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