Chap. XXXI. 
SWAMPY PLAINS. 
325 
was by this time very powerful ; but a very gentle 
cooling breeze came over the lagoon, and made the 
heat supportable. We had water enough to quench 
our thirst — indeed more than we really wanted ; for 
we might have often drunk with our mouth, by stoop- 
ing down a little, on horseback, so deeply were we 
immersed. But the water was exceedingly warm, 
and full of vegetable matter. It is perfectly fresh, 
as fresh as water can be. It seems to have been 
merely from prejudice that people in Europe have 
come to the conclusion that this Central African 
basin must either have an outlet, or must be salt. 
For I can positively assert that it has no outlet, and 
that its water is perfectly fresh. Indeed I do not 
see from whence saltness of the water should arise in a 
district in which there is no salt at all, and in which 
the herbage is so destitute of this element, that the 
milk of the cows and sheep fed on it is rather insipid, 
and somewhat unwholesome. Certainly, in the holes 
around the lagoon, where the soil is strongly im- 
pregnated with natron, and which are only for a 
short time of the year in connection with the lake, the 
water, when in small quantity, must savour of the pe- 
culiar quality of the soil; but when these holes are full, 
the water in them likewise is fresh. 
While we rode along these marshy, luxuriant 
plains, large herds of "kelara" started up, bounding 
over the rushes, and sometimes swimming, at others 
running, soon disappeared in the distance. This is a 
peculiar kind of antelope, which I have nowhere seen 
r 3 
