ABSTRACT
A basement complex of Archaean rocks is covered by the Kalahari Sands, the wind-blown sand deposits of a late Tertiary desert, which form a deep mantle over the greater part of Barotseland. West of the upper Zambezi they extend as vast table-like plains which are waterlogged in the rains but become waterless prairies in the dry season, and are therefore almost uninhabited. Farther south, at about the middle course of the Zambezi, there is a central zone of loose sands of even less relief, their surface pitted with circular depressions, probably of Aeolian origin, which are sunk between low sand ridges. These pans, generally only a mile or two across, are favourite centres for settlement.
