SALT PANS. 85 



" The country beyond the Bamangwato, so far as we have penetrated, is 

 quite flat, only intersected here and there by the dry beds of ancient rivers. 

 The desert does not deserve its name, excepting from its want of water, for it 

 is usually covered with abundance of grass, bushes, and trees ; nor is it destitute 

 of inhabitants, as both men and animals exist in considerable numbers. Man, 

 however, has a hard struggle to keep soul and body together. The Bakalahari 

 children are usually distinguished by their large protruding abdomen, and ill- 

 formed legs and arms ; their listless eye shows that youth has few joys for 

 them. Although much oppressed by the Bechuanas, who visit them annually in 

 order to collect skins, they are often at variance among themselves. They 

 obtain water in certain hollow parts called "sucking-places," where there is a 

 stratum of wet sand about 3 feet below the surface, by means of a reed. A 

 bunch of grass is tied round one end of it, to act as a sort of filter ; this is 

 inserted in the wet sand and that which was taken out in making the hole is 

 firmly rammed down around it. The mouth applied to the free extremity 

 draws up enough of water to fill a load of ostrich egg-shells. By making wells 

 in these spots we several times obtained water sufficient for our oxen. The 

 natives were always anxious that we should not in digging break through a 

 hard layer at the bottom of the wells, asserting that if we did the water would 

 be lost. The Bushmen of the desert are perhaps the most degraded specimens 

 of the human family : those near the river Zouga look much better ; the river 

 supplies them with fish and " tsitla," and they seem expert in the use of the 

 bow and arrow, for they have killed nearly all the lions. The Botletli are real 

 Bushmen in appearance and language, and about twelve years ago were in 

 possession of large herds of cattle. We saw specimens of the horns of these 

 cattle, which measured from 6 to 8 feet from point to point. The Bushmen 

 are very numerous on all sides of both lake and river, and the language has as 

 much Mick as it has further South. 



" Of the animals which five in the desert, the eland is, perhaps, the most 

 interesting. It is the largest of the antelope kind, attains the size of a very 

 large ox, and seems wonderfully well adapted for living in that country : for 

 though they do drink a little if they pass near water, they can live for 

 months without a drop : they become very fat, the meat is excellent, and, as they 

 are easily run down by a good horse, it is surprising to me that they have not been 

 introducedinto England. The soil is generally sandy ; vegetation is not much more 

 luxuriant, except in the immediate vicinity of the river than in this portion of 

 Africa generally. All the rocks we saw consisted of calcareous tufa, travertin, 

 and sandstone. On the banks of the lake there is a rock of igneous origin. 

 The tufa contains no shells, but the salt-pans near the lower end of the Zouga 

 are covered with four varieties of recent shells. It is probable these flats, 

 called salt-pans because sometimes covered with an efflorescence of salt, were 

 reservoirs, such as the Kumatoa is now, at a period when the flow of the 



