226 Voyage of the Novara. 



would have been a still more serious matter. Only after 

 unspeakable exertions did we succeed in threading the valley 

 of Worcester as far as the shores of Breede (or Broad) River. 

 Several times we were compelled, in order to lighten the 

 waggon, to dismount, and wade up to our knees in water. 

 Once the quag was so deep, that to avoid sinking in it we had 

 to be carried, one by one, on the back of our Malay driver. 



On the bank is the cottage, (hoeren plants'), of a peasant 

 who avails himself of his proximity to convert the stream into a 

 source of profit, by ferrying travellers, who have occasion to pass 

 here during the floods, across the river in a small skiff, the 

 waggon and horses being swum across afterwards. In summer, 

 on the contrary, the stream is readily forded on horseback, and 

 is indeed dry at several points. At the period of our visit 

 (in October, 1857), towards the end of the rainy reason, 

 this Breede River was about 150 feet wide, and about 28 feet 

 deep, and we accordingly found ourselves compelled to call 

 in the assistance of the ferryman. Under his superintendence 

 the work was gone about quite systematically. First of all 



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