THE KALAHAEI DESERT. 
11 
more or less thorny. The sama vines became more 
frequent, but were not yet plentiful enough or large 
enough for us to trust altogether to them, so we made 
tracks straight north for Bakaris, a pan in which 
Kert said we should be sure to find plenty of water, 
as it always lasted three months after heavy rains. 
But when we got there, days later, we found nothing 
but a sand-hole. The gems-bok, with the help pro- 
bably of the wilde-beest, had stirred it up most beauti- 
fully — from the clay-pudcller’s point of view, but that 
was not ours. Kert wanted us to camp here for two 
days and hunt, as the game must be plentiful close 
by ; and so, to judge by the tracks all round the pan, 
they must be ; but the water was not “ delicious ” 
enough for me, and we left the same evening for 
VIEW ON THE DESERT NEAR KUIS. 
Kuis, about half-way between Mier and Kuruman, 
and the only place in the desert where there is a fresh- 
water well. 
As we advanced we found the grass and sama 
growing rapidly, showing that there must have been 
heavy rains recently. We gathered some of the largest 
sama, and cooked them. They tasted to me very much 
like vegetable-marrow, which they closely resembled 
in appearance ; and, seeing how popular pumpkins and 
squashes are in America, it struck me as strange 
that no one had ever thought of taking some of the 
seeds and trying them in the sandy wastes of the 
States. I determined to get some of the seeds when 
ripe and try them. 
In two days we reached Kuis — a collection of Kala- 
hari huts, standing on a patch of limestone close to the 
