442 
REMAUKS ON THE GARIEP. 
11, 12 Nov. 
a hundred and eighty-five feet narrower than it was found to be at 
the first Gariep station. * This difference is occasioned by the great 
volume of water which the Nu-Gariep rolls into its channel. 
At this time, the river was at its natural and usual height, the 
water of the stream washing its green banks : but when seen on the 
16th September, it did not, at that place, cover the whole of the 
pebbly bed ; a fact which proved how much it had risen since then, 
and from which it may be concluded, that in that month the river is 
at its lowest level. From this remark travellers may take the hint to 
make their arrangements so as to ford the Gariep about that season 
of the year. When I forded it in the month of May in the fol- 
lowing year, it was with imminent danger, and even at the hazard 
of the lives of all my party. In the month of January also, that 
river was found too deep to be passed, except by means of rafts and 
swimming. 
The water within a few days had gradually risen eighteen 
inches ; but on the day on which we left this station, and just when 
some heavy rains had fallen, it began to sink again. It is not meant 
that the falling of the water was connected with these rains ; but the 
fact is noticed merely to show the probability, that the extraordinary 
floods and inundations of the Gariep are not occasioned by the 
showers which fall over the countries lying between this part of it, 
and its mouth, the greatest portion of the rain-waters, being, in 
ordinary cases, absorbed by the thirsty soil : and that it can be only 
when the earth is saturated with moisture, that the supply from 
showers in the adjoining country contributes its full effect in swelling 
the stream. 
That this does sometimes take place, although perhaps not an- 
nually, the ravines, which, in many places, furrow the surface and 
intersect the banks, plainly bear witness. But the chief cause is more 
distant, and must be sought in the country at the head of the Black- 
river. This being, by indisputable reasoning, the highest part of the 
* See page 319. 
