THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 95 



and of the most virulent thorn jungles to be met 

 with in South Africa. It is said that on this 

 occasion two faint attempts to tap underground 

 waters were made without success, and the 

 expedition was a failure as I fully expected it 

 would be under the circumstances. 



In fact, no expedition of the kind should be 

 undertaken in a perfunctory manner, and when on 

 the edge of the desert some weeks should be 

 expended in acquiring all the information possible 

 from natives and other residents. No reliable 

 information is, as a rule, obtainable in Africa in a 

 hurry, or, in the absence of the last, it is necessary 

 to " pump " without seeming to do so, or exciting 

 suspicion. As a rule, the autocratic bearing of 

 the ordinary cleric is a very undesirable quality 

 in an explorer ; the easy, luxurious lives of South 

 African ecclesiastics are but poor preparations for 

 travel off the high roads. 



In ancient days the Kalliharri must have been 

 about the best watered part of South Africa, with 

 at least two deep broad rivers flowing slowly 

 through the west part of it, and hundreds of smaller 

 streams, in the beds of which the rounded stones 

 prove that the water must have flowed for 



