SALT-PANS NEAR LAKE RUDOLF 113 



of blue chalcedony occurred, but they appeared to have been 

 washed down from up-country, for we found larger pieces 

 of the same material further inland. We came upon the 

 much-injured skeleton of a large fish and part of the shell of a 

 crab of very singular form. After two hours' march we 

 reached several separate salt steppes, and with them the 

 vegetation, whether of tree or bush, came to an end. The salt 

 pans were situated some thirty-three feet above the level of the 

 lake, from which they were divided by a sand dune rising up 

 like a wall. The bottom of these pans was covered with a 

 thick crust of snow-white salt, and at the edge grew luxuriant 

 quantities of grass with pointed blades. Just then the salt- 

 pans were empty of water, and we were not able to discover 

 the springs which fed them. 



We now left the beach to avoid having to go round a low- 

 lying peninsula, and made our way between two unimportant 

 but remarkable-looking sugar-loaf shaped mountains, but we 

 soon returned to the shadeless beach to camp, ploughing our 

 way with difficulty through the deep sand, so that it was late 

 in the afternoon before the cattle and the last of the men got 

 in. Two of the oxen had died of exhaustion by the way, and 

 Qualla told us that the rest would have to be killed. The 

 sheep and goats had suffered less from want of grass, as they 

 ate with relish the husks of the fruit of the different varieties 

 of acacias. The long-dreaded day when our cattle must die 

 had come at last, and, but for one cow, they were all killed. 

 The flesh was carefully divided amongst the men, but we lost 

 two days' rations by this wholesale slaughter as we could not 

 take the intestines, skins, bones, &c., which were usually 

 eaten up to the last scrap, with us. We had now only food 

 enough left for five or six days, and it became more and more 

 apparent that the men were getting weaker and weaker, 

 although they could at any minute run down to the water to 

 VOL. II. I 



