Many Of These Failing Fountains No Longer Flow,
Because The Brink Over Which They Ran Is Now Too High,
Or
Because the elevation of the western side of the country
lifts the land away from the water supply below; but
Let a cutting be made
from a lower level than the brink, and through it to a part
below the surface of the water, and water flows perennially.
Several of these ancient fountains have been resuscitated by the Bechuanas
near Kuruman, who occasionally show their feelings of self-esteem
by laboring for months at deep cuttings, which, having once begun,
they feel bound in honor to persevere in, though told by a missionary
that they can never force water to run up hill.
It is interesting to observe the industry of many Boers in this region
in making long and deep canals from lower levels up to spots
destitute of the slightest indication of water existing beneath
except a few rushes and a peculiar kind of coarse, reddish-colored grass
growing in a hollow, which anciently must have been the eye of a fountain,
but is now filled up with soft tufa. In other instances,
the indication of water below consists of the rushes growing
on a long, sandy ridge a foot or two in height instead of in a furrow.
A deep transverse cutting made through the higher part of this
is rewarded by a stream of running water. The reason why the ground
covering this water is higher than the rest of the locality
is that the winds carry quantities of fine dust and sand about the country,
and hedges, bushes, and trees cause its deposit. The rushes in this case
perform the part of the hedges, and the moisture rising as dew by night
fixes the sand securely among the roots, and a height,
instead of a hollow, is the result. While on this subject it may be added
that there is no perennial fountain in this part of the country
except those that come from beneath the quartzose trap,
which constitutes the "filling up" of the ancient valley;
and as the water supply seems to rest on the old silurian schists
which form its bottom, it is highly probable that Artesian wells
would in several places perform the part which these deep cuttings now do.
The aspect of this part of the country during most of the year
is of a light yellow color; for some months during the rainy season
it is of a pleasant green mixed with yellow. Ranges of hills
appear in the west, but east of them we find hundreds of miles
of grass-covered plains. Large patches of these flats are covered
with white calcareous tufa resting on perfectly horizontal strata of trap.
There the vegetation consists of fine grass growing in tufts
among low bushes of the "wait-a-bit" thorn (`Acacia detinens'),
with its annoying fish-hook-like spines. Where these rocks
do not appear on the surface, the soil consists of yellow sand
and tall, coarse grasses, growing among berry-yielding bushes,
named moretloa (`Grewia flava') and mohatla (`Tarchonanthus'),
which has enough of aromatic resinous matter to burn brightly,
though perfectly green.
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