177®- January. V^ynJ At this I was not a little alarmed; yet, what is very lingular, not at the danger, which was real, of being trampled under foot, or being bitten a funder by the beaft, but in confe- quence of my appreheniioris, which were merely imaginary, o f being drowned : for the rattling noife, arifing from the creature’s running out of the water and along the ftoney beech, immediately fuggefted to me the idea, that the river had on a fudden overflowed its banks: a fuppofition to which I was the more inclined, as I knew that this accident happens more frequently here than at Gauritz-rivier, (for an account o f which I muft refer the reader to Vol. I. page 254 :) and as the hippopotamus, when it is newly come up out of the water, and is wet and flimy, is faid to gliften in the moon-ihine like a fiih, it is no wonder, that as foon as I took my handkerchief from before my eyes, it fhould appear to me, at fo near a view as I had o f it, like a high column of water, which feemed to threaten to carry us off and drown us in a moment: for which reafon, I ran, or rather flew towards the higher ground, leaving both my guns and my brother fentinels behind me; but, as juft at this fpot, I was prevented by the fteepnefs o f the river’s banks from afcending the heights, and neverthelefs perceived that neither my companions nor myfelf were drowned, it ran in my head, for the fpace o f feveral feconds, that we were all o f us either dreaming or delirious. The farmer’s fon had fallen afleep, and ftill continued to fleep very foundly : as to the farmer himfelf, who, panting and breathlefs, every now and then looked up to heaven, and at the fame time, with much aukwardnefs and buftle, was endeavouring to make make his efcape, I made all the hafte I could to difengage him from a large wrapper, which, as well on account of his gout as by way of keeping off the flies, he had wrapped round his legs. I then aiked him what courfe the water had taken when it overflowed; and he, after a long paufe, anfwered only by afking me in his turn, i f I was not mad; upon which I was almoft ready to put the fame queftion to myfe lf: and even at laft, when all this was unriddled to me, could not help doubting o f the truth o f it, till I found the farmer’s gun was really difcharged; for the rattling among the ftones and the fquafhing in the water, occafioned by the fea-cow, was what I firft heard, and what made me take to my le g s ; fo that I did not attend in the leaft either to the report of the gun or the cry of the animal, though thefe latter appeared to the reft o f our party the moft terrible ; fo much, indeed, that they occafioned Mr. Im m e l m a n , together with the farmer’s fon-in- law, to fly from their poft, though they had feen nothing o f all that had happened, and could not eafily have come to any harm. We concluded the chafe, and fpent the remainder of the night in laughing at each other; in chattering and forming various conjectures on the fubjecft o f the precipitation and impetuous fury of the fea-cow, which, however, was probably as much alarmed and frightened as we ourfelves could pofiibly be : we even fmoked a couple of pipes, while we liftened to the roaring o f the lion, and waited for the approach of the morning. Several Hottentots then told us, that foon after the noi'fe and tumult we have been defcribing had ceafed, they had feen a fea-cow, making its N n 2 way
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