| Show the australian tree well in the vast rainless tracts of central australia where water in the of streams ponds wells etc is unknown and where thousands of gold seekers travelers hunters and others have perished with thirst the country is ifould to be tolerably populated by a hardy race known as bushmen for the past century it has been a standing wonder how these human beings managed to exist in such an arid region it now turns out that nature has made provisions for the welfare of living creatures even in that inhospitable section of the antipodes here the eucalyptus tree which grows to feet high in more favorable localities grows to but eight or ten feet gnarled and thickly jointed like a reed herein lies the secret of the bush mans existence the joints of this dwarf eucalyptus are hollow and filled with pure water the size of the joint regulating the amount of water to be found within more than one unlucky being has laid down in the shade of one of these australian well trees to die of thirst when one stroke with hibi knife or machete would have caused a lifto giving stream to burst forth st louis republic |
