The age-herald., 1898-01-16

yuda desert and that between Suakin and Berber.
 Some Of the correspondents of the Lon don daily papers who recently made the journey from the advanced posts on the Nile to Sualkin noted as remarkable that though they were l ma desert and making forced marches from want of water, which, when found, was as black as ink and all most undrinkable, hares and gazelles swarmed
 This is an almost certain sign that this desert is not waterleSs. Count Gleichen, when recrossing the Bayuda desert from Metcmmeh, found real cisterns of water in one place away from the ordinary track. A typical desert bird, which. like the ga- zelles, jeTboas and sand lizards, has even taken it's color from it's environment, is the sand grouse Yet Mir. Bryden states that the daily flight of the sand grouse, a spe- cies of exceedingly swift and swallow-like flight, to the water is one of the sights of the veldt in the dry season. "Their ma chine-like punctuallty and the wonderful displays afforded by their enormous flights at the desert poos' form the subject of one of Mr. Bryden's chapters in his recent work on South Africa "The watering pro- cess is gone through with perfect order and without overcrowding. From o'clock to close on 10 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" A curious instance of anil mai Knowledge of the presence of water in unsuspected places had a practical result in Holland The question of a supply of good water for the hague was under discuss sion 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 par tridges which swarm in the sand hills did tA1 1rt, I.11f knew of some supply in the "dunes'' them selves; 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 a long reservoir in the center of the sand hills, which fills with water naturally and supplies the town.
 It is believed that rabbits exist in this climate without a permanent water supply. Where they are kept in inclosed warrens without water this must be ac- cepted as fact. The writer has seen only one such warren, where there are always plenty drinking troughs for the young pheasants in summer, though in winter the rabbits 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 a shower, and drink eagerly when they have the chance Most other rodents including rats are thirsty creatures The only ani- malls living in very dry rdaces which seem able to do entirely 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 Af- ghan 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, Baloochstan and Afghanistan meet. We must note one ex- ception, the giraffe, which MT. Bryden be- lieves exists for three-quarters of the year in the north Kalahari without water But this cannot be proved until the desert has been explored and the total absence of water confirmed. There is known to be water beneath the surface and if the gi- raffe does live waterless he must imbibe his liquid nutriment at second hand in the juices of the leaves of the trees which have their roots in the moisture. Seals do not apparently drink, neither do cor morants and penguins; but there can be little more evaporation from their bodies than from those of fish, and their food is wet and moist. A more difficult question is that of the water supply of artic animals in winter. Possibly they eat snow. There is abundant evidence that though many anil mals can exist without water for long pc riods this abstinence is not voluntary, and when unduly protracted causes suffering and loss of health.