THE RIVEU SALT. 
87 
feed to provide for the cattle as well as circumstances 
would permit. They would not drink of the river water, 
but stood covered in it for many hours, having their noses 
alone exposed above the stream. Their condition gave me 
great uneasiness. It was evident they could not long hold 
out under their excessive thirst, and unless we should 
procure some fresh water, it would be impossible for us 
to continue our journey. On a closer examination, the 
river appeared to me much below its ordinary level, and its 
current was scarcely perceptible. We placed sticks to 
ascertain if there was a rise or fall of tide, but could arrive 
at no satisfactory conclusion, although there was undoubt- 
edly a current in it. Yet, as I stood upon its banks at 
sunset, when not a breath of air existed to break the still- 
ness of the waters below me, and saw their surface kept in 
constant agitation by the leaping of fisli, I doubted whe- 
ther the river could supply itself so abundantly, and the 
rather imagined, that it owed such abundance, which the 
pelicans seemed to indicate was constant, to some medi- 
terranean sea or other. Where, however, were the human 
inhabitants of this distant and singular region ? The signs 
of a numerous population were around us, but we had not 
seen even a solitary wanderer. The water of the river was 
not, by any means, so salt as that of the ocean, but its 
taste was precisely similar. Could it be that its unnatural 
state had driven its inhabitants from its banks ? 
One would have imagined that our perplexities would 
have been sufficient for one day, but ere night closed, 
