280 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXII. 



out any difficulty, but not so its consort. Owing to 

 some mismanagement on the part of the driver, the 

 luckless "omnibus," when about half way over, 

 became firmly wedged between two masses of rock ; 

 and although every one stripped to the skin, and 

 "applied his shoulders to the wheel," three pro- 

 voking hours were passed in abortive attempts to 

 extricate it. Whips, shin-bones, and trek-touws, 

 were alike fruitlessly broken, and fresh oxen re- 

 peatedly applied without the smallest advantage ; 

 and the river rising rapidly, we had almost despaired 

 of saving our property, when cracks and yells, 

 followed by the simultaneous struggling of twenty- 

 four of our sturdiest beasts, were answered by the 

 grating of a wheel. An interval of intense anxiety 

 succeeded. One after another, the fore and hind 

 nave on the same side, rose slowly above the 

 surface of the water, and the fall of the slanting 

 vehicle appeared inevitable. To our joy, a sudden 

 jerk restored it, tottering, to the perpendicular — pair 

 after pair of the long string of oxen obtained their 

 footing on the bank — once again the whips re- 

 sounded in the hollow, and the dripping van emerged 

 in safety from the flood. 



Another hour had passed away before our little 

 flock of sheep could be reclaimed. These stubborn 

 animals, having in the first instance been forced into 

 the stream by dint of much pelting and persecution, 

 had been carried down a considerable distance; 

 and, as a matter of course, whilst all hands were 

 engaged in extricating the waggon, had strayed 



