98 SOME BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA 



our right, and on our left the Bot River, as it gradually 

 increased in width, wound along in the valley beneath. 

 We could see, in front of us, an extensive reed-edged 

 lake, which narrowed, and then widened out in the dis- 

 tance into a clear sheet of water ; the absence of reeds in 

 this clear lake being accounted for by the fact that the 

 water is partially salt. Just visible in the far distance was 

 a bar of white sand, beyond which the sea was breaking. 



The previous winter having been such an unusually 

 wet one, the vley at the mouth of the Bot River was 

 almost full, and perhaps another rainy season would 

 cause it to burst its bar of sand which the waves had 

 thrown up on the sea shore, and partially empty itself 

 for the time being ; then again, the sea would gradually 

 throw up another bar of sand, and so on. Most South 

 African rivers behave in this way ; during the long 

 period of drought which they go through, the channel 

 which enables them to flow into the sea is forgotten, 

 and filled up with sand, and as this sand is gradually 

 piled up higher and higher by the waves, it forms 

 a barrier that can only be broken dowm by strong 

 pressure from within. This accounts for the vleys, or 

 lakes, which are to be found at the mouths of so many 

 of the rivers on the south coast, lending to these rivers 

 an importance as they near the sea which their narrow 

 course some few miles inland hardly warrants. 



We outspanned at a small farmhouse which over- 

 looked the river, an unkempt-looking Dutchman coming- 

 out and mvino- us, or rather o-ivinQr Mr. VV., directions 

 as to how we could best approach the water. Unfor- 

 tunately the boat w^as at a farm some three or four miles 

 farther down the river, so that we had to do without it 



