eight feet high, and make the river always assume very much the
aspect of a canal. They are in some parts of whitish, tenacious clay,
with strata of black clay intermixed, and black loam in sand, or pure
sand stratified. As the river rises it is always wearing to one side or
the other, and is known to have cut across from one bend to another,
and to form new channels. As we coast along the shore, pieces which are
undermined often fall in with a splash like that caused by the plunge of
an alligator, and endanger the canoe.

These perpendicular banks afford building-places to a pretty bee-eater,*
which loves to breed in society. The face of the sand-bank is perforated
with hundreds of holes leading to their nests, each of which is about
a foot apart from the other; and as we pass they pour out of their
hiding-places, and float overhead.

* 'Merops apiaster' and 'M. bullockoides' (Smith).

A speckled kingfisher is seen nearly every hundred yards, which builds
in similar spots, and attracts the attention of herd-boys, who dig out
its nest for the sake of the young. This, and a most lovely little blue
and orange kingfisher, are seen every where along the banks, dashing
down like a shot into the water for their prey. A third, seen more
rarely, is as large as a pigeon, and is of a slaty color.

Another inhabitant of the banks is the sand-martin, which also likes
company in the work of raising a family. They never leave this part of
the country. One may see them preening themselves in the very depth of
winter, while the swallows, of which we shall yet speak, take winter
trips. I saw sand-martins at the Orange River during a period of winter
frost; it is, therefore, probable that they do not migrate even from
thence.

Around the reeds, which in some parts line the banks, we see fresh-water
sponges. They usually encircle the stalk, and are hard and brittle,
presenting numbers of small round grains near their circumference.

The river was running at the rate of five miles an hour, and carried
bunches of reed and decaying vegetable matter on its surface; yet the
water was not discolored. It had, however, a slightly yellowish-green
tinge, somewhat deeper than its natural color. This arose from the
quantity of sand carried by the rising flood from sand-banks, which are
annually shifted from one spot to another, and from the pieces falling
in as the banks are worn; for when the water is allowed to stand in
a glass, a few sec