214 



Journal of Travel and Natural History 



"The desert here consists of a succession of sandy zones or bults, as the 

 Dutch call them, of whitish sand running parallel to each other in a direction 

 nearly east and west 



In the sides of some of the bults, or sometimes on the summit, are found spots 

 where water may be obtained by digging. These spots are known to the 

 bushmen only, and yield abundance of water after a good rainy season ; but 

 sometimes the water recedes deep into the earth, and the bushmen then suck 

 water from the damp sand several feet below the earth by means of a tube of 

 reed buried in it, having a sponge-like tuft of grass inserted at the end. These 

 water-yielding localities are indicated by the green colour of the grass in the 

 dryest season, and are always in the more loose and white sand"— (vol. ii.,p. 297). 



Useful information is given as to the course of the Zambesi, so 

 far as explored by Mr Chapman ; but, naturally, the chief interest, 

 so far as relates to that river, concentrates on the wonderful Vic- 



toria Falls. He gives three different views of them, taken from 

 different points, one of which the publishers have kindly lent us for 

 illustration. It is that taken from Garden Island, in the middle of 

 the Falls. Want of space forbids us quoting the relative descrip- 

 tion ; but, except for the unusually vivid tints of the rainbow, dwelt 

 on by all who have seen them, which, of course, cannot be done 

 justice to in any picture, the sketch scarcely requires interpretation. 

 In like manner, the accompanying sketch of their crossing the 

 river above the Falls to Garden Island, in the very middle of the 

 Falls (so called from Dr Livingstone having fenced in a portion of 

 it, and sown it with useful seeds, all now broken down and de- 

 stroyed by the wild animals), must supply the place of his account 



