Q2 SOUTH AFRICA. 



being often two or three hundred yards wide, 

 would afford space for sheltered homesteads, per- 

 haps eminently picturesque, but certainly admirably 

 suited for Boer occupation. Really copious rains 

 fall in the Kalliharri at intervals of about three 

 years, and when this occurs the whole country is 

 covered with a crop of succulent watermelons, upon 

 which live stock thrives exceedingly, and is quite 

 independent of the absence of drinking-water. 

 Showers no doubt fall every season in various 

 parts of the desert, and the game, consisting chiefly 

 of giraffe, eland, brindled gnu, gemsbuck, ostriches, 

 and hartebeeste, swarm to those localities, safe from 

 pursuit as unless the melon harvest is general, 

 and extends to the edges of the desert, no one 

 dares penetrate it beyond the distance to which 

 water can be carried to sustain life. 



These melons are called by the natives " tsamma," 

 and are about the size of a round Dutch cheese. 

 The flavour is insipid, and the water which the 

 traveller obtains from them by cutting them up 

 and simmering them in a pot over a slow fire is 

 rather flat, but sweet and wholesome. The whole 

 of this desert is singularly healthy for man and 

 beast, except that portion on the north-east side 



