Our next attempt was more successful.  This time we anchored the wheel so that it just cleared the towers, then fastening a couple of long guy ropes to it, we raised the wheel on edge, while a boy stood on each side holding the ropes to keep the wheel steady.  The anchor rope was now slowly paid out and the wheel was rolled in between the towers.  This done, the wheel was lifted up and the axle rod was pushed in, with the ends of the rod resting in slots of the boards on the tall tower and in the crotch on the shorter one.  To prevent the axle rod from working endwise out of its bearings, we nailed pieces of wood across the crotch and the slots against the ends of the rod.  Then we cast off the anchor rope and our wheel started work, the cans dipping up the water as they were carried around by the wheel and pouring it out of the top into the receiving trough, from which the water flowed down into the filter barrel.

Cooling the Filter Barrel.

[Illustration:  Fig. 260.  The Water Wheel in Action.]

The trough line was very leaky and a great deal of water splashed out of the buckets.  But for all that, within a few moments our barrel was full and overflowing.  We hadn’t figured on its filling so rapidly, but we soon found a way of utilizing the surplus water.  It was led to a half-barrel in which we washed our dishes, and from there it flowed through a ditch back to the river.  The water for the wash barrel was taken from the top of the upper filter barrel.  But we let the lower filter barrel flow over so that it would be kept wet on the outside.  Our filter was fortunately placed at a point where a good breeze struck it, and we shoveled away the earth that had been piled around it so that the wind playing on the wet barrel evaporated the moisture, making the water inside very cool.

The Canvas Bucket.

This same trick was used for cooling our drinking water whenever we went off on an expedition away from camp.  We had a heavy canvas bucket, the kind used on ships.  We would fill this bucket with water and then hang it up in the wind.  The water seeping out of the pores of the bucket would be evaporated by the wind, and this would, in a few moments, make the water inside delightfully cool.  Such buckets may be bought for $1.50 to $2.00 apiece, but ours was a home-made affair, and made somewhat differently from the store kind.  The canvas used was the heaviest we could find.  A piece 9 inches in diameter was cut out for the bottom.  A ring 7 inches in diameter, made of heavy brass wire, was laid on the canvas, and the cloth was turned over it and sewed down the inside of the ring.  For the sides of the bucket we cut a piece 14 inches wide and 23 inches long.  The upper edge was strengthened by a piece of light rope held in place by hemming the cloth over it.  The lower edge was now sewed to the bottom, just inside the wire ring and then the ends of the piece were joined, completing the sides of the bucket.  The bail of the bucket was formed of a piece of rope fastened to the roped upper edge of the bucket.