Chap. XXXI.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. ^11 



below the confluence of the Chonapas, it traverses 

 tlie South African continent from east to west, like 

 a great artery, and discharges its waters into the 

 Atlantic ocean. At the spot where we reached it, 

 the breadth did not exceed o:ie hundred and fifty 

 yards, but the fresh deposition of rubbish on the 

 bank, showed that the water had very lately risen at 

 least ten feet above its present level — and from the 

 strength and muddiness of the current, we were not a 

 little apprehensive it might be again flooded during 

 the night, and obstruct our progress for many days. 

 The absence, nevertheless, of anything approaching 

 to a practicable ford, obliged us to take our chance. 

 The river was literally teeming with hippopotami, 

 about forty of those amphibious monsters protruding 

 their laughable countenances at the same time, and 

 grampus-like, blo.ving a spovit of muddy water as 

 if in honour of our arrival. Although two lions 

 had been seen the moment before, the Hottentots, 

 to a man, without unyoking the oxen, left the wag- 

 gons standing on the brink of the high bank, "and 

 rushed like school-boys to the water's edge. A gi- 

 gantic hippopotamus was making directly for the 

 shore by a succession of plunges, his broad snout 

 appearing nearer and nearer every time he rose, 

 puffing to the surface, sending a thousand bubbling 

 circlets eddying round it. I was in the act of firing 

 in at his garret window, when I perceived the tail 

 of a couchant lioness knocking angrily within a 

 few yards of my foot. So completely was her at- 

 tention engrossed by the waggons, that although 



