3. An open spot level enough for the tent and camp fire, but elevated above its surroundings so as to have good natural drainage. It must be well above any chance overflow from the sudden rise of a neighboring stream. Observe the previous flood marks....
7. Exposure to direct sunlight during a part of the day, especially during the early morning hours.
8. In summer, exposure to whatever breezes may blow; in cold weather, protection against the prevailing wind.
9. Privacy.
"Water, wood, and good drainage may be all you need for a 'one-night stand,' but the other points, too, should be considered when selecting a site for a fixed camp.
"Water—Be particularly careful about the purity of your water supply. You come, let us say, to a mountain brook, that issues from thick forest. It ripples over clean rocks, it bubbles with air, it is clear as crystal and cool to your thirsty throat. 'Surely that is good water.' But do you know where it comes from? Every mountain cabin is built close to a spring-branch. Somewhere up that branch there may be a clearing; in that clearing, a house; in that house, a case of dysentery or typhoid fever. I have known several cases of infection from just such a source. It is not true that running water purifies itself.
"When one must use well-water let him note the surrounding drainage. If the well is near a stable or out house, or if dish water is thrown near it, let it alone. A well in sandy soil is more or less filtered by nature, but rocky or clayey earth may conduct disease germs a considerable distance under ground. Never drink from the well of an abandoned farm: there is no telling what may have fallen into it.
"A spring issuing from the living rock is worthy of confidence. Even if it be but a trickle you can scoop out a basin to receive it that soon will clear itself.
"Sometimes a subaqueous spring may be found near the margin of a lake or river by paddling close in shore and trailing your hand in the water. When a cold spot is noted, go ashore and dig a few feet back from the water's edge. I have found such spring exit in the Mississippi some distance from the bank, and by weighting a canteen, tying a string to it and another to the stopper, have brought up cool water from the river bed.
"Disease germs are of animal, not vegetable origin. Still waters are not necessarily unwholesome, even though there is rotten vegetation in them. The water of cedar and cypress swamps is good to drink wherever there is a deep pool of it, unless polluted from some outside source. Lake water is safe if no settlements are on its border; but even so large a body as Lake Champlain has been condemned by state boards of health because of the sewage that runs into it.