422 ' A JOURNEY IN 
be attended with regret nor disadvantage, a sufficient portion 
of provisions to carry them across the Karroo desert into the 
Roggeveld was allotted to them, and they w^ere finally dis- 
missed from the employ of the commission. 
It w^as not till the 28th January that the river had sufficiently 
subsided to allow the waggons to pass with safety ; and they 
had scarcely reached the opposite shore till it again swelled 
several feet in depth, though not a shower of rain had fallen ; 
and tlie current continued to flow with such violence that 
they had very little prospect of again speedily crossing it, 
which, however, was necessary to be done at this place, to 
enable them to proceed on their intended journey. The Kora 
Hottentots, therefore, set to work in felling down trees, for 
the purpose of constructing rafts to float over the waggons ; 
and they were proceeding with great activity and consider- 
able skill in forwarding these rafts, when a ford was dis- 
covered a little lower down the river. Here they effected a 
passage without accident ; and before they reached the place 
of their destination, they were under the necessity of crossing 
this broad and rapid river not less than six times ; the last of 
which they w ere in considerable danger of being swept away, 
by a sudden rise of the waters to the height of five or six 
feet. 
A considerable variety of surface presented itself in the 
course of this jomney, which was sometimes along the banks 
of the liver, and at other times at a distance from it. The 
common mimosa was every where abundant ; and some of 
these trees were so much loaded with the straw-built edifices 
