A HOT PLACE TO LIVE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 24, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 51.

A HOT PLACE TO LIVE.

Their Needs Supplied.

THE hottest region on the earth's surface, says the Christian Work, is on the southwestern coast of Persia, on the border of the Persian Gulf. For forty consecutive days in the months of July and August the mercury has been known to stand above 100 degrees in the shade, night and day, and to run up as high as 130 degrees in the middle of the afternoon. At Bahrein, in the center of the most torrid part of this most torrid place, as tho it were nature's intention to make the place as unbearable as possible, water from wells is something unknown. Great shafts have been sunk to a depth of 100, 200, 300 and even 500 feet, but always with the same result—no water. This serious drawback notwithstanding, a comparatively numerous population contrives to live there, thanks to copious springs which burst forth from the bottom of the gulf more than a mile from the shore. Machadores (divers), whose sole occupation is that of furnishing the people of Bahrein with the life-giving fluid, repair to that portion of the gulf where the springs are situated, and bring away with them hundreds of bags full of the water each day. The water of the gulf where the springs burst forth is nearly 200 feet deep, but these machadores manage to fill their goatskin sacks by diving to the bottom and holding the mouths of the bags over fountain jets—this, too, without allowing the salt water of the gulf to mix with it. The source of these submarine fountains is thought to be in the hills of Osmond, 400 or 500 miles away. Being situated at the bottom of the gulf, it is a mystery how they were ever discovered, but it is said that they have been known since the dawn of history.