The Banks Of The River Were At This Time Appearing To Greater Advantage
Than Before.
Many trees were putting on their fresh green leaves,
though they had got no rain, their lighter green contrasting beautifully
with the dark motsouri, or moyela, now covered with pink plums
as large as cherries.
The rapids, having comparatively little water in them,
rendered our passage difficult. The canoes must never be allowed
to come broadside on to the stream, for, being flat-bottomed, they would,
in that case, be at once capsized, and every thing in them be lost.
The men work admirably, and are always in good humor; they leap into the water
without the least hesitation, to save the canoe from being caught by eddies
or dashed against the rocks. Many parts were now quite shallow,
and it required great address and power in balancing themselves
to keep the vessel free from rocks, which lay just beneath the surface.
We might have got deeper water in the middle, but the boatmen always keep
near the banks, on account of danger from the hippopotami.
But, though we might have had deeper water farther out,
I believe that no part of the rapids is very deep. The river is spread out
more than a mile, and the water flows rapidly over the rocky bottom.
The portions only three hundred yards wide are very deep,
and contain large volumes of flowing water in narrow compass, which,
when spread over the much larger surface at the rapids, must be shallow.
Still, remembering that this was the end of the dry season, when such rivers
as the Orange do not even contain a fifth part of the water of the Chobe,
the difference between the rivers of the north and south
must be sufficiently obvious.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 369 of 1070
Words from 105755 to 106052
of 306638
