NATURE PREPARING NEW VARIATION OF VICTORIA FALLS

Shannon News, 18 January 1929, Page 3

NATURE PREPARING NEW VARIATION OF VICTORIA FALLS

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS VIEW TREND OF LAND AND RIVER WITH PROPHETIC EYE.

BULAWAYO, South Africa,

A new Victoria Falls is in the making. While examining a moasic map of* the falls recently Major R. A. Lo gan, of the Aircraft Operating Company, had his attention drawn to what looked like a fissure_ running right across the Zambesi river bed just before * the Great Drop. The mosaic map is comprised of hundreds of aerial photographs . joined together in such a way that every tree and every physical feature is clcaily shown. On the map the actual - ' drop or the calls forms a part of a clearly visible line which continues on gach side of it and into the veldt for many miles. Just above it there is another distinct line running through the bush on each side of the' river, and it is where the water intercepts this line that the apparent fissure occurs. D. W. Bishop, geologist to the Bulawayo- Museum, discussing t.he discovery, said: “Where the line crosses the’ river the rock is actually softer than that in its neighbourhood and so more easily eaten away by the force of water an’d sand Gradually this force eats back into the basalt until a new watercourse is made. . It has evidently happened in centuries gone by, as a glance at the zigzag path of the river aft -,, r it leaves the Jails will prove. In the course |of centuries the continual action of the water along this apparently. new fissure will cause the river to eat its wav out at one coiner. The fissure will become the new falls, and ant.-he; bend will be ai]ded to the zigzag while the old face will become anothei tongue of - land. ” . In other words, a fresh gorge is being created above Livingstone Island and the other small islands above the present falls, and o - ,u: da\ this pressure will result in a new path being cut by the waters. Livingstone’s IsMnd will then be part erf « small peninsula jutting out below instead of above -the falls. Further surveys and soundings may indicate how fur nature’s operation has progressed and possibly give an idea of how long it will be before the wonderful scene at which thousands of visitors have marvelled will undergo a radical change.