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The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries
by Francis Galton
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In some cases, the body of a cart may be taken down, and deep ruts having been dug on each side of the mass, the vehicle can be backed, till the axletree comes across it; then, after lashing and making fast, the sand can be shovelled from below the mass, which will hang suspended from the axletree, and may be carted away. Or a sledge may be built beneath the mass by burrowing below it and thrusting the poles beneath it. Then the remainder of the intervening sand can be shovelled away, and the mass, now resting directly upon the sledge, can be dragged away by a team of cattle.

A sarcophagus of immense weight was raised from out of a deep recess into which it had been fitted pretty closely, at the end of a long narrow gallery in an Egyptian tomb, where there was no room for the application of tackle or other machinery, by the simple expedient of slightly disturbing it in its place and sifting sand into the narrow interval between its sides and the recess. This process was repeated continually: the sand settled below the bottom of the sarcophagus, which gradually rose out of the hole in which it had lain. The principle of this piece of engineering was borrowed, I suppose, from observing that whenever a mass of sand and stones is shaken together, the stones invariably rise out of the sand, the biggest of them always forming the highest layer.

Expansive Power of Wetted Seeds.—Admiral Sir E. Belcher read a curious paper before the British Association in 1866, showing the remarkable power to be obtained by filling tubes with peas or other seed, allowing the weight to rest upon the surface of the peas through the medium of a rude piston. When the peas were wetted they swelled upwards with considerable force. A pint of peas placed in a tube of a diameter that was not expressed in the newspaper report, from which I take this account, lifted 60 lbs. through a height of one inch in twenty-four hours. The Admiral proposed to fix a number of tubes side by side in a frame below the mass to be lifted, preferring to use zinc tubes of from two or three inches in diameter, and of about one foot high. Thus, in the small space of a cubic foot, a large number of tubes (thirty-six in the one case, sixteen in the other) could be made to act simultaneously; the force of the stroke could be increased by arranging a number of frames side by side, or the length of the stroke could be increased by building the frames in a series one above the other. I have elsewhere described how wetted seeds may be used to restore the shape of a battered flask either for holding water or gunpowder (pp. 230).

Parbuckling.—A round log or a barrel should be rolled, not dragged; and many irregularly-shaped objects may have bundles of faggots lashed round them, by which they become barrel-shaped and fit to be rolled. In these cases, parbuckling doubles the ease of rolling them; one or more ropes have one of each of their ends made fast in the direction to which the log has to be rolled, while the other is carried underneath the log, round it, and back again. By pulling at these free ends, the log will be rolled on. An equivalent plan, and in some cases a more practicable one, is to make fast one end of the rope to the log itself; then, winding the rope two or three times round it, like cotton on a reel, to haul at the free end as before. Horses can be used, as well as men, for this work.

[Sketch of man pulling log].

Accumulation of Efforts.—South American Indians are said to avail themselves of their forest trees, and of the creepers which stretch from branch to branch, in moving very heavy weights, as in lifting a log of timber up on a stage to be sawn, in the following ingenious manner. The labourer gets hold of one of these creepers that runs from the top boughs of a tree in the direction in which he wants to move his log, and pulling this creeper home with all his force, bending down the bough, he attaches it to the log; then he goes to another creeper and does the same with that; and so on until he has accumulated strain of many bent boughs, urging the log forward and of sufficient power to move it.

Short cords of india-rubber with a hook at either end, are sold under the name of "accumulators." It is proposed that each of these should be stretched and hooked by one of its ends to a fixed ring, and by the other, to the body to be moved; by applying a number of these, in succession, an immense accumulation of force can be obtained.

Levers.—A piece of green wood has insufficient strength to be used as a crowbar; it must first be seasoned. (See "Green Wood, to season.")

Other Means of Raising Weights.—I do not propose to take space by describing jacks, ordinary pulleys, differential pulleys, Chinese windlasses, and the like. It is sufficient that I should recall them by name to the traveller's recollection; for if he has access to any of these things he is probably either a sailor or engineer and knows all about them, or he is in a land where mechanical appliances are understood.

To raise Weights out of Water.—If the mass should lie below water, a boat may be brought over it and sunk to its gunwales; then, after making fast to it, the boat can be baled and the thing floated away. A raft weighted with stones will serve the same purpose. In some cases a raft may be built round the mass during low water; then the returning tide or the next flush of the stream will float it away.

"Although from its bulk several men might be puzzled to lift a cow-fish from the water when dead, yet one single Indian will stow the largest in his montaria without assistance. The boat is sunk under the body, and rising, the difficult feat is accomplished." (Edwards' 'Amazon.')

The huge blocks of marble quarried at Carrara are shipped in the small vessels of the country, as follows:—at low water the vessel is buried bodily in the sand, and a temporary railway laid down from the quarry to withinside of it. Along this the blocks are conveyed, and, when deposited in the vessel, the sand is dug away from under them, and they settle down in its hold, and the ship floats away at the returning tide.



KNOTS.

Elementary Knots.—The three elementary knots which every one should know are here represented—viz., the Timber-hitch, the Bowline, and the Clove-hitch. (See also "Knots," p. 49; "Malay hitch," p. 147.)

Timber-hitch.—The virtues of the timber-hitch (fig. 1, p. 326) are, that, so long as the strain upon it is kept up, it will hold fast; when the strain is taken off, it can be cast loose immediately. A timber-hitch had better have the loose end twisted more than once, if the rope be stiff.

Bowline.—The bowline (fig. 2) makes a knot difficult to undo; with it the ends of two strings are tied together, or a loop made at the end of a single piece of string, as in the drawing. For slip nooses, use the bowline to make the draw-loop. When tying a bowline, or any other knot for temporary purposes, insert a stick into the knot before pulling tight. The stick will enable you, at will, to untie the knot—to break its back, as the sailors say—with little difficulty. A bowline is firmer, if doubled; that is, if the free end of the cord be made to wrap round a second time.

[3 fig of knots tied as described].

Clove-hitch.—The clove-hitch (fig. 3) binds with excessive force, and by it, and it alone, can a weight be hung to a perfectly smooth pole, as to a tent-pole. A kind of double clove-hitch is generally used, but the simple one suffices, and is more easily recollected. A double clove-hitch is firmer than a single one; that is, the rope should make two turns, instead of one turn, round the pole beneath the lowest end of the cord in the figure. (See"Tent-poles, to tie things to.")

Knots at End of Rope.—To make a large knot at the end of a piece of string, to prevent it from pulling through a hole, turn the end of the string back upon itself, so as to make it double, and then tie a common knot. The string may be quadrupled instead of doubled, if required.

Toggle and Strop.—This is a tourniquet. A single or a double band is made to enclose the two pieces of wood it is desired to lash together; then a stick is pushed into the band and forcibly twisted round. The band should be of soft material, such as the strands of a rope that has been picked to pieces for that purpose: the strands must each of them, be untwisted and well rubbed with a stick to take the kink out of them, and finally twisted in a direction opposite to their original one.

[Sketch of knot as described].

To sling a Jar.—Put it in a handkerchief or a net.

To tie a Parcel on the back, like a Knapsack.—Take a cord 10 feet long, double it, and lay the loop end upon a rock or other convenient elevation; then place the object to be carried upon the cord, taking care that the loop is so spread out as to admit of its ultimately enclosing the object with a good hold and balance. Next pass the free ends of the cord over the object and through the loop; then, bringing your shoulder to a level with the package, draw the free ends of the cords over your right shoulder: the cords will by this time have assumed the appearance shown in the sketch.

[Sketch of cords as described].

Now pass the left arm between the left-hand cord and the package at B, and the right arm between the right-hand cord and the package at C. Lastly, draw the cords tight, and the object will be found to be fastened on to your back like a knapsack. A gun may be passed between the cords and the top of the object. This is a capital method of carrying a load of game over a broken country, where at least one hand is required to be free. I am indebted to Mr. F. M. Wyndham for a knowledge of it: he found it frequently in use in Norway. In hot countries the plan would not be so convenient, as the heat of a soft package strapped closely to the back is very oppressive.



WRITING MATERIALS.

Paper.—Its Numerous Applications.—Captain Sherard Osborn, in writing of the Japanese, says:—"It was wonderful to see the thousand useful as well as ornamental purposes to which paper was applicable in the hands of these industrious and tasteful people. Our papier-mache manufacturers, as well as the Continental ones, should go to Yeddo to learn what can be done with paper. With the aid of lacker varnish and skilful painting, paper made excellent trunks, tobacco bags, cigar cases, saddles, telescope cases, the frames of microscopes; and we even saw and used excellent water-proof coats made of simple paper, which did keep out the rain, and were as supple as the best macintosh . . . . . The inner walls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of paper, being nothing more than painted screens; their windows are covered with a fine translucent description of the same material; it enters largely into the manufacture of nearly everything in a Japanese household, and we saw what seemed balls of twine, which were nothing but long shreds of tough paper rolled up. . . . In short, without paper, all Japan would come to a dead lock."

Sizing Paper.—The coarsest foreign paper can be sized, so as to prevent its blotting when written on, by simply dipping it in, or brushing it well over with, milk and water, and letting it dry. A tenth part of milk is amply sufficient. Messrs. Huc and Gabet inform us that this is the regular process of sizing, as used by paper-makers in Thibet.

Substitutes for Paper are chips of wood, inner bark of trees, calico and other tissues, lead plates, and slaty stone. I knew an eminent engineer who habitually jotted his pencil memoranda on the well-starched wristband of his left shirt-sleeve, pushing back the cuff of his coat in order to expose it. The natives in some parts of Bengal, when in the jungle, write on any large smooth leaf with the broken-off moist end of a leaf-stalk or twig of any milky sap-producing tree. They then throw dust upon it, which makes the writing legible. If the leaf be so written upon, the writing is imperceptible until the dust is sprinkled. This plan might, therefore, be of use for concealed writing. A person could write on the leaf without detaching it from the tree. (See Sympathetic Ink.")

Prepared Paper, for use with pencils of metallic lead (see "Pencils"), is made by rubbing a paste of weak glue and bones burnt to whiteness and pounded, on the surface of the paper.

Waxed Paper is an excellent substitute for tin-foil, for excluding the air and damp from parcels. It is made by spreading a sheet of writing paper on a hot plate or stone and smearing it with wax. A hot flat-iron is convenient for making it.

Carbonised Paper, for tracing or for manifold writing, is made by rubbing a mixture of soap, lampblack, and a little water on the paper, and, when dry, wiping off as much as possible with a cloth.

Tracing Designs.—Transparent tracing-paper can hardly be made by a traveller, unless he contents himself with the use of waxed paper; but he may prick out the leading points of his map or other design, and laying the map on a sheet of clean paper, charcoal or other powder that will leave a stain, it can be rubbed through.

Book-binding.—Travellers' unbound books become so terribly dilapidated, that I think it well to give a detailed description of a method of book-binding which a relative of mine has adopted for many years with remarkable success, and to a great extent. The books are not tidy-looking, but they open flat and never fall to pieces. Take a cup of paste; a piece of calico or other cloth, large enough to cover the back and sides of the book; a strip of strong linen—if you can get it, if not, of calico—to cover the back; and abundance of stout cotton or thread. 1st. Paste the strip of linen down the back, and leave the book in the sun or near a fire—but not too near it—to dry, which it will do in half a day. 2ndly. Open the book and look for the place where the stiching is to be seen down the middle of the pages, or, in other words, for the middle of the sheets; if it be an 8vo. book it will be at every 16th page, if a 12mo. at every 24th page, and so on: it is a mere matter of semi-mechanical reckoning to know where each succeeding stitching is to be found; in this volume the stitching is at pages 216, etc., the interval being 16 pages. Next take the cotton and wind it in between the pages where the stitching is, and over the back round and round, beginning with the first sheet, and going on sheet after sheet until you have reached the last one. 3rdly. Lay the book on the table back upwards, daub it thoroughly with paste, put on the calico cover as neatly as you can, and set it to dry as before; when dry it is complete.

Other Materials for Writing.—Quills and other Pens.—Any feather that is large enough, can be at once made into a good writing-quill. It has only to be dipped in hot sand, which causes the membrane inside the quill to shrivel up, and the outside membrane to split and peel off: a few instants are sufficient to do this. The proper temperature of the sand is about 340 degrees. The operation may be repeated with advantage two or three times. Reeds are in universal use throughout the East for writing with ink. Flat fish-bones make decent pens.

Pencil.—Lead pencils were literally made of the metal lead in former days; and there are some parts of the world, as in Arabia, where they are still to be met with. A piece of lead may be cast into a serviceable shape in the method described under "Lead," and will make a legible mark upon ordinary paper. Lead is the best material for writing in note-books of "Prepared Paper) (which see). A better sort of pencil for general use is made by sawing charcoal into narrow strips, and laying them in melted wax to drench for a couple of days, they are then ready for use.

Paint brushes.—Wash the bit of tail or skin, whence the hair is to be taken, in ox-gall, till it is quite free from grease. Then snip off the hairs close to the skin, put them points downwards resting in a box, and pick out the long hairs. After a sufficient quantity have been obtained of about the same length, a piece of string is knotted tightly round them, and pulled firm with the aid of two sticks. Then a quill, that has been soaked in water for a day in order to soften it, is taken, and the pinch of hair is put into the large end of the quill, points forward, and pushed right through to the other end with a bit of stick, and so the brush is made. The chinese paint-brush is a feather—a woodcock's feather is often used. Feather, like hairs, must be washed in ox-gall.

Ink.—Excellent writing-ink may be made in the bush. The readiest way of making it is to blacken sticks in the fire and to rub them well in a spoonful of milk till the milk becomes quite black. Gunpowder or lamp-soot will do as well as the burnt stick; and water, with the addition of a very little gum, glue, or fish-glue (isinglass) is better than the milk, as it will not so soon turn sour. Indian ink is simply lamp-soot and some kind of glue: it is one of the best of inks. If pure water be used, instead of gum or glue and water, the writing will rub out very easily when dry, the use of the milk, gum, or glue being to fix it: anything else that is glutinous will serve as well as these. Strong coffee, and many other vegetable products, such as the bark of trees boiled in water, make a mark which is very legible and will not rub. Blood is an indifferent substitute for ink. To make 12 gallons of good common writing-ink, use 12 lbs. of nut-galls, 5 lbs. of green sulphate of iron, 5 lbs. of gum, and 12 gallons of water. (Ure.)

Lampblack.—Hold a piece of metal, or even a stone, over a flaring wick in a cup of oil, and plenty of soot will collect.

Sympathetic Ink.—Nothing is better or handier than milk. The writing is invisible until the paper is almost toasted in the fire, when it turns a rich brown. The juice of lemons and many other fruits may also be used. (See "Substitutes for Paper.")

Gall of Animals, or Ox-gall to purify.—To make ink or paint take upon greasy paper, a very little ox-gall should be mixed with it. It is very important to know this simple remedy, and I therefore extract the following information from Ure's 'Dictionary.' I have often practised it. "Take it from the newly-killed animal, let it settle for 12 or 15 hours in a basin, pour the liquid off the sediment into an earthenware pot, and set the pot into a pan of water kept boiling until the gall-liquid becomes somewhat thick. Then spread it on a dish and place it before the fire till nearly dry. In this state it may be kept, without any looking after, for years. When wanted, a piece the size of a pea should be dissolved in water. Ox-gall removes all grease-spots from clothes, etc."

Wafers, Paste, and Gum.—Wafers.—The common wafers are punched out of a sheet made of a paste of flour and water that has suddenly been baked hard. Gum wafers are punched out of a sheet made of thick gum and water poured on a slightly-greased surface (a looking-glass for example), another greased glass having been put on the top of the gum to make it dry even.

Paste should be made like arrowroot, by mixing the flour in a minimum of cold water, and then pouring a flush of absolutely boiling water upon it. It is made a trifle thicker and more secure from insects by the addition of alum. Corrosive sublimate is a more powerful protection against insects, but is by no means an absolute safeguard, and it is dangerous to use.

Gum.—The white of eggs forms a substitute for gum. Some sea-weeds yield gum. (See also "Glue," "Isinglass," and "Sealing-wax Varnish.")

Signets.—Many excellent and worthy bushmen have the misfortune of not knowing how to write: should any such be placed in a post of confidence by an explorer, it might be well that he should cut for himself a signet out of soft stone—such as the europeans of bygone generations, and the Turks of the last one, very generally employed. A device is cut on the seal; before using it, the paper is moistened with a wet finger, and the ink is dabbed over the ring with another; the impression is then made, using the ball of the thumb for a pad.

Sealing-wax Varnish.—Black or red sealing-wax, dissolved in spirits of wine, makes a very effective stiff and waterproof varnish, especially for boxes of paper or cardboard. It might be useful in keeping some iron things from rust: it is the same material that is used to cover toy magnets. When made stiff it is an excellent cement for small articles. Opticians employ it for many of these purposes. I have also used it as a paint for marking initials on luggage, cutting out the letters in paper and dabbing the red stuff through.

Small Boxes for Specimens.—Cut the side of a cigar-box, or a strip of pasteboard, half through in three places, add two smaller pieces like wings, one on each side, by means of a piece of gummed paper overlapping them, as in the picture.

[Sketch of box unfolded and folded].

Any number of these may be carried like the leaves of a book, and when a box is wanted they may be bent into shape, and by the adherence of the moistened gum-paper, can be made into a box at a moment's notice. The shaded border of the figure represents the gummed paper. Quills make convenient receptacles for minute specimens. They should be dressed (see "Quills"), and may be corked with a plug of wood or wax, or, for greater security, a small quill may be pushed, mouth forward, into a larger one, as into a sheath.



TIMBER.

Green Wood.—To season Wood.—Green wood cannot be employed in carpentry, as it is very weak; it also warps, cracks, and becomes rotten: wood dried with too great a heat loses its toughness as well as its pliability: it becomes hard and brittle. Green wood is seasoned by washing out the sap, and then drying it thoroughly. The traveller's way of doing this by one rapid operation, is to dig a long trench and make a roaring fire in it; when the ground is burning hot, sweep the ashes away, deluge the trench with boiling water; and in the middle of the clouds of steam that arise, throw in the log of wood, shovel hot earth over it, and leave it to steam and bake. A log thick enough to make an axletree may thus be somewhat seasoned in a single night. The log would be seasoned more thoroughly if it were saturated with boiling water before putting it into the trench; that can be done by laying it in a deep narrow puddle, and shovelling hot stones into the water. All crowbars, wagon-lifters, etc., should be roughly seasoned as green wood is far too weak for such uses. The regular way of seasoning is to leave the timber to soak for a long time in water, that the juices may be washed out. Fresh water is better for this purpose than salt; but a mineral spring, if it is warm is better than cold fresh water. Parties travelling with a wagon ought to fell a little timber on their outward journey, and leave it to season against their return, in readiness to replace strained axletrees, broken poles, and the like. They might, at all events, cut a ring round through the bark and sap-wood of the tree, and leave it to discharge its juices, die, and become half-seasoned as it stands.

To bend Wood.—If it is wished to bend a rod of wood, or to straighten it if originally crooked, it must be steamed, or at least be submitted to hot water. Thus a rod of green wood may be passed through the ashes of a smouldering fire and, when hot, bent and shaped with the hand; but if the wood be dry it must first be thoroughly soaked in a pond or puddle. If the puddle is made to boil by shovelling in hot stones, as described in the last paragraph, the stick will bend more easily. the long straight spears of savages are often made of exceedingly crooked sticks, straightened in the ashes of their camp fires. A thick piece of wood may be well swabbed with hot water, forcibly bent, as far as can be safely done, tied in position and steamed, as if for the purpose of seasoning (see last paragraph), in a trench; after a quarter of an hour it must be taken out, damped afresh if necessary, bent further, and again returned to steam—the process being repeated till the wood has attained the shape required; it should then be left in the trench to season thoroughly. The heads of dog-sledges, and the pieces of wood used for the outsides of snow-shoes, are all bent by this process.

Carpenters' Tools.—Tools of too hard steel should not be taken on a journey; they splinter against the dense wood of tropical countries, and they are very troublesome to sharpen. The remedy for over-hardness is to heat them red-hot; retempering them by quenching in grease. A small iron axe, with a file to sharpen it, and a few awls, are (if nothing else can be taken) a very useful outfit.

As much carpentry as a traveller is likely to want can be effected by means of a small axe with a hammer-head, a very small single-handed adze, a mortise-chisel, a strong gouge, a couple of medium-sized gimlets, a few awls, a small Turkey-hone, and a whetstone. If a saw be taken, it should be of a sort intended for green wood. In addition to these, a small tin box full of tools, all of which fit into a single handle, is very valuable; many travellers have found them extremely convenient. There is a tool-shop near the bottom of the Haymarket and another in the Strand near the Lowthier Arcade, where they can be bought; probably also at Holtzapfel's in Trafalgar Square. The box that contains them is about six inches long by four broad and one deep; the cost is from 20s. to 30s. Lastly, a saw for metals, a few drills, and small files, may be added with advantage. It is advisable to see that the tools are ground and set before starting. A small "hard chisel" of the best steel, three inches long, a quarter of an inch wide, and three-eighths thick—which any blacksmith can make—will cut iron, will chisel marks on rocks, and be useful in numerous emergencies.

Sharpening Tools.—A man will get through most work with his tools, if he stops from time to time to sharpen them up. The son of Sirach says, speaking of a carpenter—"If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is profitable to direct."—Ecclesiasticus. A small fine file is very effectual in giving an edge to tools of soft steel. It is a common error to suppose that the best edge is given by grinding the sides of the tool until they meet at an exceedingly acute angle. Such an edge would have no strength, and would chip or bend directly. The proper way of sharpening a tool, is to grind it until it is sufficiently thin, and then to give it an edge whose sides are inclined to one another, about as much as those of the letter V. The edge of a chisel is an obvious case in point; so also is the edge of a butcher's knife, which is given by applying it to the steel at a considerable inclination. A razor has only to cut hairs, and will splinter if used to mend a pen, yet even a razor is shaped like a wedge, that it may not receive too fine an edge when stropped with its face flat upon the hone.

Nails, Substitutes for.—Lashings of raw hide supersede nails for almost every purpose. It is perfectly marvellous how a gunstock, that has been shattered into splinters, can be made as strong again as ever, by means of raw hide sewn round it and left to dry; or by drawing the skin of an ox's leg like a stocking over it. It is well to treat your bit of skin as though parchment (which see) were to be made of it, burying the skin and scraping off the hair, before sewing it on, that it may make no eyesore. Tendons, or stout fish-skin such as shagreen, may also be used on the same principle. An axle-tree, cracked lengthwise, can easily be mended with raw hide; even a broken wheel-tire may be replaced with rhinoceros or other thick hide; if the country to be travelled over be dry.

Sketch of lathe as described below].

Lathes may be wanted by a traveller, because the pulleys necessary for a large sailing-boat, and the screw of a carpenter's bench, cannot be made without one. The sketch will recall to mind the original machine, now almost forgotten in England, but still in common use on the Continent. It is obvious that makeshift contrivances can be set up on this principle, two steady points being the main things wanted. A forked bough suffices for a treadle. A very common Indian lathe consists of two tent-pegs, two nails for the points; a leather thong, and some makeshift hand-rest; neither pole nor treadle is used, but an assistant takes one end of the thong in one hand, and the other end in the other hand, and hauls away in a see-saw fashion. For turning hollows, a long spike is used instead of a short point: then, a hole is bored into the wood to the depth of the intended hollow, and the spike is pushed forward until it abuts against the bottom of the hole. One form of lathe is simplicity itself: two thick stakes are driven in the ground, so far apart as to include the object to be turned; a cross piece is lashed to them (by a creeper cut out of the jungle), for the double purpose of holding them together, and of serving as a rest for the gouge. The object is turned with a thong, as already described.

Charcoal, Tar, and Pitch.—Charcoal.—Dig a hole in the earth, or choose some gigantic burrow, or old well, and fill it with piles of wood, arranging them so as to leave a kind of chimney down the centre: the top of the hole is now to be covered over with sods excepting the chimney, down which a brand is dropped to set fire to the wood. The burning should be governed by opening or shutting the chimney-top with a flat stone; it should proceed very gradually, for the wood ought to smoulder, and never attain to a bright red heat: the operation will require from two days to a week. The tarry products of the wood drain to the bottom of the well.

Tar is made by burning larch, fir, or pine, as though charcoal had to be made; dead or withered trees, and especially their roots, yield tar most copiously. A vast deal is easily obtained. It collects at the bottom of the pit, and a hole with smooth sides should be dug there, into which it may drain. For making tar on a smaller scale:—ram an iron pot full of pine wood; reverse it and lay it upon a board pierced with a hole one inch in diameter; then prop the board over another pot buried in the earth. Make all air-tight with wet clay round the upper pot and board, covering the board, but exposing the bottom of the reversed pot. Make a grand fire above and round the latter, and the tar will freely drop. It will be thin and not very pure tar, but clean, and it will thicken on exposure to the air.

Pitch is tar boiled down.

Turpentine and Resin.—Turpentine is the juice secreted by the pine, fir, or larch tree, in blisters under the bark; the trees are tapped for the purpose of obtaining it. Resin is turpentine boiled down.



METALS.

Fuel for Forge.—Dry fuel gives out far more heat than that which is damp. As a comparison of the heating powers of different sorts of fuel, it may be reckoned that 1 lb. of dry charcoal will raise 73 lbs. of water from freezing to boiling; 1 lb. of pit coal, about 60 lbs.; and 1 lb. of peat, about 30 lbs. Some kinds of manure-fuel give intense heat, and are excellent for blacksmith's purposes: that of goats and sheep is the best; camels' dung is next best, but is not nearly so good; then that of oxen: the dung of horses is of little use, except as tinder in lighting a fire.

Bellows.—It is of no use attempting to do blacksmith's work, if you have not a pair of bellows. These can be made of a single goat-skin, of sufficient power, in skilful hands, to raise small bars of iron to a welding heat. The boat's head is cut off close under the chin, his legs at the knee-joint, and a slit is made between the hind legs, through which the carcase is entirely extracted.After dressing the hide, two strongish pieces of wood are sewn along the slit, one at each side, just like the ironwork on each side of the mouth of a carpet-bag, and for the same purpose, i.e. to strengthen it: a nozzle is inserted at the neck. To use this apparatus, its mouth is opened, and pulled out; then it is suddenly shut, by which means the bellows are made to enclose a bagful of air; this, by pushing the mouth flat home, is ejected through the nozzle. These bellows require no valve, and are the simplest that can be made: they are in use throughout India. The nozzle or tube to convey the blast may be made of a plaster of clay or loam, mixed with grass, and moulded round a smooth pole.

Metals, to work.—Iron Ore is more easily reduced than the ore of any other metal: it is usually sufficient to throw the ore into a charcoal-fire and keep it there for a day or more, when the pure metal will begin to appear.

Welding Composition for iron or steel, is made of borax 10 parts, sal ammoniac 1 part; to be melted, run out on an iron plate, and, when cold, pounded for use.

Cast Steel.—A mixture of 100 parts of soft iron, and two of lamp-soot, melts as easily as ordinary steel—more easily than iron. This is a ready way of making cast-steel where great heat cannot be obtained.

Case-hardening is the name given to a simple process, by which the outside of iron may be turned into steel. Small tools, fish-hooks, and keys, etc., are usually made of iron; they are fashioned first, and case-hardened afterwards. There are good reasons for this: first, because it is the cheapest way of making them; and secondly, because while steel is hard, iron is tough; and anything made of iron and coated with steel, combines some of the advantages of both metals. The civilised method of case-hardening, is to brighten up the iron and to cover it with prussiate of potash, either powdered or made into a paste. The iron is then heated, until the prussiate of potash has burned away: this operation is repeated three or four times. Finally, the iron, now covered with a thin layer of steel, is hardened by quenching it in water. In default of prussiate of potash, animal or even vegetable charcoal may be used, but the latter is a very imperfect substitute. To make animal charcoal, take a scrap of leather, hide, hoof, horn, flesh, blood—anything, in fact, that has animal matter in it; dry it into hard chips like charcoal, before a fire, and powder it. Put the iron that is to be case-hardened, with some of this charcoal round it, into the midst of a lump of loam. This is first placed near the fire to harden, and then quite into it, where it should be allowed to slowly attain a blood-red heat, but no higher. Then, break open the lump, take out the iron, and drop it into water to harden.

Lead is very useful to a traveller, for he always has bullets, which furnish the supply of the metal, and it is so fusible that he can readily melt and cast it into any required shape; using wood, or paper, partly buried in the earth, for his mould. If a small portion of the lead remain unmelted in the ladle, the fluid is sure not to burn the mould. By attending to this a wooden mould may be used scores of times.

[Sketches as described below].

Fig. 1 shows how to cast a leaden plate, which would be useful for inscriptions, for notices to other parties. If minced into squares, it would make a substitute for slugs. The figure represents two flat pieces of wood, enclosing a folded piece of paper, and partly buried in the earth the lead is to be poured into the paper.

To make a mould for a pencil, or a rod which may be cut into short lengths for slugs, roll up a piece of paper as shown in fig. 2, and bury it in the earth: reeds, when they are to be obtained, make a stronger mould than paper.

To cast a lamp, a bottle, or other hollow article, use a cylinder of paper, buried in the ground, as in fig. 3, and hold a stick fast in the middle, while the lead is poured round.

Loose, shaky articles often admit of being set to rights, by warming the joints and pouring a little melted lead into the cracks.

Tin.—Solder for tin plates, is made of one or two parts of tin, and one of lead. Before soldering, the surfaces must be quite bright and close together; and the contact of air must be excluded during the operation, else the heat will tarnish the surface and prevent the adhesion of the solder: the borax and resin commonly in use, effect this. The best plan is to clean the surfaces with muriatic acid saturated with tin: this method is invariably adopted by watchmakers and opticians, who never use borax and resin. The point of the soldering-tool must be filed bright.

Copper, to tin.—Clean the copper well with sandstone; heat it, and rub it with sal-ammoniac till it is quite clean and bright; the tin, with some powdered resin, is now placed on the copper, which is made so hot as to melt the tin, and allow it to be spread over the surface with a bit of rag. A very little tin is used in this way: it is said that a piece as big as a pea, would tin a large saucepan; which is at the rate of twenty grains of tin to a square foot of copper.



LEATHER.

Raw Hides.—Dressing Hides.—Skins that have been dressed are essential to a traveller in an uncivilised country, for they make his packing-straps, his bags, his clothes, shoes, nails, and string, therefore no hide should be wasted. There is no clever secret in dressing skins: it is hard work that they want, either continual crumpling and stretching with the hands, or working and trampling with the feet. To dress a goat-skin will occupy one person for a whole day, to dress an ox-hide will give hard labour to two persons for a day and a half, or even for two days. It is best to begin to operate upon the skin half an hour after it has been flayed. If it has been allowed to dry during the process, it must be re-softened by damping, not with water—for it will never end by being supple, if water be used—but with whatever the natives generally employ: clotted milk and linseed-meal are used in Abyssinia; cow-dung by the Caffres and Bushmen. When a skin is put aside for the night, it must be rolled up, to prevent it from becoming dry by the morning. It is generally necessary to slightly grease the skin, when it is half-dressed, to make it thoroughly supple.

Smoking Hides.—Mr. Catlin, speaking of the skins used by the N. American Indians, says that the greater part of them "go through still another operation afterwards (besides dressing), which gives them a greater value, and renders them much more serviceable—that is, the process of smoking. For this, a small hole is dug in the ground, and a fire is built in it with rotten wood, which will produce a great quantity of smoke without much blaze, and several small poles of the proper length stuck in the ground around it, and drawn and fastened together at the top (making a cone), around which a skin is wrapped in form of a tent, and generally sewed together at the edges to secure the smoke within it: within this the skins to be smoked are placed, and in this condition the tent will stand a day or two, enclosing the heated smoke; and by some chemical process of other, which I do not understand, the skins thus acquire a quality which enables them, after being ever so many times wet, to dry soft and pliant as they were before, which secret I have never seen practised in my own country, and for the lack of which all our dressed skins, when once wet, are, I think, chiefly ruined." A single skin may conveniently be smoked by sewing the edges together, so as to make a tube of it: the lower end is tied round an iron pot with rotten wood burning inside, the upper end is kept open with a hoop, and slung to a triangle, as shown in the figure.

[Sketch of hide smoking apparatus as described].

Tanning Hides.—Steep them in a strong solution of alum and a little salt, for a period dependent on the thickness of the hide. The gradual change of the hide into tanned leather is visible, and should be watched. If desired, thehair may be removed before the operation, as described in "Parchment;" kid gloves are made of leather that has been prepared in this way.

Greasing Leather.—All leather articles should be occasionally well rubbed with fat, when used in hot, dry climates, or when they are often wetted and dried again: it makes a difference of many hundred per cent. in their wear. It is a great desideratum to be possessed of a supply of fat, but it is not easy to obtain it from antelopes and other sinewy game. The French troops adopt the following method, which Lord Lucan copied from them, when in the Crimea:—the marrowbones of the slaughtered animals are broken between stones; they are then well boiled, and the broth is skimmed when cold.

To preserve Hides in a dried State.—After the hide has been flayed from a beast, if it is not intended to "dress" it, it should be pegged out in the sun. If it be also rubbed over with wood-ashes, or better still with salt, it will keep longer. Most small furs that reach the hands of English furriers have been merely sun-dried; but large hides are usually salted, before being shipped for Europe to be tanned. A hide that has been salted is injured for dressing by the hand, but it is not entirely spoiled: and therefore the following extract from Mr. Dana's 'Two Years before the Mast' may be of service to travellers who have shot many head of game in one place, or to those who have lost a herd of goats by distemper.

Salting Hides.—"The first thing is to put the hides to soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, and making them fast in small piles by ropes, and letting the tide come up and cover them. Every day we put 25 in soak for each man, which with us make 150. There they lie 48 hours, when they are taken out and rolled up in wheelbarrows, and thrown into vats. These vats contain brine made very strong, being sea-water with great quantities of salt thrown in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie 48 hours: the use of the sea-water into which they are first put being merely to soften and clean them.

"From these vats they are taken to lie on a platform 24 hours, and are then spread upon the ground and carefully stretched and staked out, so that they may dry smooth. After they were staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives, and carefully cut of all the bad parts: the pieces of meat and fat, which would otherwise corrupt and affect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts that prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything necessary, and not to cut or injure the hides. It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean 150; most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle. Then, too, as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the back-ache. The first day I was so slow and awkward that I only cleaned eight; at the end of a few days I doubled my number, and in a fortnight or three weeks could keep up with the others, and clean my proportion—twenty-five."



CORD, STRING, THREAD.

General Remarks.—I have spoken of the strength of different cords in "Alpine outfit," p. 48. All kinds of cord become exceedingly rotten in hot, dry countries: the fishermen of the Cape preserve their nets by steeping them occasionally in blood. Thread and twine should be waxed before using them for sewing, whenever there is reason to doubt their durability.

Substitutes.—The substitutes for thread, string, and cord, are as follows:—Thongs cut spirally, like a watch-spring, out of a piece of leather or hide, and made pliant by working them round a stick; sinew and catgut (pp. 346); inner bark of trees—this is easily separated by long steeping in water, but chewing it is better; roots of trees, as the spruce-fir, split to the proper size; woodbines, runners, or pliant twigs, twisted together. Some seaweeds—the only English one of which I have heard is the common olive-green weed called Chorda Filum; it looks like a whip-thong, and sometimes grows to a length of thirty or forty feet; when half-dried, the skin is taken off and twisted into fishing-lines, etc. Hay-bands; horsehair ropes, or even a few twisted hairs from the tail of a horse; the stems of numerous plants afford fibres that are more or less effective substitutes for hemp, those that are used by the natives of the country visited should be notices; "Indian grass" is an animal substance attached to the ovaries of small sharks and some other fish of the same class.

In lashing things together with twigs, hay-bands, and the like, the way of securing the loose ends is not by means of a knot, which usually causes them to break, but by twisting the ends together until they "kink." All faggots and trusses are secured in this way.

Sewing.—Sewing Materials.—These are best carried in a linen bag; they consist of sail needles, packed in a long box with cork wads at the ends, to preserve their points; a sailor's palm; beeswax; twine; awls; bristles; cobbler's wax; large bodkin; packing-needle; ordinary sewing-needles; tailor's thimble; threads; cottons; silks; buttons; scissors; and pins.

Stitches.—The enthusiastic traveller should be thoroughly grounded by a tailor in the rudiments of sewing and the most useful stitches. They are as follows:—To make a knot at the end of the thread; to run; to stitch; to "sew';" to fell, or otherwise to make a double seam; to herring-bone (essential for flannels); to hem; to sew over; to bind; to sew on a button; to make a button-hole; to darn; and to fine-draw. He should also practise taking patterns of some articles of clothing in paper, cutting them out in common materials and putting them together. He should take a lesson or two from a saddler, and several, when on board ship, from a sail-maker.

Needles, to make.—The natives of Unyoro sew their beautifully prepared goat-skins in a wonderfully neat manner, with needles manufactured by themselves. "They make them not by boring the eye, but by sharpening the end into a fine point and turning it over, the extremity being hammered into a small cut in the body of the needle, to prevent it from catching."—Sir S. Baker.



MEMBRANE, SINEW, HORN.

Parchment—The substance which is called parchment when made from sheep or goat skins, and vellum when from those of calves, kids, or dead-born lambs, can also be made from any other skin. The raw hide is buried for one or two days, till the hair comes off easily; then it is taken out and well scraped. Next a skewer is run in and out along each of its four sides, and strings being made fast to these skewers, the skin is very tightly stretched; it is carefully scraped over as it lies on the stretch, by which means the water is squeezed out; then it is rubbed with rough stones, as pumice or sandstone, after which it is allowed to dry, the strings by which the skewers are secured being tightened from time to time. If this parchment be used for writing, it will be found rather greasy, but washing it will oxgall will probably remedy this fault. (See "Ox-gall," p. 331.) In the regular preparation of parchment, the skin is soaked for a short time in a lime-pit before taking off the hairs, to get rid of the grease.

Catgut.—Steep the intestines of any animal in water for a day, peel off the outer membrane, then burn the gut inside out, which is easily to be done by turning a very short piece of it inside out, just as you would turn up the cuff of your sleeve; then, catching hold of the turned-up cuff, dip the whole into a bucket, and scoop up a little water between the cuff and the rest of the gut.

[Sketch of making catgut as described].

The weight of this water will do what is wanted: it will bear down an additional length of previously unturned gut; and thus, by a few successive dippings, the entire length of any amount of intestine, however narrow it may be, can be turned inside out in a minute or two. Having turned the intestine inside out, scrape off the whole of its inner soft parts; what remains is a fine transparent tube, which, being twisted up tightly and stretched to dry, forms catgut.

Membrane Thread.—Steep the intestines of any animal in water for a day; then peel off the outer membrane, which will come off in long strips; these should be twisted up between the hands, and hung out to dry; they form excellent threads for sewing skins together, or indeed for any other purpose.

Sinews for Thread.—Any sinews will do for making thread if the fibres admit of being twisted or plaited together into pieces of sufficient length. The sinews lying alongside the backbone are the most convenient, on account of the length of their fibres. After the sinew is dried straight strips are torn off it of the proper size; they are wetted, and scraped into evenness by being drawn through the mouth and teeth; then, by one or two rubs between the hand and the thigh, they become twisted and their fibres are retained together. A piece of dried sinew is usually kept in reserve for making thread or string.

Glue is made by boiling down hides, or even tendons, hoofs, and horns, for a long time, taking care that they are not charred; then drawing off the fluid and letting it set.

Isinglass is made readily by steeping the stomach and intestines of fish in cold water, and then gently boiling them into a jelly: this is spread into sheets and allowed to dry. The air-bladder of the sturgeon makes the true isinglass. (See "Paste and Gum," p. 332.)

Horn, Tortoiseshell, and Whalebone.—Horn is so easily worked into shape that travellers, especially in pastoral countries, should be acquainted with its properties. By boiling, or exposing it to heat in hot sand, it is made quite soft, and can be moulded into whatever shape you will. Not only this, but it can also be welded by heating and pressing two edges together, which, however, must be quite clean and free from grease, even the touch of the hand taints them. Sheets of horn are a well-known substitute for glass, and are made as follows:—The horn is left to soak for a fortnight in a pond; then it is well washed, to separate the pith; next it is sawn lengthwise, and boiled till it can be easily split into sheets with a chisel; which sheets are again boiled, then scraped to a uniform thickness, and set into shape to dry. Tortoiseshell and whalebone can be softened and worked in the same way.



POTTERY.

TO GLAZE POTTERY.—Most savages have pottery, but few know how to glaze it. One way, and that which was the earliest known of doing this, is to throw handfuls of salt upon the jar when red-hot in the kiln. The reader will doubtless call to mind the difficulties of Robinson Crusoe in making his earthenware water-tight.

Substitute for Clay.—In Damara land, where there is no natural material fitted for pottery, the savages procured mud from the interior of the white-ant hills, with which they made their pots. They were exceedingly brittle, but nevertheless were large and serviceable for storing provisions and even for holding water over the fire. I have seen them two feet high. What it was that caused the clay taken from the ant-hills to possess this property, I do not know.

Pots for Stores and Caches.—An earthen pot is excellent for a store of provisions or for a cache, because it keeps out moisture and insects, and animals cannot smell and therefore do not attack its contents.



CANDLES AND LAMPS.

Candles.—Moulds for Candles.—It is usual, on an expedition, to take tin moulds and a ball of wick for the purpose of making candles, from time to time, when fat happens to be abundant. The most convenient mould is of the shape shown in the figure. The tallow should be poured in, when its heat is so reduced that it hardly feels warm to the finger; that is, just before setting. If this be done over-night, the candles will come out in the morning without difficulty. But, if you are obliged to make many at a time, then, after the tallow has been poured in, the mould should be dipped in cold water to cool it: and then when the tallow has set, the mould should be dipped for a moment in hot water to melt the outside of the newly-made candle and enable it to be easily extracted. By this method, the candles are not made so neatly as by the other, though they are made more quickly.

[Sketch of candle mould].

It is well to take, if not to make, a proper needle for putting the wicks into the moulds. It should be a hooked piece of wire, like a crochet needle, which catches the wick by its middle and pulls it doubled through the hole. A stick across the mouth of the mould secures the other end. When the tallow is setting, give an additional pull downwards. A gun-barrel, with a cork or wad put the required distance down the barrel, has been used for a mould. Pull the candle out by the wick after heating the barrel. Two wads might be used; the one strongly rammed in, to prevent the tallow from running too far, the other merely as a support for the wick. Perhaps, even paper moulds might be used; they could be made by gumming or pasting paper in a roll.

Dip Candles.—Candles that are made by "dipping," gutter and run much more than mould candles, if they have to be used as soon as made. The way of dipping them is to tie a number of wicks to the end of a wooden handle, so shaped that the whole affair looks much like a garden-rake—the wicks being represented by the teeth of the rake; then the wicks are dipped in the tallow, and each is rubbed and messed by the hand till it stands stiff and straight; after this they are dipped all together, several times in succession, allowing each fresh coat of tallow to dry before another dipping. Wax candles are always made by this process.

Substitute for Candles.—A strip of cotton, 1 1/2 foot long, drenched in grease, and wound spirally round a wand, will burn for half an hour. A lump of beeswax, with a tatter of an old handkerchief run through it, makes a candle on an emergency.

Materials for Candles.—Tallow.—Mutton-suet mixed with ox-tallow is the best material for candles. Tallow should never be melted over a hot fire: it is best to melt it by putting the pot in hot sand. To procure fat, see "Greasing Leather," p. 343.

Wax.—Boil the comb for hours, together with a little water to keep it from burning, then press the melted mass through a cloth into a deep puddle of cold water. This makes beeswax. (See "Honey, to find," p. 199.)

Candlestick.—A hole cut with the knife in a sod of turf or a potato; 3, 4, or 5 nails hammered in a circle into a piece of wood, to act as a socket; a hollow bone; an empty bottle; a strap with the end passed the wrong way through the buckle and coiled inside; and a bayonet stuck in the ground, are all used as makeshift candlesticks. "In bygone days the broad feet, or rather legs, of the swan, after being stretched and dried, were converted into candlesticks."—Lloyd.

Lamps.—Lamps may be made of hard wood, hollowed out to receive the oil; also of lead. (See "Lead," p. 340.) The shed hoof of an ox or other beast is sometimes used.

Slush Lamp is simply a pannikin full of fat, with a rag wrapped round a small stick planted as a wick in the middle of it.

Lantern.—A wooden box, a native bucket, or a calabash, will make the frame, and a piece of greased calico stretched across a hole in its side, will take the place of glass. A small tin, such as a preserved-meat case, makes a good lantern, if a hole is broken into the bottom, and an opening in the side or front. Horn (see p. 347) is easily to be worked by a traveller into any required shape. A good and often a ready makeshift for a lantern, is a bottle with its end cracked off. This is best effected by putting water into the bottle to the depth of an inch, and then setting it upon hot embers. The bottle will crack all round at the level of the top of the water. It takes a strong wind to blow out a candle stuck into the neck inside the broken bottle. Alpine tourists often employ this contrivance when they start from their bivouac in the cark morning.

[Sketch of candle in bottle].

ON CONCLUDING THE JOURNEY.

Complete your Collections.—When your journey draws near its close, resist restless feelings; make every effort before it is too late to supplement deficiencies in your various collections; take stock of what you have gathered together, and think how the things will serve in England to illustrate your journey or your book. Keep whatever is pretty in itself, or is illustrative of your every-day life, or that of the savages, in the way of arms, utensils, and dresses. Make careful drawings of your encampment, your retinue, and whatever else you may in indolence have omitted to sketch, that will possess an after-interest. Look over your vocabularies for the last time, and complete them as far as possible. Make presents of all your travelling gear and old guns to your native attendants, for they will be mere litter in England, costly to house and attractive to moth and rust; while in the country where you have been travelling, they are of acknowledged value, and would be additionally acceptable as keepsakes.

Memoranda, to arrange.—Paste all loose slips of MSS. into the pages of a blank book; and stitch your memoranda books where they are torn; give them to a bookbinder, at the first opportunity, to re-bind and page them, adding an abundance of blank leaves. Write an index to the whole of your MSS.; put plenty of cross-references, insert necessary explanations, and supplement imperfect descriptions, while your memory of the events remains fresh. It appears impossible to a traveller, at the close of his journey, to believe he will ever forget its events, however trivial; for after long brooding on few facts, they will seem to be fairly branded into his memory. But this is not the case; for the crowds of new impressions, during a few months or years of civilised life, will efface the sharpness of the old ones. I have conversed with men of low mental power, servants and others, the greater part of whose experiences in savagedom had passed out of their memories like the events of a dream.

Alphabetical Lists.—Every explorer has frequent occasion to draw up long catalogues in alphabetical order, whether of words for vocabularies, or of things that he has in store: now, there is a right and a wrong way of setting to work to make them. The wrong way is to divide the paper into equal parts, and to assign one of them to each letter in order. The right way is to divide the paper into parts of a size proportionate to the number of words in the English language which begin with each particular letter. In the first case the paper will be overcrowded in some parts and utterly blank in others, in the second it will be equally overspread with writing; and an ordinary-sized sheet of paper, if closely and clearly written, will be sufficient for the drawing up of a very extended catalogue. A convenient way of carrying out the principle I have indicated is to take an English dictionary, and after having divided the paper into as many equal parts as there are leaves in the dictionary, to adopt the first word of each leaf as headings to them. It may save trouble to my reader if I give a list of headings appropriate to a small catalogue. We will suppose the paper to be divided into fifty-two spaces—that is to say, into four columns and thirteen spaces in each column—then the headings of these spaces, in order, will be as follows:—

A dul pal son adv eve per sta app fin ple sir bal gin pre sur bil hee pro tem bre imp que tos cap int rec tur chi k reg umb col lan ria une com mac sab ven cra mil sca wea dec nap sha wor dis off siz x y a

Verification of Instruments.—On arriving at the sea-level, make daily observations with your boiling-point thermometer, barometer, and aneroid, as they are all subject to changes in their index-errors. As soon as you have an opportunity, compare them with a standard barometer, compare also your ordinary thermometer and azimuth-compass with standard instruments, and finally, have them carefully re-verified at the Kew observatory on your return to England. A vast deal of labour has been wholly thrown away by travellers owing to their neglecting to ascertain the index-errors of these instruments at the close of their journey. A careful observer ought to have eliminated the effects of instrumental errors from his sextant observations; nevertheless it will be satisfactory to him, and it may clear up some apparent anomalies, to have his entire instrumental outfit re-verified at Kew.

Observations, to recalculate.—Send by post to England a complete copy (always preserve the originals) of all your astronomical observations, that they may be carefully recalculated before your return, otherwise a long period may elapse before the longitudes are finally settled, and your book may be delayed through the consequent impossibility of preparing a correct map. The Royal Geographical Society has frequently procured the re-calculation of observations made on important journeys, at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and elsewhere. I presume that a well-known traveller would never find a difficulty in obtaining the calculations he might desire, through the medium of that Society, if it was distinctly understood that they were to be made at his own cost.

Lithograph Maps.—It may add greatly to the interest which a traveller will take in drawing up a large and graphic route-map of his journey, if he knows the extreme ease and cheapness with which copies of such a map may be multiplied to any extent by a well-known process in lithography: for these being distributed among persons interested in the country where he has travelled, will prevent his painstaking from being lost to the world. Sketches and bird'[S-eye views may be multiplied in the same manner. The method to which I refer is the so-called Anastatic process; the materials can be obtained, with full instructions, at any lithographer's shop, and consist of autographic ink and paper. The paper has been prepared by being glazed over with a composition, and the ink is in appearance something like Indian ink, and used in much the same way. With an ordinary pen, with this ink, and upon this paper, the traveller draws his map; they are neither more nor less difficult to employ than common stationery, and he may avail himself of tracing-paper without danger. He has one single precaution to guard against, which is, not to touch the paper overmuch with his bare and, but to keep a bit of loose paper between it and the map as he draws. As soon as it is finished, the map is taken to a lithographer, who puts it face downwards on a stone, and passes it under his press, when every particle of ink leaves the surface of the paper and attaches itself to the surface of the stone, precisely as though it had originally been written there; the glaze on the paper, which prevents the ink from soaking into it, makes this transference more easy and complete. The stone can now be worked with, just as a stone that has been regularly lithographed in the usual manner; that is to say, printing ink may be rubbed over it and impressions may be taken off in any number. It will be observed that the writing on the paper is reversed upon the stone, and is re-reversed, or set right again, in the impressions that are taken from it. The lithographer's charges for furnishing autographic ink and paper, working the stone, striking off fifty copies of a folio size, and supplying the paper (common white paper) for the copies—in fact every expense included—need not exceed ten shillings, and may be much less. If before drawing his map the traveller were to go to some working lithographer and witness the process, and make two or three experiments in a small way, he would naturally succeed all the better. A map drawn on a large scale, though without any pretension to artistic skill, with abundance of profile views of prominent landmarks, and copious information upon the routes that were explored, written along their sides, would be of the utmost value to future travellers, and to geographers at home.



INDEX.

Accumulators.

Advantages of Travel.

Agates for striking sparks.

Agreement with Servants.

Alarm gun.

Alloy for bullets.

Alkail.

Almanack, (see "Diagram").

Alpenstock.

Alphabet, signal.

Alpine tent.

Amadou.

Ammunition (See GUN FITTINGS and AMMUNITION).

Anastatic process.

Anchors.

Andersson, Mr.

Angareb (bedstead).

Angles, to measure; by means of chords.

Animal heat.

Anthills of white ants, as ovens; yellow ants, as signs of direction.

Arctic see "Snow," "Esquimaux," and "Climbing and Mountaineering.".

Arms, weapons.

Arrows; set by a springe; to poison; to shoot fish.

Artificial horizon.

Ashes, for soap; for salt; for saltpetre and touchpaper; bivouac in; in flooring; dressing skins.

Ass; kicking, to check; braying.

Atkinson, Mr.

Austin, Mr.

Autographic ink.

Awnings, to boat; to litter; to tents.

Axe, for marking trees; for ice; to re-temper.

Axletree, to mend; to prepare wood for.

Backs, sore.

Bags for sleeping in; saddle-bags; bags carried over saddle; on packsaddle; to tie the mouth of.

Baines, Mr.

Baker, Sir S.

Baking Ball (bullet); poisoned (see "Lead").

Ballantyne, Mr.

Bamboo rafts; to dig with; to cut meat; to strike sparks; to boil water in; to hitch together.

Barclay, Captain, of Ury.

Bark, to strip; for boats; for water vessels; for string and cord; for cloth.

Barrels, as water vessels; in digging wells; to make filters; as floats (see also "Gourd-floats,").

Barth, Dr.

Basket-work boats; bucket; to protect water-bags.

Bath, vapour; bath-glove.

Battues, marking beaters at.

Beach, bivouac on (see "Dateram,").

Beacons, fire and smoke.

Beads, for presents and payments; as means of counting.

Beale, Lieutenant.

Bearings by Compass, Sun, etc.—Pocket compass; bearings by sun and stars; other signs of direction; to follow a track at night.

Bedding—General remarks; vital heat; mattresses and their substitutes; preparing the ground for bed; coverlets; pillows.

Bedstead.

Bees, to find hive.

Beke, Dr.

Belcher, Admiral Sir E.

Bellows.

Bells for cattle; to strings (thieves).

Belt, life; for trousers; bundle tied to.

Bengal fire.

Birds, flight of, shows water; dead game; direction of unseen coast; Food of birds wholesome to man; rank birds, to prepare, for eating; watchfulness of; (see "Feathers," "Quills," Shooting and Game).

Birdlime.

Biscuit, meat.

Bivouac—General remarks on shelter; various methods of bivouacking; bivouac in special localities; in hostile country; in unhealthy countries; flies at night.

Blacksmith's work (see Metals).

Black paint; lampblack.

Bladder for carrying water (see "Floats,"; Membrane).

Blakiston, Captain, R. A.

Blanket stocking.

Blaze (marked trees); of fire in early morning.

Bleeding, haemorrhage; blood-letting.

Bligh, Captain.

Blisters.

Blood, in making floors; as food; as paint; as ink.

Blue fire.

Boats (see Rafts and Boats). Boat fire-place; routes, to mark; shipping great weights; moving them on land; shooting from; fishing fron.

Bogs, to cross.

Bois de Vache (cattle-dung).

Bolas.

Bones, as fuel; food; to extract fat from; broken bones.

Books, for MS.; to bind; on conclusion of journey.

Boots.

Borrow, Mr.

Bougeau, Mr.

Bows set by a spring (see Arrows).

Box of card, to pack flat.

Braces, for trousers; for saddlery; to weave.

Brands, for trees; for cattle.

Break to carriage wheels.

Breakwater of floating spars.

Bridges of felled trees; flying bridges.

Bridles.

Broken limbs.

Brush, to make; paint-brush.

Buccaneer.

Bucket; pole and bucket at wells.

Buckle.

Bullet; poisoned (see "Lead").

Buoys.

Burning down trees; hollows in wood.

Burning-glasses.

Bush-costume.

Bush-laws.

Bushing a tent.

Butcher Butcher's knife.

Butter; relieves thirst.

Caches and Depots—Caches; hiding jewels; depositing letters; reconnoitring by help of porters.

Caesar.

Calabash floats; water vessels.

Calculations, to procure; blank forms.

Calf stuffed with hay (Tulchan).

Campbell, Mr. J., of Islay.

Camel.

Camp (see Bivouac, Hut, Tent)m to fortify; camp fire; baking beneath.

Candles and Lamps—Candles; materials for candles; candlesticks; lamps To obtain a blaze in early morning.

Canoe, of a log; of three planks; of reeds and fibre; of bark; of the Rob Roy pattern; to carry on horseback.

Canvas, life-belt; water vessels; boat; painted, for sleeping rug.

Cap (hat); (percussion); to obtain fire from.

Carbon paper for tracing.

Carcass (carrion), to find; newly dead animal, warmth of.

Card-boxes, to pack flat.

Carpenters' tools (see "Burning down Trees,".

Carrara, shipping heavy blocks.

Carriages—Wagons; drays; tarring wheels; breaks and drags; sledges; North American travel (trail); palanquins.

Carrion.

Carross (fur) (see).

Cartel (bedstead).

Carter, Alpine Outfitter.

Case-hardening.

Cask (see "Barrel").

Castings, of lead; cast-steel.

Cats cannot endure high altitudes.

Catgut; for nooses.

Cattle—Weights carried by cattle; theory of loads and distances; horses; mules; asses; oxen; cows; camels; dogs; goats and sheep; management of horses and other cattle; intelligence of, in finding water; smell road; keep guard; will efface cache marks; to water cattle; to swim with; to use as messengers (see 'Horse' in "Index").

Cattle-dung, as fuel; as tinder; in plastering huts; in making floors; in dressing skins.

Catlin, Mr.

Caulking boats; leaky water vessels.

Caviare.

Cerate ointment.

Chaff, to cut, with a sickle.

Chairs.

Chalk to mark hats of beaters; whitwash.

Charcoal, to make; for gun-powder; in balls (gulo); fire-place for; used in filters; pencils made of; powdered and buried as a mark Animal charcoal.

Cheese, to make.

Chill, radiation (see "Vital Heat,"; "Wet Clothes,"' and "Comfort in Travel").

Chisel, cold for metals or stone.

Chollet's dried vegetables.

Chords, table of; table for triangulation by.

Christison, Dr., tables on diet.

Chronometer (see "Watch-pocket,").

Clay for pottery.

Cleanliness (see "Washing Clothes,"; "Washing Oneself,"; "Warmth of Dirt,").

Cliffs, to descend with ropes.

Climbing and Mountaineering—Climbing; descending cliffs with ropes; leaping poles and ropes; the art of climbing difficult places; snow mountains; ropes; ice-axe; alpenstock; boots, spectacles, and masks,—Climbing with a horse; descending with wagons; rarefied air, effect of; mountains, coup e'air on; magnetism of.

Clothing—Materials; warmth of different kinds; waterproofing and making incombustible, sewing materials; articles of dress (caps, coats, socks, etc.); wet clothes, to dry; to keep dry; washing clothes; soap; washing flannels; washing oneself; warmth of dirt; bath glove and brush; Double clothing for sleeping in.

Clove-hitch.

Coat; to carry.

Cold (see "Chill").

Collar, horse; swimming-collar.

Colomb and Bolton's signals.

Comfort in travel; dry clothes.

Compass.

Conclusion of the Journey—Completing collections; alphabetical lists; observations re-calculated; lithographical map.

Concrete for floors.

Condiments.

Condors, to trap.

Convergence of tracks aflight, to water; to dead game; of bees to hive.

Cooking; utensils; fire-places; ovens; cook to be quick in making the fire.

Cooper, Mr. W. M.

Copper, to cover with tin; copper boats.

Cormorants.

Corracles.

Cord, String, Thread—Suibstitutes; sewing; needles, to make (see "Ropes").

Corks and stoppers.

Cot.

Cotton, for clothing; for tinder.

Counting, as done by savages.

Coverlets.

Cows.

Crawfurd, Mr. J.

Cresswell, Lieut., R.N.

Crocodiles, to shoot.

Cross, as a mark for roads.

Crowbar.

Crows, to destroy.

Crupper.

Culprits, to secure; punishment.

Cumming, Mr. Gordon.

Cups; to make tea in.

Curing meat; hides.

D's for saddle.

Dahoman night-watch.

Dalyell, Sir R.

Dana, Mr.

Dangers of travel, I.

Darwin, Mr.

Dateram (for tent and picket ropes).

Davenport brothers.

Death of one of the party.

Decoy-ducks.

Defence.

Depot (see Caches and Depots).

Dew, to collect for drinking.

Diagram of altitudes and bearings.

Dial, sun.

Diarrhoea.

Diet, theory of.

Digging.

Dirt, warmth of.

Discipline.

Diseases.

Distances, to measure; travelled over by day; loads and distances, theory of.

Distilling.

Division of game; by drawing lots.

Doebereiner and Oelsner.

Dogs, in harness; in fishng; in finding water; as messengers; to keep at bay; eating snow; sheep-dogs.

Donkey (see "Ass").

Douglas, Sir H.

Down of plants as tinder.

Drags and breaks.

Drain to tents.

Dray (wagon).

Dress (see Clothing); dressing-gown.

Drinking, when riding; from muddy puddles.

Drowning.

Drugs.

Druitt, Mr.

Dry, to keep, importance of; to dry clothes; to keep clothes dry; small packets, when swimming; tinder in wet weather; buried letters; dry fuel, to find; to dry meat,; fish; eggs.

Duck shooting.

Dung, cattle (see "Cattle-dung").

Ear-trumpet.

Ecclesiasticus.

Echo, as a guide in steering.

Edge of tools.

Edgington, tents.

Edwards, Mr.

Eggs, to dry; white of, as gum.

Elephants.

Emetics.

Encampments (see Bivouac, Hut, Tent).

Enquiries, I (see Preparatory Enquiries).

Esquimaux, lamp for cooking; spectacles for snow; faw meat for scurvy; raw meat and fur bag (see "Snow").

Estimates (see Outfit).

Everest, Colonel Sir G.

Expedition (see Organizing an Expedition).

Extract, of meat; of tea and coffee.

Eyre, General.

Faggot hung to gree, as a mark.

Falconer, Mr.

Fat (see "Grease").

Feast-days.

Feathers, for bed; for mark by road-side; on string, to scare game.

Felt, to make.

Ferns as food.

Ferry, African, of calabashes; of reeds; flying bridges.

Fever, I.

Filters.

Fire—General remarks; to obtain fire from the sun (burning-glasses, reflectors); by conversion of motion into heat (flint and steel, guns, lucifers, fire-sticks); by chemical means (spontaneous combustion); tinder; tinder-boxes; fuel; small fuel for lighting the fire; to kindle a spark into a flame; camp fires Burning down trees; hollows in wood; fire-beacons; prairie on fire; first obliterate cache marks; leave an enduring mark; heating power of fuels; blacksmithery; wet clothes, to dry; tent, to warm; incombustible stuffs ( see "Brands").

Fishing—Fishing-tackle; to recover a lost line; otters; boat-fishing; to see things under water; nets; spearing fish; intoxicating fish; otters, cormorants, and dogs; Fish roe as food; fish, dried and pounded; fish skin (see "Skin"); fish-hook for springes.

Fitzroy, Admiral.

Flags, for signals.

Flannel; to wash.

Flash of sun from mirror.

Flashing signals.

Flashing alphabet.

Flask, battered, to mend (see).

Fleas.

Flies, near cattle-kraals.

Flints; for gun; sparks used as a signal; as a light to show the road; flint knives.

Floats; floating powers of wood.

Flogging.

Floors, to make.

Flour, nutritive value; to carry.

Flying bridges.

Food—Nutritive elements of food; food suitable for stores; condiments; butcher; store-keeping; wholesome food procurable in bush; revolting food, to save lives of starving men; cooking utensils; fire-places for cooking; ovens; bush-cookery.

Forbes, Captain, R.N.

Forbes, Professor J.

Fords and Bridges—Fords; swamps; passing things from hand to hand; plank roads; snow-drifts and weak ice; bridges; flying bridges.

Forge.

Forest as shelter; log huts; to travel in a straight line through forests.

Form, for log-book; calculations; for agreement with servants.

Fortification of camp.

Fountains.

Fuel; heating powers of various kinds.

Fulminating powder in destroying wolves; percussion caps.

Furnioture—Bed.; hammocks and cots; mosquito-nets; chairs; table—(See also).

Fusees, in making a fire.

Gall (ox-gall); girth-galls; blisters.

Game, other means of Capturing (besides shooting)—General remarks; springes; pitfalls; traps; poison; bird-line; catching with the hand; bolas; lasso; ham-stringing; hawking To hide from animals of prey; division of spoils; to float across a river; to carry Dead animals, to find; water, in paunch of.

Garibaldi.

Gauze, for mosquito-curtains; to make incombustible; stretched over mercurial horizon.

Geographical Society.

Gilby, Mr.

Gipsy tent; marks (patterans).

Girths; girth-galls.

Glass, to shape; substitute for, in mercurial horizon; to silver; substitute for glass.

Glaisher, Mr.

Glaze for pottery.

Glove (bath-glove).

Glue.

Goats.

Gold, to carry.

Gourd float; boat (makara).

Grains (for spearing fish).

Grant, Captain.

Grass shutters.

Graters.

Grease for leather; in dressing skins; for wheels; to procure from bones; for relieving thirst; oiling the person; butter; olive oil, to purify.

Gregory, Mr.

Gul (ball of charcoal).

Gum.

Gun-fittings and Ammunition—Powder-flask; percussion-caps; wadding; flints; gunpowder; bullets; shot and slug.

Guns and Rifles—Breech-loading; best size of gun; sights, ramrod, etc.; rust; olive-oil, to purify; injuries to gun, to repair; guns to hang up; to carry on a journey; on horse-back; to dispose of at night; to clean—To procure fire; to set an alarm-gun; to support tenting.

Gunpowder, to make; to carry; mark on stone left by flash; in lighting a fire; in making touch-paper; substitute for salt; fulminating powder to kill beasts; powder-flask; battered, to mend (see).

Gut; catgut.

Gutta percha (see "Macintosh").

Guy-rope in tenting.

Haemorrhage.

Haggis.

Hall, Dr. Marshall.

Hammering, sound of.

Hammock.

Hamstringing.

Handing things across a swamp.

Handbook for Field Service.

Handkerchief, to sling a jar; to tie the wrists.

Hands of prisoner, to secure.

Harness—Saddles for riding; bags; sore backs; pack-saddles; pack-bags; art of packing; girths, stirrups, bridles, etc.; tethers, hobbles and knee-halters; horse-collar, traces and trek-tows.

Hats Hawker, Colonel.

Hawks for hawking; to trap.

Head, Sir F.

Hearne, Mr.

Heat, vital; heating power of different fuels (see Fire).

Heather in bivouac.

Heavy bodies, to move.

Heber, Bishop.

Heliostat.

Helm.

Hides (see "Skins;" also Leather).

Hiding-places (see Caches and Depots).

Hills (see Climbing, etc.).

Hitch, Malay (see Knots).

Hobbies.

Holes, to dig.

Honey, to find; honey-bird.

Hooker, Dr.

Hooks, for walls of hut; fish-hooks; for springes.

Horizon, artificial.

Horn; substitute for glass; powder-horn.

Horse; to check descent of wagon; tied to sleeping master; to horn of dead game; picketted to a dateram; running by side of; climbing with; descending with; in deep snow; swimming with; carrying a gun on; loading on; tying a prisooner on; raising water from wells; horseflesh; hair for string; collar.

Hostilities—To fortify a camp; weapons to resist an attack; natives forbidden to throng the camp; keeping watch; prairie set on fire; tricks upon robbers; passing through a hostile country; securing prisoners; proceedings in case of death.

Hours' journey.

Huber, M.

Hue and Gabet, MM. Hunger.

Huts—Log huts; underground huts; snow-houses; wattle and daub; palisades; straw or reed walls; bark; mats; Malay hitch; tarpaulin; whitewash; roofs, floors, windows.

Ice, weak, to cross; axe; burning lens, made of.

Incombustible stuffs.

Index, to make.

India-rubber (see "MacIntosh").

Information, preparatory, to obtain; through native women.

Ink; autographic; sympathetic.

Insects as food; mosquitos; flies; fleas; lice.

Instruments for surveying; verification of; porters for; surgical instruments.

Interpreters.

Intesting to carry water; as swimming-belt; to make catgut from; membrane thread.

Iron, ore to reduce; forge; boats.

Isinglass.

Ivory, to sling on pack-saddle.

Jar, to sling.

Jackson, Colonel.

Javelins, set over beast paths.

Jerked meat.

Jewels, to secrete.

Jourt, Kirghis.

Kabobs.

Kane, Dr.

Kegs for pack-saddles.

Keels.

Kerkari.

Kettle; used for distilling.

Kite, as a signal.

Knapsack sleeping-bag; to carry heavy weights knapsack fashion.

Knee-halter.

Knife.

Knots—See also "Knots in Alpine Ropes,"; tying to tent-pole; tent-pole, to mend; knotting neck of a bag; Malay hitch; matting and weaving; raft fastening; leather vessels, to mend; hide lashings; rush chairs For a place to make fast to, see "Burning down Trees,"; "Digging Holes to plant them,"; "Dateram,".

Kraals.

Ladder.

Laird, M'Gregor, Mr.

Lamp; of lead, to cast; Esquimaux; lamp-black.

Lantern.

Lappar (to scare game).

Lashings of raw hide.

Lasso.

Lathe.

Laws of the bush.

Lead; to cast.

Leaks, to caulk, in boats; in water vessels.

Leaping-ropes and poles.

Leather—To dress hides; to preserve them without dressing; greasing leather Leather clothing; tents; lashings of raw hide; leather vessels, to repair; ropes (See "Skins.").

Leggings.

Leichhardt, Dr.

Length, measurement of.

Letters, to deposit; carried by animals; of alphabet, to stamp and to brand.

Lever.

Lice.

Lime, to make; to poison fish; bird-lime.

Linen clothing.

Lines, for fishing.

Lists of stores; of instruments; alphabetical, to make.

Lithographic map, to make.

Litter for the wounded; horse-litter.

Livingstone, Dr.

Lloyd, Mr.

Loading guns.

Loads and distances, theory of.

Locusts, to cook.

Log-book; log for a boat's speed; log-hut.

Lopstick (to mark a road).

Lost road; articles in sand; fishing-line, in water; to see things lost under water.

Lots how to draw.

Lucan, Lord.

Lucifer matches; for percussion caps.

Lunars.

Luxuries of tent-life.

Lye (for soap).

Lunch, Lieutenant.

McClintock, Captain Sir L.

Macgregor, Mr.

Macintosh for under bedding; sleeping-bag; inflatable boats; water vessels; gun-cover; is spoilt by grease.

Maclear, Sir Thos.

McWilliams, Dr.

Madrina (of mules).

Magnetic bearings; magntism of rocks.

Makara (gourd-raft).

Malaria fever.

Malay hitch.

Marks for the way-side—Marks in the forest; for canoe routes; marks with stones; gipsy and other marks; paint To mark cattle (see also "Caches,").

Mask for snow mountains.

Mast, substitute for.

Match, lucifer; sulphur.

Mats; for tents (see "Reed huts,").

Mattresses; feathers for.

Meaden, Captain J.

Measurements—Distance travelled; of rate of movement; tables for ditto; natural units; measurement of anagles; chords and table of; triangulation; table for, on principle of chords; time, measurement of.

Meat biscuit.

Mechanical appliances—On land; by wetted seeds; accumulation of efforts; to raise weights out of water.

Medicine—General remarks; drugs and instruments; bush remedies; illnesses and accidents; little for the wounded (see also "Palanquin,").

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