The stream then deployed, for a distance of some eight miles, into a
savannah or plain, with narrow grassy borders in which its width was
doubled, its depth decreased, and the current less furious. We went
through these windings with more assurance and composure. It was one of
the minor plateaux in which this stream descends. The channel then
narrowed and deepened itself for another plunge, and soon brought us to
the top of the Kabika Palls. This pass, as the name imports, is a
cascade over rocks. The river is pent up, between opposing trap rock,
which are not over ten feet apart. Its depth is about four feet, and
velocity perfectly furious. It is not impossible to descend it, as there
is no abrupt pitch, but such a trial would seem next to madness. We made
a portage with our canoes of about a quarter of a mile across a
peninsula, and embarked again at the foot of the falls, where the stream
again expands to more than double its former width, and the scenery
assumes a milder aspect. It is another plateau.
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