[Illustration]

We can hardly credit the fact that such a great river as the Amazon arose from a little spring, where you might span the body of the stream with your hand.  But, at its source, there is no doubt just such a little spring.  The great trouble, however, with these long rivers, is to find out where their source really is.  There are so many brooks and smaller rivers flowing into them that it is difficult to determine the main line.  You know that we have never settled that matter in regard to the Mississippi and Missouri.  There are many who maintain that the source of the Mississippi is to be found at the head of the Missouri, and that the latter is the main river.  But we shall not try to decide any questions of that sort.  We are in quest of pleasant waters, not difficult questions.

[Illustration:  FALLS OF GAVARNI.]

There is no form which water assumes more grand and beautiful than the cascade or waterfall.  And these are of very varied shapes and sizes.  Some of the most beautiful waterfalls depend for their celebrity, not upon their height, but upon their graceful forms and the scenery by which they are surrounded, while others, like the cascade of Gavarni, are renowned principally for their great height.

There we see a comparatively narrow stream, precipitating itself down the side of an enormous precipice in the Pyrenees.  Although it appears so small to us, it is really a considerable stream, and as it strikes upon the jutting rocks and dashes off into showers of spray, it is truly a beautiful sight.

There are other cascades which are noted for a vast volume of water.  Some of these are well known, but there is one, perhaps, of which you have never heard.

When Dr. Livingstone was travelling in Africa he was asked by some of the natives if in his country there was any “smoke which sounds.”  They assured him that such a thing existed in their neighborhood, although some of them did not seem to comprehend the nature of it.  The Doctor soon understood that their remarks referred to a waterfall, and so he took a journey to it.  When he came within five or six miles of the cataract, he saw five columns of smoke arising in the air; but when he reached the place he found that this was not smoke, but the vapor from a great fall in the river Zambesi.

These falls are very peculiar, because they plunge into a great abyss, not more than eighty feet wide, and over three hundred feet deep.  Then the river turns and flows, for many miles, at the bottom of this vast crack in the earth.  Dr. Livingstone thinks these falls are one of the wonders of the world.

There is no doubt, however, about the king of cataracts.  That is Niagara.  If you have seen it you can understand its grandeur, but you can never appreciate it from a written description.  A picture will give you some idea of it, but not a perfect one, by any means.

[Illustration:  FALLS OF ZAMBESI.]