KALAHARI (ki-la-hii're) DESERT, a region of South Africa, extending from the Orange River to Lake Ngami, and from Ion. 26° E. nearly to the west coast; situated in the Cape Province, Rhodesia, and German Southwest Africa. It occupies an elevation of 3,000 to 4,000 feet, and is called a desert be cause it contains little water; but besides grass and creeping plants there are large growths of bushes, and also trees; great herds of antelopes roam over its plains; and on the game thus provided, as well as on the vegetable products, particularly water-melons and large tubers, a great number of Bushmen and Bakalahari sub sist. The Kalahari is remarkably fiat, and is intersected in different parts by the beds of an cient rivers. The soil is in general a light colored soft sand, but in the ancient river-beds there is a good deal of alluvium, which, v, hen baked hard, is so retentive that in some cases pools formed by the rain contain water for several months.
Recent studies have brought to light very interesting facts regarding the limestone basins of this region — peculiar formations, in which can be traced the influence of higher animal life on the shape of the earth's surface. These
crater-like depressions served as watering places for the larger wild animals, and the crowding of great herds to these places, to drink and bathe, changed them from simple depressions to the walled basins which they now are. Elephants and other animals, by roll ing in the mud and rubbing against the walls, gave to the hollows their depth — sometimes 20 to 30 feet — and a diameter commonly of sev eral hundred yards. The water in these basins contain lime carbonate in solution and with the water drunk by the animals this carbonate dis appeared, and the fresh spring-water absorbed another supply from the rock, thus deepening the depression. Scientists estimate that 600 to 800 years may have passed before the natural water-pools became basins. It is surmised that similar depressions in calcareous districts of the American prairies are due, in the same way, to the enormous herds of bisons which formerly inhabit them.