NA TURE 



481 



THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1905. 



THE KALAHARI DESERT. 

 Die Kalahari. Versuch einer physisch-geographischen 

 Darstellung- der Sandfelder des siidafrikanischen 

 Beckens. By Dr. Siegfried Passarge. Pp. xvi + 

 S22; illustrated; and with a " Kartenband " contain- 

 ing II maps and 10 sheets of sections, sketches, &c. 

 (Berlin : Dietrich Reimer [Ernst Vohsen], 1904.) 

 Herausgegeben mit Unterstiitzung der koniglich- 

 preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Price 

 80 marks (unbound). 



NOW if we could imagine that Mr. Shandy the 

 elder were alive, this is a book that, like many 

 another of its class, would have delighted him. 

 Hereby he could have proved triumphantly to Yorick 

 the potency of that great scheme of education — that 

 " north-west passage to the intellectual world " — 

 which he propounded so enthusiastically upon a memor- 

 able occasion. His scheme, it will be remembered, 

 was that upon every substantive in the dictionary the 

 Auxiliaries (so gravely misunderstood by the Corporal 

 and Uncle Toby) should be brought to bear ex- 

 haustively : — " Every word, Yorick, by this means, 

 you see, is converted into a thesis or an hypothesis : — 

 every thesis and hypothesis have an offspring of pro- 

 positions ; — and each proposition has its own con- 

 sequences and conclusions ; every one of which leads 

 the mind on again, into fresh tracts of enquiries and 

 doubtings. — 'The force of this engine,' added my 

 father, ' is incredible. . . .' " 



Even up to the numberless " tracts of enquiries and 

 doubtings," it is in this spirit that Dr. Passarge has 

 attacked "Die Kalahari"; and the book before us, 

 with its mass of spacious solidly printed pages, is the 

 result. It is a work which compels our admiration, 

 not only for the thorough and painstaking manner in 

 which its author has carried out his personal investi- 

 gations, often in circumstances of great difficulty; but 

 also for the acumen with which he has grasped the 

 bearing of his observations upon problems of world- 

 wide range ; and for the astounding industry with 

 which he has pushed his researches into all the ramifi- 

 cations of his subject. In giving us, for the first time, 

 an adequate knowledge of a large part of tliat hitherto 

 little known region of South Africa, the Kalahari 

 Desert, he has also contributed most significantly to 

 our earth-knowledge in general. Hence his book, 

 besides forming the basis for all future work in the 

 Kalahari, must have a weighty influence in many 

 questions pertaining to the geological history of the 

 continent of -Africa and to the changes of climate 

 that are recorded in the rocks of many other parts of 

 the globe. 



We feel that it is a forlorn hope to attempt within 

 the limits of our space to present in true proportion 

 even an outline of the contents of this great mass of 

 information with its leaven of speculative deduction. 

 But let us to the attack ! 



Dr. Passarge was attached, as mining expert, to an 

 expedition of the British West Charterland, Ltd., 

 NO. 1847, VOL. 71] 



organised to explore the Kalahari, under the leader- 

 ship of Sir Frederick Lugard, during the years 1896-9. 

 Of the main expedition and its personnel we hear very 

 little throughout the book. It had left Palapye some 

 time before Dr. Passarge reached that place, at the 

 beginning of October, 1896. He followed with a small 

 party, and a few days after starting he was stricken 

 with fever. A woful month ensued, during which, 

 with a dying prospector as his companion in mis- 

 fortune, he lay in or under the wagon as it trekked 

 slowly north-westward across the eastern part of the 

 desert. 



Not until the middle of November did he regain 

 his feet ; but his recovery thereafter was rapid, and 

 his field-work in various parts of the Middle Kalahari 

 was carried on subsequently without serious interrup- 

 tion until its termination in October, 1898. During 

 the two years thus spent, his traverses extended east 

 and west over a breadth of about 700 km., and north 

 and south for about 500 km., the site of the desiccated 

 Lake Ngami lying roughly central to these journeys. 

 His official investigations were directed chiefly to the 

 islands of ancient rocks with which the region is 

 sparingly studded, mainly in the form of subdued hill- 

 chains but occasionally in comparatively low-lying 

 tracts that have remained uncovered by the superficial 

 formations of the desert. To reach these islands it 

 was necessary to cross the level sandy veldt for longer 

 or shorter distances — traverses that were often very 

 difficult and full of hardship — and Dr. Passarge had 

 thus the opportunity to carry out that careful study 

 of desert conditions in the Kalahari which forms what 

 we must regard as the main subject of his book. The 

 ancient rocks were found to consist of two great series 

 of unfossiliferous greywackes, schists, and lime- 

 stones, often much altered by dynamic and thermal 

 agencies, and probably in the main pre-Cambrian, 

 though possibly ranging down into Cambrian times. 

 Among these ancient sediments there are many 

 intrusions of acid and basic igneous rocks. The 

 thin superficial deposits, though incomparably more 

 recent, are believed by Dr. Passarge to include beds 

 that may date back to Eocene times. By their com- 

 position and structural alteration through weathering, 

 these desert-formations are held to indicate the 

 successive conditions that have ruled in the region 

 since Mesozoic times ; and it is in his discussion of 

 these deposits that the author gives the fullest play 

 to his powers. 



To take the contents of the book in their given 

 order : — After a modest preface, the author deals, 

 in chapter i., with the explorations of his pre- 

 decessors in the Kalahari. The list of references 

 added at the end of the chapter constitute his biblio- 

 graphy of the subject — a convenient arrangement 

 that is followed throughout the book. In the second 

 chapter Dr. Passarge gives a consecutive account and 

 itinerary of his travels and experiences. This account 

 is to a large extent repeated and amplified in the topo- 

 graphical descriptions of later chapters. The third 

 chapter is occupied with a short description and cate- 

 gorical formulation of the topographical and hydro- 

 graphical conditions of South Africa generally, through 



Y 



