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ANAM. 335
and before we had proceeded a mile, they were no
more heard."
The stream now contracts to the breadth of about
two furlongs, and the current is very rapid; the
general depth is from eight to fifteen fathoms in
the middle, and from three to nine close to the bank;
the bottom a soft ooze throughout. "The principal
precaution necessary in navigating the Don-nai,"
Lieut. White remarks, "is, to have boats a-head
of the ship, to tow in calm or light winds, to prevent
her being drawn into the mouths of the numerous
streams which communicate with it, and to assist
in guiding her among the various intersecting currents
thereby produced." No variation, thus far, is observable
in the features of the country. Nothing be-
yond the banks of the river is visible from the deck,
but from the mast-head might be perceived to the
eastward, the rugged promontory of Cape St. James,
and the lofty mountain of Baria, towering high above
the dark line of unbounded forests which, in every
other direction, mingled with the horizon. Thousands
of monkeys and birds of the most beautiful plumage
are the tenants of the woods. At night, the mosquitoes
were found intolerable. About twelve miles
above the mouth of the principal branch of the Dongthrang
river, and about half-way between Canjeo and
shoal in the Donnai
Saigon, is the only dangerous
river; it is composed of hard coral rocks, which stretch
out from the eastern bank about half way across the
river for the distance of more than a mile, having
three feet water on it at the lowest ebb.* It is the
haunt of innumerable alligators. Beyond this shoal,
* Of this nature, probably, are the cataracts which the Dutch
envoy Wusthof met with in the upper part of the Mei-kong.
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