The Art of Travel Part 17

A large number of diets such as those of various armies and navies, of prisons and infirmaries, and of the ordinary diets of different cla.s.ses of people, have been examined by aid of this Table, with surprisingly uniform results. But these diets chiefly refer to temperate climates; it would therefore be a matter of great interest if travellers in distant lands would accurately observe and note down the weight of their own rations and those of the natives. It is a great desideratum to know the lightest portable food suitable to different countries. Any such reports, if carefully made and extending over a period of not less than two months, would be very acceptable to me. To make them of any use, it is necessary that every article consumed should be noted down; and that the weight and state of health, at the beginning and at the end of the period, should be compared.

__________________________________________________ Table showing the quant.i.ty of Nutriment contained in different articles of Diet.

__________________________________________________________________ Articles of Diet .. C. N.

Total real ....................................................Nutri- (Carboniferous.) (Nitrogenous) ment per cent.

of gross weight.

__________________________________________________________________ Wheat Flour............. 71.25 .......... 16.25 ....... 87.5 Bread................... 51.5 .......... 10.5 ....... 62.0 Oatmeal................. 65.75 .......... 16.25 ........82.0 Pearl Barley............ 67.0 ........... 15.0 ........ 82.0 Peas.................... 55.5 ........... 24.5 ........ 80.0 Potatoes (preserved potatoes are thor- oughly dry)........ .. 24.5 ........... 2.5 ..........27.0 Carrots................ 8.5 ........... 1.5 ......... 10.0 Turnips.................. 5.7 ........... 0.3 ......... 6.0 Cabbage.................. 6.7 ........... 0.3 .......... 7.0 Lean of Beef and Mutton . - .......... 27.0 ......... 27.0 Fat of meat.............100.0 .......... - ....... 100.0 Average Beef and Mutton 15.0 ...........20.25 ........ 35.25 Bacon....................62.5 .......... 8.36 ........ 70.86 Skimmed-milk Cheese ..... 0.4 .......... 64.6 ......... 65.0 White Fish ............. - ........... 21.0 ......... 21.0 New Milk ............... 8.0 .......... 4.5 ......... 12.5 Skimmed Milk ........... 8.0 .......... 4.5 ......... 10.0 b.u.t.ter-milk............. 1.0 .......... 6.0 ......... 7.0 Beef Tea, strong ........ - .......... 1.44 ......... 1.44 Beef Tea and Meat de- coction of Broth ...... - .......... 0.72 ......... 0.72 Sugar...................100.0 ........... - ....... 100.0 b.u.t.ter................. 100.0 ............ - ........ 100.0 Total (in Seden- (tary life... 12.57 .......... 4.25 ........ 17 ounces.

Nutriment (in Active (life......... 21.00 ......... 7.00 ........ 28 "

Required. (In Severe (labour........22.50 ......... 7.50 ....... 30 "

As examples of the way in which the above Tables should be applied, I will now give three dietaries, in which the quant.i.ty of real nutriment has been calculated.

I. -- British Navy Allowances. (Admiralty Order, 1824.)

Gross weight Real Nutriment.

in ounces. C. N. Total.

Bread ............20.0 - 10.3 ...2.1 ....... 12.4 or Biscuit - 16.0 .. 11.4 .. 2.6 ....... 14.0 Oatmeal ........ 1.5 .. 1.5 .. 1.96 . 0.48 ...... 2.44 Cocoa ............ 1.0 - ... 0.5 ... - ....... 0.55 or Cheese ........- ... 2.0 ... - ...1.33 ...... 1.33 Sugar ............ 1.5 .. - ....1.5 ... - ......... 1.5 or b.u.t.ter ...... - .. 1.5 ...1.5 .... - ......... 1.5 Meat ........... 16.0 .. - ... 2.4 ... 3.24 ...... 5.64 or Salt Meat .. - ...12.0 .. 2.4 ... 3.24 ...... 5.64 Vegetables ...... 8.0 .. - ... 0.9 ... 0.15 ....... 1.05 or Flour ...... - .. 12.0 .. 8.95 .. 1.95 ...... 10.9 Tea .............. 0.25 .. - ... - ... - ....... - or Coffee ...... - ...1.0 ... - .... - ......... - __________________________________________________ Total ........ - .... - .. 41.81 . 15.09 ..... 57.0

N.B.--Besides this, is beer (in harbour only) sixteen ounces, or spirits four ounces.

Table II. shows the daily food actually consumed by probably the most energetic travelling and exploring party on record. It was during Dr.

Rae's spring journey to the Arctic sh.o.r.es of America. He issued, in addition, four ounces of grease or alcohol a day, as fuel for cooking. He found that it required nearly as much fuel to melt the snow, as it did to boil it afterwards. This allowance was found quite sufficient, but there was nothing to spare.

II. -- Dr. Rae's Allowances in Arctic America.

Gross weight Real Nutriment.

in ounces. C. N. Total.

Pemmican (1/3 dry meat, 2/3 fat) . 20.0 ......13.3 ... 6.6 ...... 19.9 Biscuit ............ 4.0 ..... 2.9 ... 0.6 ...... 3.5 Edwards's preserved potatoes .......... 1.6 ..... 1.4 ... 0.1 ...... 1.5 Flour ............... 5.3 ...... 3.8 ... 0.8 ....... 4.6 Tea ................. 0.6 ...... ? ... ? ........ ?

Sugar ................ 2.3 ...... 2.3 .. - ......... 2.3 ____________________________________________________________ ........ .... 33.8 ..... 23.7 ... 8.1 ....... 31.8

III. -- DMr. Austin's Allowances in Western Australia.

Gross weight Real Nutriment.

in ounces. C. N. Total.

Flour ............... 18.0 ...... 12.8 ... 2.9 ....... 15.7 Boned salt pork (say a little more lean than fat) ......... 8.0 ...... 1.9 ... 2.1 ...... 15.7 Tea ................. 0.75 ...... - ... - ........ - Sugar ................ 3.0 .... .. 3.0 .. - ........ 3.0 ____________________________________________________________ ........ .... 29.75 ..... 17.7 ... 5.0 ....... 22.7

IV. -- A Sepoy's Full Rations are: --.

Gross weight Real Nutriment.

in ounces. C. N. Total.

Wheaten Flour ....... 32 ...... 22.8 ... 5.2 ...... 29.0 Pulse ................ 4 ...... 2.2 ..1.0 ....... 3.2 b.u.t.ter ................1 ...... 1.0 .. 0.0 ........1.0 ____________________________________________________________ ........ .... 37 ..... 26.0... 6.2 .......33.3

Game was occasionally shot, by which the serious deficiency in Cla.s.s N must have been supplied. At the same time, I must say that Australian explorers seem to travel exceedingly well on unusually scanty diets.

Food Suitable for the Stores of Travellers.--The most portable kind of food is, unquestionably, the flesh of cattle; for the beasts carry themselves. The draught oxen used in African and Australian explorations serve as a last resource, when all other food is wanting.

It has been truly remarked with reference to Australian exploring expeditions, that if an exploring party would make up their minds to eat horseflesh, stores of provisions might be largely dispensed with. A few extra horses could be taken; and one shot occasionally, and its flesh dried and slightly salted, sufficiently to preserve it from becoming tainted before the men could consume it.

Portable Food.--The kinds of food that are the most portable in the ordinary sense of the term are:--Pemmican; meat-biscuit; fried meat; dried fish; wheat flour; biscuit; oatmeal; barley; peas; cheese; sugar; preserved potatoes; and Chollet's compressed vegetables. Extract of meat, as I am a.s.sured by the highest physiological authors, is not a portable food but a portable savour. It is quite impossible that life should be maintained on any minute amount of material, because so many grains of carbon and so many of nitrogen are daily consumed, and an equivalent weight of those elements must, of course, be replaced. Salt meat is not to be depended upon, for it is liable to become hard and worthless, by long keeping.

Pemmican; general remarks.--Of all food usually carried on expeditions, none is so complete in itself, nor contains so large a proportion of nutriment as pemmican. It is especially useful to those who undergo severe work, in cold and rainy climates. It is the mainstay of Arctic expeditions, whether on water, by sledge, or on foot. But, though excellent to men who are working laboriously, it is distasteful to others.

Pemmican is a mixture of about five-ninths of pounded dry meat to four-ninths of melted or boiled grease; it is put into a skin bag or tin can whilst warm and soft. The grease ought not to be very warm, when poured on the dry meat. Wild berries are sometimes added. The skin bags for the pemmican should be shaped like pillow (not bolster) cases, for the convenience of packing on horseback. The pemmican is chopped out with an axe, when required.

I do not know if it can be bought anywhere in England. It was usually prepared in the government yards at Deptford, when made for the Arctic Expeditions. It is largely used in the Hudson's Bay territory. A traveller who desired to furnish himself with pemmican might procure his supplies from thence.

Pemmican, as made in England.--Sir John Richardson describes, in his Narrative, the preparation of the pemmican that he took with him in his last journey. The following is a resume of what he says:--The meat used was round of beef; the fat and membranous parts were pared away; it was then cut into thin slices, which were dried in a malt-kiln, over an oak-wood fire, till they were quite dry and friable. Then they were ground in a malt mill; after this process the powder resembled finely-grated meal. It was next mixed with nearly an equal weight of melted beef, suet, or lard; and the plain pemmican was made. Part of the pemmican was mixed with Zante currants, and another part with sugar. Both of these mixtures were much liked, especially the latter. The pemmican, when complete, cost at the rate of 1x. u 1/2 d. per pound, but then the meat was only 6 3/4 d. per pound; it is dearer now. The meat lost more than three-quarters of its weight in drying. He had 17,424 lbs. of pemmican in all; it was made from--fresh beef, 35,641 lbs; lard9 lbs.; currants3 lbs.; and sugar lbs.

Pemmican, as made in the Prairie.--Mr. Ballantyne, who was in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, gives the following account:--"Having shot a buffalo, the hunters cut lumps of his flesh, and slitting it up into flakes or layers, hang it up in the sun, or before a slow fire, to dry; and the fat can be dried as well as the lean. In this state, it is often made into packs, and sent about the country, to be consumed as dried meat (it is often best relished raw, for, when grilled without fat, it burns and becomes ashy); but when pemmican is wanted, it has to go through another process. When dry, the meat is pounded between two stones till it is broken into small pieces: these are put into a bag made of the animal's hide, with the hair on the outside, and well mixed with melted grease; the top of the bag is then sewn up, and the pemmican allowed to cool. In this state it may be eaten uncooked; but the men who subsist on it when travelling, mix it with a little flour and water, and then boil it--in which state it is know throughout the country by the elegant name of robbiboo. Pemmican is good wholesome food; will keep fresh for a great length of time; and, were it not for its unprepossessing appearance, and a good many buffalo hairs mixed with it, through the carelessness of the hunters, would be very palatable. After a time, however, one becomes accustomed to these little peculiarities."

Meat-biscuit.--Meat-biscuit, which is used in American s.h.i.+ps, is stated to be a thick soup, evaporated down to a syrup, kneaded with flour, and made into biscuits: these are p.r.i.c.ked with holes, dried and baked. They can be eaten just as they are, or made into a porridge, with from twenty to thirty times their weight of water. They were to be bought at Gamble's, Leadenhall Street.

Dried Meat.--When more game is shot than can be eaten before the party travel onwards, it is usual to jerk a part of it. It is cut in long strips, and festooned about the bushes, under the full sun, in order to dry it. After it has been sun-dried it will keep for long, before it becomes wholly putrid. Dried meat is a poor subst.i.tute for fresh meat; it requires long steeping in water, to make it tender, and then it is tasteless, and comparatively innutritious. "Four expert men slice up a full-grown buffalo in four hours and a-half." (Leichhardt.) The American buccaneers acquired their name from boucan--which means jerked meat, in an Indian dialect; for they provisioned their s.h.i.+ps with the dried flesh of the wild cattle that they hunted down and killed.

Dried Fish.--Fish may be pounded entire, just as they come from the river, dried in the sun in large lumps, and kept: the negroes about the Niger do this.

Flour travels conveniently in strong canvas bags, each holding 50 lbs., and long enough to be lashed on to a pack-saddle. (See "Pack-gabs," p.

71.)

Chollet's preserved Vegetables relieve agreeably the monotony of a bush diet. A single ration weighs less than an ounce, and a cubic yard contains 16,000 of these rations. They are now to be bought at all provision merchants'--as at Fortnum and Mason's, etc.

Salted Meat.--I have already said (see "Portable Food") that salt meat cannot be depended upon to retain its nutritious qualities for a length of time. When freshly made, it is sure to be good. It is well to recollect that, for want of a salting-tub, animals can be salted in their own hide. A hollow is sc.r.a.ped in the ground, the hide is laid over it and pegged down, and the meat, salt, and water put into it. I know of an instance where this was one on a very large scale.

Condiments.--The most portable and useful condiments for a traveller are--salt, red pepper, Harvey's sauce, lime-juice, dried onions, and curry-powder. They should be bought at a first-rate shop; for red pepper, lime-juice, and curry-powder are often atrociously adulterated.

Salt..--The craving for salt (chloride of sodium) is somewhat satisfied by the potash salts, and, perhaps, by other minerals: thus we often hear of people reduced to the mixing of gun-powder with their food, on account of the saltpetre that it contains. An impure salt is made widely in North Africa, from wood-ashes. They are put into a pot, hot water is poured over them and allowed to stand and dissolve out the salts they contain; the ley is then decanted into another pot, where it is evaporated. The plants in use, are those of which the wetted ashes have a saline and not an alkaline taste, nor a soapy feel. As a general rule, trees that make good soap (p. 122), yield little saltpetre or other good equivalent for salt. Salt caravans are the chief sustainers of the lines of commerce in North Africa. In countries where salt is never used, as I myself have witnessed in South Africa, and among the Mandan North-American Indian tribes (Catlin, vol. i, p. 124), the soil and springs are "brack." Four Russian sailors who were wrecked on Spitzbergen, and whose well-known adventures are to be found in Pinkerton's 'Voyages and Travels,' had nothing whatever for six years to subsist on--save only the animals they killed, a little moss, and melted snow-water. One of them died; the others enjoyed robust health. People who eat nothing but meat, feel the craving for salt far less strongly than those who live wholly on vegetables.

Butcher.--One man in every party should have learnt from a professed butcher, how to cut up a carcase to the best advantage.

Store-keeping.--All stores should be packed and securely lashed, that it may be impossible to pilfer from them. The packages of those that are in use, should be carried in one pair of saddle-gabs, to be devoted to that purpose. These should stand at the storekeeper's bivouac, and n.o.body else should be allowed to touch them, when there. He should have every facility for weighing and measuring. Lastly, it should be his duty to furnish a weekly account, specifying what stores remain in hand.

Wholesome Food, procurable in the Bush.--Game and Fish.--See sections upon "Hints on Shooting;" "Other means of capturing Game;" and upon "Fis.h.i.+ng;" and note the paragraph on "Nocturnal Animals."

Milk, to keep.--Put it in a bottle, and place it in a pot of water, over a slow fire, till the water boils; let the bottle remain half an hour in the boiling water, and then cork it tightly. Milk with one's tea is a great luxury; it is worth taking some pains to keep it fresh. A traveller is generally glutted with milk when near native encampments, and at other times has none at all. Milk dried into cakes, intended to be grated into boiling water for use, was formerly procurable: it was very good; but I cannot hear of it now in the shops. Milk preserved in tins is excellent, but it is too bulky for the convenience of most travellers. Dried bread-crumb, mixed with fresh cream, issaid to make a cake that will keep for some days. I have not succeeded, to my satisfaction with this recipe.

b.u.t.ter, to preserve.--Boil it in a large vessel till the sc.u.m rises. Skim this off as fast as it appears on the surface, until the b.u.t.ter remains quite clear, like oil. It should then be carefully poured off, that the impurities which settle at the bottom of the vessel may be separated. The clarified b.u.t.ter is to be put aside to be kept, the settlings must be used for common and immediate purposes. b.u.t.ter is churned, in many countries, by twirling a forked stick, held between the two hands, in a vessel full of cream; or even by shaking the cream in a bottle. It is said that the temperature of the milk, while it is being churned, should be between 50 degrees and 60 degrees Fahr., and that this is all-important to success.

Cheese.--"The separation of the whey from the cheese may be effected by rennet, or by bitartrate of potash, or tamarinds, or alum, or various acids and acid wines and fruit juices." (Dr. Weber.)

Eggs may be dried at a gentle heat; then pounded and preserved. This is a convenient plan of making a store of portable food out of the eggs of sea-birds, or those of ostriches.