THE YAAL RIVER 
5 
Our party consisted of Mr. Hammar, the white boy Rudolf, 
who was to act as cook, three natives to look after the cattle 
and do the driving and leading and general work about camp, 
and myself. We crossed the Drakensberg by the famous 
‘ Amajuba ’ (native for ‘ pigeon ’) mountain over Laing’s Nek, and 
trekked across the long, rolling, grass-grown flats to the Vaal 
river at Standerton, without anything unusual occurring beyond 
losing our cattle once for a night, when they had strayed on 
the back track in the dark, owing to the negligence of the 
herd. 
The Yaal river was much swollen by the rains, stopping 
our progress for several days, as there was no bridge to cross 
by, and the drift was impassable. Hanimar and I found a 
boat, belonging to a blacksmith on the opposite side, lying 
idle, as there was no one who could manage it. Before long 
we had obtained permission to use the boat to row about on 
the river with, on condition that any one wishing to cross 
should be ferried over by us at a shilling per head for the 
benefit of the owner. The wily blacksmith rather overreached 
us by this bargain; for we found that the newly established 
ferry was much in request by travellers, who constantly 
required our services, and were often not in the best of 
humour at any little delay, making us aware, too, of their 
displeasure in no measured terms, while we, for the fun of 
the thing, conscientiously fulfilled our self-imposed duties, to 
the profit of the blacksmith, who netted over forty shillings 
a day from our work. 
It is an interesting fact that the Yaal river, and all other 
rivers running west out of the Transvaal, are not inhabited by 
either crocodiles or eels, although fish of several species are 
found in great numbers. 
Hearing of a ‘punt,’ that had just arrived, large enough 
to convey the cart over the river, some miles below where 
we were camped, we made our way there and crossed. The 
oxen were obliged to swim over, amidst considerable anxiety 
on our part, for the rapidly flowing current washed them below 
