DIGGING FOR WATER 109 



usual Australian character — a mere series of water-holes 

 in summer, and some of them dry up altogether. I had 

 but a cursory view of this country, the conditions of 

 travelling being such that I had to hasten back with all 

 speed to avoid starvation. Relying on reports of men 

 who professed to have visited this country, I expected to 

 subsist partly on the game which was said to abound 

 there. I saw but little game, and that little was very wild. 

 It comprised a few kangaroo and wallaby, and^ an odd 

 emu or two, which were so shy that I seldom succeeded 

 in getting within shot of them. All the previous informa- 

 tion I collected relating to this district was misleading. 

 Water which it was predicted we should want badly, was 

 always to be found by digging. 



A long experience in the bush has led me to place 

 great reliance on digging for water, and I always carried a 

 pick and shovel on my journeys. The time wasted in a 

 fruitless search for surface water would often be more 

 profitably spent in digging for it. In nearly all parts of 

 Australia it is usually found a few feet beneath the surface 

 of the ground. Of course the depth to which a poorly 

 equipped traveller can dig is limited. It is not possible to 

 delve more than twelve or fourteen feet, nor safe to 

 attempt to do so. Rough supports to the soil may be 

 extemporised from trees or large bushes ; and the use of 

 side pieces and cross supports should never be neglected, 

 as the earth is very apt to cave in ; and in any case the 

 timber is of use to enable the men to climb up and down, 

 which is better and safer than the use of a rope. These 

 precautions are unnecessary if the well does not exceed 

 six feet in depth. Such wells do not take so long to dig 

 as might be imagined. If the water lies near the surface 

 of the ground its presence can soon be detected, and two 

 men used to the work can dig a six-foot well in as many 

 hours ; after that depth an hour and a half may be allowed 

 for every foot sunk, that is eighteen hours for a twelve-foot 

 well. Compare this time with the five or six days' feverish 

 search for water which is often the enforced work of the 

 bushman, and it may be seen which is the wisest and 



