The Art of Travel Part 10

When Caught by a Gale recollect that a boat will lie-to and live through almost any weather, if you can make a bundle of a few spare spars, oars, etc., and secure them to the boat's head, so as to float in front of and across the bow. They will act very sensibly as a breakwater, and will always keep the boat's head towards the wind. Kroomen rig out three oars in a triangle, lash the boat's sail to it, throw overboard, after making fast, and pay out as much line as they can muster. By making a canvas half-deck to an open boat, you much increase its safety in broken water; and if it be made to lace down the centre, it can be rolled up on the gunwale, and be out of the way in fine weather.

In Floating down a Stream when the wind blows right against you (and on rivers the wind nearly always blows right up or right down), a plan generally employed is to cut large branches, to make them fast to the front of the boat, weight them that they may sink low in the water, and throw them overboard. The force of the stream acting on these branches will more than counterbalance that of the wind upon the boat. For want of branches, a kind of water-sail is sometimes made of canvas.

Steering in the Dark.--In dark nights, when on a river running through pine forests, the mid stream canbe kept by occasionally striking the water sharply with the blade of the oar, and listening to the echoes.

They should reach the ear simultaneously, or nearly so, from either bank.

On the same principle, vessels have been steered out of danger when caught by a dense fog close to a rocky coast.

Awning.--The best is a wagon-roof awning, made simply of a couple of parallel poles, into which the ends of the bent ribs of the roof are set, without any other cross-pieces. This roof should be of two feet larger span than the width of the boat, and should rest upon prolongations of the thwarts, or else upon crooked knees of wood. One arm of each of the knees is upright, and is made fast to the inside of the boat, while the other is horizontal and projects outside it: it is on these horizontal and projecting arms that the roof rests, and to which it is lashed. Such an awning is airy, roomy, and does not interfere with rowing if the rowlocks are fixed to the poles. It also makes an excellent cabin for sleeping in at night.

Sail Tent.--A boat's sail is turned into a tent by erecting a gable-shaped framework: the mast or other spar being the ridge-pole, and a pair of crossed oars lashed together supporting it at either end; and the whole is made stable by a couple of ropes and pegs. Then the sail is thrown across the ridge-pole (not over the crossed loops of the oars, for they would fret it), and is pegged out below. The natural fall of the canvas bends to close the two ends, as with curtains.

[Sketch of tent].

Tree-snakes.--Where these abound, travellers on rivers with overhanging branches should beware of keeping too near insh.o.r.e, lest the rigging of the boat should brush down the snakes.

FORDS AND BRIDGES.

Fords.--In fording a swift stream, carry heavy stones in your hand, for you require weight to resist the force of the current: indeed, the deeper you wade, the more weight you require; though you have so much the less at command, on account of the water buoying you up.

Rivers cannot be forded if their depth exceeds 3 feet for men or 4 feet for horses. Fords are easily discovered by typing a sounding-pole to the stern of a boat rowing down the middle of the stream, and searching those places where the pole touches the bottom. When no boat is to be had, fords should be tried for where the river is broad rather than where it is narrow, and especially at those places where there are bends in its course. In these the line of shallow water does not run straight across, but follows the direction of a line connecting a promontory on one side to the nearest promontory on the other, as in the drawing; that is to say, from A to B, or from B to C, and not right across from B to b, from A to a, or from C to c. Along hollow curves, asa, b, c, the stream runs deep, and usually beneath overhanging banks; whilst in front of promontories, as at A, B, and C, the water is invariably shoal, unless it be a jutting rock that makes the promontory. Therefore, by entering the stream at one promontory, with the intention of leaving it at another, you ensure that at all events the beginning and end of your course shall be in shallow water, which you cannot do by attempting any other line of pa.s.sage.

[Sketch of river as described].

To Cross Boggy and Uncertain Ground.--Swamps.--When you wish to take a wagon across a deep, miry, and reedy swamp, outspan and leg the cattle feed. Then cut f.a.ggots of reeds and strew them thickly over the line of intended pa.s.sage. When plenty are laid down, drive the cattle backwards and forwards, and they will trample them in. Repeat the process two or three times, till the causeway is firm enough to bear the weight of the wagon. Or, in default of reeds, cut long poles and several short cross-bars, say of two fee long; join these as best you can, so as to make a couple of ladder-shaped frames. Place these across the mud, one under the intended track of each wheel. f.a.ggots strewn between each round of the ladder will make the causeway more sound. A succession of logs, laid crosswise with f.a.ggots between them, will also do, but not so well.

Pa.s.sing from Hand to Hand.--When many things have to be conveyed across a piece of abominably bad road--as over sand-dunes, heavy s.h.i.+ngle, mud of two feet deep, a mora.s.s, a jagged mountain tract, or over stepping-stones in the bed of a rus.h.i.+ng torrent--it is a great waste of labour to make laden men travel to and fro with loads on their backs. It is a severe exertion to walk at all under these circ.u.mstances, letting along the labour of also carrying a burden. The men should be stationed in a line, each at a distance of six or seven feet from his neighbour, and should pa.s.s the things from hand to hand, as they stand.

Plank Roads.--"Miry, boggy lines of road, along which people had been seen for months crawling like flies across a plate of treacle, are suddenly, and I may almost say magically, converted into a road as hard and good as Regent Street by the following simple process, which is usually adopted as soon as the feeble funds of the young colony can purchase the blessing. A small gang of men, with spades and rammers, quickly level one end of the earth road. As fast as they proceed, four or five rows of strong beams or sleepers, which have been brought in the light wagons of the country, are laid down longitudinally, four or five feet asunder; and no sooner are they in position than from other wagons stout planks, touching each other, are transversely laid upon them. From a third series of wagons, a thin layer of sand or grit is thrown upon the planks, which instantly a.s.sume the appearance of a more level McAdam road than in practice can ever be obtained. Upon this new-born road the wagons carrying the sleepers, planks, and sand, convey, with perfect ease, these three descriptions of materials for its continuance. The work advances literally about as fast as an old gouty gentleman can walk; and as soon as it is completed, there can scarcely exist a more striking contrast than between the two tenses of what it was and what it is. This 'plank road,' as it is termed in America, usually lasts from eight to twelve years; and as it is found quite unnecessary to spike the planks to the sleepers, the arrangement admits of easy repair, which, however, is but seldom required." (Sir Francis Head, in Times, Jan. 25.)

Snow.--Sir R. Dalyell tells me that it is the practice of muleteers in the neighbourhood of Erzeroum, when their animals lose their way and flounder in the deep snow, to spread a horse-cloth or other thick rug from off their packs upon the snow in front of them. The animals step upon it and extricate themselves easily. I have practised walking across deep snow-drifts on this principle, with perfect success.

Weak Ice.--Water that is slightly frozen is made to bear a heavy wagon, by cutting reeds, strewing them thickly on the ice, and pouring water upon them; when the whole is frozen into a firm ma.s.s the process must be repeated.

Bridges.--Flying Bridges are well known: a long cord or chain of poles is made fast to a rock or an anchor in the middle of a river. The other end is attached to the ferry-boat which being so slewed as to receive the force of the current obliquely, traverses the river from side to side.

Bridges of Felled Trees.--If you are at the side of a narrow but deep and rapid river, on the banks of which trees grow long enough to reach across, one or more may be felled, confining the trunk to its own bank, and letting the current force the head round to the opposite side; but if "the river be too wide to be spanned by one tree--and if two or three men can in any manner be got across--let a large tree be felled into the water on each side, and placed close to the banks opposite to each other, with their heads lying up-streamwards. Fasten a rope to the head of each tree, confine the trunks, shove the head off to receive the force of the current, and ease off the ropes, so that the branches may meet in the middle of the river at an angle pointing upwards. The branches of the trees will be jammed together by the force of the current, and so be sufficiently united as to form a tolerable communication, especially when a few of the upper branches have been cleared away. If insufficient, towards the middle of the river, to bear the weight of men crossing, a few stakes with the forks left near their heads, may be thrust down through the branches of the trees to support them." (Sir H. Douglas.)

CLOTHING.

General Remarks.--There are such infinite varieties of dress, that I shall only attempt a few general remarks and give a single costume, that a traveller of great experience had used to his complete satisfaction.

The military authorities of different nations have long made it their study to combine in the best manner the requirements of handsome effect, of cheapness, and of serviceability in all climates, but I fear their results will not greatly help the traveller, who looks more to serviceability than to anything else. Of late years, even Garibaldi with his red-s.h.i.+rted volunteers, and Alpine men with their simple outfit, have approached more nearly to a traveller's ideal.

Materials for Clothes.--Flannel.--The importance of flannel next the skin can hardly be overrated: it is now a matter of statistics; for, during the progress of expeditions, notes have been made of the number of names of those in them who had provided themselves with flannel, and of those who had not. The list of sick and dead always included names from the latter list in a very great proportion.

Cotton is preferable to flannel for a sedentary life, in hot damp countries, or where flannel irritates the skin. Persons who are resident in the tropics, and dress in civilised costume, mostly wear cotton s.h.i.+rts.

Linen by universal consent is a dangerous dress wherever there is a chance of much perspiration, for it strikes cold upon the skin when it is wet. The terror of Swiss guides of the old school at a coup d'air on the mountain top, and of Italians at the chill of sundown, is largely due to their wearing linen s.h.i.+rts. Those who are dressed in flannel are far less sensitive to these influences.

Leather is the only safeguard against the stronger kinds of thorns. In pastoral and in hunting countries it is always easy to procure skins of a tough quality that have been neatly dressed by hand. Also it will be easy to find persons capable of sewing them together very neatly, after you have cut them out to the pattern of your old clothes.

Bark Cloth is used in several parts of the work. It is simply a piece of some kind of peculiarly fibrous bark; in Unyoro, Sir S. Baker says, the natives use the bark of a species of fig-tree. They soak it in water and then beat it with a mallet, to get rid of all the harder parts;--much as hemp is prepared. "In appearance it much resembles corduroy, and is the colour of tanned leather: the finer qualities are peculiarly soft to the touch, as though of woven cotton."

Effect of colour on warmth of clothing.--Dark colours become hotter than light colours in the suns.h.i.+ne, but they are not hotter under any other circ.u.mstances. Consequently a person who aims at equable temperature, should wear light colours. Light colours are far the best for sporting purposes, as they are usually much less conspicuous than black or rifle-green. Almost all wild beasts are tawny or fawn-coloured, or tabby, or of some nondescript hue and pattern: if an animal were born with a more decided colour, he would soon perish for want of ability to conceal himself.

Warmth of different Materials.--"The indefatigable Rumford made an elaborate series of experiments on the conductivity of the substances used in clothing. His method was this:--A mercurial thermometer was suspended in the axis of a cylindrical gla.s.s tube ending with a globe, in such a manner that the centre of the bulb of the thermometer occupied the centre of the globe; the s.p.a.ce between the internal surface of the globe and the bulb was filled with the substance whose conductive power was to be determined; the instrument was then heated in boiling water, and afterwards, being plunged into a freezing mixture of pounded ice and salt, the times of cooling down 136 degrees Fahr. were noted. They are recorded in the following table:--

Surrounded with -- Seconds.

Twisted silk.................................. 917 Fine lint..................................... 1032 Cotton wool.................................. 1046 Sheep's wool.................................. 1118 Taffety....................................... 1169 Raw silk...................................... 1264 Beaver's fur.................................. 1296 Eider down.................................... 1305 Hare's fur.................................... 1312 Wood ashes.................................... 927 Charcoal...................................... 937 Lamp-black.................................... 1117

Among the substances here examined, hare's fur offered the greatest impediment to the transmission of the heat. The transmission of heat is powerfully influenced by the mechanical state of the body through which it pa.s.ses. The raw and twisted silk of Rumford's table ill.u.s.trate this"

(Prof. Tyndall on Heat.)

Waterproof Cloth.--Cloth is made partly waterproof by rubbing soap-suds into it (on the wrong side), and working them well in: and when dry, doing the same with a solution of alum; the soap is by this means decomposed, and the oily part of it distributed among the fibres of the cloth. (See "Tarpaulins.")

Incombustible Stuffs.--I extract the following paragraph from a newspaper. Persons who make much use of musquito curtains, will be glad to read it. "'The Repertoire de Chimie Pure et Appliquee' publishes the following remarks by the celebrated chemists, MM. Dbereiner and Oesner, on the various methods for rendering stuffs incombustible, or at least less inflammable than they naturally are. The substances employed for this purpose are borax, alum, soluble gla.s.s, and phosphate of ammonia.

For wood and common stuffs, any one of these salts will do; but fine and light tissues, which are just those most liable to catching fire, cannot be treated in the same way. Borax renders fine textile fabrics stiff; it causes dust, and will swell out under the smoothing-iron; so does alum, beside weakening the fibres of the stuff, so as to make it tear easily.

Soluble gla.s.s both stiffens and weakens the stuff, depriving it both of elasticity and tenacity. Phosphate of ammonia alone has none of these inconveniences. It may be mixed with a certain quant.i.ty of sal-ammoniac, and then introduced into the starch prepared for stiffening the linen; or else it may be dissolved in 20 parts of water, in weight, to one of phosphate, and the stuff steeped into the solution, then allowed to dry, and ironed as usual.

Phosphate of ammonia is cheap enough to allow of its introduction into common use, so that it may be employed at each wash. Phosphate of ammonia is obtained by saturating the biphosphate of lime with liquid ammonia.

Sewing Materials.--An outfit of sewing materials consists of needles and thread; scissors; tailor's thimble; wax; canvas needles, including the smaller sizes which are identical with glove needles and are used for sewing leather; twine; a palm; awls for cobbling, both straight and curved; cobbler's wax; and, possibly, bristles. The needles and awls in use are conveniently carried in some kind of metal tube, with wads of cork at either end, to preserve their points. (See also the chapter on "Thread, for st.i.tches," etc.)

Articles of Dress.--Hats and Caps.--There is no perfect head-dress; but I notice that old travellers in both hot and temperate countries have generally adopted a scanty "wide-awake." Mr. Oswell, the South African sportsman and traveller, used for years, and strongly recommended to me, a brimless hat of fine Panama gra.s.s, which he had sewn as a lining to an ordinary wide-awake. I regret I have had no opportunity of trying this combination, but can easily believe that the touch of the cool, smooth gra.s.s, to the wet brow, would be more agreeable than that of any other material. I need hardly mention Pith hats (to be bought under the Opera Colonnade, Pall Mall), Indian topees, and English hunting-caps, as having severally many merits. A muslin turban twisted into a rope and rolled round the hat is a common plan to keep the sun from the head and spine: it can also be used as a rope on an emergency.

Coat.--In nine cases out of ten, a strong but not too thick tweed coat is the best for rough work. In a very th.o.r.n.y country, a leather coat is almost essential. A blouse, cut short so as to clear the saddle, is neat, cool, and easy, whether as a riding or walking costume. Generally speaking, the traveller will chiefly spend his life in his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves, and will only use his coat when he wants extra warmth.

To carry a Coat.--There are two ways. The first is to fold it small and strap it to the belt. If the coat be a light one it can be carried very neatly and comfortably in this way, lying in the small of the back. The second is the contrivance of a friend of mine, an eminent scholar and divine, who always employs it in his vacation rambles. It is to pa.s.s an ordinary strap, once round the middle of the coat and a second time round both the coat and the left arm just above the elbow, and then to buckle it. The coat hangs very comfortably in its place and does not hamper the movements of the left arm. It requires no further care, except that after a few minutes it will generally be found advisable to buckle the strap one hole tighter. A coat carried in this way will be found to attract no attention from pa.s.sers by.

Waistcoats are more convenient for their pockets than for their warmth.

When travelling in countries where papers have to be carried, an inside pocket between the lining and the waistcoat, with a b.u.t.ton to close it, is extremely useful. Letters of credit and paper money can be carried in it more safely than in any other pocket.

Trousers.--If you are likely to have much riding, take extra leather or moleskin trousers, or tweed covered down the inside of the legs with leather, such as cavalry soldiers generally wear. Leather is a better protection than moleskin against thorns; but not so serviceable against wet: it will far outlast moleskin. There should be no hem to the legs of trousers, as it retains the wet.

Watch-pocket.--Have it made of macintosh, to save the watch from perspiration. The astronomer-royal of Cape Town, Sir T. Maclear, who had considerable experience of the bush when measuring an arc of the meridian, justly remarked to me on the advantage of frequently turning the watch-pocket inside out, to get rid of the fluff and dust that collects in it and is otherwise sure to enter the watch-case.

Socks.--The hotter the ground on which you have to walk, the thicker should be your socks. These should be of woollen, wherever you expect to have much walking; and plenty of them will be required.

Subst.i.tute for Socks.--For want of socks, pieces of linen may be used, and, when these are properly put on they are said to be even better than socks. They should be a foot square, be made of soft worn linen, be washed once a-day, and be smeared with tallow. They can be put on so dexterously as to stand several hours' marching without making a single wrinkle, and are much used by soldiers in Germany. To put them on, the naked foot is placed crosswise; the corners on the right and on the left are then folded over, then the corner which lies in front of the toes.

Now the art consists in so drawing up these ends, that the foot can be placed in the shoe or boot without any wrinkles appearing in the bandage.

One wrinkle is sure to make a blister, and therefore persons who have to use them should practise frequently how to put them on. Socks similar to these, but made of thick blanket, and called "Blanket Wrappers," are in use at Hudson's Bay instead of shoes.

s.h.i.+rt-sleeves.--When you have occasion to tuck up your s.h.i.+rt-sleeves, recollect that the way of doing so is, not to begin by turning the cuffs inside out, but outside in--the sleeves must be rolled up inwards, towards the arm, and not the reverse way. In the one case, the sleeves will remain tucked up for hours without being touched; in the other, they become loose every five minutes.