WATER AND ANIMALS. 



(5 O SHOW the importance of 



^ water to animal life, we give 



oj the opinions of several 



—^ travelers and scientific men 

 who have studied the question 

 thoroughly. 



The Camel, with his pouch for stor- 

 ing water, can go longer without 

 drink than other animals. He doesn't 

 do it from choice, any more than you 

 in a desert would prefer to drink the 

 water that you have carried with you, 

 if you might choose between that and 

 fresh spring water. Major A. G. 

 Leonard, an English transport officer, 

 claims that Camels "should be watered 

 every day, that they can not be trained 

 to do without water, and that, though 

 they can retain one and a half gallons 

 of water in the cells of the stomach, 

 four or five days' abstinence is as much 

 as they can stand, in heat and with 

 dry food, without permanent injury." 



Another distinguished English 

 traveler, a Mr. Bryden, has observed 

 that the beasts and birds of the 

 deserts must have private stores of 

 water of which we know nothing. Mr. 

 Bryden, however, has seen the Sand- 

 Grouse of South America on their 

 flight to drink at a desert pool. "The 

 watering process is gone through with 

 perfect order and without overcrowd- 

 ing" — a hint to young people who are 

 hungry and thirsty at their meals. 

 " From eight o'clock to close on ten 

 this wonderful flight continued ; as 

 birds drank and departed, others were 

 constantly arriving to take their 



places. I should judge that the average 

 time spent by each bird at and around 

 the water was half an hour." 



To show the wonderful instinct 

 which animals possess for discovering 

 water an anecdote is told by a writer 

 in the Spectator^ and the article is re- 

 published in the Living Age of 

 February 5. The question of a supply 

 of good water for the Hague was under 

 discussion in Holland at the time of 

 building the North Sea Canal. Some 

 one insisted that the Hares, Rabbits, 

 and Partridges knew of a supply in the 

 sand hills, because they never came to 

 the wet " polders " to drink. At first 

 the idea excited laughter. Then one 

 of the local engineers suo^o;ested thatthe 

 sand hills should be carefully explored, 

 and now a long reservoir in the very 

 center of those hills fills with water 

 naturally and supplies the entire town. 



All this goes to prove to our mind 

 that if Seals do not apparently drink, 

 if Cormorants and Penguins, Girafies, 

 Snakes, and Reptiles seem to care 

 nothing for water, some of them do 

 eat wet or moist food, while the 

 Giraffe, for one, enjoys the juices of 

 the leaves of trees that have their 

 roots in the moisture. None of these 

 animals are our common, everyday 

 pets. If they were, it would cost us 

 nothing to put water at their disposal, 

 but that they never drink in their 

 native haunts "can not be proved until 

 the deserts have been explored and 

 the total absence of water con- 

 firmed." — Ex. 



84 



