Chap. III. 
MODE OF DIGGING WELLS. 
55 
quickly lapped up by our dogs, bad we not driven tbem away. 
And yet this was all the apparent supply for some eighty oxen, 
twenty horses, and about a score of men. Our guide, Kamotobi, 
who had spent his youth in the Desert, declared that, though 
appearances were against us, there was plenty of water at hand. 
We had our misgivings, for the spades were soon produced; but 
our guides, despising such new-fangled aid, began in good earnest 
to scrape out the sand with their hands. The only water we had 
any promise of for the next seventy miles—that is, for a journey 
of three days with the waggons—^was to be got here. By the 
aid of both spades and fingers two of the holes were cleared out, 
so as to form pits six feet deep and about as many broad. Our 
guides were especially earnest in their injunctions to us not to 
break through the hard stratum of sand at the bottom, because 
they knew, if it were broken through, ‘Dhe water would go 
away.” They are quite correct, for the water seems to he on tliis 
fiooring of incipient sandstone. The value of the advice was 
proved in the case of an Enghslmian whose wits were none of 
the brightest, who, disregarding it, dug through the sandy stratum 
in the weUs at Mohotluani:—the water immediately flowed away 
downwards, and the well became useless. When we came to the 
stratum, we found that the water flowed in on aU sides close to 
the hne where the soft sand came into contact with it. Allowing 
it to collect, we had enough for the horses that everdng ; but as 
there was not sufficient for the oxen, we sent them back to 
Lobotani, where, after tliirsting four fuU days (ninety-six hours), 
they got a good supply. The horses were kept by us as neces¬ 
sary to procure game for the sustenance of our numerous party. 
Next morning we found the water had flowed in faster than at 
first, as it invariably does in these reservoirs, owing to the pas¬ 
sages widening by the flow. Large quantities of the sand come 
into the weU with the water, and in the course of a few days the 
supply, which may be equal to the wants of a few men only, 
becomes sufficient for oxen, as well. In these sucking-places the 
Bakalahari get their supphes; and as they are generally in the 
hollows of ancient river-beds, they are probably the deposits from 
rains gravitating thither; in some cases they may be the actual 
fountains, which, though formerly supplying the river’s flow, now 
no longer rise to the surface. 
