INDIAN WELL.
INDIAN WELL.
Water raising.
The accompanying full-page illustration represents one of the modes by which ox-power is, in the East, brought to bear on water raising. The greater number of the extensive tracks of irrigated land devoted to the growth of the opium poppy, the cotton plant, and the various native grains are watered by its aid. The form of the water-bag, or bucket, differs somewhat in particular localities. By some makers it is formed from tanned hides fastened to an iron frame; by others, the hides are merely tanned (according to directions given further on), spread open at the top, and tapered off to a long narrow open bag at the end. To explain the use of this contrivance, we will suppose that the bag is at the bottom of the well, at the end of the well rope and point guide, which latter cord is fastened to the taper end or delivery mouth of the bag. Now this guide being shorter than the main well rope, on which all the strain falls, draws up the tapered point like a doubled coat-sleeve above the level of the bag’s mouth. At a signal (usually a shrill yell) from the well boy, the well-trained ox walks away down an inclined plane, hauling on the main well rope, which works over a smooth round stick fitted above the well, whilst the point guide rope works over another fitted at the side. Now it will be seen that as the great leather sack, with its doubled-up sleeve bottom, reaches the mouth of the well, the point guide will draw the cuff of the sleeve out over the round stick, which will then be considerably lower than the mouth of the bag, or bucket; all the water will then gush out through the sleeve, which will be as the small end of an enormous funnel. The water thus poured out is usually received in a sort of pond made from pieces of matting filled with earth. A large hollow tree trunk is then fitted to one side, or the end, for the water to flow through into the main canal of the system of irrigation.
In Tartary, water is raised in much the same manner; but a man on horseback makes the line fast to his girth or saddle, and gallopsfrom the well up to a mark previously made at a proper distance from the well, and which should be a trifle more than the actual depth from which the water is to be raised.
In almost all countries, from the earliest times to the present, levers, heavily weighted on the shorter arm, and with a bucket attached to the longer, have been used for raising water from deep wells. The pictorial records of Ancient Egypt attest the antiquity of this method. The shadoof of modern Egypt is the same, and we have seen it used both in that country and on the remotest mission stations in Southern Africa. The mode of applying it will be seen by a glance at our full-page engraving. The water raised by the shadoof is commonly used for irrigation. We, however, found it very valuable during the Crimean war for raising water for both men and horses. When used among the crops, the water is received sometimes in a reservoir with embankments, guarded by matting, and at others, into troughs which lead direct to the main irrigating channel, from which smaller furrows lead off to every part of the field. These are stopped with lumps of clay or earth, and when the water is required in any direction, the irrigator removes the obstruction by thrusting his toes beneath and lifting it out of the way.
lifting water with cogged wheel
In Egypt, India, and other countries, wheels and machines, more or less elaborate, are used for lifting water. There must be, for this purpose, at least one vertical wheel of sufficient diameter to carry an endless band, on which are fastened a series of buckets, in such a manner that they will retain very nearly their perpendicular position, until they surmount the highest portion of the circumference of the wheel, and will then “tip” and discharge the water into a trough or reservoir. These buckets may be wooden bowls, earthen chatty pots, bags of leather or canvas, joints of bamboo, or anything that is moderately water-tight; but, of course, the less leakage there is the better. The band should run round a similar wheel the axle of which is nearly level with the water, so that the band is kept tight and the buckets forced beneath the surface; but this may be dispensed with if the band and upper wheel are sufficiently rough, or if there be studs or points to catch the full buckets and prevent their slipping. The wheel may be turned either by a crank, by manual labour, oroxen or other animals may be employed. In this latter case there may be another larger wheel or drum upon the same axle, and several turns of rope being taken over it, the ox may be driven away, unwinding it as he goes; or an endless screw, sloping at an angle of 45°, may be cut upon the axle, while a similar one working in it is cut upon a vertical shaft. Or cogged wheels of the same angle (as shown in our figure) may be used; the vertical pillar will then be turned by an ox yoked to a cross-bar and walking round it in a circular path; but it will be necessary that the discharging trough should pass beneath a little bridge in this path, and that the communication with the water to be drawn up should either be by a well within the circle, or by a channel to the river passing under a similar bridge. The stancheons of the frame which supports the vertical bar must stand outside and well clear of the path.
box pump
We give, also, an example of a box pump. Four deals or boards, of any length or breadth, are nailed together, but their lower ends for about a foot or more should be left a little wider than the rest of the length; two wheels of nearly equal diameter should be fixed, one with part of its circumference below the water, and the other somewhat higher than it is requisite to raise it; an endless band of canvas or other material must pass round both wheels, and one side of it through the trough. On this band must be fastened by one edge a number of boardsor floats of such size as nearly to fill the inner diameter of the trough, without being so tight as to stick in any part of it; a hole should be bored in the centre of each, and a small line run through and knotted, so as to keep the floats always at right angles to the band. There should be a spout near the top of the trough, to lead the water off in any required direction. Fig. 2 on the same illustration shows part of an endless band, with pockets or bags stitched on it; these may be of almost any stout material of tolerably close fibre—No. 1 canvas would answer very well. They would discharge the water over the wheel into a reservoir, and no tube, as in Fig. 1, would be needed.
water power over and undershot
We give, also, an example of wheels driven by water power over and undershot. It would be superfluous to mark these with distinctive figures. In the first the water is conveyed by a pipe or trough, and allowed to fall upon the wheel into buckets or receptacles formed in its periphery by fixing boards across between the two rims, at such angles as are indicated by the dotted lines, which may be taken to represent the heads of the nails driven into their edges; and thus they will retain water until, by the revolution of the wheel, they have sunk so far as to be below the level of the axle, when they allow the water to escape, and come up light and empty on the other side. Some of these wheels are as much as 30ft. or more in diameter; indeed, the larger they are, the greater is the leverage obtained from a given amount of water; and, the wheel once set in motion, the power thus gained may be applied by connecting gear to any mechanical purpose.
The “undershot” simply has boards or floats fixed across it with their edges coinciding with the lines of the spokes. Indeed, if a paddle steamer were anchored in a tideway, and her wheels disconnected and allowed to revolve with the force of the tide, they would furnish a good example of the undershot wheel; and the paddle of a wrecked steamerwould be better than anything a colonist with scant appliances could make for the purpose.
Still, with a few tools and a moderate share of ingenuity very fair makeshift water-wheels may be constructed in situations where they may be found most valuable. We have, when among the Tartars, seen them erect a small wooden hut over a narrow rapid mountain stream, leave a sort of trap in the floor, fix in some rough forked tree trunks and beams, and on them mount a little water-wheel made of hewn planks and bars treenailed together on the double-cross system, like that adopted in building up the wheel a in the illustration on p. 511, which is supposed to be erected for mining pumps, and is fed by a two-plank shoot. The Tartar wheels were invariably undershot, like that at B, and were used for setting in motion the trip hammers used in fulling their coarse native woollen.
In the beautiful valley of the Kowie River, a few miles below Grahamstown, we saw a rather ingenious application of wind power to a horizontal wheel. The principle will be best shown by calling to the reader’s memory the well known nautical toy which consists of four or more cutters, or fore and aft rigged vessels, sailing in a circle on a mast-head or flag-staff. In the fore and aft sails the foremost leach, or edge, is attached by rings, or otherwise, to the mast or stay of the respective sail, and is stretched tight, while the after leach is left more or less free, according as the sheet is hauled in or eased off. In consequence of this when the vessel is before the wind the sails fill, but as their surface catches it obliquely they do not exert their full force till the vessel receives the wind upon her quarter. When the wind is “a-beam,” or blowing across her at right angles, the sails are still helping her forward, and continue to do so, even when her head comes up so near as just not to shake the wind out of them. When this happens, the sails lose their power, as they present only their foremost edge to the wind, and not a broad surface like those of a square-rigged ship when she is taken aback. (We will therefore suppose four cutters,a,b,c,d.) The cutterais before the wind,bhas the wind somewhat on the quarter, whilec, having “come up” several points, is now nearly head to wind with her sails shaking, anddhas taken the wind on the other tack. Thus, there are always three vesselswhose sails are helping them round in one direction, while the fourth, for the moment that she is in the “wind’s eye,” is powerless to resist them.
This power can be applied to a large horizontal wheel. There should be two wheels, one 18in. or 2ft. above the other; they are made as light as possible, and each has a smaller rim or felloe, say 18in., within the other. The sails are in this instance flat boards, with a dowel left on each end for a hinge. These dowels work in holes in the upper and lower spokes, midway between the inner and outer felloes. It will be seen that the sails marked will receive the wind on one side until, coming so far before it that they “jibe,” they assume the position of those which receive it on the other. When they come up to the wind on the other side the wheel they present their hinged edge to the wind, and shift like the sails of cutterc, but without shaking. The best angle for them to make is 22½° on either side the central line, and this is also the angle at which the sails of a windmill should present their surfaces.
Well sinking.
The explorer, or settler, will not unfrequently have to sink wells for the obtainment of water for himself and his animals. It will often happen that Nature has commenced the formation of a well, which merely requires the labours of man to complete. The crowbar and pick will, in such cases, very quickly enable the traveller to deepen it sufficiently to meet his temporary needs. Where a long-continued residence is intended, and a regular and continuous supply of water is required, apart from that obtained from rivers or lakes, wells of greater or less depth, according to the nature of the ground and water supply, must be undertaken.
The Indians manage to construct walled wells of great depth in loose sandy soil in the following ingenious manner: They first mark a circle, the size of the intended well, on the earth. They then dig a groove, or trench, of the width of the intended thickness of the lining wall of the well, much as our masons sink a foundation for a house. They now proceed to build a circle of masonry in the groove, and carry it up to a few feet in height above the surface. Other Indians now get inside the wall, and, with short-handled hoes and fire-hardened sticks, dig away the sand from beneath the foundation of the wall round theentire circle. As the sand is loosened and dug out, it is taken up in cane baskets and thrown outside. As the wall sinks into the earth by being undermined, it is constantly added to by building above until the required depth is reached.
The Chinese sink very narrow and deep wells by the use of a kind of jumper, or boring bit. This is hung suspended from the end of a long bamboo spring beam, which is constantly worked up and down, thus causing the bit to constantly drop and pick, so to speak, on one spot. The bit is hollow, and when it becomes full of sludge produced by its incessant tapping, it is withdrawn from the hole, cleared out, and entered again. A little water added from time to time much assists the operation, and tends to keep the bit from becoming heated. As it will be seen this method, although very useful as a makeshift, is tedious to a degree.
American tub well-borer
Much fear was entertained at the commencement of the Abyssinian war that there would be a great scarcity of water in consequence of the comparatively limited number of wells and indifferent quality ofthe water to be found in that portion of the country over which our troops had to march shortly after their arrival; and there is little doubt but that serious inconvenience, if no worse, would have been experienced, had not a contrivance, known as the “American tube well-borer,” the invention of Mr. Norton, been brought to the notice of the Government authorities. The wells formed by these deeply-penetrating sets of tubes were found to supply water freely and expeditiously in that country. How far the perforated end of the tube would be effective, if driven through clay, we have had no means of ascertaining; but we are of opinion that for reaching deeply-buried water-yielding deposits of ordinary character the tube-borer will be found most valuable. Its action is simplicity itself.
tube well installed
The foregoing illustration represents the contrivance fixed on the ground and ready for use.B, B, Bare the legs of a triangle,Cis 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 onC, which is secured to the joint of tubeF, 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.
miner’s pump
The miner’s pump will be found described atp. 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 atAin the annexed illustration; fixing on a valved sucker and plunger, as represented atB.Crepresents 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 atD, and another valve in the bottom of the box, as atE. 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 ofthe 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 aremore 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.
In certain countries, where rain seldom falls and the night dews are heavy, a very considerable quantity of water may be obtained from the grass and low bushes before sunrise, by shaking them over some wide shallow vessel; or a piece of waterproof cloth stretched across the prong end of a wide-forked stick. When properly put together an implement of this kind is not unlike a large dustpan. Sponges, or soft porous cloths, absorb a large quantity of water when brought in contact with wet plants or moist surfaces of any kind. They can be squeezed out as fast as they become charged with water.
After a long journey, when the throat is parched, the skin of the lips dried and cracking for want of moisture, the teeth fouled, and the tongue, with all its papillæ, dry and hard as the teeth of a rasp, rattling against them, there is no immediate relief in drinking water.
We have at times halted in a melon patch, and have selected and cut into slices the tasteless melons for our horses. The Hottentots and Bushmen collect these in quantities, and with a stick mash up the inside until it becomes a pulp; and, as the water exudes from the broken cells, they obtain perhaps a mouthful from each melon.
In some parts of the Kalahari Desert it is noticed that there are individual elephants, rhinoceroses, or other animals, that never drink water, having attached themselves to a locality in which they find melons and succulent roots as substitutes. Indeed, we believe that at least one tribe of Namaqua Hottentots live very comfortably in an absolutely waterless country, subsisting chiefly on the milk of their cattle, which in turn quench their thirst solely by eating water melons.
Our fellow traveller, Joseph Macabe, in his arduous journey to Lake Ngami, travelled long distances without water; and one day he had to drive his oxen ten miles to eat water melons, and then to drive them back to the waggons to perform their day’s work. This privilege was duly purchased from the Bushmen who lived near, and who therefore might be supposed to look upon these wild fruits as their own. A line was traced upon the ground; but it required all the efforts of theBushmen, and the herdsmen too, to make the thirsty cattle understand that they were only to eat within a certain limit.
The beautiful “traveller’s tree” of Madagascar collects and retains through almost the driest seasons a welcome store of water. Its ample leaves point upward to the heavens; and all the rain, dew, or atmospheric moisture from their broad surfaces, is conducted down until it lodges in the hollow formed just above the junction of the midrib with the stem. The natives pierce the leaf-stalk with a spear; the water gushes out, and is caught in a vessel held under to receive it. So unfailing is the supply from these trees, that where one of them is seen no native will trouble himself to walk even a short distance to a river. The most valuable property, however, of this tree is that it may be tapped again and again without vital injury. It is most likely that the orifice will close, and the wounded leaf will again collect water; or, at most, the injured leaf will die off, leaving the others in full vitality. It is different with the collection of palm juice, in which the tree itself is materially injured and often completely destroyed.
palm water collection
On the low lands at the Delta of the Zambesi, where the various species of mangroves have fulfilled their office in winning from the dominion of the ocean the broad sand-banks annually deposited by the river, an abundant growth of the Doum palm and wild date begins to occupy the new formed land. The natives seek those that have grown to not more than a man’s height, and, cutting off all the leaf-stalks withthe exception of the merest sprout in the centre to continue the vitality, make a deep incision where the leaves should be, stick in it a bit of folded leaf as a spout, and hang an earthen pot under it by a strip of leaf, sheltering it from the sun by a kind of basket, loosely but ingeniously woven from another leaf in the manner shown in our sketch onp. 519.
In connection with the subject of water we may here appropriately notice the expedients used by many nations for the separation of juices from the fruit containing them, or for expressing from grain or fibrous substances the water in which they have been washed or steeped, and which may either be collected as holding in solution some nutritious matter, or thrown away as carrying off something distasteful or even poisonous.
In Kafirland the stem of a species of Zamia is laid for several days in a running stream, and we have generally seen it pointed in the direction of the current so that the moisture with which it is surcharged might drain gradually from the lower end, carrying with it the acrid or unpleasant juices, while the impact of the stream from above would force more water into its pores and continue to dislodge all that it was desirable to remove, leaving the farinaceous matter between the fibres.
Another plant, commonly known by the appropriately descriptive name of elephant’s foot (Testudinariaof Burchell, orTamus elephantopus), is used as an article of food by the Hottentots, and on this account is often called Hottentot’s bread. We have not actually seen the preparation of it, but believe that very little is required beyond cutting out the internal pith, which resembles the inside of a turnip, and baking it on the embers. The remarkable lump which rests upon the surface of the ground bears, in general shape and colour, some resemblance to the foot of an elephant, and averages nearly the same size; but we have seen some nearly 3ft. in diameter. It is covered with rough angular projections, reminding one of the scales on the shell of a tortoise.
On the Zambesi, near Logier Hill, we have seen the native women frequently washing a kind of cassava, cut into discs across the grain so thin as to leave the fibre as short as possible. These were put into theclosely-woven baskets of the country, which, being about half immersed, were worked with a rotatory motion similar to that of gold washing—removing some acrid juice, and leaving what little nutriment might be contained in the fibre.
In many countries great and long-continued pressure is employed. Some vegetable substances contain, in addition to their nutritious properties, juices so acrid as to destroy almost every other fibre that might be used to contain them; and therefore, as in South America, particular kinds of palms or other trees are valued because pressure bags can be woven of them that will resist this action. These bags are of various shapes; but a very favourite one is that of a long double cone, loosely woven with the slips, which represent the threads, crossing each other in a long lozenge-like form, so that when the bag is filled it shortens up and greatly enlarges its central diameter; but when it is hung by one end to a tree, and a considerable weight is attached to the other, its elongation contracts its diameter and squeezes out the juices of whatever is placed inside it.
We have seen various forms of these bags, which were in use amongst the ancient Egyptians for expressing the remainder of the juice after the grapes had already been trodden in the wine-press. Both the ancient and modern contrivances appear to have been matted bags of elongated form, and with a very stout eye or loop at either end; and the chief difference is in their size. The upper one is worked by two men, who, inserting staves into the loops at the ends, twist them opposite ways; while the lower is worked by five—four of whom, having twisted it as tightly as they can, haul the staves apart, while the fifth, throwing himself between the upper ends, forces them apart still farther. The effect in each case is the flow of a copious stream of second quality wine, which pours from the twisted bag into the receptacle placed for it.
There is a plant, which much resembles the “bachelor’s pillow” of our hothouses, found growing in Mexico and some other countries. When it is rooted in the earth it is more like a vegetable hedgehog than aught else, being covered with long pointed thorns, like those of the cactus. Hunters and travellers often collect these unpromising-looking productions for the sake of the water they contain. Whenfreed from their attachment to the ground, they are taken on a forked stick, which is held in the left hand, whilst the thorn-covered rind is sliced off with a hunting-knife held in the right. The pulp, thus laid bare, affords enough moisture to quench the thirst of either man or horse.
The agave (Agave Americana) yields a very large quantity of sap. To obtain this, the crown is cut off, and a deep hole scooped out in the substance of the plant. This, in a short time, fills with fluid, which, when collected, fermented, and properly prepared, is the celebrated “pulque” of the Mexicans.
Large-sized bamboo canes not unfrequently hold bottled-up between their internodes a considerable quantity of water, the presence of which can be detected by giving the canes, one after another, a sharp sudden shake, when the imprisoned fluid gives out a hollow, gurgling sound easily recognised. To obtain the cane-water, it is only necessary to tap the joint or cut down the cane. This juice is not only an agreeable and refreshing drink, but is by the natives believed to be particularly wholesome and sanitary in its effects on the constitution.
It is somewhat curious that the silicious element found covering the outside of the cane like a hard varnish should be held in solution by this fluid; but that it is so there can be no doubt, as, when the liquid, or sap, is allowed to remain for any length of time in the tubular cavity of the cane, it either becomes absorbed altogether, or leaves a hard concrete substance far more like a mineral than a vegetable substance; possessing, in fact, all the attributes of an earth product. It is not acted on by any of the ordinary acids; it remains unaltered by fire; and forms, with the alkalies, a clear glass, just as flint would. This curious substance is the celebrated “tabascheer,” which is renowned throughout the East for its marvellously curative qualities; and it is not improbable that this, like many other Oriental productions, may contain virtues little dreamed of by the medical practitioner at home.
In some of the forests of the tropics a large description of pitcher plant is found. The natural cups found on it not only contain a considerable quantity of water, but have the disadvantage of being natural traps for insects and all sorts of small creeping things, which,attracted by the moisture, fall in, and are drowned. Sometimes, however, a pitcher is found with perfectly clear and deliciously cool water in it, which well repays the thirsty searcher.
In many nations, the palm trees peculiar to them supply an almost inexhaustible variety of the necessaries or the conveniencies and luxuries of life, from timber for house or ship building to fine cloth for wearing apparel, as well as many articles of food and refreshing, or often intoxicating, drinks.
Nearly all the palms contain what is called a cabbage, or in other words a mass of young vegetable matter in taste, nearly resembling the heart of a cabbage stalk, and both in Australia and Africa we have occasionally availed ourselves of this. We do not advise it, except in cases of necessity, because the cutting of it out even from a young tree involves considerable labour, and it is always with some regret that a man feels himself obliged to destroy a noble tree, perhaps 40ft. or 50ft. in height to obtain hardly vegetable matter enough to serve him for a single meal.
At Coepang, in Timor, we have seen the leaves of the fan palm converted into buckets or pails by simply drawing the points or leaflets together and securing them; while the lesser leaves or fronds were in the same manner made into exquisite little drinking cups, capable of containing one “doit’s” worth of palm juice, which, when perfectly fresh, is most delicious and refreshing.
The large leaves of the palm may be used for the collection of dew or occasional showers. The water casks of one of the Dutch gunboats were set out upon the beach near her anchorage, and the stems of three or four palm leaves inserted in each bung-hole to conduct thither all the moisture that might fall upon their broad surface.
Palms, to climb.
The tall palm tree is usually climbed by the aid of a loop of loosely-twisted rope, or a hoop of any sufficiently strong and flexible material large enough to encircle the tree and the body of the climber, allowing him to lean back in it at such an angle that the pressure of his feet against the trunk is sufficient to support him. Short steps are taken upward, and the rope is jerked up skilfully a little at a time; but great care must be taken duly to proportion these motions, for if the feet be too high, the head and shoulderswill project so far that the power of the arms will not suffice to bear the strain, while if they are too low they will not be pressed with sufficient force against the tree, and will slip downward.
The northern limits of the palms are—in Europe 43°, in Asia 34°, and in America 34° of latitude; the southern are—in Africa 34°, in New Zealand 38°, and in America 36°. The known species amount at present nearly to 600, but it is supposed that at least from 1000 to 1200 will be found. The stems of some do not rise above the ground, while others are 200ft. high; some are no thicker than a goose-quill, while others are as large as a hogshead; some are climbing plants, with long flexible stems; some are covered with fibrous network, and some have spines or thorns 8in. or 10in. long, that may be used for needles or arrows. Some of the leaves are 50ft. long and 8ft. wide—these are composed of numerous leaflets on a strong midrib; some are undivided, and yet are 30ft. long and 5ft. wide; and others again are fan-shaped. The fruits are generally small, the cocoa-nut being the largest of the family; the kernel is often too hard to be eaten, and the covering fibrous or woody; but in some the seeds are covered with a pulpy or farinaceous mass that offers sweet and nutritious food; one species on the Zambesi reminded us of gingerbread.
The cocoa-nut, especially in its green and immature state, is a most agreeable fruit, and the water, or milk as we call it, is then most cooling and refreshing; when it more nearly approaches to ripeness the kernel may be scraped or pounded upon its own liquor, and it then forms a very efficient substitute for milk in a cup of tea. A large amount of oil and other valuable products may be obtained from the tree and its fruit.
Each young nut, when in the true milk stage of its growth, will yield about a pint of fluid, cool, and of slightly acid taste. The younger nuts contain a soft, rich substance, not unlike blanc-mange, which can be easily scooped out. From the juices of these immature nuts the natives manufacture an indelible black dye. Toddy, cocoa-nut wine, arrack, or rack as it is sometimes called, is made from the sap of the cocoa palm. In favourable seasons the plumes of cocoa-nut blossom are shot out from amidst the fronds of the tree crown about every six weeks. Immediately on the appearance of the new flower spathe the toddymaker ascends the tree after the manner before described, or, as on the Malabar coast, by cutting a train of notches in the tree trunk. On arriving at the cluster of young fronds and the sheath containing the blossom, he binds the whole together with twine. He then makes a puncture in the stalk of the spathe with his toddy knife, raps the part well with the handle, and then hangs a chatty pot to receive the juice as it drains out during the night. Before sunrise he reascends the tree, lowers the full pot, which may contain from two to six pints, and replaces it with an empty one. Immediately on obtainment this juice is extremely cool and sweet to the taste. In the course of a very few hours fermentation sets in, and it becomes slightly acid. In twenty-four hours it becomes quite sour. Before too great a change takes place, however, the toddy man properly treats his brew by the aid of the true vinous fermentation, and then distils it in a rough, makeshift still, which among some of the Easterns is extemporised from a hollow stone, rock, or piece of hollow tree trunk, which forms the head of the still. A long hollow cane for a tube, and piece of bark, and some coir saturated with cold water for a condenser, almost any pot or jar will, with a little ingenuity, form a tolerably efficient still.
Excellent vinegar is made as follows from the palm juice: After collection, the toddy or sap is placed in earthen pots and covered down for about four weeks. At the end of that time the fluid is strained and returned to the pots, with a few pods of capsicum, a piece of the fruit of the gamboge tree, and a pod from the Indian horseradish (Hypertanthera moringa) are thrown into each pot of fluid, which is then allowed to remain at rest for five weeks, when excellent vinegar, well adapted for the use of the settler, is the result.
If, instead of toddy or vinegar, sugar is required, it can be readily made from the palm sap, which, for this purpose, is treated before fermentation. It is, on being drawn from the tree, boiled in a suitable pot or other vessel until it becomes thick and stringy; a little lime is added; rough crystallisation takes place, and “jaggery,” or palm sugar, is the result. Cocoa-nut oil is valuable for a great number of purposes. It is obtained from the ripe or mature nut in a variety of ways. The natives of many of the islands of the Eastern seas cut the kernels of the nuts in pieces, boil them with water in a large kettle; collect suchoil as rises to the top with a sea-shell mounted on the end of a stick; then pound the boiled nut in a mortar made from a piece of hollow log with a wooden pestle; reboil the paste thus formed; skim again, and so on. The mills used for the expression of this and other oils, and the crushing of sugar-canes, we shall describe as our work proceeds. The shell of the cocoa-nut makes excellent cups and bottles. To extract the kernel to form the latter, the natives bore out one of the eyes, pour out the milk, fill the nut with sea-water, and bury it in the sand exposed to the sun’s rays. In a short time decomposition is set up, and all the contents of the shell can be easily shaken out at the eyehole.
The fibrous husk from time immemorial has supplied the native craft of India, as well as our vessels trading there, with a cheap and generally useful kind of rope, called coir, which possesses the valuable property of being so light as to be of much less specific gravity than water, and which is, therefore, much used for buoy ropes, life lines, warps, and cables, and the ropes for the upper edges of fishing nets. Hats, bags, baskets, sandals, and many other things, are made from it; its leaves form the covering of huts, and its leaf-stalk form their framework, and serve any purpose for which light elastic wands are required.
The date palm, both wild and cultivated, furnishes fruit more or less delicious according to the species from which it is taken. The Arab and his horse, and camel too, upon emergency, will live upon it; and without it the deserts, to which it is indigenous, would be uninhabitable.
An African species (Œleis guianensis) affords palm oil, which is the basis of our candles. A vessel taking in palm oil once started it into a tank built in the hold, but the task of digging it out when it reached England was so arduous that nothing was saved by not providing casks.
Sago is the produce of a palm, which in the East yields the food of thousands; it is the pithy centre of the stem, requiring scarcely any preparation to fit it for food, and a single tree sometimes yields 600lb. weight. Those which furnish the so-called cane for chair bottoms are a species of calamus; they hang on trees by longhooked spines, and are sometimes 600ft. or 1000ft. long. These are often used as stays or standing rigging among native vessels, and sometimes we believe as cables. When split into smaller sections and twisted they form tolerable, but not perfectly flexible, ropes; and slips of them, as is well known, are commonly used by the Chinese for tying up various packages. The helmet which we wore through the Indian campaign is composed of this material closely woven.
Many varieties all over the world yield a sugary sap from their yet unopened spathes or from their stems, and this, when partly fermented, is the palm wine of Africa and, as we have shown, the toddy of the East Indies; while similar beverages are obtained by the South Americans from theMauritia oiniferaand others.
A nation at the mouth of the Orinoco River live almost entirely on a palm (probablyMauritia flexuosa); they build their houses elevated on the trunks, and live upon the fruit, sap, and such fish as the waters around them may afford.
Resins and wax are produced by some species. The fruits of a calamus, in the Eastern Archipelago, are covered with a red resinous substance, which, in common with the produce of other trees, is the dragon’s blood of commerce, and is used as a colour, a varnish, and in tooth powder.
TheCeroxylon audicola, a lofty palm growing in the Andes of Bogota, secretes in its stem a resinous wax, used for making candles. In the north of Brazil, the Carnauba (Copernicia cerifera) has the underside of its leaves covered with pure white wax, with no admixture of resin.
Thatch for houses, awnings for boats, and even the upper streaks of large canoes, umbrellas, hats, baskets, water buckets, cordage, and numberless other things, are made of palm leaves. In Cuba theChamærops argentica, and in Sicily theChamærops humilis, is used for making hats and other fine work. In India the place of the papyrus was supplied by palm leaves, on whose hard and glossy surfaces Pali and Sanscrit characters were inscribed with a metal point; the leaves ofCorypha talieri, strung together, form the Hindoo volume. The fruit ofAreca catechuis the betel nut, the favourite stimulant of the Eastern people, which they chew with lime. Thefibre of the piassaba palm is made into cheap and durable cables on the Amazon, and is introduced into England in the form of brooms, &c.
Although the settler or explorer who directs his steps to North America has no palms to supply him with food, drink, and clothing, he will find other members of the vegetable kingdom ready to his hand.
Maple sugar is of vast importance to the settler in the backwoods, as it serves not only as a substitute for cane sugar, but is not unfrequently used instead of salt. It is obtained by treating the sap of theAcer saccharinum, or sugar maple. The range of this valuable tree is very extensive. It is met with, in greater or less abundance, from the neighbourhood of St. Jean in Upper Canada to Virginia. It abounds in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Vermont, and New Hampshire, some of the trees being found to reach 80ft. in height. Sugar-making may begin early in the month of April, or, in fact, directly the sap begins to rise. Frosty nights, followed by warm, genial days, are the most favourable for the process of sap drawing, which is proceeded with as follows: One or more auger holes, up to four, are made, at a convenient distance from the ground, in the trunk of each tree to be treated. Into each of these holes a little hollow shoot or tube of bark is thrust, which conveys the sap as it flows into vessels placed for its reception. Each tree will produce from 15gals. to 20gals. of sap, and 5gals. of sap will yield about 1lb. of sugar. When the vessels under the spouts are nearly full the sap should be ladled from them into pails and carried to a shed, in which a large barrel, with the upper head removed, has been set up as a reservoir. In this it is allowed to remain at rest until all foreign substances have settled to the bottom. It is now quickly drawn off and conveyed to the boiler, which, in the absence of a proper arrangement, may be a large camp kettle, in which it is heated steadily until evaporated down to the consistence of treacle, when it is again removed and placed in an open vessel to cool. When cold, it is strained through a flannel bag into a second boiler, where it is again heated, clarified with eggs, a little bullock’s blood, or new milk. The boiling is now continued until a little of the syrup, taken on the point of a clean chip and held in the air, shows a disposition to assume a crystalline appearance, when the heating process is stopped and the charge withdrawn from the pot.
It is now in the candy state, and is cast into a variety of quaint forms by the use of small moulds prepared for the purpose. If granulated sugar is required, a small barrel is set up at a moderate distance from the ground; the upper head is removed, and the lower one bored full of gimlet holes. On the charge of candy being thrown into this, all the fluid portions drain away in a state of thin molasses through the holes into a tub or box placed below the barrel, in which the sugar is soon found fit for use.
Gum sugar is made by throwing the candy when hot from the pot out on the snow. This treatment has the property of checking crystallisation and converting the sugar into a tough material much used for chewing.
A settler’s family in a good maple district can, by the use of proper sized boilers, &c., make upwards of 700lb. of good serviceable sugar in one favourable season.