Mammals from Lake Ngimt\ etc. 380 



specimens being obtained fuitlier south on the Molopo River. 

 The collection is one of great value, as the Ngainiland 

 niamni.ilian fauna has hitherto only been represented by the 

 collection made by Aiidcrsson over fifty years ago, the 

 majority of the specimens of which are now so faded and 

 discoloured that they are almost useless for comparative 

 systematic work. 



One striking feature about the skins of the Ngami and 

 Kalahari specimens is the remarkable uniformity exhibited 

 in the coloration of the several species, in nearly every case a 

 ])ale sandy tint predominating. As regards the novelties, 

 the large grey dormouse is the most distinctive, and in such a 

 monotonously coloured genus as Graphiurus, this NgamiUind 

 species, in so far as its colour is concerned, stands quite by 

 itself. It has been found necessary to give subspecitic names 

 to four new forms, all of them representing desert races of 

 South-African species. 



Mr. Woosnain's notes on the Ngamiland district are as 

 follows : — 



" There are two routes to Ngamiland in British territory 

 which have been used by traders tor the last fifty years — one 

 from Palapye iioad Station via Serowe (Khama^s capital), 

 and thence North and N.E. across the desert to the nearest 

 point of the Botletle lliver, and so up the river to the Lake. 

 This is Livingstone's route and the best-known one. The 

 other, from Ma/eking or Vryburg, goes W. vid Kakia to 

 Lehutitung, and thence N. past Okwa and Giiansis to the 

 l^ake. This route is practically never used now, and when 

 we travelled by it in 1909 no waggon had been along the 

 track for six years, and the track was almost entirely oblite- 

 rated between Lehutitung and Ghansis. We chose the latter 

 route, as it passes through the middle of the desert, and some 

 of the mammals in the present collection v^ere obtained at 

 various places along the road during the journey through the 

 Kalahari to Ngamiland. 



" The physical geography of the Kalahari Desert and 

 Ngamiland may briefly be said to consist of a great shallow 

 central basin or valley surrounded by a rim of higher country, 

 and there is only one outlet to the sea, namely towards the 

 Orange River. The lowest point of the whole central and 

 northern Kalahari basin is the great Makarikari salt-pan, and 

 from observations of altitudes during our journey 1 am in- 

 clined to believe that there is a low broad ridge running across 

 the Kalahari somewhere about 26^ S., and forming a low 

 watershed between the Okovango and Nosop Molopo river- 

 systems. The watershed between the Okovango and Zambesi 



