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.