SIZE AND FORM OF THE LAKE. 425 



thus, perhaps, be accounted for. In the first instance, no 

 person, to the best of my belief, has ever yet been quite round 

 it ; secondly, the shores — with the exception of the south and 

 west sides — are low and sandy, and in hazy weather can not 

 easily be distinguished ; and, lastly, I am inclined to think 

 that the discoverers mistook its length for its breadth, for, 

 according to Cooly, "The travelers beheld with delight the 

 fine river, and the Lake extending out of sight to the north 

 and west." Again, my friend Mr. Frederick Green, who 

 visited the Lake shortly after its discovery, thus states, in 

 his manuscript journal, the impression he experienced on first 

 viewing it. 



" The day after reaching the town of Batoani, we took a 

 ride to view the Lake. From the southern side, we could 

 trace the opposite shore some ten or twelve miles, but be- 

 yond that distance, and to the westward, we could not, even 

 with the aid of a telescope, discern any sign of land — only a 

 blue horizon of water. Li a subsequent journey, however, 

 and when traveling along its southern shores, I found that 

 the opposite strand could always be seen. When first view- 

 ing it, we were not, as we then thought, looking across, but 

 lengthwise.^'' 



The whole circumference is probably about sixty or seven- 

 ty geographical miles ; its average breadth is seven miles, and 

 not exceeding nine at its widest parts. Its shape, moreover, 

 is narrow in the middle and bulging out at the two ends ; 

 and I may add, that the first reports received many years 

 ago from the natives about the Lake, and which concurred in 

 representing it of the shape of a pair of spectacles, are correct. 



The northern shore of Ngami is low and sandy, without a 

 tree or bush, or any other kind of vegetation w^ithin half a 

 mile, and more commonly a mile. Beyond this distance 

 (almost all round the lake) the country is very thickly wood- 

 ed with various sorts of acacia indigenous to Southern Africa, 

 the Damara "parent tree," a few species of wild fruit-trees. 



