THE LICHACHANE WATER-HOLE 379 
water might be found there. I came upon a shallow dry 
watercourse, which I followed to the right for a few hundred 
yards, where, attracted by some dry bushes evidently concealing 
something, I discovered, on removing them, a little hole of 
water about four feet in diameter. To convince myself of a 
supply by the depth of it, I put a short stick into the pit, but 
did not reach the bottom. Content with this, I returned and 
brought the cart up to the place. To enable the oxen to 
drink, we had to form a trough by packing sand round a 
hollow depression in the sandstone rock that formed the bed 
of the watercourse, and ladling the water into this, we brought 
the oxen up by twos, and thus in succession gave the lot a 
good drink all round. 
One of our oxen fell into the mouth of this pit, and it 
was only with considerable difficulty we got him out again. 
The water that had sunk in the pit as we ladled it out rose 
in a short time to its original level, so that before dark we 
were able to give our cattle a second drink. Steele, who was 
inquisitive regarding the nature of this hole, took our twelve- 
feet long whipstick, and passed it down the hole without 
touching bottom ; but the disturbance of this and our ladling 
together fetched up such a foetid stench from the depths that 
we were actually obliged to shift camp for purer air. We had, 
fortunately, filled all our vessels with sweet water from the top 
before this contretemps occurred, and did not mind much what 
caused the stench, as our supply was sufficient to last through 
the dry stretch before us. This little water-hole, which we 
heard afterwards was known as the Lichachane, must have 
a fountain at its base that keeps the level permanent. We 
stayed here during the 10th, occasionally giving the oxen a 
drink of the impure water, which seemed not to disagree with 
them in the least, and on the 11th buckled up for our rush 
across the Pooh-Pooh sand-belts. As a preliminary we made 
a very easy trek to where a track branches off to the left that 
leads to a problematic pan of water called Machakabe, of 
which, as we had no information, we decided to fight shy. This 
