A Few Days' Rest And Feed, Fortunately Soon Puts A Camel
Right, And Such They Could Have At The Little Oasis We Had Reached On
October 5th.
In the centre of it lay a splendid little spring, in many
ways the most remarkable feature we had encountered, and therefore I
christened it after one whose love and helpful sympathy in all my work,
has given me strength and courage - my sister Helena.
CHAPTER XII
HELENA SPRING
"My native valley hath a thousand springs, but not to one of them shall I
attach hereafter, such precious recollections as to this solitary fount,
which bestows its liquid treasures where they are not only delightful,
but nearly indispensable."
So spake Sir Kenneth of Scotland in "The Talisman."
Surely the Christian knight, dragging his way across the sands of
Palestine, was not more pleased to reach the "Diamond of the Desert"
than we were to light upon this charming little oasis, hidden away in the
dreary solitude of the surrounding sandhills; the one spot of green on
which one's eyes may rest with pleasure in all this naked wilderness. At
the bottom of a hollow enclosed between two sand-ridges is a small
surface outcrop of limestone of similar character to that in which
Empress Spring is situated. In this is a little basin, nearly circular,
about 2 feet 6 inches in diameter and 3 feet deep, with a capacity of
about seventy gallons. This is the spring, fed at the bottom of the basin
from some subterranean source by a narrow tunnel in the rock, a natural
drain, not six inches in diameter. Through this passage, from the West,
the water rises, filling the rocky basin, and evidently at some seasons
bubbling over and filling the clay-pan which abuts on it on the Western
side. On the East side of the spring is an open space of sand;
surrounding it and the clay-pan is a luxuriant growth of pig-face - a
finger-like plant, soft, squashy, and full of moisture, but salt; it is
commonly seen on the margin of salt-lakes. Beyond the pig-face, tussocks
of grass and buck-bush, beyond that again a mass of ti-tree scrub
extending to the foot of the sandhills. On the inner slopes of these can
be seen the crowning glory of the spot viz., an abundance of splendid
green thistle (TRICHODESMA ZEYLANICUM), tall and juicy, growing amongst
acacia and other bushes. Outside this, beyond this area of perhaps four
hundred yards in diameter, stretching away to the horizon, ridge upon
ridge of desolate sand, black and begrimed by the ashes of recently
burnt spinifex, from which the charred stumps of occasional gum trees
point branchless to the sky. What chance of finding such a place without
the help of those natives to whom alone its existence was known?
The winds and storms of past years had filled in the basin with sand and
leaves, and except for the extraordinary freshness and abundance of
vegetation around it, its peculiar situation, and the absence of the
usual accompaniments to rock-holes, such as heaps of sticks and stones
which, having served their purpose of protecting the water from
evaporation, have been removed and thrown aside by the natives, there was
nothing at first sight to lead one to suppose that any further supply
existed than was visible in this natural reservoir.
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