ETOSHA PAM

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11835, 17 January 1933, Page 3

ETOSHA PAM

NATURE MAKES A GRAVEYARD

, In‘the northern part of the mandated ■ territory of. ■ South-west Africa •are more tsliaft 100,000 square miles of almost unexplored country, 1 in iho heart ;of - w-hiph’-' lies ■ one' of. the - most .mysterious (and/haunting spots to he found -in the Empire ’ (writes Basil •Fuller in the -"Melbourne Argus’’). Etosha Pan, which translated means "The Lake of Slime/’ is about 75 miles in length and 50‘ miles in breadth. • probably’ the only- animal ecniete ry of - its kin d ill ■ the' world, it. is' Ithe home- of death and . desolation ■for 'man and beast , alike. The illrepute- of Etosha Pan has . travelled far. among the African natives, who believe: tlie place to he haunted by evil spirits, and :by the souls of hundreds of- lost travellers. Even' many hard-headed 'Boers shudder when the name ;is-mentioned.

■: Approached by moonlight from the north-east-the pan presents a terrifying spectacle. The. corner of a hill is turned, and suddenly the traveller seees before him a vast expense of . flat country which .Nature has chosen io use as a- ghastly..cemetery. ‘Thousands of bleached animal skeletons gleam in .the moonlight; skeletons ■which seem unable' to rest even in death, for many still stand in the tortured attitudes caused by. frantic efforts to escape scores and even'hundreds of years ago. Grinning and naked stands the-gruesome army. Far into -Hie distance extends the Pan, •hut .its victims--are gathered most thickly near the edge of the firm ground which they thoughtlessly deserted. If you are wise you will not venture upon, thv. Pan to 1 -investigate its. gruesome, harden- at closer -quarters, for if you do your'feet may he caught in the slime, and another skeleton will soon. t>e added to the array that already testifies to the peril of the mud lake. Skeletons of almost every creature known to Africa may he seen from some spot on the hush-lined fringe. The slime is sufficiently stiff, to maintain the bodies once all struggles have ceased. They stand distorted and still as if about to answer some ghostly challenge from the wilds. Seen by starlight the hleadied hopes gleam hideously, and the scene is reminiscent of the more eerie of the works of Gustave Dore. There is one skeleton which dominates them all. Once it belonged to a giant, elephant. Probably the poor beast perished quickly, for considering what his bulk must I'ave been lie sank hut little into the slime. lie stands a short distance beyond the end of a spit of firm ground that juts out into the swamp. His tusks arc huge and in good condition, hut valuable though they, he no native can he persuaded to become party to a plan to rob the skeleton. An ok) hunter told me that he once asked his "hoys” to retrieve them for him. hut the blacks refused, saying that they did not fear the swamp—for could not the white man devise means of overcoming its treachery?—hut rather the spirits that inhabited it. So. the skeleton of. the giant. . elephant remained unmolested. Etosha Pan has mysteries other than its skeleton army. The westerii. side is mountainous, and by this road passed the waggon of many an. adventurous Boor who preferred the dangers-of the great unexplored lif® in a country’ ruled by-foreigners who would not allow him to keep the slaves who were so important a part of IBs wealth. Many waggons-arrived at Etosha Pan,- hut nob all passed on. Perhaps the Boers ’ were unwary enough to try to traverse the difficult country in their heavy vehicles by night—surely a most unlikely enterprise for experienced dwellers on the veldt. At all .events, the story goes that sunk deep somewhere in Etosha Pan. are many waggons and their luckless occupants. Is it surprising that this gruesome spot is seldom visited? Yet these are but- a few of the stories that might, ho told about the lake of slime.