THE EMIGRANT'S HAND-BOOK. 43* 



a pleasant smell somewhat of the lemon kind. The leaves 

 may be kept dried in the sun or oven, and preserved for 

 use. 



PURIFYING WATER. 



As it is sometimes impossible to procure water pure and 

 fit for domestic purposes, it is important to know by what 

 method it may be purified, as it is called, that is, deprived 

 of those substances which contaminate it ; for it is to be 

 remembered that water, in itself, is necessarily pure and 

 incapable of change, and that when it is unfit for use the 

 cause must be attributed to the presence of foreign mat- 

 ters ; in other words, substances which do not belong to 

 it. 



Sponge may "be employed for filtering, by compressing it 

 into the neck of some vessel made to hold the water ; this 

 substance is very convenient, as it may be easily taken 

 out, cleaned, and replaced. 



But the best material for filtering water is charcoal. 

 This substance not only acts mechanically by its porositv 

 as a strainer, but it has the valuable and peculiar quality 

 of preventing putrefaction, by absorbing at once the gas- 

 eous matter that is generated, and thus impeding decom- 

 position. Sailors have long been acquainted with this 

 property of charcoal, and they have found it to be an ex- 

 cellent practice to char the inside of the casks in which 

 they take water to sea in long voyages. It was once 

 supposed that the chief use of this was to prevent the wa- 

 ter from contracting a disagreeable taste from the wood , 

 but it is now known that it not only effects ibis, but tnat it 

 acts much more powerfully, by absorbing all putrid mat- 

 ter and offensive odor, and thus rendering, in a considera- 

 ble degree, even foul and unwholesome water saluorious 

 and transparent. 



The best charcoal for this purpose is that produced by 



