Chapter XIII: Water, and the Sap of Plants (1)

{Locality for water.}

The whole success of an expedition and the preservation of the lives of those composing it have not unfrequently depended on the obtainment of this precious fluid; and, as its importance to the traveller is vital, so the sources from which it is to be obtained are numerous. Rivers, lakes, springs, and rain pools are the most common and obvious, needing no comment here. Showers of rain often yield a considerable quantity, which may be caught in sails or sheets spread for the purpose, selecting those which are free from the perspiration of men or animals. Deep clefts among rocks and ravines often contain a great deal, and the cliffs by the sea-shore, although there are no rivulets to be discovered, frequently contain cracks and crevices, through which water runs and loses itself in the sand.

The beds of apparently dried-up watercourses should be always explored carefully, as high up as possible, and the stones at the bottom of the deepest pools lifted out, and their resting places examined. A piece of woollen cloth, a sponge, or a bunch of soft moss, will much facilitate the withdrawal of chance finds in such places. Spots of low ground, on which reeds, rushes, or other water plants are found, should be carefully examined, and their depths probed with a strong sharp-pointed stick.

The tracks of wild animals are often valuable guides to water; but careful examination is needed lest the searcher should take the back track, and go from, instead of towards, it. A sharp lookout overhead towards evening will often be rewarded by a sight of the flocks of wild-fowl or other birds winging their way towards the drinking places. Baggage animals and dogs at times show extraordinary instinct in finding pools and springs where they are least expected to exist. We have also seen Indians apparently guided by some singular faculty to its neighbourhood. In most countries some particular kind of tree will be met with generally associated with the presence of water, and growing near it.

Should moisture be discovered a hole should be at once dug by loosening the earth and gravel with the stick, and then clearing out the hole with the hand, a small "well" as deep as the arm is long, may be very rapidly made in this manner: Well hardening the point of the digging stick in the fire will add much to its efficiency, and is much better than a mere pointing with a sharp instrument. Where the soil is of a loose character and the sides of the well likely to fall in, a long bundle of reeds or rushes should be bound together and thrust down. Holes of this kind may be long preserved as drinking places by making up a round ball of slender twigs just sufficiently large to fit the hole, ramming it firmly to the bottom, then placing a bamboo or other hollow tube long enough to reach a couple of feet or so above the surface, and then filling in the hole with earth and pressing the whole well down. The water is thus preserved from evaporation, and can be sucked freely through the tube. At times it will be found to flow up the tube and run over, or a second tube may be put in to blow through, when the water can be caught in any convenient vessel by boring a hole through a bit of bark for the upper end of the tube to fit into, thus forming a shoot for it to run off through, as in the above illustration.

When horses or cattle have to be watered from a pool or "well" of any size, and the water is any distance below the surface, the old expedient of the lever and post, so common all through Egypt and most Eastern countries, will be found an exceedingly useful one. (See the following full-page illustration.) When travelling through Central India, where the wells are often very large and deep, we used to find our small brass "lota pot," which was carried strapped fast to the front of the saddle, with a long coil of whipcord stowed away in it to lower and raise by, of great service.

Drinking troughs for cattle are conveniently made from hollow tree trunks, sheets of bark with the ends nipped up, or by digging a trench in the ground and placing a piece of canvas or an indiarubber ground sheet in it. In watering cattle from contrivances of this kind two separate herds should be formed, consisting of those which have to drink and those which have drunk, letting them up one at a time, and keeping back the rest. Much confusion and irregularity are thus avoided, and you are sure that each animal has had its share.

{Water, to find.}

We can only give a few general hints on searching for water. Perhaps the surest way is if there are natives in the country to make friends of them, not by hurriedly and lavishly forcing upon them presents--costly, it may be, to the giver, but valueless to them--but by quietly waiting to see what they value, and giving it in moderate quantities, as if the donor knew its worth as well as they. Half a stick of tobacco, a short pipe, a sixpenny knife, or cotton handkerchief, blue spotted with white, or a few strings of beads of the kind they value--generally white, red, blue, or black opaque seed beads--will gain their good will better than useless tinsel or gewgaws of ten times the cost; while a Dutch brass-barrelled tinder-box, with flint and steel, value 1_s._ or 1_s._ 6_d._, becomes far in the interior an article of such value that it ought not to be given except as a reward for real service. Extravagant liberality will only be attributed to fear, more especially if haste accompanies it; therefore, it is wise to spend a little time before making even the preliminary offer of a pipeful of tobacco, and more before giving the real present and making known what is desired in return. But in reality the traveller will save time, and when he does ask for water the native will bring him a supply, or point out where to obtain it; whereas, were he to open the negotiations by hurriedly demanding information, the natives would become suspicious of his motive, and would in the first instance tell him a lie in order to throw him off the scent and gain time to discover his supposed intentions.

In the absence of native guides, converging footpaths of men or animals will probably lead to a pool. Most antelopes drink every day, but this is not the case with the gemsbok or the eland, the last of which never drinks, or, if it ever does, the instances are quite exceptional.

As before stated, the flight of birds morning and evening should also be watched, but this, however, is not always an infallible sign, as we have seen cockatoos drinking water so black that we could not use it; but when, as we have also seen, even the parrots desert an island before sunset it becomes tolerably certain that no water will be found upon it.

Depressions on the ground should be followed, and additional freshness of vegetation carefully sought for. An iron ramrod may be thrust into the ground when there is any chance of dampness below the surface, and the traveller should make himself acquainted with the peculiar plants of the country which grow near the water. The pandanus, or screw pine of Australia, is one of these.

In savage countries the labour of seeking and digging for water falls principally on the women, who usually make use of a fire-hardened grubbing stick for working a hole in the ground. The stick is loaded with a perforated stone of several pounds weight to give additional force to each stroke, and as the soil is loosened it is cleared out by the insertion of the hand and arm, using the bent fingers as a scoop. Use is also made of a stick split to about 12in. or 15in. from the end, and this, when worked down into soft soil, catches and brings up a quantity in the cleft, and this being shaken out upon one side the stick is again clear and fit to bring up more. A bamboo cane, with the end split up into several filaments, is used for the same purpose by the natives of India.

Where only salt or saline water is to be obtained recourse may be had to distillation, which may serve, as it has done in many well-authenticated cases, to at least save the lives of the human beings and dogs of a party. Little hope could, however, be entertained of being enabled by this means to supply the wants of cattle or horses.

{Makeshift still.}

A "still" may be very easily made from any vessel which will stand fire, such as one of the copper water barrels hereafter described, or even a common cooking pot and a gun barrel (single or double), a hollow bamboo with the knots removed, or, in fact, any hollow tube. If a pot is used, a stout heavy wooden cover must be fitted to it, through which two holes are to be cut--one at the side for the barrel or tube, and the other a bung-hole at the top, which must have a stopper fitted securely to it, and is used to introduce the water as it becomes exhausted. This saves the trouble of removing the cover, and thus disturbing the other arrangements. The annexed illustration will serve to explain the nature of a contrivance of this kind. The boat-shaped box resting on the forked sticks is made of bark, pinned at the ends with wooden pins. This is filled with a couple of woollen blankets or a quantity of moss, or even seaweed. The barrel passes directly through the centre, and is kept cold by constantly throwing cold water over it. The fresh water runs out through the hole from which the nipple is unscrewed, and is caught in any suitable vessel; and the waste salt water through holes bored in the bark for the purpose. Many modifications of this plan might, of course, be had recourse to, but this will be found about as convenient as any. Barrels, or hooped vessels of any kind, are about the very worst that can be taken into a wild country, as the hoops come off as the wood shrinks, causing leaks and endless trouble.

{Copper water flasks.}

For carrying water on the backs of animals a pair of thin sheet copper flasks (20in. long, 12in. broad, and 8in. thick) will be found exceedingly convenient. These should have broad and strong loops soldered on to pass leather straps and lashings through, and in using water it should be taken alternately to preserve an even balance. The bung-holes should be at the ends and have a stout raised ring round them, through which a hole is drilled; through this a pin is run, passing through a corresponding hole in the wooden stopper, thus keeping it secure. These flasks, when made, should be thoroughly tinned inside. They are useful for a number of purposes. Water can be boiled in them as well as carried. They can, on an emergency, be converted into a "still," as before stated, and when corked up air-tight are a great support to a raft. One at each end of an outrigger pole renders the upsetting of a canoe or float log next to impossible. No knocking about hurts them, and should at any time a leak be discovered a bit of solder puts the matter to rights at once.

{Water skins and pails.}

Next in value to flasks, perhaps, come leather mussacks, of the description used in the East. They can be made of any size, and, when injured or pricked, as they sometimes are by sharp sticks or thirsty niggers, they are readily repaired for the time by pinching up a piece of leather at the orifice and passing a sharp-pointed stick through, over which a clove hitch (see "Knots and Hitches") may be secured. A patch may be sewn on when there is time to do it, just as a cobbler mends a shoe. But bear in mind that, instead of the ordinary thread or hempen cord used in mending or making leather utensils or articles in this country, a dry carefully-cut leather thong should be used instead, as when once in place it swells from the action of the water on it, and completely fills the holes through which it has been passed, thereby preventing leakage.

In Mongolia they use a very useful pail or bucket for carrying water. It has a head fixed into it much like that of an ordinary barrel, and there are two openings or bung-holes; one tolerably large on one side, just below the edge of the head, and another through the head itself. In these orifices wooden plugs or stoppers are fitted, and, when water is to be poured out, the stopper in the head is just eased like the vent peg of a cask, so that air may be admitted; when the stopper is taken out the larger hole freely discharges the water, which would not run without the vent-peg arrangement.

During the year 1865, when we had entered the Victoria River, North Australia, and the _Tom Tough_ was still drifting, in daily danger of breaking up upon the sand-banks, we had become tired of carrying water overland from distant pools to supply 140 sheep; and, considering that if our inflatable boat (p. 48) would hold air to float upon the water she would also hold fresh water to float in salt, we determined to seek supplies farther up the river; and putting the four sections into the schooner's gig, we sailed or pulled alternately thirty or forty miles up the river, till the entire cessation of the mangroves and the appearance of the pandanus, or screw pine, upon the banks and islands showed that we were above the influence of the tide and in a stream of permanently fresh water.

{Canoe water-transport.}

We halted at Palm Island, and, choosing a place where the water was a little more than knee deep, we threw the inflatable sections overboard, and, fixing the bellows in the valves, held them beneath the surface and pumped water into them, just as we would have pumped air had we required them for boats. We did not quite fill them with water, but forced in a little air to give them buoyancy, and, at the same time, to preserve their shape. In towing them, however, the pressure of the water caused the foremost ends to assume a wedge-like form, while the water and air, being forced aft, carried all the buoyancy thither, and they went down head-foremost. We remedied this by cutting a long spar and lashing them to it, making fast also an indiarubber mattress to the parts most liable to go down.

Tedious enough was our voyage down the river. To make anything like speed with such a drag astern of the boat was impossible, either with oars or sails; and during the heat of the day we found the cement of the bags beginning to soften and give way. They had been warranted to stand 170°; but, testing them by the thermometer, the internal heat was only 120°. We gathered up the defective part, knotted it with a bit of twine, and laced the bag along the gunwale of our boat--keeping her in trim by lacing its fellow on the other side--leaving only one pair to be towed astern. The extensive shallows, where for half a mile on a stretch the river percolated through rather than flowed over broad banks of angularly-broken stones, caused us considerable labour and anxiety lest some sharper point than usual should pierce our bags and deprive us of the fruit of all our toil. We found, however, that they yielded kindly to the varying pressure; and we rolled them, one by one, over the successive reaches--working for hours together through the night, and frequently in pools in which we saw alligators, and sometimes sharks of considerable size.

Our week's work, however, toilsome as it was, resulted in a supply of 600 or 800 gallons of fresh water, tasting somewhat of indiarubber, but still available for the sheep. This supply we could have obtained in no other manner.

{Ships' water-bags.}

Water-bags for ship use may be made of stout No. 1 canvas. They should be of oblong form, about 2ft. long by 18in. wide. They should be in two thicknesses--the inside or lining being kept perfectly clean, and the outer one previously oiled with good boiled linseed oil and allowed to dry before it is made up, so as to keep the inner canvas as free from taint as possible. Generally the canvas is wetted with salt water, and then hung up till it is wind dry, or just so damp that no water will drip from it. It is then considered to be capable of absorbing just so much oil as will suffice to render it waterproof without clogging it or making it unpleasant to handle when it is dry. A sufficiently stout rope should be stitched round the seam of the bag; beckets or loops should be left in it at the four corners for convenience of handling; and a wooden tube or stopper should be inserted, and firmly seized in with small cord at one corner.

These bags are most convenient when a supply of water is needed on any emergency, especially if the landing be difficult or dangerous, or the inhabitants hostile. They occupy no room in the boat while empty. The oarsman may pull in unencumbered through the surf; or, if it is necessary to fight, the riflemen may use their weapons. When the landing is effected each carrier may seize his bag, sling it over his shoulder with a lanyard, and experience no hindrance until he actually fills it, when, of course, the weight of the water will become a burden. The bags will lie flat in the boat's bottom, accommodating their form to that of the space they occupy. If it is necessary to carry sail they serve as ballast; and even were the boat to fill, they would not sink her, but, as fresh water is of somewhat less specific gravity than salt, would, if secured by bottom boards laid over them and beneath the thwarts, help to keep her up; and on this account they would form the most eligible ballast for boats on separate service, and even for pleasure boats on excursions, where they might not be in actual need of a large supply of fresh water.

{Calabashes, horns, and egg-shells.}

Cattle horns serve in South Africa for powder-flasks or water vessels, some, especially among the Bechuana tribes, being 13ft. from tip to tip, and capable of containing several gallons each; while the Hottentots use them to hold honey beer, and the Abyssinians for "tedge" or mead. A calabash, or gourd, is used by most of the natives of South Africa, as well as many other countries, as a water vessel. It is light, water-tight, not very easily broken, and even if an unfortunate fracture should take place the natives repair it by boring holes on either side the crack, pointing them diagonally towards each other, so that, by giving a slight turn to the point of the sinew used for thread, they either pass it through the next hole or bring it so near that it may be caught, crochet fashion, by a fine thorn or a crook-pointed needle. The leakage is stopped by a little grease and clay rubbed into the holes. A calabash with a long neck may be cut so as to form a spoon or ladle. Others of smaller size are used as snuff-boxes, or receptacles for many trifles; and in some parts of Turkey calabashes are used for powder flasks. An ostrich's egg-shell with a net worked tightly round it makes a good water-bottle.

{Bladders and paunches.}

The bladders, or paunches, of slain animals are very generally used as water vessels. If an animal has drunk recently water may be found in its stomach. We have quenched our thirst with the milk of a blesbok doe as she lay dead, though not yet cold, upon the plain.

We have often seen our followers, when a buffalo or other animal has been killed, take out the paunch, shake out its contents, and hasten with it to the nearest stream, where, with barely a preparatory rinsing, they would fill it with water quite clean enough for their idea of culinary operation; and, calling on the nearest native resident, would invite him to bring his pots with him and assist in cooking the banquet.

Sometimes the paunch scraped thin is suspended by thongs passed through like purse strings. Occasionally two mimosa thorns, which are not unfrequently 4in. or 5in. long, or a couple of skewers, are thrust through and the cord tightened round under them. If a small hole should be found, it may be stopped by putting a somewhat larger pebble upon the place, gathering the skin around it, and then tying the neck firmly with a cord; or the edges may be skewered together with a thorn, and the neck bound tightly with cord.

When a rhinoceros has fallen we have seen the Damara women carefully extract the long intestines, distend them with air, and bring them home coiled round their bodies, to be used thereafter as water vessels.

{Waterproof baskets.}

The Kafirs on the frontier of the Cape Colony plait baskets of so fine a texture that they employ them for holding milk and even water; but it is better that they should become saturated with the first before they are used for the latter, as, though they swell while wet and are perfectly tight, pure water would dry out with the heat from the fibre of an empty basket, and the consequent shrinking of the texture would make it leaky.

We have seen most elegant and serviceable baskets made in Timor of the leaves of the fan palm. The ends of all the spreading leaflets are gathered together in a point, and a cord of twisted fibre is passed as a handle from this point to the stump of the footstalk. A pair of these baskets, holding two or three gallons each, are slung to the ends of a bamboo, and the bearer taking this across his shoulder carries water, or sometimes palm juice, about the town. The latter refreshing beverage is sold at a doit per cup; the cup itself being made of a smaller palm leaf, and also purchasable for a doit or two.

At Walvisch Bay, in South-West Africa, where rain falls perhaps once in two years, and the river runs with fresh water once in ten, there is a small water hole called Sand Fountain. This is about four miles from the landing place, and the water was, and perhaps still is, brought by two or more Hottentots dragging a cask fitted up like a garden roller, with the pivots set firmly into stout cross-pieces nailed or screwed upon each end of the cask.

Shafts of wood, with holes bored in them to fit upon the pivots, may be used as means of traction, or, if more convenient, ropes with thimbles or grummets turned in the ends for the same purpose; but in this case the trek ropes should be kept apart by a horizontal bar that they may not chafe upon the chine of the cask. It will also be advantageous to fit on felloe-pieces, near each end, so as to form a substitute for wheels, on which the cask may travel, and this will save a great deal of wear and tear should the country be rough or stony.

A larger cask mounted on the after wheels of a waggon, and fitted with chocks on a frame lying on the axle is useful.

{Camp filter.}

Filtering bags can be made of woollen or other cloth. An excellent and convenient camp filter is thus made: Take a wooden box or barrel, long and deep. Bore a number of holes in the bottom, fasten in a blanket bag, and then place a layer of grass, small twigs, or moss on the bottom, over the holes; then a layer of sand; then a thick bed of coarse lumps of charcoal; then fresh layers of grass or moss, until the box or barrel is about half filled. Then fashion a false head or cover, making it just large enough to move up and down the cask or box freely; burn or bore a number of holes in it, and, when fitted in, press it firmly down on the arrangement below, and drive a few nails in above to keep it from rising. When this contrivance is partially sunk in a pond or lake the water will ascend to the upper compartment above the false head, from which it can be dipped or drawn for use.

Another useful barrel filter can be made by knocking both the heads out of a small cask, boring it full of gimlet holes, placing it on a thick layer of charcoal and pebbles in a larger cask, also bored full of holes, and then filling in all the space between the outer and inner barrels with the mixture, as shown in the above illustration.

The following is an expedient easily extemporised and frequently used in damp soils, where water is scarce. A quantity of grass is tied up in a wisp, or plaited into a bag; two reeds are inserted in this--one as a suction tube, and the other to admit air; and the apparatus is buried wherever a sufficiency of moisture is likely to permeate the soil.

The annexed illustration shows a very common expedient. Suppose the waters of a river to be excessively turbid: a well may be dug in the bank at any convenient distance, and the water that collects in it will at least be much clearer than that of the river. Of course none of these modes will correct chemical impurity.

{Hints on springs.}

We have heard it said that even sea-water by filtration through a considerable mass of sand will lose much of its saltness and become drinkable, and that, by digging wells at some distance from the margin of the beach, it may be obtained with a very small amount of brackishness. We should like to hear a well-authenticated instance of this, in which there could be no doubt that the sea-water had been thus purified, and that the diggers had not in fact struck upon a stratum moistened by the inland drainage, and rendered more or less brackish by meeting with the sea-water.

We have known a remarkable instance of the discovery of a spring of fresh water in the immediate vicinity of the salt. In 1855, while attached to the North-Australian Expedition, we had great difficulty in supplying the sheep carried by our schooner, _Tom Tough_, with water. We made one trip up the Victoria River, with indiarubber bags--and this we purpose to notice more fully under its proper heading--and searched the country on either side the river in all directions. We found many little pools in shady hollows of rock, or of alluvial soil, marking the course the rivulets would take in the rainy season, and many of them decked with waterlilies. But these were too distant to be of service to us, and we again examined the country in our vicinity. In one cleft of rock we found a pint or two of water, and with a long twig and the broken shell of a gouty stem fruit we drew up enough to allay our thirst; but after traversing the arid ridges for hours we were returning unsuccessfully, when, passing at half-tide along the muddy margin of the river where a bold projecting headland forbade us any other path, Mr. Gregory noticed a little water collected in a hollow of the mud around a boulder. We thought at first it was only the drainage of the retiring tide, but on tasting it, we coincided in his opinion that it was not salt water. We set to work with our hands and cleared away the mud and brackish slime till, having reached a stratum too hard for our fingers' ends, we rested, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing a small threadlike streamlet of clear water forcing its way through the muddy sediment. In a few minutes nearly half a pint of fresh water had collected, and, having satisfied ourselves of the value of our discovery, we returned to our schooner, and, putting a couple of puncheons in the long boat, waited till the turn of the next tide, and dropped down with the ebb to the headland. Our well was not yet uncovered, but we began to work as soon as the water fell below our knees, greatly to the astonishment of our Dutch sailor, who could hardly find terms strong enough to express it. "Allamagtig," said he over and over again, "have I lived so long in this world that I must come to dig for fresh water underneath the salt!" We made a fire on the uncovered boulder to give us light, at no small risk of injury from the splitting off of heated fragments; and, removing as many large stones as we could, cleared out a spring of perfectly pure fresh water, abundant enough to fill both our puncheons before the tide again rose high enough to cover it. Nor was this a transient phenomenon, for the next year, before we left the river, we again cleared out the "Gregory" well and filled all the casks of our vessel for her voyage. The sketch represents very nearly the locality in question; the high-water level is shown by the upper horizontal line, and the half-tide by the lower one, and that of the well is observable between them.

A makeshift filter can be made as follows: A small reed is inserted into a walnut shell, or any other receptacle of about the same size, pierced with small holes, and packed, not too tightly, with hemp, cotton, coir sponge, or other porous material; it is then placed in the shell of a cocoa-nut, an ostrich's egg, or tin pannikin of any kind, and the interval between the two moderately packed with charcoal made either from wood or, still better, bones, with any fibrous material, and a mixture of sand or gravel. This is plunged beneath the water, and the tube being taken into the mouth, a little suction does all the rest. The shank or wing-bone of a crane, a stork, or albatross, may be used as a tube in the same manner.

The Bushmen of South Africa always carry one or more suction reeds in the quiver with their arrows, and, whenever the water is surrounded by banks so steep that the lips cannot conveniently reach the surface, lie down and suck the water through the tube. When there is only damp soil they dig a hole, and, wrapping up the end of the reed in a tuft of grass, they bury it, and suck the water that filters through. But as the Bushwoman fills the ostrich's egg-shells, to be carried away for home consumption, she takes another reed, or often merely a bit of grass or straw, as a conductor, and spirts the water along it from the other side of her mouth into the shell. The orifice is then plugged with a wisp of grass; and, a dozen or more of the shells being packed in a net, she takes them on her back and marches, perhaps, many a mile to deposit them wherever the men require water.

{Grass filters.}

Sometimes the Bushmen take a good handful of grass, and lash it very tightly up at the taper end, leaving the butt spreading and at liberty; in fact, they tie it on exactly the opposite principle to that on which a broom or birch rod is made. They dip the large end into the muddy pool, and then allow the water to drip from the taper end into their mouths if they have no other vessel at hand to receive it. Often, when the mud is composed mainly of vegetable matter, and is too light to separate and fall to the bottom of a pannikin as sediment, this is about the best way of clearing it.

Many plants, like the aloe in South Africa, or others whose leaves point upward and have a cup-shaped cavity at their junction with the stalk, retain a considerable quantity of water after rains; and some seem to have the power of imbibing moisture from the air, even though no rain falls.

Rain-water is collected at sea by spreading the ship's awnings, and hanging buckets under them by means of sail hooks; these, of course, depress that part of the canvas to which they are hooked on; the water flows towards it, and runs down the lanyard into the bucket.

In situations where a good supply of reeds is to be obtained a tolerably effective contrivance for water-clearing may be made as follows: Cut enough reeds to form a bundle as large as a six-gallon barrel; lay them evenly, with their heads one way and their cut ends the other. Now cut three long slender poles or rods; form them into hoops by lashing their ends with cord, raw hide, or a few creepers, and then secure them round the bundle of reeds, as shown in the following illustration. The reed cylinder, if properly made, should be firm, compact, and capable of standing alone like a cask. It should now have a bowl-shaped depression cut in its centre, and be placed in the foul water, and secured there by driving a stout rough pole down through the centre of the depression. The bottom of the reed cylinder may or may not touch the bottom. In deep water it remains hung, or, rather, impaled on the pole in such a way that about 6in. of the cut ends of the reeds are above the surface. The water will quickly fill the depression, out of which it may be dipped with a cup or other vessel.

The Indian water-carriers spread a piece of thick native cloth over the mouth of an earthen chatty pot, and then pour the tank water on it until the vessel is full, when the contents are transferred to the leather "mussac," or water-bag. We have often had recourse to this expedient on a small scale, and made use of our brass lota pot, with a double silk handkerchief spread over its mouth, to strain off impurities.

{Clearing nut.}

Turbid water is cleared to some extent by placing a piece of common alum in it. A lump the size of a common nutmeg will be found sufficient to throw down a heavy sediment from a pailful of foul water. In India a species of nut or seed is made use of in the same way, and appears to act much in the same manner, although from different chemical affinities. In speaking of this water-clearing nut, the late Sir Emerson Tennent, in his admirable work on Ceylon, says: "To correct the impurity of the tank water when intended for their own use, the natives employ a horny seed (the production of a species of 'strychnos') about the size of a coffee bean, called by the Tamils 'tettan kotta,' and by the Singhalese 'ingini' (_Strychnos potatorum_). This they rub round the inside of the unglazed earthen chatty in which the muddy water is held till about one-half the seed is ground off, which, mingling with the water, forms with it a delicate mucilage. In the course of a few minutes the impure particles, being seized by this, descend, and, on their subsidence, form an apparently viscid sediment at the bottom, whilst the clear fluid remains at the top; and, although not altogether bright, is sufficiently pure for ordinary purposes. The curious and valuable plant _S. potatorum_, or the 'clearing nut bush' is abundant in the woods and mountains of the East Indies. It bears a shining fruit, which becomes black as it ripens. The trinal name is derived from the use which is made of the seeds, which, when dried, are sold by the native dealers in the bazaars expressly for the purpose of purifying turbid water." This plant (_Strychnos St. Ignatii_, or St. Ignatius's bean) is a climbing shrub without tendrils, bearing long drooping white flowers, which have the perfume of jasmine. The species is identical with the _Ignatia amara_ of Linnæus. It is a native of Cochin-China and the Philippines, as well as of India proper.

{Patent filter.}

We, a short time since, invented and patented a small portable filter, which can be carried either in the breast pocket or holster. Its mode of use will be understood on reference to the illustration. Place the end of the tube (A) firmly in the pipe (B); fix the cover securely on the cup, and then thrust it with the hand beneath the surface of the foul water. Hold the mouthpiece (C) between the lips, and draw the air by sucking from the interior of the flask until the water flows freely into the mouth. If a draught of water is required for immediate use, the cover may be now removed, when the cup will be found full. If a larger quantity of water is needed, one or more flasks may be placed in an erect position in a tub or pail of water, set in action as before directed, and allowed to run until the water in the tub has reached the level of the flasks, which will not require holding under water when once filled by exhausting the air contained in them. To renew or cleanse the packing, which may consist of sponge, woollen cloth, flannel, wild cotton, or fine moss, unscrew the cover of the packing box within the cover, when it can be easily withdrawn and replaced. The tube, when not in use, is carried, coiled up, within the flask, which, on an emergency, may be made use of for boiling water, tea, soup, eggs, or meat. We have had the honour of exhibiting this simple but useful contrivance at meetings of the members of both the Royal United Service Institution and the Royal Society.

We have now applied the same principle to stoppers for bottles, or any other vessels, so that a common beer or sodawater bottle can be instantly converted into a syphon filter, as shown in the annexed illustration.

By the use of our invention we effectually get rid of the ova and larvæ of water insects, and the thousand and one living and dead impurities which are so abundant in the lakes, streams, and ponds of tropical countries. To get into the water contained in the flask or bottle, they would first have to pass through metal grating No. 1; then through the pores of closely-impacted sponge, woollen, or fine fibrous matter; and, lastly, through another grating, or strainer No. 2.

There is scarcely any possibility of foreign substances of any kind passing through the stuffing box, so that water, unless chemically tainted or poisoned by mineral solutions, can be rendered fit for use in two or three minutes by the use of either the metal flask or stopper.

We extemporised a camp filter in the Crimea by knocking out the bottom of a common claret bottle, turning it large end upwards, fastening a piece of doubled rag over the orifice intended for the cork, stuffing the neck tightly with sponge and sand in alternate layers, hanging it up with twine over another bottle, and then filling it with the by-no-means clear fluid brought to the tents by the water carriers.

Ice, even when taken from a very dirty puddle, is comparatively pure, as in freezing most of the impurities are set free.

Very impure water from stagnant pools should, before use, be boiled in the camp-kettle with a good netful of charcoal. This process not only tends much to purify it, but kills all water insects, their ova, and the legions of animalculæ which inhabit the pools of the tropics.

In some parts of the world, Central India for example, the waters in certain wells, although perfectly bright and clear, is so highly charged with saline matter as to be perfectly undrinkable.

{Water raising.}

The accompanying full-page illustration represents one of the modes by which ox-power is, in the East, brought to bear on water raising. The greater number of the extensive tracks of irrigated land devoted to the growth of the opium poppy, the cotton plant, and the various native grains are watered by its aid. The form of the water-bag, or bucket, differs somewhat in particular localities. By some makers it is formed from tanned hides fastened to an iron frame; by others, the hides are merely tanned (according to directions given further on), spread open at the top, and tapered off to a long narrow open bag at the end. To explain the use of this contrivance, we will suppose that the bag is at the bottom of the well, at the end of the well rope and point guide, which latter cord is fastened to the taper end or delivery mouth of the bag. Now this guide being shorter than the main well rope, on which all the strain falls, draws up the tapered point like a doubled coat-sleeve above the level of the bag's mouth. At a signal (usually a shrill yell) from the well boy, the well-trained ox walks away down an inclined plane, hauling on the main well rope, which works over a smooth round stick fitted above the well, whilst the point guide rope works over another fitted at the side. Now it will be seen that as the great leather sack, with its doubled-up sleeve bottom, reaches the mouth of the well, the point guide will draw the cuff of the sleeve out over the round stick, which will then be considerably lower than the mouth of the bag, or bucket; all the water will then gush out through the sleeve, which will be as the small end of an enormous funnel. The water thus poured out is usually received in a sort of pond made from pieces of matting filled with earth. A large hollow tree trunk is then fitted to one side, or the end, for the water to flow through into the main canal of the system of irrigation.

In Tartary, water is raised in much the same manner; but a man on horseback makes the line fast to his girth or saddle, and gallops from the well up to a mark previously made at a proper distance from the well, and which should be a trifle more than the actual depth from which the water is to be raised.

In almost all countries, from the earliest times to the present, levers, heavily weighted on the shorter arm, and with a bucket attached to the longer, have been used for raising water from deep wells. The pictorial records of Ancient Egypt attest the antiquity of this method. The shadoof of modern Egypt is the same, and we have seen it used both in that country and on the remotest mission stations in Southern Africa. The mode of applying it will be seen by a glance at our full-page engraving. The water raised by the shadoof is commonly used for irrigation. We, however, found it very valuable during the Crimean war for raising water for both men and horses. When used among the crops, the water is received sometimes in a reservoir with embankments, guarded by matting, and at others, into troughs which lead direct to the main irrigating channel, from which smaller furrows lead off to every part of the field. These are stopped with lumps of clay or earth, and when the water is required in any direction, the irrigator removes the obstruction by thrusting his toes beneath and lifting it out of the way.

In Egypt, India, and other countries, wheels and machines, more or less elaborate, are used for lifting water. There must be, for this purpose, at least one vertical wheel of sufficient diameter to carry an endless band, on which are fastened a series of buckets, in such a manner that they will retain very nearly their perpendicular position, until they surmount the highest portion of the circumference of the wheel, and will then "tip" and discharge the water into a trough or reservoir. These buckets may be wooden bowls, earthen chatty pots, bags of leather or canvas, joints of bamboo, or anything that is moderately water-tight; but, of course, the less leakage there is the better. The band should run round a similar wheel the axle of which is nearly level with the water, so that the band is kept tight and the buckets forced beneath the surface; but this may be dispensed with if the band and upper wheel are sufficiently rough, or if there be studs or points to catch the full buckets and prevent their slipping. The wheel may be turned either by a crank, by manual labour, or oxen or other animals may be employed. In this latter case there may be another larger wheel or drum upon the same axle, and several turns of rope being taken over it, the ox may be driven away, unwinding it as he goes; or an endless screw, sloping at an angle of 45°, may be cut upon the axle, while a similar one working in it is cut upon a vertical shaft. Or cogged wheels of the same angle (as shown in our figure) may be used; the vertical pillar will then be turned by an ox yoked to a cross-bar and walking round it in a circular path; but it will be necessary that the discharging trough should pass beneath a little bridge in this path, and that the communication with the water to be drawn up should either be by a well within the circle, or by a channel to the river passing under a similar bridge. The stancheons of the frame which supports the vertical bar must stand outside and well clear of the path.

We give, also, an example of a box pump. Four deals or boards, of any length or breadth, are nailed together, but their lower ends for about a foot or more should be left a little wider than the rest of the length; two wheels of nearly equal diameter should be fixed, one with part of its circumference below the water, and the other somewhat higher than it is requisite to raise it; an endless band of canvas or other material must pass round both wheels, and one side of it through the trough. On this band must be fastened by one edge a number of boards or floats of such size as nearly to fill the inner diameter of the trough, without being so tight as to stick in any part of it; a hole should be bored in the centre of each, and a small line run through and knotted, so as to keep the floats always at right angles to the band. There should be a spout near the top of the trough, to lead the water off in any required direction. Fig. 2 on the same illustration shows part of an endless band, with pockets or bags stitched on it; these may be of almost any stout material of tolerably close fibre--No. 1 canvas would answer very well. They would discharge the water over the wheel into a reservoir, and no tube, as in Fig. 1, would be needed.

We give, also, an example of wheels driven by water power over and undershot. It would be superfluous to mark these with distinctive figures. In the first the water is conveyed by a pipe or trough, and allowed to fall upon the wheel into buckets or receptacles formed in its periphery by fixing boards across between the two rims, at such angles as are indicated by the dotted lines, which may be taken to represent the heads of the nails driven into their edges; and thus they will retain water until, by the revolution of the wheel, they have sunk so far as to be below the level of the axle, when they allow the water to escape, and come up light and empty on the other side. Some of these wheels are as much as 30ft. or more in diameter; indeed, the larger they are, the greater is the leverage obtained from a given amount of water; and, the wheel once set in motion, the power thus gained may be applied by connecting gear to any mechanical purpose.

The "undershot" simply has boards or floats fixed across it with their edges coinciding with the lines of the spokes. Indeed, if a paddle steamer were anchored in a tideway, and her wheels disconnected and allowed to revolve with the force of the tide, they would furnish a good example of the undershot wheel; and the paddle of a wrecked steamer would be better than anything a colonist with scant appliances could make for the purpose.

Still, with a few tools and a moderate share of ingenuity very fair makeshift water-wheels may be constructed in situations where they may be found most valuable. We have, when among the Tartars, seen them erect a small wooden hut over a narrow rapid mountain stream, leave a sort of trap in the floor, fix in some rough forked tree trunks and beams, and on them mount a little water-wheel made of hewn planks and bars treenailed together on the double-cross system, like that adopted in building up the wheel a in the illustration on p. 511, which is supposed to be erected for mining pumps, and is fed by a two-plank shoot. The Tartar wheels were invariably undershot, like that at B, and were used for setting in motion the trip hammers used in fulling their coarse native woollen.

In the beautiful valley of the Kowie River, a few miles below Grahamstown, we saw a rather ingenious application of wind power to a horizontal wheel. The principle will be best shown by calling to the reader's memory the well known nautical toy which consists of four or more cutters, or fore and aft rigged vessels, sailing in a circle on a mast-head or flag-staff. In the fore and aft sails the foremost leach, or edge, is attached by rings, or otherwise, to the mast or stay of the respective sail, and is stretched tight, while the after leach is left more or less free, according as the sheet is hauled in or eased off. In consequence of this when the vessel is before the wind the sails fill, but as their surface catches it obliquely they do not exert their full force till the vessel receives the wind upon her quarter. When the wind is "a-beam," or blowing across her at right angles, the sails are still helping her forward, and continue to do so, even when her head comes up so near as just not to shake the wind out of them. When this happens, the sails lose their power, as they present only their foremost edge to the wind, and not a broad surface like those of a square-rigged ship when she is taken aback. (We will therefore suppose four cutters, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_.) The cutter _a_ is before the wind, _b_ has the wind somewhat on the quarter, while _c_, having "come up" several points, is now nearly head to wind with her sails shaking, and _d_ has taken the wind on the other tack. Thus, there are always three vessels whose sails are helping them round in one direction, while the fourth, for the moment that she is in the "wind's eye," is powerless to resist them.

This power can be applied to a large horizontal wheel. There should be two wheels, one 18in. or 2ft. above the other; they are made as light as possible, and each has a smaller rim or felloe, say 18in., within the other. The sails are in this instance flat boards, with a dowel left on each end for a hinge. These dowels work in holes in the upper and lower spokes, midway between the inner and outer felloes. It will be seen that the sails marked will receive the wind on one side until, coming so far before it that they "jibe," they assume the position of those which receive it on the other. When they come up to the wind on the other side the wheel they present their hinged edge to the wind, and shift like the sails of cutter _c_, but without shaking. The best angle for them to make is 22-1/2° on either side the central line, and this is also the angle at which the sails of a windmill should present their surfaces.

{Well sinking.}