nd churns up together. Could a boat get there?"

Mr Rogers smiled, and shook his head.

"Then I should like to be a bird," said Dick quietly, "and fly softly
through that great gulf."

"Till the water made your wings wet, and you fell in and were drowned,"
said matter-of-fact Jack. "I shouldn't; but I should like to get close
to the edge, and see the falls from the bottom to the top."

But the General shook his head, and said that it could not be done.

As they grew more used to the scene, they made out that the range of
cataracts was much farther away than they had at first thought, being
quite a couple of hundred yards; but the awful thunderous roar, the
trembling of the earth beneath their feet, and the strange vibration in
the air, seemed to confuse them, so that everything seemed unreal and
strange, and the whole vision like some dream.

They gazed on, never weary of the beauty of the great falls; and then,
following their guide, he led them from place to place, so that they
could see the huge serpentine gorge in which the river ran after its
fall, rushing wildly between two grand walls of rock, its rage becoming
the more furious from its being a mighty broad river above the falls,
and then having to compress itself into a gorge not a thirteenth part of
its original width.

The speed of the river as it foamed along in this terrible ravine,
seemed absolutely frightful, and in places where the rocks had to bear
the brunt of the current as it made some sudden turn, the din was
terrific.

Hours were spent in gazing at the verdure-carpeted rocks, the brilliant
rapids, the wondrous twining creepers, and, above all, at the beauties
of this wonder of the world; and then at last they tore themselves
unwillingly away, to attend to such ladly matter-of-fact affairs as
eating and drinking. After this, as sunset was growing near, they
stopped to see the gorgeous tints upon the clouds of vapour, and the
fresh rainbows that kept coming and going as if by magic.

At last they tore themselves away, silent and awe-inspired at the
wonders upon which they had gazed, the deep thunder of the falling
waters rolling in their ears as they journeyed on, and keeping up its
solemn boom night and day.

Now as the wind wafted it towards them it came in a deep roar, but only
to soften and become distant, swelling, and rising, and falling, filling
their dreams again, as they lay beneath the shelter of the canvas tilts,
and seeming