The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-21
THE KAI.AHARI DESERT.

At recent meeting of the Geological society here. a very interesting lecture was given by Dr. Passarge on the lime stone basins of the Kalahari, those pe- culiar formations in which the influence of higher animal life on the shape of the earth's surface can be traced. Those basins are crater-like depressions in the earth, which are to be found in parts of the Kalahari desert where graywacke rocks occur. These rocks are some times covered with tufaceous limestone and calcareous deposits, and it is in this layer that tht basins are formed. Their size is about a few hundred metres in diameter, and they are surrounded by steep walls varying in height, but not exceeding ten metres. The basins are filled with spring water and their bot
 toms are covered with a calcareous mud. There is an entrance only at one point to such a basin, and this is sur rounded by blocks of limestone. These basins naturally served as watering places for the wild animals of the des- ert, and as the Kalahari formerly swarmed with large game, the rush at night time or in the dry seasons to these basins was enormous. The Kalahari is by no means devoid of vegetation, but is covered with plants, which, it is true, wither or die during the dry season, but afford the animals excellent food dur ing the rainy seasons. The district was formerly populated by large herds of elephant, rhinoceros, antelope, giraffe, spread all over the country, for water pools, so-called fleets were to be found everywhere then.
 The time when these animals were so abundant has unfortunately passed away; the inexcusable slaughter carried on after the discovery of the Ngami Lake by Livingstone soon exterminated the game. Tn the year 1849 over five hundred elephants were killed on a small river flowing into the lake The sporting adventurers of that time killed everything, without exception. that they came across. The crowding of the game to the watering places, which served the animals not only for drink ing, but also for bathing purposes (ele- plants and other animals delight to roll in mud, gave the besins, which were probably only simple depressions origi- nally, their present shape. Through the rolling and other movements of the am imals' the ground was stirred up, and every beast took away from his bath a certain amount of calartous mud on his body. Thus the following cut was caused Elephants and other animals have the habit of rubbing themselves along rough places, and, therefore, the walls of the basins were gradually rubbed until they received their present steepness. The water itself contains lime carbonate in solution, and with the water drunk by the animals this car- bonate disappeared, and the fresh spring water absorbed another supply from the rock; thus deepening the de- pression.
 E Dr. Passarge calculated that the ba- sins had cubic capacity of from fifteen hundred to twenty thousand cubic me- tres, according to their size, so that from six to eight hundred years may have passed before the water pools be- came basins. Many basins have ter races on their banks, probably in conse- quence of gradual drying up of the basin The lecturer assumed that the climate of South Africa must formerly have been much moister Further de- tails of the long migrations of the anil malls and of their water requirements, which Dr. Passarge gave, were very irl- teresting. The draught oxen of an Eng fish police detachment broke loose dur ing the night at the beginning of the rainy season, and were recaptured at a water basin which was further away from the camp than Berlin is from Hamburg. The animals had galloped the whole distance Wild animals are capable of still greater feats. Accord ing to Investigations made at the Zoo- logical Gardens in Berlin, an elephant drinks one hundred and fifty to two hundred litres. of water daily, a rhinoce- ros one hundred and twenty litres, an antelope from two to fourteen litres, a giraffe fourteen litres, as dromedary twelve HtreS a buffalO tnlrIy-Slx lures, oxen twenty four litres, donkeys and zebras fifteen to sixteen litres, etc. An imals moving about the desert would naturally drink much more. After a march, when the oxen and donkeys of a caravan had to go without water for over forty-eight hours. the donkeys drank fifty litres, and the oxen one hun- dred litres each. Tn the evening of the same day the amount drank by the anil mals fell by half In a discussion which followed, it was stated that, according to old pictures, large herds of buffaloes must also have inhabited the Kalahari formerly. It was also suggested that similar Impressions in calcareous dis triets of the American prairies are due, in the same way, to the enormous herds of bisons which formerly inhabited them.-Berlin Correspondence of he