. Travels and adventures in southern Africa. ate aspect of the Gariepine mountaitis beyond, accordedwell with the wild grandeur of the waterfall, and impressed me with feelingsnever to be effaced. The river, after pouring itself out in this beautifiil cascade, rushes alongin a narrow chasm or canal, of about two miles in length, and nearly fivehundred feet in depth, apparently worn in the solid rock, in the course ofages, by the force of the current. In the summer season, when the river is in flood, the fall must be in-finitely more magnificent; but it is probably, at that season, altogether i
. Travels and adventures in southern Africa. ate aspect of the Gariepine mountaitis beyond, accordedwell with the wild grandeur of the waterfall, and impressed me with feelingsnever to be effaced. The river, after pouring itself out in this beautifiil cascade, rushes alongin a narrow chasm or canal, of about two miles in length, and nearly fivehundred feet in depth, apparently worn in the solid rock, in the course ofages, by the force of the current. In the summer season, when the river is in flood, the fall must be in-finitely more magnificent; but it is probably, at that season, altogether inac-cessible ; for it is evident, that the mass of waters, unable to escape by thispassage, then pour themselves out in mighty streams by the two subsidiarychannels, which were now almost dry, and at the same time overflow nearly theentire tract of forest land between them,—which forms, at other seasons, a sortof island, as we now found it. I named this scene King Georges Cataract,in honour of our gracious Sovereign. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 265. CHAPTER V. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. — OBSTACLES TO CULTIVATION. — NATIA^E MOBEOF CROSSING THE RIVEIl.—CUSTOMS, CHAKACTER, AND CONDITIONOF THE KORANNA TRIBES. The approach of evening, and the importunities of the Korannas, atlength drew me reluctantly from the impressive scene I have vainly attempt-ed to describe. We hastened back to their encampment, and I and myattendants fixed our bivouac for the night under an aged willow-tree, uponthe very brink of the river. In conversing about the waterfall, the Korannas mentioned that a hippo-potamus had been killed by falling over it a short time before. But such anaccident, they observed, seldom occurs, as the instinct of these animals leadsthem to avoid being carried by the current too near the rapid and rockychannels, and they usually pass such places by taking a circuitous course 2 M 266 HOTTENTOT WIT. along the banks. The hippopotami are numerous in many parts of thisriver, and are occasionally
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