These Boggy Parts,
Lying Parallel To The Stream, Were The Most Extensive We Had Come To:
Those Mentioned Already Were
Mere circumscribed patches; these extended
for miles along each bank; but even here, though the rapidity of the current
was
Very considerable, the thick sward of grass was "laid" flat
along the sides of the stream, and the soil was not abraded so much
as to discolor the flood. When we came to the opposite side of this valley,
some pieces of the ferruginous conglomerate, which forms the capping
to all other rocks in a large district around and north of this, cropped out,
and the oxen bit at them as if surprised by the appearance of stone as much
as we were; or it may have contained some mineral of which they stood in need.
We had not met with a stone since leaving Shinte's. The country is covered
with deep alluvial soil of a dark color and very fertile.
In the afternoon we came to another stream, nyuana Loke (or child of Loke),
with a bridge over it. The men had to swim off to each end of the bridge,
and when on it were breast deep; some preferred holding on
by the tails of the oxen the whole way across. I intended to do this too;
but, riding to the deep part, before I could dismount and seize the helm
the ox dashed off with his companions, and his body sank so deep
that I failed in my attempt even to catch the blanket belt,
and if I pulled the bridle the ox seemed as if he would come backward upon me,
so I struck out for the opposite bank alone.
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