THE HIGHEST WATERFALL IN THE WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE HIGHEST WATERFALL IN THE WORLD.

Tiir falls in the Yosemite Valley, in the aggregate, are higher than our own grand fall ; but as the Yosemite Falls are a succession of falls, and as the Sutherland is practically one fall, the later still carries off the palm. The photographic riews exhibited in Dunedin are taken from a point too much to one side to give an idea of the fall as seen by a parson standing close in front of it. Its sky points hide part of the fall, taking a side view, and make the three leaps appear mucli more abrupt than they really are. Wc stood back as far as the bush would permit, and in silence gazed upon this noble manifestation of Nature's handiwork hidden so long frorvi the peeling eyes of inquisitive man, as though too awful and too grand for him to bchoV. The mountain gorge which gives the Sutherland Fall birth has been gouged out by glaciers, a large one still lying on the southern slope of Mount llart, from which the head waters of '.he stream issue. Part of this glacier, which no one knows the length of, lies in the valley between Mounts Hart and Sutherland, and part dips somewhere towards a valley running parallel to the Clinton Valley! Iu winter, when frost seals up the mountain springs, the stream is much diminished iu size ; but still a fair stie r i:n always flows towards the fiouning precipice, over which it plunges with such fury and turmoil. We saw the grand fall under most favourable circumstances, for the warm, soft rains of the previous day and night had melted the

snow on the heights and increased the volume of water rushing over the fall to twice its ordinary quantity. The water, born of the ice and snow enthroned on the high cold sides of the mountain behind, debouches over a narrow gulch worn in the rock by its ceaseless rush, and make one in id leap of Sls feet before it pauses for an instant, measurable omy by a lightening flash, to leap ag-iin in foam and spray 751 ft; another pause, and then the final leap of 3:»Bft is taken, the immense volume of water tailing into a pool of unmeasured and immeasurable depth with the ROAR OF AN T EARTHQUAKE AND Till-'. BHUATU OF A TOIiNADO, casting the spray far and wide. In the attempt to describe such a manifestation of Nature's powers, and such a specimen of Nature's things of beauty, one feels the inadequacy of human language to translate into intelligible language the deep emotion called forth. This crownin« spectacle of all the wild, wierd, and wondrous sights in and around M dford Sound must he seen ; it can not be described, nor painted, nor photographed. It is at once magnificent and awful, in its wild tumultuous beauty, as it drowns out of hearing altogether the numerous brawling waterfalls, ribbing the black rock faces of the mountains around with white stripes, and covers by the volume of its sound the noisy stream, taking up its broken waters and hurrying them over rapids and falls to meet the Poseidon below. As the rumbling, broken water issues from between the irrauite bonds that confine it, it seems to spring for the leap like souu prancing whitif steed just freed from the rein. The leap once taken, shoots of water like tongues oi flame appear to grow out of the' mass, and lengthen out, as though eager to lick the rocks on the edge at the first break. This stranii'- phenomenon, also visible at the Bowen Fall, is repeated at every leap, till the rent waters gather up their broken spray, and settle down to rest in the quieter stream of the valley. Sonic of the readers may have seen dense white masses of smoke rising from some great conflagration, and perhaps may have noticed how the flames below forced up shoots of white smoke which quivered in the wind as if feeling for some victim to lick with their fiery tongues Reverse this phenomenon and you will have some idea of the appearance of the waters leaping down the rocky steep which constitutes tho Sutherland Fall. Tho shoots of water closely resemble the points of white samite leaping up from a smothered (ire, only that the tonsues of water leap downward, as though old Vnloan's forge stood ou the brow above, and the cold ice wind at the foot of the fall were the breath of his bellows volumes of white smoke in leaping tongues and rolling masses into the pool below. The tremendous energy of the falling water, aided by the offshoots

which leap out in all directions, so acts upon tho air through which it passes that it maintains a little hurricane of its own, which forces the spray in a wild drift far out from the pool that receives the spent waters of the fall. To face this gale, cold as the breath of the ice which gives birth to the stream, with its close drifting spray, requires waterproof clothing. That we were not, provided with, so that iu a few minutes time we were wet to theskiu. The wind generated by the fall is as strong and the drift so thick as to outdo in violence the severest natural storm of wind and rain. The force of the falling water drives out the boulders whichcome down from above till they have formed a raised bank at the far side of the pool. Standing upon this, and looking into the troubled pool, one might easily imagine that he was gazing into the portal of Hades, so much do the rent and torn waters resemble the smoke of fire and brimstone. Bare stones crown the mound raised along the edge of the pool, and a little way back stunted, wiry grass, all laid flat with the miniature hurricane, makes its appearance ; while still further back shrubs and finally heavy bush, always drenched in spray, come in. As the rain was again falling heavily before we reached the fall, we did not see any of the pretty sunshine effects. We did not 3top to examine the flora at the base of the fall, leaving that for some future traveller with a stronger love for science than for his own skill.— Otago Daily Times-