VARIETIES OF FISH. 83 



twelve months' leave of absence for mine. Without promising anything, I 

 mean to follow a useful motto in many circumstances and ' try again.' 



" The following information, gleaned from intelligent natives, may be 

 interesting and probably is not far from the truth, as they could have no object 

 in deceiving me. The Ngami is merely a reservoir for the surplus waters of 

 a much larger lake or marsh, containing numerous islands, about 150 or 200 

 miles beyond. Sebituane, who was defeated by the Griquas near Motito or 

 Latakoo, in 1824, lives on one of these islands. The river, which falls into the 

 Ngami at its N.W. extremity, is called the Teoge ; it runs with so much 

 rapidity that canoes ascend with great difficulty, and when descending no 

 paddling is required, as the force of the current suffices to bring the boats down. 

 Large trees are frequently brought down, and even springboks and other 

 antelopes have been seen whirling round and round in the middle of the stream, 

 as it hurried on their carcasses to the lake. But this flow only occurs at 

 one period of the year, and whence the increase of w r ater in the upper lake is 

 derived no one can telL Other rivers are reported as existing beyond Sebituane's 

 district, and a large population is said to live on their banks. The names of 

 these tribes are : Bagomae, Barovaia, Barosia, Batongka, Banambia, Banaini, 

 Bazatoa, Bachorongka, and Babiko. The people of the last-named tribe are 

 famed for their skill in manufactures, are lighter in colour than the Bakhoba, 

 and have longer hair and beards. All the iron used among the people near 

 the lake comes from the North. Though the Bakhoba are much more inquisitive 

 than the Bechuanas, I never met with one who had even heard of the existence 

 of the sea. They had heard of a people whom we conjectured to be Portuguese, 

 and we saw an old coat which we believed to be of Portuguese manufacture. 

 Although we have seen the Zouga flowing and even rising considerably, the 

 natives assert that soon after the small reservoir near the Bakurutse villages, 

 called Kumatao, is filled by the Zouga, the latter ceases to flow, the rains do 

 not affect it in the least, and in many parts its bed becomes quite dry. This 

 is also the case, according to report, with the Tamunakle and Teoge. During 

 a certain portion of the year the beds of these rivers exhibit only a succession 

 of pools with dry patches between them. The fishes, which we saw so 

 abundant in July and August last year, had not descended from the North 

 in June. The Bakhoba seemed quite sure they would appear in the month 

 following, and they enumerated nine varieties of them in the lake and rivers, 

 two of which are said to attain occasionally the length of a man. Of the 

 five varieties which came under our observation four were very good eating ; 

 the fifth, the Grlanis siluris, had attained a length of about 3 feet. Crocodiles, 

 or alligators, and hippopotami are also found, but the latter are now scarce in 

 consequence of the Bakhoba frequently hunting them ; they kill them by 

 means of a large harpoon, to which a strong rope is attached, in somewhat the 

 same manner as whalers do. They use nets made of the hibiscus, baskets, 



