Masterton resident is in receipt of an interesting letter from ;. relative in Srfi ch Africa, in which the writer lvmurks int±r alia:—Recently we "did" thr Zambesi Falls and nain Forest, and managed to get a pretty good view of them before it came on to rain. In the wet season there is a lot more spray on account of the extra water coming over. It is wonderful where the water gets to that comes over the falls for they are one and a-quarter miles wide, and the smajl river that .runs under the Bridge carries the lot away; no doubt it must be very deep. You have to go to four or five different places before you can see the whole of the Falls. The Bridge has a double line (Cape-Cairo Railway) of rails laid on it in case later on they want to' defubie'the line. v We threw some "' stones off the bridge into the water, and it was only now and again we could see them hit the water, as the bridge is such a great height above the water. We went through the Rain Forest on our way back, but as it. was raining hard at the time it spoilt the effect. We took a trip up the river in a canoe—it. rained hard the whole time. We had four Baroki boys to pull us, and though it was raining we enjoyed it nevertheless. I had a bathing suit and an overcoat on. The boys are terribly afraid of "hippos," and always row near to the bank in case a "hippo" capsizes the boat, when they can scramble ashore.. Four boats have recently been, smashed up. When the boys get to deep water they row as fast as they can t£> get out of it, as it is only in the deep parts that a "hippo" can get under the boats. The Zambesi is a lovely river; it would take weeks to visit all the islands on it. It is just as easy to run up as down, as it is so smooth. On our way back, just as; we were coming round one of the islands, something tumbled off one of', the overhanging branches.- flop into the water alongside our boat, splashing the water over us. It gave us a good fright. We heard afterwards that it was a big lizard. If it had fallen into the boat it would have smashed the bottom out. Referring to the grave of Cecil Rhodes (the Matopos) the writer remarks:—"lt is a grand spot, situated right in the middle of thousands of kopjes covered with bush. The grave is situated right on the top of a big stone formation, which you walk up, something like walking up Lansdownehill. The grave is quite bare, except for the four big stones, like four corner posts, and a few other small ones. Mr Wilson's (the leader of the ill-fated Shangani expedition) memorial is just a little way off.