of description.

When they were weary of gazing the General smiled, and went on again
towards a soft pearly-looking mist, almost like the thinnest smoke; and
for this the boys took it, till Mr Rogers whispered that it was the
fine spray rising in clouds from the falls.

On they went, slowly, down amongst fern-hung rocks, and narrow ravines
full of rich foliage, while tall palms stood up every here and there
like columns; and then all at once the General stood aside, and the
party, with the earth trembling beneath their feet, passed through a
screen of trees, and stood gazing at one of the wonders of the world.

Right and left, as far as they could see for the trees, and
comparatively close to them, the waters of the great river were passing
over and between a vast barrier of rocks, forming numberless cataracts,
some small, some of large volume. In places these fell in a smooth
glassy body of water towards them, in a glistening curve, down far below
and out of their sight, while others fell from rocky shelf to shelf, to
be broken up into foam and spray as, glistening and white, they hurried
down to join more broken water, as far down as they could see.

Where they stood was thirty or forty feet below the level of the river
before it made its spring; but how far down it fell into the awful gulf
at their feet they could not tell, but the depth seemed to be immense.
Mr Rogers afterwards said it was 400 feet.

The first instinct of the boys was to go nearer, but, with a look of
alarm, the General grasped Jack by the arm, and showed him that the
ground sloped so and was so slippery, that to get near enough to see the
bottom of the fall would have been to run the greatest risk of falling
headlong into the awful abyss.

In mute amazement then they stood, watching the long line of cataracts,
endless as it were in the beauty and variety of their forms.

Wonder upon wonder seemed to greet the eye in the colour of the waters
as they flashed in the sun, some descending in huge solid glassy masses
of water, others in tiny spirts that seemed to make a leap on their own
account into the vast chasm, falling at last like a shower of fine rain.

"I could stand and look at it for ever, father," said Dick, in a low,
awe-inspired voice. "Look at the foam there! look at that spray! The
water is quite white there! And that great fall there, see how it
glistens! Oh, how I should like to be below, and see where the water
strikes, a