passing cloud mirrored sharp and clear in the crystalline water. The
lengthening shadows from rock and fallen crag were in some places
flung quite across our little boat, and so through the soft, lovely
air, flooded with brightest sunshine, we made our way, up past Picnic
Creek, where another stream joins the Buffalo, and makes miniature
green islands and harbors at its mouth, up as far as the river was
navigable for even so small a steamer as ours. Every one was sorry
when it became time to turn, but there was no choice: the sun-burned,
good-looking captain of the tug held up a warning hand, and round we
went with a wide sweep, under the shadows, out into the sunlight, down
the middle of the stream, all too soon to please us.

Before we left East London, however, there was one more great work to
be glanced at, and accordingly we paid a hasty visit to the office of
the superintendent of the new harbor-works, and saw plans and drawings
of what will indeed be a magnificent achievement when carried out.
Yard by yard, with patient under-sea sweeping, all that waste of sand
brought down by the Buffalo is being cleared away; yard by yard, two
massive arms of solidest masonry are stretching themselves out beyond
those cruel breakers: the river is being forced into so narrow a
channel that the rush of the water must needs carry the sand far
out to sea in future, and scatter it in soundings where it cannot
accumulate into such a barrier as that which now exists.

Lighthouses will guard this safe entrance into a tranquil anchorage,
and so, at some not too far distant day, there is good hope that East
London may be one of the most valuable harbors on this vast coast; and
when her railway has reached even the point to which it is at present
projected, nearly two hundred miles away, it will indeed be a thriving
place. Even now, there is a greater air of movement and life and
progress about the little seaport, what with the railway and the
harbor-works, than at any other place I have yet seen; and each
great undertaking is in the hands of men of first-rate ability and
experience, who are as persevering as they are energetic. After
looking well over these most interesting plans there was nothing left
for us to do except to make a sudden raid on the hotel, pick up our
shawls and bags, pay a most moderate bill of seven shillings and
sixpence for breakfast for three people and luncheon for two, and the
use of a room all day, piteously