At the north-east end of the lake, at one of the principal creeks I crossed the Mokhotsi river, which flows northwards, and carries off the superfluous water of the shallow salt-pan.
Our way next led through a dense mapani-forest, after which we had to cross a dried-up stream sixty feet wide, and from ten to sixteen feet deep, having a decided fall towards the east, and on account of the fine trees that adorned its banks called by the Masarwas the Shaneng, or beautiful river. Parallel to this was a spruit, which the Dutch hunters called Mapanifontein; it is fed by a number of springs, and as it receives a portion of the water of the Shaneng whenever that stream is overfull, its deeper parts are hardly ever dry at any period of the year. I cannot resist the opinion that the Shaneng is an outlet either of the Zooga river or of the Soa salt-lake, and that it empties itself into the Matliutse or one of its affluents. In the course of the afternoon I killed a great bird that was chasing lizards, known amongst the colonists as the jackal-bird.
Vol. II.
Page 57.
THE SOA SALT LAKE.
Towards the evening of the 23rd Anderson overtook us again, and travelling on together we traversed a wood called the Khori, and passing a deserted Masarwa village near the ford, we arrived in good time next morning in sight of the Soa. This was the third of the Great Salt Lakes. Near it we met some Dutch hunters, on a chase for elephants and ostriches.
Thanks to the dry weather, we were able to cross several spruits that ran in and out the various creeks, a proceeding that after much rain would have been quite impracticable. Having chosen a good position for our camping out, we resolved to stay there until the 27th, as we ascertained that there was excellent drinking-water to be found by digging holes in the bed of the Momotsetlani, a river that flowed through the adjacent wood. According to my habit when halting for any longer time than usual, I made several excursions, in the course of which I shot five ducks, two guinea-fowl, that were in unusually large numbers, and a brown stork, the first example of the kind I had seen.
The Soa is the largest salt-pan in the Great Lake basin, extending westward beyond Lake N’gami, and connected with the Limpopo system by the Shaneng; like the Karri-Karri and Tsitane, it is quite shallow, being only four feet deep; it is grey in colour, and is rarely completely full, indeed a great part of it is quite dry. In order to ascertain the exact relations between the basin and Lake N’gami and the Zooga, it would be necessary to take a series of observations for an entire year; during the rainy season, however, travelling is extremely difficult and the climate is very unhealthy, so that it is easy to account for the task not having been accomplished hitherto. The general uniformity of level of the great central South African basin causes the Zooga at some times to flow east and at others to flow west. When the shallow bed of Lake N’gami is filled by its northern and western feeders it sheds its overflow eastwards down the Zooga to the salt-pans, whence it is carried off by the Shaneng, their natural outlet; on the other hand, if the N’gami should be low, it receives itself the overflow of the Zooga, which in its deep bed, overgrown as it is with weeds, is able for a long period to retain the water received from its many affluents; nor is it impossible that it is likewise occasionally fed by waters running over from the western side of the salt-pans.
It took our team more than three hours after our next start to cross the numerous creeks and smaller pans on the shore of the lake: we came to the end of them, however, in the course of the forenoon, and entered upon a plain stretching northwards as far as the eye could reach, and bounded on the east by a mapani-wood. Herds of game were frequent, but not large. We noticed a good many clumps of reeds, and were not disappointed in the expectation of finding fresh-water in proximity to them, inducing us to rest awhile in the place.