The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-02-17
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LIFE WlTHOl JI WATER.

LIFE WITHOUT WATER.
How Animals Can Endure the Thirst
OF the Desert. i.
Among the questions asked in r.ela-
ttion to the difficulties of the Indian
frontier war is thesreason WHY the diff
fculty Of obtaining water blocks our
advance but does not hamper the hill
men. The answer is tina our troops had
in one camp upward of $4,000 baggage
animals. There were oxen, mules, dom
keys and camels. The former are al
ways thirsty creatures, and even the
camels are credited with vastly larger
powers of sustaining thirst than they
possess. Ma. "A. G.. Leonard, after II
years experience as transport officer,
is convinced that camelsS should, if pos
sible, be watered every day, that they
cannot be trained to do without water,
and that, though they can retain TX
gallons of water in the cells fof the
stomach, four or five days abstinence
is as much as they can stand, in heat
and with dry food, without permanent
| injury. &c., - - s..
The record of the sufferings of the
unfortunate animals which accom-
panied an<ill-arranged expedition in the
Kashgar desert is timely comment on
this opinion. It is very doubtful wheth-
er the majority ofithe3various "desert
animals willingly go without water,
or, in fact, do so to any great extent.
They drink sparingly, and can, prob
ably by habit malpractice, gosfor long
er periods without drinking than sper
cies living in welIwatered districts.
But the absence of any special provision
for the internal storing of water, ex-
cept in the camels and some tortoises,
seems to indicate that this power of
temporary abstinence is only an &C.
quired capacity. Nor is it often posi-
BILE to be certain that stores of waterloo
not exist in ''deserts;" stores perfectly
we'll known to the animals, though not
to travellers. This:is especially the case
in; rocky deserts such as the Bayuda
desert and that between 'Suakin and
Berber.
London daily papers who recently made
| the journey from the advanced posts on
| the Nile to Suakin, noted as remarkable
that though they were in desert and
making forced marches from want of
water, which, when found, was as black
as ink and almost undrinka BILE hares
and gazelles swarmed.
Sc 49, ho&
this desert is not waterless. Count
Gleichen, when recrossing the Bayuda
desert from Metemmeh, found real els
terms of water in one place away from
the ordinary track. A typical desert
bird, which, like the ga7elles, jerboas
and sand lizards, has even taken it's
color from it's environment, is the sand
| grouse. Yet Mr.. Dryden states that the
daily fight of the sand grouse, a species
of exceedingly swift and swallow-like
fight, to the water is one of the sights
of the veldt in the dry season. ''Their
machine-like punctility and the won
aerful displays afforded by their enor-
nous flights at the desert pools'' form
the subject of one of Mr.. Bryden's chap
ters of his recent work on South Africa
THE watering process is gone through
with perfect order and without over
crowding. 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. should judge that the average
time spent by each bird at and around
the water was half an hour" A curious
instance of animal knowledge of the
presence of water in unsupported places
had practical result in Holland. The
question Of supply of good water for
The Hague was under discussion at the
time when the North Sea canal was
being constructed. One of those pres
ent remarked that there was water in
the sand hills; that the hares, rabbits
and cartridges which swarm in the
sand hills did not come to the wet
''polders" to drink, but knew of some
supply in the "dunes" themselves; and
that he could name one or two places
where he had seen water. This idea
was laughed at, but one of the local
engineers present took the hint. The
dunes were carefully explored, and the
result is the cutting of long reservoir
in the center of the sand hills, which
fills with water naturally, and supplies
the town.
| It is believed that rabbits can exist in
this climate without permanent water
supply. Where they are kept in in
closed :warrens without water this
must be accepted as fact. The writer
has seen only one such warren, where
there are always plenty of drinking
troughs for the young pheasants in
summer, though in winter the rabbits
can only find rain water and dew.
Those in this warren are very poor and
small. Tame rabbits are commonly
kept without water, but they may be
seen licking the bars of their hutch
after shower, and drink eagerly when
they have the chance. Most other ro-
dents, including rats, are thirsty crea-
lures. The only animal living in very
Cry places which seem able to do en-
tirely without drink are snakes and
reptiles. In the cold desert of shifting
sand in Kashgar there were no reptiles
and not even fly. But the Afghan
boundary commission found swarms
of lizards and new and venomous spe-
cies of adder in astonishing numbers in
the awful desert of hot, shifting sand
at the corner where Persia, Baloochis-
tan and Afghanistan meet. We must
note one exception, the giraffe, which
Mr.. Dryden believes exists for three