Whether I have supplied the true interpretation or not-and the opportunity of scientific proof can unfortunately never be obtained1-in this direction lies, as it seems to me, the only possibility of successfully prosecuting the inquiry. Human agency, I claim at least to have shown, was utterly unconcerned in the manifestation; and if Nature, the great Thaumaturgus, has in the Vocal Memnon propounded an enigma of which it is beyond the scope of existing knowledge to supply more than a hypothetically correct solutionif she whispered to those two centuries of a bygone world a secret to which no Prometheus has yet revealed the key-let us be content to recognise in the mystery an additional tribute to the manifold dispensations of her genius. And here, well satisfied if in the above remarks I have removed any prevalent misapprehensions or diffused a more accurate knowledge about this interesting statue, I take leave of the colossal pair still seated on the Theban plain in sublime unconsciousness of the varying sentiments which they have excited in the breasts of so many successive generations. There they sit, the two giant brethren, scorched by the suns of more than three thousand summers, ringed by unnumbered yearly embraces of the wanton stream. By their side Stonehenge is a plaything, the work of pigmies. They 1 Unless, indeed, the upper half were again dismantled and the statue restored to its mutilated condition-an experiment which might be recommended could we be certain that the base had not been tampered with, and its vocal capacities irremediably destroyed by the repairs of Septimius Severus. are first even among the prodigies of Egypt; more solemn than the Pyramids, more sad than the Sphinx, more amazing than the pillared avenues of Karnak, more tremendous than the rock-idols of Aboo-Simbel. There they sit, patient and pathetic, their grim obliterated faces staring out into vacancy, their ponderous limbs sung in a perpetual repose, indifferent alike to man and to Nature, careless of the sacrilege that has been perpetrated upon the mortal remains of the royal house whose glories they portrayed, steadfast while empires have crumbled and dynasties declined, serene amid all the tides of war and rapine and conquest that have ebbed and flowed from Alexandria to Assouan. There they sit and doubtless will sit till the end of all things-sedent aeternumque sedebunt-a wonder and a witness to men. Four THE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI The fall of waters! rapid as the light The flashing mass foams shaking the abyss; WHI BYRON, Childe Harold, Canto IV., St. 69. HEN I was President of the Royal Geographical Society I collected and presented to the Society, where they were hung in one of the rooms, a series of large-scale photographs of the great waterfalls of the world. I do not suggest that great waterfalls are more wonderful or more inspiring than great mountains,— for indeed it is ridiculous to compare the two,but they are much more rare, and they combine in a peculiar degree the qualities of beauty and power. In the first place, the known great waterfalls of the world (I exclude cataracts and rapids) can be counted on the fingers of the two hands, whereas the famous mountain spectacles may be numbered by thousands. Secondly, even if we cannot go to the Himalayas, a few hours' journey will show us scenes of exquisite mountain glory on the European continent. On the other hand, the great waterfalls are not to be found in Europe at all. To visit them we have to travel thousands of miles; and the majority of their |