178 THE DESICCATION OF AFRICA. 



uselessly to the sea. Not only are the courses of the rivers 

 steeper on the seaward side of the mountain rampart, but 

 owing to the fact that this intercepts the moisture-laden sea- 

 breezes, there is more precipitation on the seaward side. If we 

 could give more rain to the inland area, we should equalise 

 matters more nearly and delay the invasion of the coastal 

 streams indefinitely. 



The scheme outlined here is a practicable one to give 

 South Africa a greater general humidity, and is not an exces- 

 sively expensive one. The two weirs across the Cunene and 

 Chobe Rivers will cause the Etosha Pan to fill up and Lake 

 Ngami to cover much of its former area, making one great 

 lake out of the present separated tracts of Ngami, the Mababe 

 and Chobe Swamps; the overflow would fill the Makarikari 

 depression, which, with the Gwai and Macloutsie extensions, 

 covers an area of 15,000 square miles, There would be, thus, 

 created a source of supply for rain-clouds, that would refresh 

 the Kalahari and clothe its sand-hills with permanent pasture. 

 The water transpired by the vegetation covering this great 

 tract would ascend and be precipitated throughout the area 

 within the girdle of the coastal rampart; the condition of South 

 Africa would be restored to that of some two or three hundred 

 'years back, when the Karroo was a flower garden, supporting 

 vast herds of game and the present dry rivers ran throughout 

 the year. Unless this is done, the central supply for our rain 

 will dry up entirely ; desert conditions will spread until South 

 Africa will become a waste land like North Africa, and the 

 fate of Capetown and Pretoria will be that of Berenice and 

 Taodeni. Such a future will not be fulfilled in our lifetime, 

 nor in a century, but we can go back in this descent several 

 hundred years in one step, by stopping up the leak while it is 

 still mendable ; we can preserve South Africa from the fate of 

 North Africa, where the leak has become a tear, beyond our 

 present skill in engineering of repair. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. F. E. Kanthack, C.M.G., M.I.C.E., Director of Irriga- 

 tion, after moving a cordial vote of thanks to Professor 

 Schwarz for his interesting and courageous paper, went on to 

 deplore the fact that such a very inadequate amount of time 

 had been allowed for this paper and its discussion, in view of 

 the extreme importance of the matter, and, more especially of 

 the remedies proposed by Professor Schwarz, and of the far- 

 reaching beneficial results which, he claimed, would result 

 therefrom. The fact that Professor Schwarz had, some months 

 ago, brought his ideas before the public through the medium 

 of the Press, and that his ideas had stimulated very consider- 

 able interest, not only amongst the public at large, but also in 



