3-021-445 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The British Expedition to Abyssinia: watering-place for transport animals at the entrance to the Koomaylee Pass, 1868. 'A plentiful supply of water has been got at this place by digging wells and pumping it up. Both suction and chain pumps are used...Seven thousand animals could be watered every day, if it were needed. A working party is told off to work the pump, and by changing the men a continuous run of pure clear water is kept up. This is led, by means of wooden troughs, along a considerable space...The animals...are very difficult to manage, as they get excited at the sound of the water, and rush at it, in their eager desire to drink, producing confusion everywhere. Sentries are stationed to regulate their turns...In the evening, when they come down to water, it is a most animated scene. The camels, with their long necks stretched out in the direction of the water, become excited, and produce that disagreeable gurgling roar which is so painful to listen to. Great bullocks from Goojerat come on with a steady step; mules and horses tear, pull, and kick; conductors swear in English or abuse in Hindostanee; and the attendants, who have been picked up in all the bazaars of the East, talk and shout in every language that Babel gave birth to'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.