precipitous cliffs of sandstone, we arrived at the
junction ; this was a curious and frightful spot
during the rainy season. The entire course of the
Royan was extremely rapid, but at this extremity,
it entered a rocky pass between two hills, and leapt
in a succession of grand falls into a circular basin
of about four hundred yards diameter. This peculiar
basin was surrounded by high cliffs, covered
with trees; to the left was an island formed by a
rock about sixty feet high; at the foot was a deep
and narrow gorge through which the Settite river
made its exit from the circle. This large river entered
the basin through a rocky gap, at right angles
with the rush of water from the great falls of the
Royan, and as both streams issued from gorges
which accelerated their velocity to the highest degree,
their junction formed a tremendous whirlpool:
thus, the basin which was now dry, with the excep- *
tion of the single contracted stream of the Settite,
was in the rainy season a most frightful scene of
giddy waters. The sides of this basin were, for
about fifty feet from the bottom, sheeted with .white
sand that had been left there by 'the centrifugal
force of the revolving waters; the funnel-shaped reservoir
had its greatest depth beneath the mass of
rock that formed a barrier before the mouth of the
exit. From the appearance of the high-water mark
upon the rock, it was easy to ascertain the approximate
depth when the flood was at its maximum.
We pitched our camp on the slope above the basin,
and for several days I explored the bed of the river,
which was exceedingly interesting at this dry season,
when all the secrets of its depths were exposed.
In many places, the rocks that choked its bed for
a depth of thirty and forty feet in the narrow
passes, had been worked into caverns by the constant
attrition of the rolling pebbles. In one portion of
the river, the bottom was almost smooth, as though
it had been paved with flagstones; this was formed
by a calcareous sediment from the water, which had
hardened into stone; in some places this natural
pavement had been broken up into large slabs by
the force of the current, where it had been undermined.
This cement appeared to be the same that
had formed the banks of conglomerate, which in
some places walled in the river for a depth of ten
or fifteen feet, with a concrete of rounded pebbles of
all sizes, from a nutmeg to a thirty-two pound shot.
I fired the grass on the west bank of the Royan,
and the blaze extended with such rapidity, that in
a few hours many .miles of country were entirely
cleared. On the following morning, the country looked
as though covered with a pall of black velvet.
To my astonishment there were the fresh tracks
of a rhinoceros within a quarter of a mile of the
.camp: this animal must have concealed itself in
the bed of the Royan during the fire, and had
wandered forth when it had passed. I followed
up the tracks with Bacheet and two of my Tokrooris.
In less than half a mile from the spot, I found it