further interruption, through reeds and Ihrubbery, and ihallow
parts of the river, to the very end o f the kloof, which we computed
to be about fifteen miles from the entrance, where we
had left our waggons. Here alfo was the termination of the
Sea-Cow river; its tranquil waters formed a confluence with
another river o f prodigious fize, whofe rapid ftream rolled over
the rocky bed a vaft volume of muddy water. The current o f
this river fet to the north-weftward. Though there had not
been a cloud in the iky fince we left Graaff Reynet, very
heavy rain muft have fallen in fome part o f the country
through which it flowed; for it was evident from the wreck
of trees, and plants, and grafs, yet green, thrown up near the
banks o f the river, that the water had fubfided twelve or thirteen
feet. It was now, at this place, about four hundred yards
in width, and very deep. The peafantry had no name for it
but that o f the Groot, or Great river ; but from the magnitude
and the direaion of the current, there could be no doubt of its
being the fame which empties itfelf on the weftern coaft be-
tween the two tribes of people called the Great and the Little
Namaquas, and to which Colonel Gordon there gave the name
of the Orange river. In point o f fize, and bulk o f water; all
the rivers o f the colony, taken colleaively, would not be equal
to it, ^
The banks were fringed with the Karroo mimofa, the willow
of Babylon, and the rhus vimmalis. Vaft numbers o f the
hippopotamus were fnorting and blowing in every part o f the
river, loud as the torrent that roared among the rocks. Under
the ihade of the trees, and on the reedy banks near the mouth
of
o f the Sea-Cow river, were the beds where thefe enormous
animals had been playing and rolling, on venturing forth from
their watery abodes. The defcription that the author o f the
Book o f Job has put into the mouth o f the Almighty, of the
behemoth, is poetic, grand, and figurative; and it is more than
probable that the hippopotamus was the animal alluded to :—
“ Behold now behemoth which I made with thee; he eateth
“ grafs as an o x : His bones are as ftrong pieces of brafs;
“ his bones are dike bars of iron : He lieth under the Ihady
“ trees, in the covert of the reed and fens. The fhady trees
“ cover him with their fhadow ; the willows of the brook
compafs him about. Behold he drinketh up a river ; he
“ trufteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. He
“ taketh it with his eyes ; his nofe pierceth through fnares.”
In the rocky mountains of the long pafs, that brought us to
the river, were great numbers of klip-fpringers and reeboks,
and of a ipecies o f monkey o f a grizzled greenifh tint, with a
ftraight tail, a third longer than the body, and black at the
extremity; a horizontal white line acrofs the forehead, juft
above the eyes ; cheeks bearded with whitiih hair. But the
grandeft objedl that occurred in the kloof was a plant of the
lilliaceous tribe, with undulate enfiform leaves ; the flower-ftalk
was fix feet high, and an inch in diameter, fupporting an
umbel that confifted of twenty to thirty flowrets; the petals
on the outfide, ftriped with red and white, were within o f a
clear fnowy whitenefs; the anthera were bright crimfon.
On