THE SANSHUREH RIVER. l6l 



We at last came to the Sanshureh, which presented 

 an impassable barrier, so we drew up under a magnificent 

 baobab-tree (lat. i8° 4' 27" S., long. 24 6' 20 // E.), and 

 resolved to explore the river for a ford. The great quan- 

 tity of water we had passed through was part of the annual 

 inundation of the Chobe ; and this, which appeared a 

 large deep river, filled in many parts with reeds, and 

 having hippopotami in it, is only one of the branches by 

 which it sends its superabundant water to the south-east. 

 Prom the hill N'gwa a ridge of higher land runs to the 

 north-east, and bounds its course in that direction. We, 

 being ignorant of this, were in the valley, and the only 

 gap in the whole country destitute of tsetse. In company 

 with the Bushmen I explored all the banks of the San- 

 shureh to the west, till we came into tsetse on that side. 

 We waded a long way among the reeds in water breast- 

 deep, but 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 a very disagreeable 

 odour, like sulphuretted hydrogen, in some of these stag- 

 nant waters. 



We made so many attempts to get over the Sanshureh, 

 both to the west and east of the waggon, in the hope of 

 reaching some of the Makololo on the Chobe, that my 

 Bushmen friends became quite tired of the work. By 

 means of presents I got them to remain some days ; but 

 at last they slipped away by night, and I was fain to take 

 one of the strongest of my still weak companions and 

 cross the river in a pontoon, the gift of Captains Codring- 

 ton and Webb. We each carried some provisions and 

 a blanket, and penetrated about twenty miles to the west- 

 ward, in the hope of striking the Chobe. It was much 

 nearer to us in a northerly direction, but this we did not 

 then know. The plain, over which we splashed the whole 

 of the first day, was covered with water ankle-deep, and 

 thick grass which reached above the knees. In the evening 

 we came to an immense wall of reeds, six or eight feet high, 

 without any opening admitting of a passage. When 

 we tried to enter, the water always became so deep that 

 we were fain to desist. We concluded that we had come 

 to the banks of the river we were in search of, so we directed 

 our course to some trees which appeared in the south, 

 in order to get a bed and a view of the adjacent locality 



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