It was now beginning to rise,
though the rains had but just commenced in the valley. The banks are low,
but cleanly cut, and seldom sloping. At low water they are from
four to 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.
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* `Merops apiaster' and `M. bullockoides' (Smith).
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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 seconds suffice for its deposit
at the bottom.
