Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/165

 behind whom the oarsmen, varying in number from three to ten or eleven, would row in perfect time, often regulating their movements to a song. Some canoes that I saw were not less than twenty-two feet in length.



Taking into account the dimensions of the islands, I should estimate that the stream, in some parts only 300 yards across, occasionally attained a width of 1000 yards. In many places the shores had been washed away, so that there were no shelving banks. In sedgy spots, about eight feet from the shore, the water was six feet deep, and where the reeds were thick, it got no deeper for twenty feet away from land.

After paddling along for close upon three hours, I found that the reeds and bushes on the right gave