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.