320 FINE PASTURE. 



and was now lying high and dry upon the shore ; 

 but the bank being of soft mud she had sustained 

 no injury. All the people who could be collected 

 in the neighbourhood were busily engaged in cut- 

 ting a channel to get her afloat the next spring- 

 tide. The stream had risen on that occasion up- 

 wards of nine feet above high-water mark; and 

 its reflux was described to have been most tre- 

 mendous, as in its passage it carried away immense 

 trees, and beams of timber, which had been cut down 

 and were lying on its banks, threatening destruction 

 to whatever impeded its course. I was told by Cap- 

 tain Watt, who superintended the building of the 

 vessel, that on the Monday preceding the rain, the ther- 

 mometer had stood at one hundred and six degrees, 

 and when the hot winds blew, had risen to one hun- 

 dred and ten in the shade. Myriads of small insects 

 generated by the heat filled the air, causing an in- 

 tolerable degree of annoyance. 



The pasturage about the Knysna is remarkably 

 good during the summer months ; and as the dews 

 are very heavy in consequence of its vicinity to the 

 sea, the grass never loses its verdure, even in seasons 

 of the greatest drought. The inhabitants of this 

 district principally support themselves by felling 

 timber in the government forests, which they bring- 

 to the Knysna for sale, where Mr. Rex and a few 

 others engaged in the wood trade reside, and from 

 thence it is transported by small vessels to Cape 

 Town. Plattenberg's Bay, which lies a few miles to 



