56 DISCOVERY OF UKK NGAM. 



" might subject me to the charge of enthusiasm, a charge 

 which I wished I deserved, as nothing good or great had 

 ever been accomplished in the world without it." * 



Twelve days after our departure from the waggons at 

 Ngabisane we came to the north-east end of Lake Ngami ; 

 and on the ist of August, 1849, we went down together 

 to the broad part, and, for the first time, this fine-looking 

 sheet of water was beheld by Europeans. The direction 

 of the lake seemed to be N.N.K. 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 looking S.S.W. ; nor could we form any idea of the 

 extent of the lake except from the reports of the inhabi- 

 tants of the district ; and, as they professed to go round it 

 in three days, allowing twenty-five miles a-day would 

 make it seventy-five, or less than seventy geographical 

 miles in circumference. Other guesses have been made 

 since as to its circumference, ranging between seventy 

 and one hundred miles. It is shallow, for I subsequently 

 saw a native punting his canoe over seven or eight miles 

 of the north-east end ; it can never, therefore, be of much 

 value as a commercial highway. In fact, during the 

 months preceding the annual supply of water from the 

 north, the lake is so shallow that it is with difficulty cattle 

 can approach the water through the boggy, reedy banks. 

 These are low on all sides, but on the west there is a space 

 devoid of trees, showing that the waters have retired 

 thence at no very ancient date. This is another of the 

 proofs of desiccation met with so abundantly throughout 

 the whole country. A number of dead trees he on this 

 space, some of them embedded in the mud, right in the 

 water. 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, as the springbuck 

 and tsessebe {Acronotus lunata), are swept down by its 

 rushing waters ; the trees are gradually driven by the 

 winds to the opposite sides, and become embedded in 

 mud. 



The water of the lake is perfectly fresh when full, but 

 brackish when low ; and that coming down the Tamun- 



* Letters published by the Royal Geographical Society. Read 



nth Feb. and 8th April, 1850. 



