The foregoing illustration represents the contrivance fixed on the ground and ready for use. B, B, B are the legs of a triangle, C is the striking point for the monkey (D), which is raised by the pulley ropes (E, E) until it reaches the head of the triangle when it is allowed to fall on C, which is secured to the joint of tube F, which, having a sharp arrow headlike point, readily enters the earth. Joint after joint are added, like those of a fishing rod, until the required depth has been reached, when a small pump is attached, as in the annexed cut, which shows the position of the set of tubes in the earth after the water-yielding bed, or deposit, has been penetrated. When very large quantities of water are needed, as for the use of troops, troop horses, and baggage animals, several tubes can be driven in at one spot and coupled together at the top, when one pump can be made to draw from all.
The weight of such an arrangement as that represented would be by no means great, and the cost a mere trifle when compared with the costly process of Artesian well boring as usually carried out. Should it be decided on to abandon a well, the tubes can be drawn up and driven elsewhere.
With regard to the quantity of water which tube wells of a certain diameter of bore are capable of bringing to the surface, Mr. Norton informs us that some of his 1¼in. wells yield as much as 900 gallons of water per hour, whilst some of the large bores have poured forth as much as 10,000 gallons per hour.
The modes by which water can be raised from common pit or shaft wells are numerous. Some of them we have described; others, such as the old-fashioned bucket and rope, are too well known to need description.
The miner’s pump will be found described at [p. 266]. A very useful and effective pump may be readily made by boring an auger hole through a tree-trunk, mounting it with a brake-piece and handle as at A in the annexed illustration; fixing on a valved sucker and plunger, as represented at B. C represents a barrel pump. This is made by fixing a short square wooden box in the bottom of a large strong cask in such a manner that a large bung-hole may be bored where the centre of the box comes. (The accompanying engraving will serve to show the nature of the arrangement.) Then outside the hole attach a long tube made of stout sail canvas. Wind a stiff rope into a spiral, round a spar or pole, which can be withdrawn when the coil is complete, and attach it here and there with stitches of twine. This spiral coil will keep the tube from collapsing when in use. Then in your square upright box fix a valved sucker, made as shown at D, and another valve in the bottom of the box, as at E. A brake and handle may be fitted to the side of the barrel, and a hard wood or iron plunger attached, when the pump will be ready for use. As the water flows out over the rim of the box it is caught in the barrel, to which a spout of leather, tin, or bark may be attached.
There are numerous trees and plants to be found in various parts of the world which yield, in addition to their fruits, large quantities of sap and other products, which often prove of inestimable value to the traveller. It would be next to impossible to separate arbitrarily the fruit-yielding members of the vegetable world from those which furnish juice or sap only. We shall therefore in this work treat of the most valuable and noteworthy, dealing with them as they happen to come under notice. Even in the most desert parts of South Africa the traveller ought not to despair of finding means to quench his thirst, even though water may not be obtainable. In some parts he may, perhaps, catch sight of small antelopes pawing the hard red soil, or may at least come on places that have been so scratched; and though in many instances this may have been done only to clean the hoofs, he will find that in others holes of several inches in depth have been made for the purpose of obtaining succulent roots looking very like small turnips. Sometimes these may be found partially eaten, or left behind entire, when the timid animal has been startled from his repast. The form of these roots should be carefully noted, together with that of their leaves, as the traveller can only discover the whereabouts of other roots by external indications, and cannot be guided—as the antelope probably is—by the scent of moisture beneath the ground.
The natives of nearly every separate district know of some peculiar root that is, perhaps, confined to their own locality; and it is always well to encourage them to bring a supply, not only of the root, but of its leaves, and to ask them to point out the plant, so that its appearance may be observed before it is disturbed. Some of these are small tubers, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, on a long underground stem; others are much larger; and we have seen one of the kind called “marquæ,” which measured in its longest circumference 3½ft., and 2½ft. in its shortest. The “marquæ,” or “markhwæ,” is properly of a flattened spherical figure, with an indication of tap-root below and a small conical protuberance above, from which the slender stem springs up. Its seeds are strung upon a skein of fibres in long round tapering pods, 4in. to 6in. long, and thicker than a goose-quill. The taste and appearance, when cut, would be something like that of a very fibrous watery turnip; but when thirst-quenching plants are sought for, we believe that the more tasteless they are the better. The smaller roots are more agreeable than those of larger size; and we have frequently found that the mastication of even a small portion of such a root affords more relief than the drinking of any quantity of water.