Thus, the last day of 1874, the sun set on the fulfilment--after many hindrances--of the traveller’s great desire! CHAPTER XII. Main features of the Falls--The return commenced--Frank Oates attacked by fever--Course of the illness; improvement and relapse--His death--Dr. Bradshaw takes his effects to Bamangwato--His favourite dog--Arrival of W. Oates and Mr. Gilchrist in Natal--Conclusion. It is to be regretted that, from the time of his reaching the Zambesi till the date of his death five weeks afterwards, the entries in Frank Oates’s Journal are of the scantiest description. Indeed, the whole time that he was actually at the Falls he made no entries in it whatever. This may have been partly owing to the depressing condition of the atmosphere near the river at that time, which would make any exertion--even that of writing--burthensome; and partly from his relying on his memory for a faithful recollection of a scene at once so novel and so impressive. “After breakfast,” he writes on New Year’s Day, 1875, “I visited the Falls--a day never to be forgotten.” This is the sole entry in his Journal till the 14th of the month, when he was again back at the Pantamatenka. And what gives especial cause for regret at the absence of any further entries in his Journal of this period is the fact that all the accounts of the Falls yet published have been given by those who visited the river in the dry season of the year. Of this number Edward Mohr may have suffered least from this disadvantage, for he was there in June 1870. Baines and Chapman were there together during parts of the months of July and August 1862; Livingstone was there, his first visit, in November 1855, his second in August 1860; and Baldwin, at the time of Livingstone’s second visit. On both occasions when Livingstone was at the Falls, the river, he remarks, was very low; and Chapman mentions that, when he and Baines were there, the water had recently fallen as much as seven feet. It remained for Frank Oates to visit the river at its fullest; at the very height, in fact, of the rainy season; but, unhappily, we are left without any results of his experience, except in the shape of a few pencil and two water-colour drawings he made upon the spot. The two latter have been selected for representation in this volume--one of them coloured, the other in the form of a woodcut. Before offering any explanation regarding these, it may be well to recall to the memory of the reader the main features of the Falls, as described by previous writers.