170 
SURVIVAL 0 N LAND AND SEA 
WATER 
If yon have more equipment than you can carry, sacrifice 
anything but water. The amount of water you carry is the 
amount of insurance you have against desert disaster. Use 
what water you have for drinking. You can wash when you 
are safe again. Of course, if you have any wounds, scratches 
or sores you must keep them clean even at the expense of your 
precious drinking supply. If you have any salt tablets with 
you, take them from time to time, the interval depending on 
how many tablets you have and how far from help you estimate 
you may be. They will help combat fatigue and heatstroke, and 
also enable you to get along on less water. Do not smoke. Smok- 
ing increases thirst. Carrying a smooth pebble in the mouth 
will reduce thirst by stimulating the flow of saliva. 
There are several aids to finding water that may be present 
in some desert areas. If there are any dried-up stream beds, 
which look like long, fairly narrow and rather shallow ditches, 
choose the lowest place in the bottom of the ditch and dig. If 
there is any water within a few feet of the surface you will 
soon feel that the sand is slightly damp. If you find this to be 
so, dig further and you may find water. The same is true for 
dried-up lake beds. These are usually pond-shaped fairly level 
areas, called “pans” in some deserts, around the edges of which 
are slightly raised ridges. Again find the lowest spot and dig. 
Remember that water runs down hill and that it seeks the lowest 
place it can reach either on or under the surface. 
Plants are good indicators of water. As a rule the denser the 
growth of such desert grasses as salt grass and reed-like grasses, 
the closer to the surface the water probably is. In those deserts 
