CHAP. IX.] START FOR 'TOUNOBIS. 269 



"Ngami and its rivers), and described tlie boats on 

 them, and mimicked the alligators and hippopotami. 

 They had heard also of the Soun Damup, that tribe of 

 Ghou Damup that live in an independent state along 

 tlie lower part of tire Omoramba, and pointed out the 

 dii-ection of their country. They knew of waggons 

 having gone to Lake 'Ngami, and said that they had 

 some things which were given to them by the people 

 who travelled in them, whom they particularly 

 described. They however protested that the country 

 was, in this peculiarly dry season, impassable beyond 

 'Tounobis. 



How far this place was we could not well make out, 

 but it certainly was a long journey without water; 

 tired and footsore as the oxen were, I was determined 

 however to attempt it. The Bushmen declared that 

 the game was all scared away from where we were ; 

 but that we should see immense quantities at 

 'Tounobis. One informant asserted that the buffaloes 

 were so thick upon the ground that we should have 

 great difficulty in driving the waggons through them. 

 But they aU agreed that near 'Tounobis it would be 

 dangerous to travel at night, as the wild animals 

 would certainly charge us and our oxen when we met 

 them on the way. 



We started for 'Tounobis on the afternoon of 

 Oct. 1st with Amiral and half of his men; after 

 about three hours we came to a little well that the 

 Hottentots who were before us had just drank dry, 

 and, going on, to our delight saw two huge white 

 rhinoceroses, three or four hundred yards on one 



