METHOD OF PASSING RIVERS. 9 



hot arid cold seasons, and any boat would be des- 

 troyed from one rainy season to another by the 

 heat of the weather. 



To convey travellers across the rivers, they 

 have a curious contrivance. A lattice-work is 

 composed of split bamboos, through which the 

 necks of about thirty earthen pots (each of them 

 capable of containing about a gallon and a half) are 

 inserted and fastened ; they are then nearly half 

 filled with sand, and mats are fixed over them. 

 This raft they call a gurrara, which two men 

 with a pole, and sometimes with their bare hands 

 and feet, conduct across those rapid streams, often 

 carrying on it a palanquin and ten or twelve men. 

 Merchandise is also transported in the same man- 

 ner. Over rivers that are very narrow the raft of 

 pots js pulled from side to side by ropes. The 

 men who conduct them are excellent swimmers, 

 and to an European who had never seen such 

 people, they would almost appear amphibious. 



It is astonishing how very few accidents occur, 

 particularly when it is considered that were the 

 raft to meet with any hard substance in its pas- 

 sage, to which it is very liable from the number 

 of rocks in the beds of the rivers, and trees and 



