At Times The Bed
Was Several Hundred Yards Wide, With The Stream, Contracted At
This Season, Flowing Gently Over Rounded
Pebbles; the water was
as clear as glass; in other places huge masses of rock impeded
the flow of water,
And caused dangerous rapids; then, as the
river passed through a range of hills, perpendicular cliffs of
sandstone and of basalt walled it within a narrow channel,
through which it rushed with great impetuosity; issuing from
these straits it calmed its fury in a deep and broad pool, from
which it again commenced a gentle course over sands and pebbles.
At that season the river would have been perfection for salmon,
being a series of rapids, shallows, deep and rocky gorges, and
quiet silent pools of unknown depth; in the latter places of
security the hippopotami retreated after their nocturnal rambles
upon terra firma. The banks of this beautiful river were
generally thickly clothed with bright green nabbuk trees, that
formed a shelter for INNUMERABLE guinea-fowl, and the black
francolin partridge. Herds of antelopes of many varieties were
forced to the river to drink, as the only water within many miles;
but these never remained long among the thick nabbuk, as the lions
and leopards inhabited that covert expressly to spring upon the
unwary animal whose thirst prompted a too heedless advance.
Wherever there was a sand bank in the river, a crocodile basked
in the morning sunshine: some of these were of enormous size.
Hippopotami had trodden a path along the margin of the river, as
these animals came out to feed shortly after dark, and travelled
from pool to pool.
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