66 Livingstone: mends a gun. 



Lechulatebe, thirteen white cows to Sekomi, and thirteen 

 black cows to Sechele, with a request to each to assist the 

 white men to reach him. Their policy, however, was to- 

 keep him out of view, and act as his agents m purchasing 

 with his ivory the goods he wanted. This is thoroughly 

 African ; and that continent being without friths and 

 arms of the sea, the tribes in the centre have always been 

 debarred from European intercourse, by its universal 

 prevalence among all the people around the coasts. 



Before setting out on our third journey to Sebituane, it 

 was necessary to visit Kuruman ; and Sechele, eager, for 

 the sake of the commission thereon, to get the ivory of that 

 chief into his own hands, allowed all the messengers to 

 leave before our return. Sekomi, however, was more than 

 usually gracious, and even furnished us with a guide, but 

 no one knew the path beyond Nchokotsa, which we in- 

 tended to follow. When we reached that point, we found 

 that the main spring of the gun of another of his men, who 

 was well acquainted with the Bushmen, through whose 

 country we should pass, had opportunely broken. I never 

 undertook to mend a gun with greater zest than this ; for, 

 under a promise of his guidance, we went to the north 

 instead of westward. All the other guides were most 

 liberally rewarded by Mr. Qswell. 



We passed quickly over a hard country, which is per- 

 fectly flat. A little soil lying on calcareous tufa, over a 

 tract of several hundreds of miles, supports a vegetation o£ 

 fine sweet short grass, and mopane and baobab trees. On 

 several parts of this we found large salt-pans, one of which,. 

 Ntwetwe, is fifteen miles broad, and one hundred long. 

 The latitude might have been taken on its horizon as well 

 as upon the sea. 



Although these curious spots seem perfectly level, all 

 those in this direction have a gentle slope to the north-east : 

 thither the rain-water, which sometimes covers them, 

 gently gravitates. This, it may be recollected, is the direc- 

 tion of the Zouga. The salt dissolved in the water has by 

 this means all been transferred to one pan in that direction,, 

 named Chuantsa ; on it we see a cake of salt and lime an. 

 inch and a half thick. All the others have an efflorescence 

 of lime and one of the nitrates only, and some are covered 

 thickly with shells. These shells are identical with those 

 of the mollusca of Lake Ngami and the Zouga. There are 

 three varieties — soiral, univalve, and bivalve. 



