ecomes very broad, and spreads out into a large lake, of which the
lake we were now in search of formed but a very small part. We observed
that, wherever an ant-eater had made his hole, shells were thrown out
with the earth, identical with those now alive in the lake.

When we left the Mokoko, Ramotobi seemed, for the first time, to be at a
loss as to which direction to take. He had passed only once away to the
west of the Mokoko, the scenes of his boyhood. Mr. Oswell, while riding
in front of the wagons, happened to spy a Bushwoman running away in a
bent position, in order to escape observation. Thinking it to be a
lion, he galloped up to her. She thought herself captured, and began to
deliver up her poor little property, consisting of a few traps made of
cords; but, when 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 leading 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 this salt-pan, which is twenty
miles in circumference, entirely from the view of a person coming from
the southeast; 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 like a lake. Oswell threw his hat up
in the air at the sight, and shouted out a huzza which made the poor
Bushwoman and the Bakwains think him mad. I was a little behind him, 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 little
chagrined that he had, unintentionally, got the first glance. We had
no idea that the long-looked-for lake wa