118 THE SANSHUKEH. 'Jhap. VIII 



festooned the trees. Among these were the real banian 

 (Ficus indica), with its drop-shoots, the wild date and palmyra, 

 and several which were altogether new to me. The hollows 

 contained large patches of water. Next came watercourses, 

 which now resembled small rivers, and were twenty yards 

 broad and four feet deep. The further we went, the broader 

 and deeper they grew. The elephants wading in them had 

 made numbers of holes, in which the oxen floundered despe- 

 rately. Our waggon-pole was broken, and we were compelled 

 to work up to the breast in water for three hours and a half. 



The great quantity of water we had passed through was 

 part of the annual inundation of the Chobe. We at last came 

 to the Sanshureh, which is only one of the branches by which 

 it sends its overflowings to the south-east. Yet it was a largo 

 deep river, filled in manjr places with reeds, and having 

 hippopotami in it. As it presented an insuperable barrier, 

 we drew up under a magnificent baoba*b-tree (lat. 18° 4' 27" 

 S., long. 24° 6' 20" E.), and resolved to search for a passage. 

 In company with the Bushmen I explored the banks, waded a 

 Jong way among fhe reeds in water breast high, and always 

 found a broad deep space free from vegetation, and unfordable 

 A peculiar kind of lichen, which grows on the surface of the soil, 

 becomes detached and floats on the water, giving out, in parti- 

 cular spots, a disagreeable odour, like sulphuretted hydrogen. 



We made so many attempts to get over the Sanshureh, in 

 the hope of reaching some of the Makololo on the Chobe, that 

 my Bushmen friends became tired of the work. By means 

 of presents I got them to remain some days. At last they 

 slipped away by night, and I was compelled to take one of 

 the strongest of my still weak companions and cross the river 

 in a pontoon, the gift of Captains Codrington and Webb. We 

 penetrated about twenty miles to the westward, in the hope 

 of striking fhe Chobe, which was much nearer to us in a 

 northerly direction, though we did not then know it. The 

 plain, over which we splashed the whole of the first day, was 

 covered with thick grass which reached above the knees, and 

 with water ankle-deep. In the evening we came to an 

 immense wall of reeds, six or eight feet high. When we tried 

 to enter, the water became so deep that we were fain to 

 desist. We directed our course to some trees which appeared 



