1811. 
LAKES OF SALT WATER. 
399 
nature are, as far as I have observed, only found in the vicinity of 
the Gariep. The mystery of their formation is easily explained, by 
remarking that the neighbouring hills and rocks evidently supply the 
component fragments, which are brought together by the torrents 
into the lower places ; and the calcareous nature of the waters, 
together with particles of the limestone rocks collected in their 
course, form the mortar, by which they are combined into a 
solid mass. 
The heat was so great, that we were unable to proceed ; and, 
after having travelled only six miles and a half, we unyoked by the 
side of the river, at a place called Zout-pans Drift (Salt-pan Ford), 
where the stream is very broad, and, consequently, shallow. Many 
aits, or islets, covered with bushes and rushes, interrupted this 
breadth of water, and rendered it more easily fordable. 
It is from an extensive, and, as it is said, inexhaustible salt-lake, 
situated at about a day's journey to the southward of this ford, that 
the Hottentots of Klaarwater, and the natives of these regions, are 
supplied with this necessary article. The fact of ponds or small lakes 
of salt-water being found so far inland, at a distance from all commu- 
nication with the sea, is one which must strike every person as 
remarkable. The cause of it cannot, without absurdity, be supposed 
to exist in the climate or the atmosphere; since they are found in 
the vicinity of ponds and springs, the waters of which are perfectly 
fresh. They afford very good proof of the existence within the earth 
of a stratum of rock-salt, which, if not at too great a depth, might 
prove, if worked, to be no inconsiderable treasure to the inhabitants, 
when civilization shall have taught them its full value, and rendered 
it indispensable. These salt-lakes exist in various, and very distant, 
situations, far in the interior of this continent, as well as near the 
sea-coast. They are often solitary, though sometimes several are 
found within a short distance of each other. The most northern, of 
which I have been able to gain any intelligence, is one about the 
twenty-seventh degree of latitude, eastward of Litakun. 
