of Lake Ngami; and on the 1st of August, 1849, we
went down together to the broad part, and, for the first time, this
fine-looking sheet of water was beheld by Europeans. The direction of
the lake seemed to be N.N.E. and S.S.W. by compass. The southern portion
is said to bend round to the west, and to receive the Teoughe from the
north at its northwest extremity. We could detect no horizon where we
stood looking S.S.W., nor could we form any idea of the extent of the
lake, except from the reports of the inhabitants of the district; and,
as they professed to go round it in three days, allowing twenty-five
miles a day would make it seventy-five, or less than seventy
geographical miles in circumference. Other guesses have been made since
as to its circumference, ranging between seventy and one hundred miles.
It is shallow, for I subsequently saw a native punting his canoe over
seven or eight miles of the northeast end; it can never, therefore,
be of much value as a commercial highway. In fact, during the months
preceding the annual supply of water from the north, the lake is so
shallow that it is with difficulty cattle can approach the water through
the boggy, reedy banks. These are low on all sides, but on the west
there is a space devoid of trees, showing that the waters have retired
thence at no very ancient date. This is another of the proofs of
desiccation met with so abundantly throughout the whole country. A
number of dead trees lie on this space, some of them imbedded in the
mud, right in the water. We were informed by the Bayeiye, who live on
the lake, that when the annual inundation begins, not only trees of
great size, but antelopes, as the springbuck and tsessebe ('Acronotus
lunata'), are swept down by its rushing waters; the trees are gradually
driven by the winds to the opposite side, and become imbedded in mud.

The water of the lake is perfectly fresh when full, but brackish when
low; and that coming down the Tamunak'le we found to be so clear, cold,
and soft, the higher we ascended, that the idea of melting snow was
suggested to our minds. We found this region, with regard to that from
which we had come, to be clearly a hollow, the lowest point being
Lake Kumadau; the point of the ebullition of water, as shown by one of
Newman's barometric thermometers, was only between 207-1/2 Deg. and 206
Deg., giving an elevation of not much more than two thousand feet above
the level of the sea. We had descended above