WATER IN DESERTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7848, 10 July 1911, Page 9

WATER IN DESERTS.

There is water in all deserts, and the receptacles for this water are plants which by means of their roots absorb water from the soil when the rains come arid store it up for use in time of drought. Tho interior, of a plant that holds water consists of a myriad water storage cells, and, according to tho "Strand,” a determination of tho water in a sample of the storage tissue of the barrel cactus has shown over ninety-six per cent. An intelligent Fapago Indian —one long used to the- old-time practise —thus showed a traveller in tho desert how he might quench his thirst. Ho first picked out a cactus a little over three feet high; and twenty inches in diameter. Ho then sliced off tho top and exposed the white interior, raising tho top from the rest of the plant as if it were a lid on hinges. Inside was a pnlpy structure, evidently saturated with water, although the water did not exude from the pulp when the cut was made. The guide then cut a stake about three inches in diameter at tho blunt end and began to mash tho flesh of the cactus into a plup. By this means he made in the top of tho catus a sort of bowl, and soon bad collected a suitable quantity of this pulp. Then, taking it up handful by handful, he squeezed out tho water into tho bowl and tossed the useless jmlp away. The flavour of the water was slightly saline.