ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN WATER. 125 



partly also to the amount of irrigation carried on along both banks 

 of the stream at the mission station. This latter circumstance 

 would have more weight were it not coincident with the failure 

 of fountains over a wide extent of country. 



Without at present entering minutely into this feature of the 

 climate, it may be remarked that the Kuruman district presents 

 evidence of this dry southern region having, at no very distant 

 date, been as well watered as the country north of Lake Ngami is 

 now. Ancient river-beds and water-courses abound, and the very 

 eyes of fountains long since dried up may be seen, in which the 

 flow of centuries has worn these orifices from a slit to an oval form, 

 having on their sides the tufa so abundantly deposited from these 

 primitive waters ; and just where the splashings, made when the 

 stream fell on the rock below, may be supposed to have reached 

 and evaporated, the same phenomenon appears. Many of these 

 failing fountains no longer flow, because the brink over which 

 they ran is now too high, or because the elevation of the western 

 side of the country lifts the land away from the water supply be- 

 low ; but let a cutting be made from a lower level than the brink, 

 and through it to a part below the surface of the water, and water 

 flows perennially. Several of these ancient fountains have been 

 resuscitated by the Bechuanas near Kuruman, who occasionally 

 show their feelings of self-esteem by laboring for months at deep 

 cuttings, which, having once begun, they feel bound in honor to 

 persevere in, though told by a missionary that they can never force 

 water to run up hill. 



It is interesting to observe the industry of many Boers in this 

 region in making long and deep canals from lower levels up to 

 spots destitute of the slightest indication of water existing beneath 

 except a few rushes and a peculiar kind of coarse, reddish-colored 

 grass growing in a hollow, which anciently must have been the 

 eye of a fountain, but is now filled up with soft tufa. In other 

 instances, the indication of water below consists of the rushes 

 growing on a long, sandy ridge a foot or two in height instead of 

 in a furrow. A deep transverse cutting made through the higher 

 part of this is rewarded by a stream of running water. The reason 

 why the ground covering this water is higher than the rest of the 

 locality is that the winds carry quantities of fine dust and sand 

 about the country, and hedges, bushes, and trees cause its deposit. 



