292 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



at Mabotsa, paid him a visit and requested him to accompany 

 them across the great Kalahari desert to Lake Nganri, which is 

 in lat. 20 30' ; long. 23. 



Kalahari is not, strictly speaking, a desert, but is called so 

 from the fact that it contains no running water, and very little 

 can be procured by digging wells; notwithstanding this, it is 

 covered with grass and a great variety of creeping plants, while 

 game, especially antelope, abounds in numbers like buffaloes on 

 our western plains twenty years ago. A peculiarity of this 

 so-called desert is the vast amount of delicious tubers and refresh- 

 ing vine fruits which are everywhere found on its surface. One 

 of these is the Leroshua, which is a small plant with linear leaves 

 and a stem not longer than a crow's quill ; on digging down a 

 foot or eighteen inches, a tuber is found, generally four to six 

 inches in diameter. The meat, which is enclosed within a thin 

 rind, is most excellent. Another plant, named Mokuri, which 

 grows only in parched districts, is found here. It is an herbacious 

 creeper and deposits under ground a number of tubers, in a circle 

 of a yard or more, some of which are as large as a man's head. 

 The natives, who are Bushmen, strike the ground on the circum- 

 ference of the circle with stones, until by a peculiar sound they 

 know the tuber is beneath. They then dig a foot or so and find 

 it. Strange enough, this tuber does not contain food, but is 

 filled with deliciously cool water, furnishing an inestimable bless 

 ing to the natives when traveling through the country. 



PECUIIAR WATERMELONS. 



BUT the most surprising plant of the desert is a peculiar sort 

 of watermelon. The elephant, true lord of the forest, revels in 

 this fruit, and so do the different species of rhinoceros, although 

 naturally so diverse in their choice of pasture. The various kinds 

 of antelopes feed on them with equal avidity, and lions, hyenas, 

 jackals, and mice, all seem to know and appreciate the common 

 blessing. These melons are not, however, all of them eatable ; 

 some are sweet, and others so bitter that the whole are named by 

 the Boers the " bitter watermelon." The natives select them by 

 striking one melon after another with a hatchet, and applying the 



