[Sketch of tent].
Tree-snakes.--Where these abound, travellers on rivers with overhanging
branches should beware of keeping too near inshore, lest the rigging of
the boat should brush down the snakes.
FORDS AND BRIDGES.
Fords.--In fording a swift stream, carry heavy stones in your hand, for
you require weight to resist the force of the current: indeed, the deeper
you wade, the more weight you require; though you have so much the less
at command, on account of the water buoying you up.
Rivers cannot be forded if their depth exceeds 3 feet for men or 4 feet
for horses. Fords are easily discovered by typing a sounding-pole to the
stern of a boat rowing down the middle of the stream, and searching those
places where the pole touches the bottom. When no boat is to be had,
fords should be tried for where the river is broad rather than where it
is narrow, and especially at those places where there are bends in its
course. In these the line of shallow water does not run straight across,
but follows the direction of a line connecting a promontory on one side
to the nearest promontory on the other, as in the drawing; that is to
say, from A to B, or from B to C, and not right across from B to b, from
A to a, or from C to c. Along hollow curves, asa, b, c, the stream runs
deep, and usually beneath overhanging banks; whilst in front of
promontories, as at A, B, and C, the water is invariably shoal, unless it
be a jutting rock that makes the promontory.
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