Water for Drinking. 221
to an imperial pint of water in three hours, or to an imperial gallon in an entire day and night.
The simplest way to distil, but a very imperfect one, is to light a fire among stones, near a hollow in a rock, that is filled, or can be filled, with salt-water. When the stones are red-hot, drop them one by one into it : the water will hiss and give out clouds of vapour, some of which may be collected in a cloth, and wrung or sucked out of it. In the same way a pot on the fire may have a cloth stretched over it to catch the steam.
Still made with a Kettle and Gun-barrel.-There is an account of the crew of the `Levant' packet, which was wrecked near the Cosmoledo Islands, who supplied themselves with fresh water by means of distillation alone, and whose Still was contrived with an iron pot and a gun-barrel, found on the spot where they were wrecked, They procured,
