save an immense amount of useless labour in 
this preliminary selection of a suitable tree 
or bush, and it should also be kept in mind 
that some families of plants will not yield so 
much as a drop of water; outstanding among 
these are the casuarinas. Those which will 
yield it belong chiefly to the eucalypts, with 
the Water mallee ( E . oleosa , F.v.M.) of the 
fringes of the Nullarbor Plain as the best- 
known example. Some species of Banksia also 
have this valuable property, and so do many 
Acacias, several Hakeas, and at least one Gre- 
vi Ilea. It is also possessed by at least one 
species of kurrajong (Brachy chiton gregorii , 
F.v.M.), a calathamnos and the boobialla 
( Myoporum insulare, R.Br.), of the Coorong 
in South Australia. 
The greatest quantity of water is obtained 
if the roots are taken up and drained at dawn 
after a cool night; the least if it is done in the 
middle of a hot and windy day. There are 
several ways in which the roots can be located .. 
without a lot of digging when a tree has been 
selected; one is to lie on the ground and 
“sight” the barely perceptible ridges of sand 
or soil above each root. The ridges can also 
be found by the shadows which they cast at 
sunrise or sunset. If the tree or bush is small 
their whereabouts can be located by grasping 
the trunk and shaking it vigorously, at the 
same time watching for the cracking or mov- 
ing of the ground above the roots. 
Roots which contain water are never very 
large, few being more than four or five inches 
in circumference; when cut they reveal no 
heartwood, their bark is usually much 
smoother than that of other roots, and they 
are very uniform in thickness, with little or 
no taper. They never lie far beneath the sur- 
face of the ground, some are only six inches 
down, and fifteen inches is about the extreme 
depth. Being both flexible and strong, it is 
usually unnecessary to dig up the entire length 
of a root; if portion of it is uncovered and 
then cut through or broken, yards of it can 
be pulled up in soft soil or sand, as if it was 
a piece of rope which had been buried. 
To obtain the water they are cut or broken 
— the former for preference — into two-foot 
lengths, and stood to drain with the end w hich 
was nearer to the tree downward. When the 
water ceases to drip from them an additional, 
and appreciable quantity can be obtained by 
blowing down each in turn. 
A most important piece of information was 
given to the writer by N. B. Tindale, who had 
observed aborigines using it. If only a few 
drops of water come from roots, this should 
be used to moisten a piece of clay to a putty- 
like paste. With the ball of the thumb this 
damp clay is then forced into the pores of the 
root on the end which was farther from the 
tree, in order to seal them. If these sticks are 
then laid on a gentle fire, water will bubble 
and drip from the unsealed ends. The sight 
of water coming in this way from the ends of 
wet sticks in a fire is too familiar to most 
people for the idea to need further elaboration. 
From a single piece of root, twenty feet in 
length and three inches in circumference after 
the bark had been removed, the writer has fre- 
quently obtained nearly a pint of clear and 
almost tasteless water, and sometimes double 
this quantity has been secured. 
The second method is to obtain water from 
the trunks of saplings of many species of 
eucalypts and several species of melaleuca. 
Select young trees which have obviously grown 
rapidly and have a large head of foliage. 
These should have a diameter of about four 
inches under the bark close to ground level, 
and a length of from eight to twenty feet. Cut 
or break off close to the ground, cut off the 
branches and leafy head, elevate the butt end, 
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