was another large community, whose inhabitants
manned every rock to gaze at us in perfect
security, for, since they could not hurt us, we
certainly entertained no designs against them.
The Livingstone from the right bank across
the island to the left bank is about 1300 yards
broad, of which width 40 yards is occupied by
the right branch, 760 yards by the island of
the Wenya, 500 yards by the great river.
Contracted to this narrow space, between the
rocky and perpendicular bluffs of the island and
the steep banks opposite, the uproar, as may
be imagined, is very great. As the calm river,
which is 1300 yards wide one mile above the
falls, becomes narrowed, the current quickens,
and rushes with resistless speed for a few
hundred yards, and then falls about 10 feet into
a boiling and tumultuous gulf, wherein are lines
o f brown waves 6 feet high leaping with terrific
bounds, and hurling themselves against each other
in dreadful fury.
Until I realized the extent of the volume that
was here precipitated, I could hardly believe that
it was indeed a vast river that was passing before
me through this narrowed channel. I have seen
many waterfalls during my travels in various parts
of the world, but here was a stupendous river flung
in full volume over a waterfall only 500 yards
across. The river at the last cataract of the Stanley
Falls does not merely fa ll: it is precipitated downr
Jan. 26, 1877. JTHE LAST OF THE STANLEY FALLS.325
I geventh Cataract. J
wards. The Ripon Falls at the Victoria Lake
outlet, compared to this swift descent and furious
on-rush, were languid. The Victoria Nile, as it
swept down the steep declivity of its bed towards
Unyoro, is Very pretty, picturesque, even a
sufficiently exciting scene; but the Livingstone,
with over ten times the volume of the Victoria
Nile, though only occupying the same
breadth of bed, conveys to the sensé the character
of irresistible force, and unites great depth
with a tumultuous rush.
A solar observation taken opposite the last of
the Stanley Falls proved the latitude to be north 0°
15' o", or seventeen miles north of the first broken
water of the Sixth Cataract; and a few miles
below the -falls, on the 28th January, we obtained
north latitude o° 20' o". By boiling-point I
ascertained that the declination was nearly 120
feet in these twenty-two miles, the altitude above
sea at the Seventh Cataract being 1511 feet. As
there are only seven miles really occupied by
the Sixth and Seventh Cataracts, the intermediate
fifteen miles being calm flowing water, we may
not be far wrong in giving the slope of the
river at the two falls a declination of 17 feet to
the mile.
The rocky point Of the left bank was formerly
connected with the rocky island of the Vfenya
by a ridge, which appears to have fallen south