How a Waterfall Announced Itself from Five Miles Away

From five miles away, Livingstone saw five vast white columns bending with the wind, darkening as they rose and seeming to mingle with the clouds. They looked like smoke from burning grass, while a dull roar carried across the distance^[1].

Drawing nearer, he found that the “smoke” was spray thrown upward by a tremendous fall. From an island above it, he crept to the edge and looked into a rent spanning the river: a stream about 1,000 yards wide plunged roughly 100 feet into a narrow rocky fissure^[2]. Dense white cloud hid the depths; from it, vapour rose like steam for 200 or 300 feet, darkened as it condensed, then returned in a constant shower^[3]. Amid the ceaseless roar, spray and returning rain, two bright rainbows stood in the vapour, completing the spectacle^[4].