[Illustration: MERRY HAMPTON. THE WINNER OF THE DERBY, 1887.]

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THE FALLS OF GAIRSOPPA.


At the extreme south of the presidency of Bombay, separating the
district of Kanara from the territory of Mysore, are the too little
known Falls of Gairsoppa.

Far higher than Niagara, four distinct divisions of the river Shiravatti
(traditionally created by a cleft made by the arrow of the great god
Rama) fall over a precipice of gneiss rock into an abyss eight hundred
feet below. Each of these cataracts differs in type of flow.

The "Rajah," eight hundred and thirty feet, and at a breadth of
fifty-six, shoots silent and sheer over an uplifted lip of rock in the
bed of the stream, casting a dark shadow behind him when faced by the
sun; the "Roarer" makes noise enough in its headlong rush to vibrate the
strong, stone-built travelers' bungalow on the heights above; the
"Rocket" is straight in descent, and, as a commentator has already
remarked, as much like a rocket as anything else; and "La Dame Blanche,"
a triptych of rhythmical flow, spreads a dainty, silky, sheen of white,
whispering, glistening, softly falling water over a slightly shelving
width of rock, touched here and there with prismatic color and strong
light.