In theory you can make the container from any thin fabric: duct tape, paper (eg dollar bill), animal skin, or even a leaf. Last night I tried with a large leaf secured with some paper clips. It collapsed on the fire - I think the paper clips may have softened in the heat, enough to lose their grip.

It's tricky. The water is what stops it burning, so anything above the water line is liable to burn (or melt or whatever). But if you put holes in the fabric below the water line, the water leaks out. You need to support the container over the fire somehow. Some kind of scaffolding around the outside of the fabric might support it and provide anchor points, but if it's too thick the water won't cool it.

If you have some snare wire in your PSK, you could probably use it to fashion the support of a small basket, then line it with a large leaf for water-proofing.

Okay I played around with Chris' idea this weekend while on a very casual, day hike with my wife and son. I unfortunatly didnt have 8 hours to devote to the project but I did pay close attention to the environment (particlarly the various soils) throughout our hike. We were on a very short (2mile) hike (because my son is only 22months old) and in that time we crossed everything type of soil from moist dirt, to sand, to rock. Widely varrying terrain is the one of the attractions of these particular trails. We mostly do these short hikes to give the kid a chance you play with twigs and flowers and throw pebbles in the river and creeks (which is his favorite). Needless to say, with a curious 2 year old boy we stop several times even on a 2 mile hike. What we are doing cant even really be called hiking but rather more accurately "playing in the woods". Anyway, one thing I did was sharpen a small stick on our first stop and then use it to dig a small hole everywhere we stopped along the trail. It didnt take long to prove true what Susan has already stated which is that the best place to find the right soil (atleast when only digging shallow holes) is near the water. My next project now is to see if I can actually construct and fire a natural clay pot with only firemaking supplies and a knife. I'll let you know how it goes.

'Hiking' reminds me of all these silly troops passing in parade. I thought the prussian goosestep was exausting until I saw a recent clip of North Koreans and then some former Soviet Bloc troops pass in review. John Cleese in his 'Ministry of Silly Walks' couldn't do better and I wonder if they were watching last year's Rose Parade when some of our African American marching bands boogied down Pasadena. Dawdling along the trail is the mark of a experienced outdoorsman. You SEE things. Our friends over at www.bushcraft.uk.com have a recent tutorial on pottery. Their scottish regiments know how to march properly too <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the info Chris. I will check out that thread over at BCUK to see what I can learn. BTW: If dawdling along the trail is the mark of an experienced outdoorsman then my son an I are experts. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Maybe the old solar still might come to save the day in this situation. However, I'd imagine that anything you could use to roof over the still, and anything you could use to collect the water that is distilled, could also be used to hold the water for boiling.

If I were in this situation, and were in dire life-and-death need of drinking water, I'd just drink it. I'd look forthe clearest water I could find, in a pond surrounded by green vegetation, strain it through a piece of cloth to remove particulate matter, and drink it. It's not a foolproof, or even all that reliable, a system, but you might get lucky, and that probability is increased by the above steps. Even in the worst-case scenario you'd likely have at least 12 hours before any serious symptoms set in.

Then when I get back to civilization I'd have a doctor hook me up with broad-spectrum antibiotics.

The assumption here is that you will be rescued within a matter of hours, perhaps a day at most.

But the reality is, if you are so woefully unprepared (you didn't bother to bring *anything* capable of storing water or even acting as a water barrier, of any size, nor did you bring water purification tablets, so chances are you're dreadfully unprepared on other fronts as well), you probably wouldn't survive much longer than that anyway.

So if it's come down to life-and-death, drink up, whatever you can find.

Actually, this is a possibility.

Take a large piece of cloth - the heavier, the better. A leg from a pair of jeans, or a heavy shirt, would work.

Form it into a pouch, and fill it with water, which you begin heating.

The water will strain out, but maybe it'll be slow enough that there'll be some left in the end.

If not, start piling stuff up on the perimeter of the pocket - fine clay would work, although some kind of animal fat or grease, or even vasoline, would probably be better. This would prevent the water from dribbling out the bottom.

And if that fails, like I said before, drink whatever you can get.

>>But the reality is, if you are so woefully unprepared (you didn't
>>bother to bring *anything* capable of storing water or even
>>acting as a water barrier, of any size, nor did you bring water
>>purification tablets, so chances are you're dreadfully
>>unprepared on other fronts as well), you probably wouldn't
>>survive much longer than that anyway.

That's not entirely fair. When the Lockheed Electra that Juliane Koepcke was a passenger on broke up in midair over the Peruvian jungle, she lost everything but the clothes on her back, and still managed to survive against incredible odds. She even lost her shoes (according to some sources, the shirt she was wearing was ripped off so even if she had some survival gear in her pockets she would have lost it.)

Yeah, if it's a simple case of "Oh jeez, I knew I shouldn't have made that left turn at Albakoiky", then yeah - you should have all this stuff. But this is a hypothetical scenario, and it is not 100 percent valid to assume you would have all your normal survival gear in an emergency.

Personally, I think that digging a depression in the ground and lining it with wet leaves would form a waterproof container, although I haven't tried it.

Juliane Koepcke was wearing a white confirmation dress and high heels when her plane exploded. She found a squashed birthday cake and some cigarettes. She took the cake with her and ate it, drank from the vines she knew contained water, and used the tobacco as an insect repellent. She also had a knee injury.

This girl made a lot of good decisions and was also lucky. None of the other people who survived the crash managed to survive the jungle.

Sue

I think my point about "probably" still stands, as all the other survivors died before rescue, and by the fact that this story is notable enough in its outcome.

But did she have any source of clean water? If not, did she find a natural source of water?

I'd imagine if the latter were the case, she'd have to have drunk it without purification, and just got lucky.

The whole point of this exercise is to put our heads together and see if we can find a good method of boiling water with only a knife and firemaking tools. Lots of good ideas so far. I think as it stands, Chris' idea is in the lead though based on the primitive pottery tutorial I read yesterday at BCUK, it would probably require every second of the 8 hour time limit. I'm hoping to have time to try this on Sunday so if I do I will let you guys know how well it works and how long it takes. I'm thinking it will take me 1 hour to construct a good container for boiling then it's about 4 hours minimum firing time (hopefully not more). That leaves 3 hours to cool the pot a little and fill it with water (that I will probably strain through a t-shirt) then boil and cool that water for drinking (maybe another hour?).

So... if it takes 1 hour to make the pot and 1 hour to boil and cool a liter of water then I have 6 hours to fire and cool the pot. The earthenware pottery tutorial that made the most sense to me (there are many such tutorials at BCUK and I didnt read them all) suggests firing your pot in a "huge" fire for 3 hours then letting the fire die out naturally and letting the pot continue to sit in the coals overnight as the fire/coals dies/die out naturally. This obviously has to be modified to meet the 8 hour time limit. Also the author of this tutorial states clearly that although the resulting pot will hold water, it will also sweat as well which is why I am suspecting that boiling a liter of water may take a little longer than it would in a completely waterproof container.