Tequendama—Kaiteeur—Paulo Affonso—Keel-fos—Riunkan-fos—Sarp-fos—Staubbach—Zambesi or Victoria—Murchison—Cavery—Schaffhausen.

In South America is the remarkable fall of Tequendama, on the river Bogota, which, at this point, is only one hundred and forty feet wide, and is divided into numerous narrow and deep channels which finally unite in two of nearly the same width, and make a perpendicular plunge of six hundred and fifty feet to the plain below. "The cataract," says Humboldt, "forms an assemblage of everything that is sublimely picturesque in beautiful scenery. It is not one of the highest falls, but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so lofty a height, precipitates so voluminous a mass of water. The body, when it first parts from its bed, forms a broad arch of glassy appearance; a little lower down it assumes a fleecy form, and ultimately, in its progress, it shoots forth in millions of smaller masses, which chase each other like sky-rockets. The attending noises are quite astounding, and dense clouds of vapor soar upward, presenting beautiful rainbows in their ascent. What gives a remarkable appearance to the scene is the great difference in the vegetation surrounding different parts of it." At the summit the traveler "finds himself surrounded, not only with begonias and the yellow bark tree (Sandal), but with oaks, elms, and other plants, the growth of which recall to mind the vegetation of Europe, when suddenly he discovers, as from a terrace and at his feet, a country producing the palm, the banana, and the sugar-cane. The cause of the difference is not ascertained, the difference of altitude—one hundred and seventy-five metres—not being sufficient to exert much influence on the atmosphere."

Nevada Falls

Another and grander South American fall, of comparatively recent discovery, is the Kaiteeur, so called, in the river Potaro, a large affluent of the Essequibo, the largest river in British Guiana. The volume of water is greater than that in the Bogota, and falls in a single column of dazzling whiteness seven hundred and forty feet into a vast basin below. The ascending cloud of spray, the solemn monotone of the descending flood, the extreme wildness of the primitive forest, and the luxuriant and abundant growth of tropical vines and shrubs, and their gorgeous colors, make the scene impressive.

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone

"There is in Brazil," says ElisÉe Reclus, "not far from Bahia, the wonderful cataract of San Francisco, known by the name of Paulo Affonso. At the foot of a long slope over which it glides in rapids, the river, one of the most considerable of the South American continent, whirls round and round as it enters a kind of funnel-shaped cavity, roughened with rocks, and suddenly contracting its width, dashes against three rocky masses reared up like towers at the edge of the abyss; then dividing into four vast columns of water, it plunges down into a gulf two hundred and forty-six feet in depth. The principal column, being confined in a perpendicular passage, is scarcely sixty-six feet in width, but it must be of an enormous thickness (depth), as it forms almost the whole body of the river. Half way up, the channel which contains it bends to the left, and the falling mass, changing its direction, passes under a vertical column of water, which penetrates through it from one side to the other, and breaking it up into a chaos of surges, converts it into a sea of foam. Sometimes the white, misty vapor may be seen, and the thunder of the water may be heard at a distance of more than fifteen miles." The spray and roar of Niagara are often seen and heard at Toronto, forty miles away, across Lake Ontario.

In Norway is found the highest perpendicular fall in the world that is constantly supplied with water. It is the Keel-fos, formed by a mountain stream that falls two thousand feet into the NavÖens Fjord near Gudhaven, but the water becomes a mere billowy bank of mist before it reaches the bottom.

The Riunkan-fos is another Norwegian cataract in the outlet of Lake MjÖsvard, which pours through a wild, rock-studded slope until it reaches a precipice, on the brink of which it is divided by a huge mass of rock into two channels. Thence it falls eight hundred and eighty feet into a dark basin at its foot, from which water-rockets and sharp jets of foam shoot up and out in all directions. The intense whiteness of the fleecy column is indescribable.

A still more famous Norwegian cataract is the Sarp-fos in the Stor-Elven, formed by the junction of the Lougen and Glommen, the largest of the Norwegian rivers. Like the Riunkan-fos the stream is greatly contracted in a rocky gorge, and at the edge of the cliff is divided into two channels which, however, soon unite in a fall of one hundred feet upon huge masses of rock, through and over which it rushes tumultuously for a short distance, and then flows quietly into the sea. The volume of water is unusually large for a purely mountain river, being in the gorge at the top of the fall one hundred and fifty feet wide and forty feet deep. The massive and intensely white column contrasted with the dark green foliage of the solemn pines, and the darker rocks about it, and the deep blue water into which it falls, produce a vivid impression on the mind of the beholder. The Stor-Elven here presents the curious phenomenon of a stream changing, not from a perpendicular fall to a rapid, but the reverse, from a rapid to a perpendicular fall. A great portion of the right bank of the river at the fall, and for a considerable distance below, is chiefly composed of a stiff blue clay, and the river once flowed past Sarpsborg, a mile below, in a succession of magnificent rapids. At that time a superb mansion with numerous out-buildings stood at the termination of the rapids. On the 5th of February, 1702, the mansion, together with everything in and about it, sunk into an abyss six hundred feet deep, and was entirely buried beneath the water. The walls of the house were of unusual strength and thickness, with several high towers, but the whole was buried out of sight. Fourteen persons and two hundred head of cattle were also engulfed. The catastrophe was caused by the washing out of the blue clay, and the undermining of the bank, which then toppled over into the watery chasm.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone

In Switzerland is the Staubbach—dust-stream—a well known fall in the canton of Berne. It has a sheer descent of nearly nine hundred feet, in which the water is converted into spray that is easily moved by the wind, thus giving it a singularly beautiful resemblance to a white curtain floating in the air.

In South Africa, Livingstone has made the public acquainted with that extraordinary hiatus in the crust of the earth in which the great river Zambesi is swallowed up. A stream more than a thousand yards wide, dotted with islands, flowing between fertile banks clothed with the luxuriant and gorgeous vegetation of the tropics, without the least preliminary break or rapid, suddenly drops into a dark chasm of unknown depth, which, repeatedly doubling on itself, pursues its tortuous course some forty miles through the hills before emerging again into the sunlight. "From Kalai," says Livingstone, "after some twenty minutes' sail we came in sight of the columns of vapor appropriately called smoke. * * * Five columns now arose, and, bending in the direction of the wind, they seemed placed against a low ridge covered with trees. The tops of the columns at this distance (six miles) appeared to mingle with the clouds. The whole scene was extremely beautiful." At the brink of the chasm he found the river divided into two channels of unequal width by a large island called the "Garden," on account of its rich vegetation. "Creeping with awe to the verge I peered down into a large rent which had been made from bank to bank of the broad Zambesi, and saw that a stream a thousand yards broad leaped down a hundred feet and then became suddenly compressed into a space of fifteen or twenty yards. In looking down into this fissure on the right of the island one sees nothing but a dense, white cloud. From this cloud rushed up a great jet of vapor exactly like steam, and it mounted two hundred or three hundred feet high; then, condensing, it changed its hue into that of dark smoke, and came back in a constant shower. This shower fell chiefly on the opposite side of the fissure, and a few yards back from the top there stands a straight hedge of evergreen trees, whose leaves are always wet. From their roots a number of little rills run back into the gulf, but as they flow down the steep wall the column of vapor in its ascent licks them up clean off the rock, and away they mount again. They are constantly running down, but never reach the bottom."

The Staubbach, Switzerland

In Northern Africa the Murchison Falls in the White Nile, between lakes Victoria N'yanzi and Albert N'yanzi, were discovered by Sir Samuel Baker, and are described by him. "Upon rounding the corner a magnificent sight burst suddenly upon us. On either side of the river were beautifully wooded cliffs rising abruptly to a height of about three hundred feet; rocks were jutting out from the intensely green foliage, and, rushing through a gap that cleft the river exactly before us, the river itself, contracted from a grand stream, was pent up in a narrow gorge scarcely fifty yards in width; roaring furiously through the rock-bound pass, it plunged in one leap of about one hundred and twenty feet perpendicularly into a dark abyss below. The fall of water was snow-white, which had a superb effect, as it contrasted with the dark cliffs that walled the river, while graceful palms of the tropics and wild plantains perfected the beauty of the view."

A writer in Hamilton's "East Indian Gazetteer" gives us an account of the cataract of Gungani Chuki in the northern branch of the river Cavery. "Much the larger stream is broken by projecting masses of rock into one cataract of prodigious volume and three or four smaller torrents. The first plunges into the river below from a height variously estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, while the others, impeded in their course by intervening rocks, work their way with many fantastic evolutions to a distance about two hundred feet from the base of the precipice, where they all unite to make a single final plunge, while the other branch of the river precipitates itself in two columns from a cliff of the same height, and standing nearly at right angles with the main fall. The surrounding scenery is wild in the extreme, and the whole presents a very imposing spectacle.

"A second cataract is formed by the southern arm of the Cavery about a mile below. The channel here spreads out into a magnificent expanse, which is divided into no less than ten distinct torrents, which fall with infinite variety of configuration over a precipice of more than one hundred feet, but presenting no single body equal to the Gungani Chuki, but the whole forming an amphitheatre of cataracts, meeting the eye in every direction along a sweep of perhaps 90°, and combined with scenery of such sequestered wildness that for picturesque effect it is perhaps without parallel in the world." This branch of the stream is used to irrigate the province of Tanjore, and the coming of its floods is celebrated by the natives with special festivities, as they consider the river to be one of their most beneficent deities.

The beautiful and picturesque fall of the Rhine below Schaffhausen, where the water falls sixty-five feet in a single column, is the admiration of all travelers.

Victoria Falls, Zambesi