2 1 o Journal of Travel and Natural History 



within a few feet of us ; and I feel no scruple in affirming that, since the pre- 

 ceding evening, before sunset till the next morning after sunrise, excepting 

 during the time of our being beseiged by the lions, no less, at a moderate com- 

 putation, than a hundred head of game drank at the spring every five minutes. 

 This in ten hours would make the number 12,000, which, however enormous 

 it may appear, is, I feel confident, far within the mark. The pool, about 400 

 yards in circumference, was all night kept in commotion, the splashing of the 

 water, the din of clattering hoofs, and the lowing and moaning of gnus and 

 their calves being mingled in discordant notes. The braying of quaggas was 

 terrible, and the pond, excepting at one or two short periods while we fired, 

 was never clear. " — (vol. i., 239-40.) 



Turning to Mr Chapman's contributions to geography and 

 physical geography, we find that in some of the most vakiable of 

 liis discoveries he has been anticipated. He was the first who 

 crossed the continent from Lake N'Gami to Walvisch Bay, but his 

 friend Mr Baines accompanied him on his return journey, and in 

 his travels the geographical information obtained on that route was 

 fully brought before the public. The country now for the first 

 time filled in on our maps is chiefly that lying between Lake 

 N'Gami and the Zambesi. 



His observations on the physical geography of the countries he 

 visited is very interesting and less known. Of Lake N'Gami we 

 learn that it is the small remains of an immense sea, which, at a 

 comparatively not very distant date, covered a vast extent of land 

 now dry or turned into marshes and reedy swamps, one of which 

 is upwards of seventy miles in circumference. The lake itself, 

 although fifty miles in length and eighteen miles broad, is nowhere 

 more than twelve feet deep, and it appears to be still further drying 

 up and decreasing in size. 



' ' This country, with all its pans, has the appearance of having been a lake of 

 immense size. The supply of water which filled it in former days having no 

 doubt been stopped far away to the north of Lebebes by some volcanic action, 

 which has sent the water formerly coming hither in another direction. Dr 

 Livingstone thinks the Victoria Falls have drained it. Is it not rather more 

 probable that some gradual pressure from within has been slowly at work, 

 which would account for the general desiccation of the country? Within the 

 lifetime of some of the lake people and Mabobas the N'Gami has gradually re- 

 ceded a mile or more all round, and, within the knowledge of white men still 

 living, fountains have everywhere been drying up. I have had abundant op- 

 ])ortunities of noticing the same thing going on gradually during the last ten 

 years. The natives coming from Lebcbc also insist that one branch of the 

 Teouge (or Okavango) diverges towards the west coast just in the same manner 

 as the Tugela is said to diverge from the Orange River" — (vol. ii., p. 64). 



"When I first entered this country (N'Gami district) I fiamd many of tliosc 



