The Walls Of This Gigantic Crack Are Perpendicular,
And Composed Of One Homogeneous Mass Of Rock.
The edge of that side
over which the water falls is worn off two or three feet, and pieces
Have fallen away, so as to give it somewhat of a serrated appearance.
That over which the water does not fall is quite straight,
except at the left corner, where a rent appears, and a piece seems inclined
to fall off. Upon the whole, it is nearly in the state in which it was left
at the period of its formation. The rock is dark brown in color,
except about ten feet from the bottom, which is discolored
by the annual rise of the water to that or a greater height.
On the left side of the island we have a good view of the mass of water
which causes one of the columns of vapor to ascend, as it leaps
quite clear of the rock, and forms a thick unbroken fleece all the way
to the bottom. Its whiteness gave the idea of snow, a sight I had not seen
for many a day. As it broke into (if I may use the term) pieces of water,
all rushing on in the same direction, each gave off several rays of foam,
exactly as bits of steel, when burned in oxygen gas, give off rays of sparks.
The snow-white sheet seemed like myriads of small comets rushing on
in one direction, each of which left behind its nucleus rays of foam.
I never saw the appearance referred to noticed elsewhere. It seemed to be
the effect of the mass of water leaping at once clear of the rock,
and but slowly breaking up into spray.
I have mentioned that we saw five columns of vapor ascending from
this strange abyss. They are evidently formed by the compression suffered
by the force of the water's own fall into an unyielding wedge-shaped space.
Of the five columns, two on the right and one on the left of the island
were the largest, and the streams which formed them seemed each
to exceed in size the falls of the Clyde at Stonebyres when that river
is in flood. This was the period of low water in the Leeambye; but, as far
as I could guess, there was a flow of five or six hundred yards of water,
which, at the edge of the fall, seemed at least three feet deep.
I write in the hope that others, more capable of judging distances
than myself, will visit the scene, and I state simply the impressions
made on my mind at the time. I thought, and do still think,
the river above the falls to be one thousand yards broad;
but I am a poor judge of distances on water, for I showed a naval friend
what I supposed to be four hundred yards in the Bay of Loanda,
and, to my surprise, he pronounced it to be nine hundred.
I tried to measure the Leeambye with a strong thread, the only line I had
in my possession, but, when the men had gone two or three hundred yards,
they got into conversation, and did not hear us shouting
that the line had become entangled.
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