The rock is of a dark brown color. About ten feet from the bottom he found it somewhat discolored, from the annual rise of the water.
On the left side of the island Livingstone got a good view of the mass of water which causes one of the columns of vapor to rise. It leaped quite clear of the rock. It was the color of snow, and had the appearance of a thick, unbroken fleece all the way to the bottom.
As he describes it, it seemed to break into flakes, all moving in the same direction, like bits of steel giving off sparks when burned in a flame of oxygen gas.
To Livingstone this snow-white sheet of water seemed like myriads of small comets. As they rushed in one general direction, each seemed to leave behind it tiny bodies of foam.
It appeared to him like a mass of water leaping impetuously, at one bound, to clear the rock, and finally breaking gradually into spray.
Three spots near these falls—one of them the island on which Livingstone landed—were former sites of worship. Here it was that the chiefs of native tribes offered prayers and sacrifices.
These places of worship were chosen within hearing of the cataract's roar, and in full sight of the bows in the cloud of vapor.
With awe and wonder these children of Nature looked upon the scene. The river to them was most mysterious, and feelings of fear, no doubt, influenced them somewhat in their selection of places of worship.
Livingstone describes a canoe-song of the natives, the words of which, rudely translated, are:—
"The Leeambye! Nobody knows
Whence it comes and whither it goes."