All the same, buffaloes, onager and ass had plenty to do, so much, indeed, that one day Jack said:
"It is a pity, papa, that we have not got a pair of elephants in our service! What a lot of fatigue our poor beasts would be saved!"
"But not the worthy pachyderms themselves," M. Zermatt replied—"converted into our poor beasts in their turn."
"Oh, elephants have plenty of strength," Jack retorted; "they would drag these sago-tree trunks along like so many matches! There are some in New Switzerland, and if we could only——"
"I am not very keen on these creatures getting into the Promised Land, Jack. They would soon get our fields into a pretty mess!"
"No doubt, papa. But if we should have an opportunity of meeting them in the savannahs of Pearl Bay, or in those plains where the Green Valley opens out——"
"We would take advantage of it," M. Zermatt answered. "But don't let us create the opportunity. It is better not to."
While M. Zermatt and his son were proceeding with these many hauling journeys, Mr. Wolston and Ernest were busy making and fixing the pumping machine. In the construction of the water-wheel the engineer displayed great skill, and particularly interested Ernest, who had a great bent for everything connected with mechanics.
This wheel was set up at the foot of the waterfall in Jackal River, in such a way as to work the Landlord's pumps. The water, brought up to a height of thirty feet, would be stored in a reservoir hollowed out between the rocks on the right bank, and this would be fitted with the water-pipes made from the sago-tree trunks, the first of which were soon laid along the river bank.
The work was carried on so steadily and methodically that about the 20th of December it was finished, including the trench or drain cut through the surface of the ground to the southern end of Swan Lake.