AbstractThis paper gives a brief account of the Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) field work in and around the Okavango swamp in N.W. Botswana and the subsequent mapping of the area. The work was carried out between 1968 and 1971 by the DOS Botswana party on behalf of the Botswana Government, and it formed part of a specific United Nations Development Project, an investigation into the potential of the Okavango river and the enormous swamps into which it drains.