Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-06-14
TREES MAZE rErxs or WATER.
Hunters in Arid Regions Obtain Their
Drink by Tapping Them.

Hunters in Arid Regions Obtain Theil
Drink by Tapping Them.
In many sections of the forest lands
of the south during the dry seasons ,
man may walk for miles without find
ing stream of water or a spring b,
which to quench his thirst. If. how
ever, he is an experienced hunter ant
xoodsman he will not have to drinl
water from the stagnant pools in order
to keep life in, his body, says q writer
In the Memphis Scimiter. An expert
enced man can hunt for days through
such dry tracts and yet experience nc
Inconvenience on account of the lack CT
water. Nature has provided means
which is only known TO the initiated.
Every old huntsman carries with hin
whom going On long hunt a small
auger, by which he can secure n re.
freshing drink and water to cook with
at any moment. l
A cottonwood tree or a willow is the
we'll which the willy huntsman taps.
He examines each tree until he finds
one that has what woodsman calls q
"vein.' 1t is simply an attenunted
protuberance. BY boring into this
vein" stream OF clear water will
flow out. 1t is not sag, but clear,
pure water. The huntsman say that
the water is better than the average to
be had from ordinary wells. There is
no sweetish taste about it, but IL has
a strong flavor of sulphur and is
slightly oarbonated,
The reason for this phenomenon can
not easily be explained, but that sup,
ply of water can be contained ina tree
is not so surprising. The fact of its
flowing is the wonderful feature. show
ing that it must be under pressure or
In other words that there is more It
tho source OF the supply. When 1T is
considered that tho trees furnish the
water in the dry season and that the
ground is literally baked il is the more
remarkable, especially when the roots
of the trees do not extend to any great
depth into the ground. ti
Owing to the fact that water can be
obtained by tapping cottonwood and
willow trees, very peculiar testimony
was recently heard in case in the
Federal Court here. About 90 years
ago, at certain point or the Missis-
sippi River, one of the islands which
was formed by the channel forking and
surrounding n large tract of lind was
deserted by the stream ON the Tennessee
side. Years afterward this land was
claimed by the man who owned prop
erty in Tennessee adjoining the former
island. His claim was that the island
had been wished away and that the
present land was formed by accretion.
The former owner. to prove that the
land had not been washed away, sawed
off the top of q cottonwood stump that
was on the island and showed that it
contained rs circles or rings, BEGINNING
at the heart. His statement was that
a ring was formed in the tree every
year, hence the tree was sapling 55
years ago, and was, consequently, grow
ing there 36 years before the island be-
came part of Tennessee.
Elm order to prove that q ring was
formed every year he testified that
while hunting, about 20 miles from that
place, in 1865, he had tapped cotton
wood tree for water and had put a plug
ia the hole afterward to keep the waller
from wasting. His theory was that
the tree in its growth would have
covered mp the plug and that the num-
her of rings from this plug to the bark
OF the tree would be. 10 the year 1899,
81, showing that a ring had been the
outside of the tree exactly "a years il
had been imbedded in the wood.
The tree was found and sawed up
The plug was discovered and was
distant from the outside of the tree ex
actly IA rings. Although such testi-
mony would not be doubled by woods
man, it was not received as evidence by
the court.