TREES INDICATIVE OF WATER IN THE SUBSOIL. 315 



good, and capable of supporting cattle, if only water 

 could be found. This constant permanence of good 

 grass, and especially of fine timber which we have 

 been assured by an ex-trooper of the Bechuanaland 

 Border Police, who had been all over this country, 

 is to be found in many places, in what is called the 

 Kalahari desert is however of itself as we have said, 

 in our opinion, an almost certain indication of water 

 at no great depth below; the deeply penetrating root 

 fibres of these desert trees and grasses being undoub- 

 tedly nourished by the evaporation of water, exhaled 

 through the soil, which thus, where all is otherwise 

 dead, still preserves the verdant charm of Nature over 

 large districts of apparently waterless country, thus 

 almost recalling the well-known apostrophe of Romeo 

 over the inanimate form of Juliet, whose features still 

 appeared overspread with the bloom of youthful life 

 and loveliness 



"Death that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath 

 Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. 

 Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet 

 Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, 

 And death's pale flag is not advanced there." * 



As regards the penetrating power of roots it is worth 

 observing that on the borders of rivers, where the 

 stream has undermined the banks and caused falls of 

 earth, we may in fact constantly see for ourselves 

 how very far down these fibres will sometimes 

 penetrate into the ground in search of the life- 

 giving fluid. This peculiarity may be said to be 

 common to almost the whole of the arborescent vege- 



* Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. iii. 



