Once a cement water-pipe under ground at Stawell began to gradually reduce its output, and finally ceased altogether to deliver water.

Upon examining into the matter it was found stopped up, wadded compactly with a mass of root-fibres, delicate and hair-like.

How this stuff had gotten into the pipe was a puzzle for some little time; finally it was found that it had crept in through a crack that was almost invisible to the eye.

A gum tree forty feet away had tapped the pipe and was drinking the water..