SODA LAKE. 245 



Soda Lake is a monstrous natural fraud, a grim practical 

 joke of old Dame Nature's. 



As we stand in the mouth of the pass of The Caves, 

 we see the lake spread out before us at a distance of 

 some twenty-two miles. It looks like a lovely oval sheet of 

 clear glistening water, miles across and miles in length, 

 with strips and patches of verdure dotted around it. We 

 stand parched with thirst ; for the more of that liquid 

 abomination, the water of The Caves, we have drunk, the 

 thirstier we have become. We are scorched and blistered 

 by the heat, we are half blind and choked, and wholly 

 begrimed by the all-prevailing alkaline dust and fine sand. 

 There arise in our minds I mean in your mind, I have 

 been there before pleasant anticipations of copious 

 draughts of pure water a wash, perhaps a delightful 

 swim ! We almost feel that to be drowned would be a 

 pleasure, so parched with thirst, so scorched with heat 

 are we. 



And it is all a sell ! A lizard could not be drowned 

 in Soda Lake in the dry season that is to say nearly all 

 the time. If we march across it without canteens of water 

 we shall suffer thirst. If we do so with thin boots on, the 

 soles of our feet will be scorched ; and in the wet season, 

 when there is one, Soda Lake is a mass of bottomless rnud ; 

 a spread blanket or a mosquito would mire down out of 

 sight in it. 



It is late at night and quite dark when we arrive at 

 the lake. We made but a short morning drive ; but we 

 have since come twenty-three miles, which, though down- 

 grade all the way, has been through very heavy sand, and 



