THE DIVIDING LINK. 49 



two knots, or two miles, an hour, when the water was at the lowest. The 

 bottom was covered v,-ith a coarse gravel, spangled very thick with a 

 shining substance, that almost dazzled the eye, and the sand upon either shore 

 sparkled with the same splendid particles. At first sight, the sunbeams 

 giving a yellow cast to these spangles made us fancy them to be gold dust, 

 and consequently that all our fortunes were made. Such hopes as these 

 were the less extravagant, because several rivers lying muoli about the same 

 latitude with this have formerly abounded with fragments of that tempting 

 metal. Witness the Tagus in Portugal, the Ilebcr in Thrace, and the Pactolus 

 in Lesser Asia ; not to mention the rivers on the Gold Coast in Africa, which 

 lie in a more southern climate. But we soon found ourselves mistaken, and 

 our gold dust dwindled into . small flakes of isinglass. However, though 

 this did not make the river so rich as we could wish, yet it made it exceed- 

 ingly beautiful. We marched about two miles and a half beyond this river, 

 as far as Cane creek, so called from a prodigious quantity of tall canes that 

 fringed the banks of it. On the west side of this creek we marked out our 

 quarters, and were glad to find our horses fond of the canes, though they 

 scoured them smartly at first, and discoloured their dung. This beautiful ve- 

 getable grows commonly from twelve to sixteen feet high, and some of them 

 as thick as a man's wrist. Though these appeared large to us, yet they are 

 no more than spires of grass, if compared to those which some curious tra- 

 vellers tell us grow in the East Indies, one joint of which will make a brace 

 of canoes, if sawed in two in the middle. Ours continue green through all 

 the seasons during the space of six years, and the seventh shed their seed, 

 wither away and die. The spring following they begin to shoot again, and 

 reach their former stature the second or third year after. They grow so thick, 

 and their roots lace together so firmly, that they are the best guard that can 

 be of the river bank, which would otherwise be washed away by the frequent 

 inundations that happen in this part of the world. They would also serve 

 excellently well to plant on the borders of fish-ponds and canals, to secure 

 their sides from falhng in ; though I fear they would not grow kindly in 

 a cold country, being seldom seen here so northerly as thirty-eight degrees of 

 latitude. 



11th. At the distance of four miles and sixty poles from the place where we 

 encamped, we came upon the river Dan a second time ; though it was not so 

 wide in this place as where we crossed it first, being not above a hundred and 

 fifty yards over. The west shore continued to be covered with the canes 

 above mentioned, but not to so great a breadth as before, and it is remarkable 

 that these canes are much more frequent on the west side of the river than on 

 the east, where they grow generally very scattering. It was still a beautiful 

 stream, rolling down its limpid and murmuring waters among the rocks, 

 which lay scattered here and there, to make up the variety of the prospect. 

 It was about two miles from this river to the end of our day's work, which 

 led us mostly over broken grounds and troublesome underwoods. Hei'eabout, 

 from one of the highest hills, we made the first discovei-y of the mountains, on 

 the north-west of our course. They seemed to lie off" at a vast distance, and 

 looked like ranges of blue clouds rising one above another. We encamped 

 about two miles beyond the river, where we made good cheer upon a very 

 fat buck, that luckily fell in our way. The Indian likewise shot a wild, 

 turkey, but confessed he would not bring it us, lest we should continue to 

 provoke the guardian of the forest, by cooking the beasts of the field and the 

 birds of the air together in one vessel. This instance of Indian superstition, 

 I confess, is countenanced in some measure by the Levitical law, which for- 

 bade the mixing things of a different nature together in the same field, or in 

 the same garment, and why not then in the same kettle ? But, after all, if the 



