38 LECTURE II 



Finding that I could not successfully carry on the 

 work of a missionary among the Bakwains, I con- 

 ceived the idea of becoming a traveller. The question 

 came across my mind, Whither will you go, to the North 

 or to the South ? I resolved to go to the North, to en- 

 deavour to open the country to the coast. Having got 

 into the country beyond the Kalahari desert, bounded to 

 the south by Lake Ngami, I. came into quite a different 

 country, where there are a great many rivers which flow 

 from the sides into the centre. They form a very large 

 river. The Zambesi is very much broader than the 

 Thames at London Bridge. This large river flows out 

 at the east end until it gets into the central basin by 

 means of a fissure, which is 600 feet above the level of 

 the sea. It was highly necessary for that fissure to be 

 made. If it had not, a lake would have had to be formed 

 for the purpose of getting away the very large amount of 

 water which flows into the central basin. The rivers 

 there are not like those in our country, since their sides 

 are perpendicular. The region beyond the Kalahari 

 desert is in the form of a basin, covered with a layer 

 of calcareous tufa, intersected by the course of the Zam- 

 besi, which flows Southward until it reaches near Lin- 

 yanti, and then branches off to the East. In the Kala- 

 hari desert there is not a single flowing stream, and the 

 only water there is found in deep wells ; but at certain 

 periods of the year water-melons are found in abundance, 

 upon the fluid of which oxen and men have subsisted for 

 days, obviating thereby the necessity for carrying water. 



