If the stream be small, the water supply may be increased by building a dam. Small springs may be dug out and each lined with a gabion, or a barrel or box with both ends removed, or with stones, the space between the lining and the earth being filled with puddled clay. A rim of clay should be built to keep out surface drainage. The same method may be used near swamps, streams, or lakes to increase or clarify the water supply.
[667.] Water that is not known to be pure should be boiled 20 minutes; it should then be cooled and aerated by being poured repeatedly from one clean container to another, or it may be purified by approved apparatus supplied for the purpose.
[668.] Arrangements should be made for men to draw water from the authorized receptacles by means of a spigot or other similar arrangement. The dipping of water from the receptacles, or the use of a common drinking cup, should be prohibited.
Kitchens.
[669.] Camp kettles can be hung on a support consisting of a green pole lying in the crotches of two upright posts of the same character.
A narrow trench for the fire, about 1 foot deep, dug under the pole, not only protects the fire from the wind but saves fuel. A still greater economy of fuel can be effected by digging a similar trench in the direction of the wind and slightly narrower than the diameter of the kettles. The kettles are then placed on the trench and the space between the kettles filled in with stones, clay, etc., leaving the flue running beneath the kettles. The draft can be improved by building a chimney of stones, clay, etc., at the leeward end of the flue.
Four such trenches radiating from a common central chimney will give one flue for use whatever may be the direction of the wind.
A slight slope of the flue, from the chimney down, provides for drainage and improves the draft.
[670.] The lack of portable ovens can be met by ovens constructed of stone and covered with earth to better retain the heat. If no stone is available, an empty barrel, with one head out, is laid on its side, covered with wet clay to a depth of 6 or more inches and then with a layer of dry earth equally thick. A flue is constructed with the clay above the closed end of the barrel, which is then burned out with a hot fire. This leaves a baked clay covering for the oven.
A recess can be similarly constructed with boards or even brushwood, supported on a horizontal pole resting on upright posts, covered and burnt out as in the case of the barrel.