194 DESCRIPTION OF LAKE NGAMI. 



native merchants traversed the country from one sea to another 

 from St. Paul de Loanda to the coast of Mozambique and Zanzibar. 

 This exploit was repeated and outstripped by Dr. Livingstone, who, 

 from 1850 to 1856, accomplished a marvellous journey of six 

 thousand miles, through regions never before trodden by the white 

 man's foot. 



Setting out from Kolobeng, the most advanced of the English 

 missionary stations, he arrived, after having crossed some three hun- 

 dred miles of a region without water, at the beautiful river Zouga, 

 which issues from the western extremity of Lake Ngami. 



" A region of drought, where no river glides, 

 Nor rippling brook with osiered sides, 

 Nor sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount, 

 Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount 

 Appears, to refresh the aching eye ; 

 But barren earth, and the burning sky, 

 And the blank horizon round and round." ? 



Lake Ngami is from 45 to 60 miles long, and from 56 to 110 in 

 circumference. Its direction is N.N.E. to S.S.W. Its southern por- 

 tion curves westward, and it receives from the north-west the Teoughe. 

 The water, very fresh when the lake is full, grows brackish during 

 the dry season. At the latter period it is very shallow, and at 

 eighteen or twenty miles from the shore canoes can be mano3uvred 

 with the help of a pole. The banks are everywhere low. At the 

 west a considerable space, utterly bare of trees, proves that the lake 

 was formerly larger. During the months which precede the arrival 

 of the northern waters, cattle, to quench their thirst, make their way 

 with difficulty through the belt of reeds dried up by the sun. The 

 natives, says Livingstone, who reside on the shores of the lake, tell 

 us that trees and antelopes are carried down by the waters during 

 the annual inundation. 



The same traveller informs us that the vast regions lying to 

 the north of the lake at such great distances regions copiously 

 watered, and deluged every year by the heavy tropical rains pour 

 * Thomas Pringle, " South African Sketches." 



