»776- February. There was a fingle track more beaten than the others by the buffaloes, which led'to the lower part of the river through a very clofe thicket full of thorns and briars, but otherwife cut through in every direction with a labyrinth of buffalo-paths. An old buffalo, with hardly any hair upon its hide, which ruihed out of a buih clofe to us, and was very near knocking us down, confounded our guide, fo that he loft his ufual marks on the road; in conl'equence of which, we were obliged to ride backwards and forwards above two hours, being all the while in no fmall danger from the buffaloes ; and abfolutely uncertain whether we ihould be able to get out o f the labyrinth in the fpaee of as many days, especially i f the fun did not ihine out, whereby we might difcover whereabouts we were. After this, we gave chafe to and wounded a hartbeejl on the open plains. On the a 8th we rode to our old and opulent friend J a c o b K o k , near Sea-cow r iv er; where, after an abfenee of about three months, during which we had been continually ihifting our lodging, we now, by the care of our kind hoftefs, had an opportunity of refting our weary limbs and bodies broke down, as it were, with fatigue, on the fofteft beds in the beft bed-chamber. But fcarcely two nights had paffed, after fo agreeable a change, before we found ourfelves, (while finking in the yielding down,) involved in heavy though reftlefs ilumbers, attended with the moft un- eafy dreams ; ilumbers with which we had to ftruggle at a late hour every morning, almoft as i f we had been in the agonies o f death: inftead of this, before our return 3 hither, hither, though on the ground, and in the open air, we ^ ¿_ had ever enjoyed an eafy, cool, and refreihing fleep; out of which we were accuftomed to awake o f our own accord, as early and briik as the reft of the animal creation, which awoke with the firft dawn o f day. On the 29th, the day after our arrival, it rained all day long, with the wind at fouth-eaft. March the ift and 2d rainy, with the wind at fouth- eaft. The thermometer at 72. We ftaid with our worthy and agreeable hofts till the 7th of this month. Now and then, during this period, I rode with my hoft to the fea- fhore, and treated myfelf with oyfters, at the fame time taking fome home with me. Some time before this, he had found in the ftrand there a bottle of red wine, which he had fet by to regale us with on our return from the defert. This, though not very nicely corked, proved not only not damaged, but even excellent; and had probably, in confequence o f a ihipwreck, or o f its having been offered up, either in a merry or a fuperftitious mood, by fome brave tar to Neptune, been long tofled about by the waves, before it came to its original deftination, to which we applied it by drinking each others healths. In one part o f the ftrand, we perceived a ftrcfng fmell of amber, without being able, however, to find any of this drug thereabouts. Several fpecimens of the Gorgonia ceratophyta (a black horn-like coral with a red bark) which had been thrown up here by the fea, I have brought home with m e ; one of thefe, which was three feet and a half long, and is branched out to an almoft equal breadth, is eonfidered by divers connoifleurs, who have feen the firft cabinets in Europe,
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