DAMARAS, OVAMPO, AND NAM AQUAS 139 



soon disappear, partly through evaporation, but 

 principally from percolation through the sandy soil. 

 Here and there a thin layer of less porous earth holds 

 the water longer. The pool may then become 

 sanded over, but water can be reached without 

 trouble by digging and scraping. During a large 

 part of the journey this looking out for signs of 

 water and digging wells, after the first four hours' 

 journey had been accomplished, was the almost daily 

 occupation. The giving of drink to the oxen, three 

 at a time, out of an improvised trench covered with 

 canvas, into which the water was ladled, was a 

 common feature at each encampment. 



The digging for water was laborious. Sometimes 

 the well was already dug by natives, but dry, and had 

 to be so much deepened as to require a chain of three 

 men to utilise it. One raised the water-vessel to 

 another who stood a stage higher, and he to a third 

 who stood breast high above the surface of the ground 

 and poured its contents into the trough. On one of 

 these occasions we had fallen fast asleep, dogs and 

 all, utterly wearied, and found in the morning, to our 

 astonishment, the tracks of elephants all about us. 

 They had drunk at the well, disturbed nobody, and 

 disappeared into the not distant bush, whither I 

 followed them in vain. 



The caravan at starting consisted of ten Europeans 

 and about eighteen natives, or twenty-eight in all. 

 The two wagons were both laden. The large one 

 had a solid deck over its cargo, and the space above 

 deck was curtained into two compartments, in which 

 Andersson and I slept when the ground was wet ; as 

 a rule we bivouacked in the open. The available 



