t6 DISCOVERY OF LAKE NGAMI. Chap. lii. 



The canoes of these inland sailors are primitive crafi 

 hollowed with iron adzes out of the trunks of single tree? 

 If the tree has a bend, so has the canoe. I found they re 

 garded their rude vessels as the Arab does his camel. They 

 have always fires in them, and prefer sleeping in them while oi- 

 a journey to spending the night on shore. " On land," say they, 

 " you have lions, serpents, hyeenas, and your enemies ; but ir 

 your canoe, behind a bank of reed, nothing can harm you." 



While ascending the beautifully-wooded river, we arrivec 

 at a large stream flowing into it. This was the Tamunak'le 

 I inquired whence it came. " Oh, from a country full ol 

 rivers — so many no one can tell their number — and full of largt 

 trees ! " This was a confirmation of what I had heard from the 

 Bakwains, that the country beyond was not " the large sand} 

 plateau " of the philosophers. The notion that there might bt 

 a highway, capable of being traversed by boats, to an unexplored 

 and populous region, grew from that time stronger and strongei 

 in my mind ; and when we actually came to the lake this idea 

 was so predominant that the actual discovery seemed of little 

 importance. It was on the 1st of August that we reached the 

 north-east end of the Ngami ; and for the first time this fine 

 sheet of water was beheld by Europeans. The direction of 

 the lake seemed to be N.N.E. and S.S.W. by compass. The 

 southern portion is said to bend round to the west, and to 

 receive the Teoughe from the north at its north-west extremity. 

 We could detect no horizon where we stood ; nor could we 

 form any idea of its extent except from the reports of the 

 people, who professed to go. round it in three days, which, at 

 the rate of twenty-five miles a-day, would make it seventy- 

 five miles in circumference. It is shallow, and can never be 

 of much value as a commercial highway. In the months pre- 

 ceding the annual supply of water from the north, it is with 

 difficulty the cattle can approach to drink through the boggy, 

 reedy banks. These are low on all sides. On the west there 

 is a space devoid of trees, which shows that the waters have 

 retired thence at no very ancient date — another proof of the 

 desiccation that has been going on throughout the country. 

 We were informed by the Bayeiye, who live on the lake, that, 

 when the annual inundation begins, not only trees of great 

 size, but antelopes, such as the springbuck and tsesseb? 



