Spinifex and Sand eBook

David Carnegie
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 441 pages of information about Spinifex and Sand.

Spinifex and Sand eBook

David Carnegie
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 441 pages of information about Spinifex and Sand.
bullied, he will patiently wait his chance and take his revenge—­and pick the right man too.  “Vice or bad temper,” says the indignant victim; “Intelligence,” say I. In matters of loading and saddling, ignorance causes great suffering to camels.  I can imagine few things more uncomfortable than having to carry 150 pounds on one side of the saddle and perhaps 250 pounds on the other, and yet if the poor beast lies down and complains, in nine cases out of ten his intelligent master will beat him unmercifully as a useless brute!  Nearly every sore back amongst a mob of camels is the result of carelessness.  It is hard to avoid, I am well aware, but it can be done; and I speak as an authority, for during our journey to Kimberley and the journey back again, over such country as I have endeavoured faithfully to describe, there were only two cases of camels with sore backs—­one was Billy, who had an improperly healed wound when we started, which, however, we soon cured; the other Stoddy, on the return journey.  This state of affairs was not brought about except by bestowing great care and attention on the saddles, which we were continually altering, as they were worn out of shape, or as the camels became thinner—­and thin they were, poor things, tucked up like greyhounds!  A few days’ rest and feed, fortunately soon puts a camel right, and such they could have at the little oasis we had reached on October 5th.  In the centre of it lay a splendid little spring, in many ways the most remarkable feature we had encountered, and therefore I christened it after one whose love and helpful sympathy in all my work, has given me strength and courage—­my sister Helena.

CHAPTER XII

HELENA SPRING

“My native valley hath a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I attach hereafter, such precious recollections as to this solitary fount, which bestows its liquid treasures where they are not only delightful, but nearly indispensable.”

So spake Sir Kenneth of Scotland in “The Talisman.”

Surely the Christian knight, dragging his way across the sands of Palestine, was not more pleased to reach the “Diamond of the Desert” than we were to light upon this charming little oasis, hidden away in the dreary solitude of the surrounding sandhills; the one spot of green on which one’s eyes may rest with pleasure in all this naked wilderness.  At the bottom of a hollow enclosed between two sand-ridges is a small surface outcrop of limestone of similar character to that in which Empress Spring is situated.  In this is a little basin, nearly circular, about 2 feet 6 inches in diameter and 3 feet deep, with a capacity of about seventy gallons.  This is the spring, fed at the bottom of the basin from some subterranean source by a narrow tunnel in the rock, a natural drain, not six inches in diameter.  Through this passage, from the West, the water rises, filling the rocky

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Spinifex and Sand from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.