The Conquest of the Desert 



ceeds. It is the most abundant spring of water 

 I have ever had an opportunity to examine. I 

 measured it at about a yard's distance from the 

 rock whence it flows, and found it three yards 

 wide and from fourteen to eighteen inches deep, 

 but after a course of fifty or sixty miles it be- 

 comes invisible by running into plains of sand. 

 Perhaps by leading it into another direction, or 

 cutting a bed for it across the sands, it might 

 become a more extensive blessing to the country. 

 The last experiment is likely to be the least 

 successful, as probably the first storm of wind 

 would fill up the new bed. We entered the cave 

 whence it proceeds on purpose to examine it. 

 The entrance was narrow, but we soon reached 

 a kind of central room, the roof of which re- 

 sembled in shape, though not in height, the dome 

 of St Paul's Cathedral in London, from which 

 went four passages in different directions, in 

 all of which streams flowed. Though we had 

 lighted candles with us, we could discern no end 

 to any of these passages. Within, the water 

 was almost lukewarm, but outside it was very 

 cold. The rock is composed of limestone." 



Our next witness is the famous traveller, 

 George Thompson, who visited Kuruman in 



146 



