But some walls have also been seriously damaged by falls of huge slabs and boulders from the faces of the granite cliffs, buttresses have been broken, entrances and passages completely blocked up if not utterly demolished. These falls, though later than the times of the ancients, occurred very long ago, for the depressions in the cliffs from which these slabs and boulders fell are now become weather-stained, but the shapes of the depressions and of the slabs and boulders still agree. It is conjectured that the gap in the central portion of the main wall of the Eastern Temple was caused by the fall of an immense boulder from the summit of the sixty-foot cliff on the north side of the temple. By the moving forward of a boulder for six feet from the position it occupied at the time of the ancients—and they had utilised this boulder in forming the west entrance of the same temple—the entrance was completely blocked up. But there is a process of dilapidation going on continually, a process which, judging by the débris piles, has been operating for many centuries. When walking near a wall one has to be very careful not to walk under any of the overhanging blocks on the summit of the wall. Some of these blocks are very delicately poised on the edges of the walls, so much so that it seems as if a shout would cause them to fall. Wherever possible these blocks have been drawn back flush again with the face of the wall, but in very many cases the walls are so ruined that it would be dangerous work to do this. It is one of the unfortunate effects of this ancient dry masonry that when one block topples over a small cascade of blocks usually follows it. Such falls, followed by cascades of blocks, are continually taking place. One hears them night and day, especially after rains, and frequently these cascades, especially those from walls above the precipice on the Acropolis, will continue uninterruptedly for some minutes together. There are many points in walls so threatening to collapse that no builder’s art of shoring-up could possibly prevent their fall, for sooner or later they must come down with a crash. Natives give the information that from the time of their childhood they always remembered these falls taking place when no one was near the walls. Probably the noise of falling blocks, especially at night, has served to inspire the local natives with some of the dread in which after sundown they regard the ruins. After a heavy shower one can always find some damage done to the walls. This is mainly due to the quantity of silted soil behind walls, which, becoming overgutted with water, forces the walls over. The only remedy, and that a partial one, would appear to be to remove the silted soil from behind the walls, but to complete such operations a large gang of labourers would have to be engaged for many months. Still the complaint of the early pioneer that the walls at Zimbabwe are gradually becoming not only less but fewer remains