22 
TRAVELS" IN 
midst of the Snowy Mountains, and continues a permanently 
flowing stream, broad and shallow in the middle part of its 
course, and narrow and deep towards the mouth, which, like 
the rest, is choaked with a bed of sand. 
The Great Fish River takes its rise beyond the Snowy 
Mountains, and, in its long course, collects a multitude of 
streamlets, most of which are constantly supplied with water. 
On each side of its mouth is a wild, rocky, and open shore, 
but the projecting cheeks form a small cove or creek, which, 
it seems, was frequented by the Portugueze shortly after 
their discovery of the Cape ; though, from the boisterous ap- 
pearance of the sea, upon the bar that evidently crosses the 
entrance of the river, it is difficult to conceive how they dared 
to trust their ships in such an exposed situation, unless, in- 
deed, they were so small as to be able, at high water, to cross 
the bar, in which case they might lie, at all seasons, in per- 
fect security. 
All these rivers are well stocked with perch, eels, and small 
turtle, and, to a certain distance from the sea-coast, they 
abound with almost every kind of sea-fish peculiar to this 
part of the world. 
Beside the rivers here enumerated, the whole slip of land, 
stretching along the sea-coast, between the entrance of False 
Bay and the Great Fish river, is intersected by streamlets 
whose waters are neither absorbed nor evaporated ; but they 
generally run in such deep chasms as to be of little use towards 
the promotion of agriculture by the aid of irrigation. 
