158 A SPRING TOUR IN PORTUGAL.. 



was fringed with overhanging trees and bushes, whicli 

 dipped their branches into the water. Here we lowered 

 our mast and sail ; made all snug beneath the bulwarks of 

 our boat, and crew and passengers crouched down beneath 

 the protecting sides : and so in the deep water and in a 

 stream more than ordinarily rapid, regardless of aught 

 else, we fought our way through the superincumbent 

 boughs, and lay still at the bottom of our vessel, until an 

 ano^le of the river diverted the current to the other side ; 

 where for a short distance the same scene was enacted over 

 again. But soon the deep stream beneath the overhanging 

 bushes was left behind, and the river had become spread 

 out over a wider surface, and the water was proportionately 

 more shallow, and the sandbanks more extensive. Then 

 beoan the real difficulties of the navigation of the Lima, 

 which continued till we reached Vianna. Then, too, be- 

 gan the exercise of patience to passengers, who could do 

 nothing but wait quietly and look on, though this was 

 certainly no great hardship, on a most brilliant cloudless 

 day, and in the midst of lovely scenery. 



There had been a singularly dry season throughout 

 Portugal for several months ; indeed, a drought seemed 

 imminent, and a general failure of the crops was appre- 

 hended from the absence of the rains at a very critical 

 season : so much was this the case, that processions had 

 been parading the streets, and prayers had been offered up 

 in the churches of Lisbon and Oporto for rain. So the 

 river Lima was unusually dry at this moment, and its 

 stream was in many places fordable, and we saw bullock 

 carts, as well as men and women with heavy burdens on 

 their heads, wading knee-deep across its bed. Hence 

 there was often a difficulty in pushing our clumsy boat 

 over the shallows ; and though our boatmen at the bow 

 and stern worked hard with their long poles, and were ably 

 seconded by the women, they could not always scrape their 



