VISIT TO SOUTH AFRICA. 
151 
pulling with all their might, either to the right or left, as other- 
wise, in several places, the waggons, with all their contents, and 
the poor beasts staggering before them, would be precipitated into 
the abyss beneath. Long before we had reached the bottom of the 
glen, we were convinced, that our own oxen would not have been 
able to perform this service. The poor animals seemed often quite 
confused; the shaft-oxen being almost thrown down, the Avaggoii 
nearly falling upon them, and the rest of the spann sometimes 
hurried forward to draw, and then again kept back to prevent 
mischief. It being ebb-tide, we passed the Kayman's Revier, 
which flows through the glen into the Indian ocean, Avithout diffi- 
culty, and gave a few moments' rest to our friglitened cattle, upon 
whose strength we were going to draw still more largely, to work 
our waggons up the rocky acclivities of the eastern bank. The 
view of the glen from below is majestic. The steeps on both sides 
are clothed with a noble forest. Strata of red rock, shelving down 
the w^esternbank, form a singular contrast with the lively green of 
the bushes on the slopes between them. A deep chasm or rent re- 
ceiving the Zwart Revier, as above described, divides the bank, and 
forms the Gat, or crocodile's cove, in the dark recesses of which a 
small water-fall glistens, by the admission of some flunt light from 
above. It is said, that formerly crocodiles ^vere found here in great 
numbers, making this chasm their chief place of resort. But they 
have long since withdrawn, and left to man full possession. Now 
and then, a leguan is seen, and the woods and glens afford pretty 
safe haunts for various descriptions of wild beasts. Several glens 
meet here, all filled with wood, through which mountain-torrents 
swell the revier. It nmst be crossed at low Avater, by which the 
time of our de})arturc from George had been measured. 
The eastern bank was, if possible, more steep and rugged in its 
ascent than the western. The baggage-waggon took the lead, but 
having laboured hard for about two hundred paces, the oxen refused 
to stir another step. No shouts of the drivers, cracking of whips, 
or hard blows, would make the poor dispirited beasts move forward - 
