PROCURING WATER. 249 
and digging out the roots, our want of skill in se- 
lecting proper ones, the great dust arising from 
the loose, powdery soil in which they were, and our 
own previously excited and exhausted state, have 
invariably prevented us from deriving the full 
advantage we expected from our efforts. 
In cases of extreme thirst, where the throat is 
dry and parched, or life at all in danger, the toil of 
digging for the roots would be well repaid by the 
relief afforded. I have myself, in such cases, found 
that though I could by no means satiate my thirst, 
I could always succeed in keeping my mouth cool 
and moist, and so far in rendering myself equal 
to exertions I could not otherwise have made. In- 
deed, I hold it impossible that a person, acquainted 
with this means of procuring water, and in a district 
where the gum-scrub grew, could ever perish from 
thirst in any moderate lapse of time, if he had with 
him food to eat, and was not physically incapable of 
exertion. Under such circumstances, the moisture 
he would be able to procure from the roots, would, I 
think, be quite sufficient to enable him to eat his food, 
and to sustain his strength for a considerable time, 
under such short stages as would gradually conduct 
him free from his embarrassments. 
In addition to the value of the gum -scrub to the 
native, as a source from whence to obtain his supply 
of water, it is equally important to him as affording 
an article of food, when his other resources have 
failed. To procure this, the lateral roots are still 
