PLATE XII
Juvenile Types.
1. Full-face, female, Wongkanguru tribe.
2. Profile, female, Aluridja tribe.
Rock-holes in granite (Musgrave Ranges), quartzite (Krichauff Ranges), or limestone (Nullarbor Plains) are favoured on account of the cool, clear water which they generally contain. Where such are of a cavernous nature, and opening from a bare inclined surface, the natives often build a small bank of clay across the slope to direct the flow of water, resulting from a downpour, towards the hole. A unique variety of this type was discovered by us at Ullbönnalenna, east of the Musgrave Ranges. Through a hole in the barren slope of gneiss, a communication has been established by atmospheric denudation with a small reservoir below. To obtain the water contained in it, the natives keep a broom-shaped piston handy, with which they pump the fluid to the surface, as required. The piston is merely a rod, about five feet long, round one end of which a bundle of brushwood is securely tied with string. The size of the brushwood bundle is such that it exactly fits the hole in the rock (about six inches). The implement is inserted, brushwood foremost, and slowly pushed down into the water, and, after a short interval, quickly withdrawn again. The water, which had collected behind this “piston-head,” is thereby forcibly ejected, and is collected inside a small enclosure of clay built around the hole.
The aborigines are most particular about preserving their water supplies against pollution, especially where such is brought about by excremental and decaying animal matter. In the Musgrave Ranges, the natives did not in the slightest object to our camels being watered at the supplies they were dependent upon, but when the animals dirtied the rocks above the hole and there was a chance of the discharge running into the water, they immediately set to and built a barrier of earth to intercept the flow before it reached the hole.
In the Northern Kimberleys of Western Australia valuable pools of water collect upon the boabab trees. The branches of this species surround the “gouty” stem in a circle at the top, like the heads of a hydra, and by this means form a concavity between them, which is capable of storing a considerable volume of cool, clear rain-water. To reach this water, the natives construct ladders by simply driving a series of pointed pegs into the soft bark of the tree one above the other.
Certain desert trees like the Currajong have the property of retaining considerable quantities of water in their tissues, even under the worst conditions of drought, for periods of many weeks or months. This water the native obtains by felling the tree and setting fire to the crown; the water oozes out from the cut trunk and is collected in bark carriers. The “Bloodwood” (Eucalyptus corymbosa) has similar properties.
In the Denial Bay district a remarkable mallee (Eucalyptus dumosa) grows, whose roots supply the natives with water. This mallee is a rather big tree, which lives in association with other smaller species of the same genus. It appears, also, that not every specimen of the particular species referred to contains water; it requires the experience of an aboriginal to predict which of the trees is likely to carry such. Having selected his tree, the native proceeds to expose one of the lateral roots, which grow in the sand at no great depth from the surface. The root is then cut in two places, three or four feet apart, and lifted from the ground in a horizontal position; finally it is turned on end over a bark cooleman, when water, clear as crystal, begins to drip from the lower end into the vessel. Sufficient water can thus be collected to sustain the camp, if need be, for even a longish period.
Other trees in central Australia are known to possess similar properties though to a lesser extent, as for instance the Needle-Bush (Hakea lorea, var. suberea).