Chap. LXXX. MARGIN AND CLIFFS OF THE RIVER. 291 
itself a passage, forming a very picturesque kind 
of rocky gate, which, when the stream is full, must 
present an interesting spectacle. But the water con- 
tained at the time a quantity of ferruginous substances, 
and after taking a slight draught I remained in a 
nauseous state all the day long. It affected one of 
my companions still more unpleasantly. Here the 
steep rocky cliffs, consisting of gneiss and mica slate, 
and interwoven with fine green bushes, closely ap- 
proached the river, which, in a fine open sheet, was 
gliding gently along at the rate of about three miles 
an hour, and we kept close to the margin of the 
stream, which, during the highest state of the inun- 
dation, is scarcely broad enough to afford any passage. 
The cliflfs, with their beautifully stratified front, were 
so close that even at present only a border a few feet 
in width was left, and this narrow strip was beauti- 
fully adorned with dunku trees, the dark green foliage 
of which formed a beautiful contrast with the steep 
white cliffs behind them. The leaves are used by 
the natives for making a kind of sauce and for season- 
ing their food, like those of the monkey-bread tree. 
Further on, underwood of arbutus succeeded. The 
rocky ledge was interrupted, for a short time exhibit- 
ing the aspect of a crumbled wall, but further on 
again assumed the shape of precipitous cliifs, although 
less regularly stratified than in its north-westerly 
part. 
This steep range of cliffs is called by the natives, 
" Yiiri." Just where it began to fall off and to be- 
13 2 
