noise is still more confusing. Besides the dull roar, as of thunder, which is produced by the dashing of the rolling streams against the projecting cliffs, and the rapid current below, a kind of whizzing may be distinguished, which is the effect of clouds of spray issuing from the volumes of water in different places. Through the turmoil of the strong current, heightened by the apparent conflict of the elements in the deep abyss, the resounding of the dashing waves in the rocky trough only increases the thundering roar. It appears as if the spectator were stationed on the brink of a chasm where a fierce combat of destruction seizes upon nature. A sentiment of dread and terror attacks the senses, but if he raise his eyes with the rising vapour, until it meets the lovely islands and the blueish waves above the falls, and then follows these from their playful course to the tumultuous streams as they madly dash to the fall, then again the loveliness and grandeur of nature have such influence over the senses that the feeling of terror is changed to one of admiration. In order to render itself still more impressive to the spectator, another element lends its aid to contribute still more to this grand sight. It is the wind which crowds the watery vapours now here, then there, as they alternately rise and fall; at times, when rising, becoming so dense as to hide one part of the falls from the eye, or again they wrap them in a transparent veil, often beautifully tinged by the forming of a lovely rainbow, and when falling, they exhibit the falls in their magnificence and grandeur.
The Victoria Cataract presents so much loveliness and beauty in unison with terror and awe, so sublimely mingled, that they fill the mind with admiration, at the same time clearly showing man’s nothingness and vanity.
