The Kalahari, or Thirst land -Redemption. By E. H. L.
Schwarz. (Cape Town : Ma.skew Miller ; Oxford : Blackwell. 8s. 6d. net.) —Professor Schwarz, who holds the chair of geology at the Rhodes University College and who was the Cape Government Geologist, propounds in this book his scheme for flooding part of the Kalahari Desert and also part of Ovamboland by damming some of the tributaries of the Zambesi. He says that South Africa is drying up, inasmuch as the evaporation is far greater than the rainfall. He adduces the evidence of travellers who a Century ago hunted big game where such animals could no longer exist for lack of water. Lake Ngami even in Livingstone's day was a considerable sheet of water, whereas now it is little more than a mud flat. It began to dry up when the Zambesi burst through the rocks and formed the Victoria Falls. Pro- fessor Schwarz contends that the rainfall would be increased by the artificial formation of large lakes and that in time a large part of South Africa would benefit. He gives no estimate of cost, but suggests that the engineering works required would be comparatively simple. Professor Schwarz is too enthusiastic to be a good advocate, but he knows his subject and makes out a case which deserves consideration. Apartdfrom the irri- gation project, the argument that South Africa is undergoing a process of desiccation may well occasion concern, when we think of what desolate Cyrenaic& and Transcaspia used to be within historic times.
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