visited. It is common likewise in Central South Africa. The francolins live either in pairs or in small coveys, and the cock would appear to be a most watchful guardian, not only calling out upon any approach of danger, but even whilst scratching the ground for food, and on retiring to a tree to roost; the habit of crying out whenever it perches, makes it an easy prey to the sportsman.
On the 18th we passed a shallow salt-pan, nearly elliptical in shape, about two feet deep, and some hundred yards in its greater length; it contained a very salt, milky-looking fluid. When the weather is dry, fresh water is only to be found in some pools in the rocks at the northern end. The lake lay still and silent in a slight depression in the forest, surrounded by a broad band of bright green sward; neither rushes nor water-lilies rose above its surface, but its shores, sloping gently down, were covered by trees and bushwood, in some parts so impenetrable that only the fleet little duykerbock would have a chance of making its way between the stems; in other places low acacia bushes sprouted up below the underwood from a single stock; flowers were abundant everywhere, and the whole scene was like a dead sea set in the midst of a fragrant and richly-wooded tract of land.
As a mark of esteem for the magnanimous king of the Bamangwatos, I gave this lake the name of Khame’s Salt-pan. On the shore I found fragments of greenstone and chalcedony, and further back, amongst the thorn-bushes, quartzite and limestone.
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