The Lips Of The Crack Are Still Quite
Sharp, Save About Three Feet Of The Edge Over Which The River Rolls.
The Walls Go Sheer Down From The Lips Without Any Projecting Crag, Or
Symptoms Of Stratification Or Dislocation.
When the mighty rift
occurred, no change of level took place in the two parts of the bed
of
The river thus rent asunder, consequently, in coming down the
river to Garden Island, the water suddenly disappears, and we see the
opposite side of the cleft, with grass and trees growing where once
the river ran, on the same level as that part of its bed on which we
sail. The first crack is, in length, a few yards more than the
breadth of the Zambesi, which by measurement we found to be a little
over 1860 yards, but this number we resolved to retain as indicating
the year in which the Fall was for the first time carefully examined.
The main stream here runs nearly north and south, and the cleft
across it is nearly east and west. The depth of the rift was
measured by lowering a line, to the end of which a few bullets and a
foot of white cotton cloth were tied. One of us lay with his head
over a projecting crag, and watched the descending calico, till,
after his companions had paid out 310 feet, the weight rested on a
sloping projection, probably 50 feet from the water below, the actual
bottom being still further down.
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