62 
SALT-PAN — MIEAGE. 
Chap. III. 
little property, consisting of a few traps made of cords; but, wlien 
I explained that we only wanted water, and would pay her if she 
led us to it, she consented to conduct us to a spring. It was then 
late in the afternoon, but she walked briskly before our horses for 
eight miles, and showed us the water of Nchokotsa. After lead¬ 
ing us to the water, she wished to go away home, if indeed she 
had any—she had fled from a party of her countrymen, and was 
now living far from all others with her husband—but as it was 
now dark, we wished her to remain. As she believed herself still 
a captive, we thought she might slip away by night, so, in order 
that she should not go away with the impression that we were 
dishonest, we gave her a piece of meat and a good large bunch 
of beads; at the sight of the latter she burst into a merry laugh, 
and remained without suspicion. 
At Nchokotsa we came upon the first of a great number of salt¬ 
pans, covered with an efflorescence of lime, probably the nitrate. 
A thick belt of mopane-trees (a Bauhinia) hides tliis salt-pan, 
which is twenty miles in circumference, enthely from the vie^v 
of a person coming from the south-east; and, at the time the pan 
burst upon our view, the setting sun was casting a beautiful blue 
haze over the white incrustations, making the whole look exactly 
hke a lake. Oswell tlmew his hat up in the air at the sight, and 
shouted out a huzza which made the poor Bushwoman and the 
Bakwains tliink him mad. I was a httle beliind liim, and was as 
completely deceived by it as he; but as we had agreed to allow 
each other to behold the lake at the same instant, I felt a httle 
chagrined that he had, unintentionaUy, got the first glance. We 
had no idea that the long-looked-for lake was still more than three 
hundred miles distant. One reason of our mistake was, that the 
river Zouga was often spoken of by the same name as the lake, 
viz. Noka ea Batletli (“ river of the Batletli ”). 
The mhage on these sahnas was marveUous. It is never, I 
beheve, seen in perfection, except over such saline incrustations. 
Here not a particle of imagination was necessary for reahzing the 
exact picture of large collections of water; the waves danced along 
above, and the shadows of the trees were vividly reflected beneath 
the surface in such an admirable manner, that the loose cattle, 
whose tlurst had not been slaked sufficiently by the very brackish 
water of Nchokotsa, with the horses, dogs, and even the Hotten- 
