THROUGH THE DESERT 
19 
ledge that the previous rainy season had been an unusually 
heavy one. We therefore decided to take the straight route 
through the desert, where we anticipated finding the periodically 
occurring pans well filled with water; nor were we disappointed 
in this—a stroke of luck that saved us quite eight days of extra 
travelling by the more circuitous Tati route, with the advan¬ 
tage that we would be further off from Matabeleland, whose 
hunting parties are famed for the unwarranted indignities they 
often impose on stray white travellers who traverse the country 
without first paying their respects to Lobengula: a thing we 
GRANITE KOPPJE 
were anxious to avoid, as lying quite outside our route and 
intentions. 
With one or two exceptions, we found the pans were filled 
with water. The furthest distance we travelled from one water 
to another was thirty-eight miles, which, when one is accus¬ 
tomed to it, is no extraordinary feat. The cattle suffered most, 
for we provided ourselves for possible contingencies by filling our 
two water casks and all the flasks at our disposal, holding at 
least enough water for two days’ economical consumption, while 
the poor brutes had to make the best of it fron pan to pan. We, 
however, always took good care that they should graze while 
the grass was wet with dew, to give them at least this oppor¬ 
tunity of gathering what moisture they could. 
