Lamps, Lights, and Lanterns.
Lamps.
About the most simple and effective lamp we have ever seen is that used by the Portuguese at Tette, in their illuminations; it consists of a shallow pan of clay, as big as the palm of the hand, slightly baked, or, perhaps, merely sun-dried—to contain the oil—a spoonful of salt is tied up in a piece of rag, the ends being left just long enough for a wick, and this cheap and simple arrangement serves all the purposes of out-door illumination. Sticks about three feet high, with their upper ends cleft into three parts, which are kept open by the insertion of a wedge, are planted in lines along the streets, and the lamps supported on these, or ranged along the porticoes or fences of the various houses, burn brightly and steadily for many hours, defying even a tolerably stiff breeze to blow them out. The oil used is that of the ground nut, which, beside being cheap and plentiful, is so pure that it may be used for almost any purpose, scarcely an article of food in Tette being prepared without it; in fact, the nut itself, which may be eaten plain, roasted, treated as a “confect” in various ways, or infused as a substitute for coffee, contains so much essential oil that it will burn for more than a minute with as bright a flame as a good candle; when arranged one over the other on a stick or wire they give a good permanent light.
MAKE-SHIFT LAMPS.
It is often necessary, however, for the traveller to supply himself with light when the grease at his command is neither liquid enough to rise through the fibres of a wick, nor hard enough to be moulded into a candle. In this case, the wick should be allowed to rest on and overhang a little the sides of the vessel used as a lamp—a cup of earthenware, a common tin cap box, or even a bit of tin or sheet iron bent up will answer well enough; the flame soon heats the side sufficiently to melt a portion of the fat, and a constant supply is thus kept up as the wick requires it.
Almost anything will serve as a wick—a bit of old rag, or the flax-like fibres of the various plants used as cordage by the natives; strips of bark beaten to separate the fibres, or even small twigs may be used; rushes with enough of the outer covering removed to expose the pith, while on one side a strip of bark is left sufficiently strong to support it, are also worth looking to in case of need; but it is best to be provided with a sufficiency of cotton which is cheap, easily carried, and useful for many other purposes. If possible, a good supply of the best sperm candles, or others of material not likely to be affected by changes of climate, should be carried. On the Australian expedition, we used Price’s vegetable wax candles; and some of these—after having twice crossed the line, gone round Australia and part of the Indian archipelago, and made the circuit of the globe—are now in Kew Museum in as good condition as when they were issued from the factory.
The common bull’s-eye or police lamp is very useful if only required by one person for a specific purpose, such as reading off a sextant after observation of a star, but it does not diffuse light enough for general purposes. In fact, if wood is plentiful, a roaring fire will give greater facility for reading, writing, or such other occupations as are likely to employ a traveller’s evening than anything else. If you want warmth, let your fire be on the ground and sit round it; if you want light to work by, make it on a slight elevation, say from eighteen inches to two feet high. If you want wood, and your native attendants, when called on, make excuses, or Jem tells Sambo and Sambo tells the old woman to fetch wood for the master, do not put yourself to the trouble of scolding them, but take the wood off their fire and put it on your own, and let them settle whose duty it is to bring more. Experto crede.
A horn lantern is good “to keep the light from going out;” but then, perhaps, the operator may desire that the light should not be so literally “kept in;” and it is said that a piece of rag dipped in salt and water, and wrapped round a candle, will answer the purpose of preserving it from extinction in windy weather without lessening its illuminating powers. This, however, requires continuous attention, in order that it may be cut down as the candle burns low. The Esquimaux lamp is a piece of soft stone with a slight groove along the front edge; in this is laid a wick of moss or other material, and, the heat imparted to the stone being quite sufficient to melt the fat laid on it, it is fed with very little trouble. One who has made a turnip lantern in his youth will seldom be at a loss to extemporise a shelter for his bit of candle. A calabash or gourd, with perforations to allow the passage of the light, covered or not with oiled calico or paper; a worn-out pannikin or preserved meat tin; the body of a quart bottle, the more transparent the better; or, what is best of all, one of the oblong tins in which fancy biscuits are generally sold, will answer admirably; the polished surface of the latter serving also as a powerful reflector. We had one of these slung from the roof of the waggon, the bowl of a broken ladle was secured in the bottom of it, and with a bit of cotton wick and a few pieces of hard fat, a light steady enough to work by was secured for the evening; the common forecastle lamp used on board our merchantmen is a useful form, and the shadowless railway lamp we found very servicable, as long as the glass could be preserved.
We have constructed a very powerful reflecting lamp from a large sheet of tin, nearly two feet in height, curved round so as to form half a cylinder, six or eight inches in diameter; about eight inches from its base, we made a shelf to sustain the oil lamp, and a socket to contain the candle if we should be fortunate enough to have one, and behind this we arranged a couple of sixpenny trade looking-glasses at an angle of 90° with each other, and by the light thus thrown forward we were able to write or sketch with facility during many hours of the weary night. (See p. 85.) A lamp commonly used in India is a tumbler half full of water with oil on the top, and a wick wrapped round a stone or bit of lead, with its end projecting above the oil; but it has this disadvantage, that rats may upset the glass while drinking the oil, carry off the burning wick, and so expose the house to great danger. A float may easily be made of bottle wire and three bits of cork, in which half an inch of wick is enough to last all night.
Candles.
It is often desirable to make candles, and for this purpose the hard fat and tallow of any animal that may be killed should be preserved, that is, if it can be spared from the no less important purpose of greasing the axles; or beeswax, if it can be obtained, may be used either in combination with it or separately. If you wish to make dip candles, take a sufficient number of strands twice the length you require, twist them slightly and double them, and let the parts twist together; pass a small rod through the “bights” of as many of these wicks as you find convenient, say half a dozen; take a bucketful of hot water, throw the fat or wax in, and it will soon melt and float upon the surface; let the wicks absorb as much as they will, straighten and let them harden; then, holding the rod by the end left for that purpose, dip them quickly to their full length, withdraw and allow them to cool, and repeat the operation till your candles attain the desired size. If you have fat enough you may have half a dozen or more sets of wicks and can keep on dipping in rotation, thus allowing each plenty of time to cool before its turn comes round again. If you aspire to mould candles, nothing is better for your purpose than a piece off the end of a gun-barrel—and very few African hunters make a journey without shortening some lengthy weapon by eight or ten inches. In this case, pass a small stick an inch or two in length through the bight of the wick, bring the end out through the “mould” and make it fast to another, or pass it through a gun wad or section of a cork, so as to stretch it fairly and evenly in the centre, and stop the lower end; then pour in the tallow or wax, and, when cool, warm the mould slightly and the candle will draw out. In some countries wood may be found sufficiently resinous to be used as candles, but a supply of sticks cut to a convenient size must be prepared and a rest of some sort contrived so that they may be easily placed in it or withdrawn when nearly burnt out; the angle they ought to make with the horizon varies with the quality of the wood, if very combustible they may be set nearly upright, if less so they must be more nearly horizontal.
All candles, however, waste rapidly unless screened from the wind, if the traveller can carry a spring burner, this inconvenience is in a great measure obviated; but often this is impossible, and he must make the best shelter he can with a bit of bent tin, a joint of bamboo, or whatever material may be at hand. If the candles have to be packed in bags where stowage is of importance, and cases must be thrown away, it is best to cut them in two, as the risk of breakage is much reduced by the diminution of their length; in cutting them the knife should be warmed slightly, as it divides them without chipping off fragments. In lighting the lower half, if you have wax vestas, and stick one of them in alongside the wick that has been cut, you avoid the necessity of cutting down the wax to expose the end, and so may save three quarters of an inch of candle.
Torches.
We have seen the Malays, in the Island of Timor, take a soft porous stick, or the pith of a peculiar rush, and then wrap round it a coating of beeswax, to serve as a torch or candle. The natives of the shores of British Columbia and Vancouver Island use a fish known as the Eulachon, or North-West Capelin, as a source of light. The leaf of the cocoa-nut palm possesses strong illuminating power. The pine knot and birch bark of North America and Canada are extensively used for giving light in deer-hunting, fish-spearing, and on other occasions. The bog deal of Ireland is also used. The Damaras, who have a custom of obtaining their fire only from that kept burning at the hut of their chief, carry with them dry flakes of “Kraal mist” or cattle droppings, ignited and held between the forks of a cleft stick; and the Indian matchlock men carry fire in the same way. The mussalchees or torch-bearers of Central India, who commonly accompany troops during night marches, use long sausage-shaped rolls of cotton cloth; the ends of these they from time to time moisten with oil poured from a vessel carried for the purpose. The hill guides usually employ large splinters cut from the Deodar cedar. In Mexico, the brilliant fire-flies are sometimes caught and used for giving a temporary light: the direction of a letter, or the points of a compass, may be read by them.
The sparks from a flint and steel, a bit of quartz, sulphuret of iron or agate, and a pocket knife, will give light enough to read the compass, or to form a night signal.
There are many very nice arrangements for the purpose of light giving and cooking, which may be obtained from any military outfitter; but their chief defect is, that they will only answer their purpose under tolerably convenient circumstances, and become useless when the real hard work of travel begins.
Samovar.
Travellers, both on sea and land, often require to cook a small allowance of coffee or tea when, from severity of weather, scarcity of fuel, or the impossibility of halting long enough, it is impossible to kindle a fire in any of the ordinary methods, and frequently when, from the pitching of a small vessel or the jolting of a waggon, it would be dangerous to use a spirit lamp, an Etna, or an uncovered fire of any kind. Under these circumstances we should think the principle of internal heat, as applied in the Russian samovar or tea urn, might be successfully adopted. This, with various modifications in outward form, may be described as a small furnace for burning wood or charcoal in that part which serves as the base of the urn, with a funnel or stove pipe, wide at the bottom, but tapering rather sharply upward, leading straight up through the water, and having at top a telescope joint, by which the funnel can be lengthened and the draught increased when requisite.
SAMOVAR.
Our own idea is to have an upright cylinder of copper tinned inside, and from about a couple of inches above the lower part of this an internal cone, like an inverted funnel, exactly fitting the cylinder at its lower edge, and tapering up to a small aperture at top. A double floor would be let into the cylinder about an inch from its base, so that it might be set upon a plank without danger from the fire. The cover would have a central hole for the funnel or smoke pipe to rise through; a small lip spout would serve to pour off the water, and ring handles, with chains long enough to obviate all danger, would serve to suspend it from the waggon roof, or from the beams of a small vessel, while others on either side would help to stay and steady it. A broad cap or roof of copper hooked on to links of the chains an inch or two above the end of the smoke pipe would prevent any possible risk from fire reaching any woodwork from which the samovar might be suspended.
CHAPTER II.
BOATS, RAFTS, AND MAKE-SHIFT FLOATS.
Stopping leaky boats.
In traversing wild countries, or examining their coasts, lakes, or rivers, boats of some kind are indispensably necessary. The traveller may, perhaps, be fortunate enough to possess one or more sound and seaworthy. More frequently, however, it will be his lot to have either some sun-dried leaky craft, crank canoe, or unstable raft, on which to entrust his life and equipment, when his ingenuity and powers of resource must be exercised in order to successfully contend with the various shortcomings and failings he will certainly discover. If a boat be very leaky, and is so rotten as not to be reparable by ordinary means, cover the whole bottom with canvas to above the water line, and paint it, she will then be perfectly tight, and also very much strengthened and protected against external injury. Should the canvas even be left unpainted, it will be found to reduce the leakage very considerably. Turn the boat bottom upwards, take a breadth of canvas for each side, or, if one breadth be not wide enough, increase it as much as necessary by stitching on another. Lay one edge of this against the keel, just below the garboard streak; fasten it with copper tacks, or if with iron pump tacks, dip them previously in thick white paint, varnish or boiled oil, to prevent them rusting the canvas. Wet the canvas, and stretch it tightly, tacking it on the stem and stern post, so as just to cover the insertion of the planking; then stretch the upper edge to the moulding, just below the wash-streak, and nail it on there. It might, if necessary, be carried right up to the gunwale; but, in this case, it must be defended by a moulding or ribband of plank from chafing against the side of a vessel or pier. In the case of a gig, or long sharp boat, the canvas will give or stretch sufficiently to adapt it to the required form; but in one with a short bluff bow and stern, it must be fitted either by neatly folding the parts necessary to be reduced, or by cutting and stitching it to the shape required.
Make-shift outrigger.
If a small boat crowded with passengers has to leave a wreck in a heavy sea, she may be preserved from sinking or overturning by lashing across the gunwales a couple of oars (cut, if there is time for it, to a suitable length), and fastening to them, outside the boat, four small water-casks or breakers; these would somewhat impede her progress, but buoyancy and safety, and not swift sailing, are the chief requisites in leaving a wreck. Breakers lashed under the thwarts, or bow and stern sheets, are sometimes used; but, though they impart buoyancy to a water logged boat, they take up room, and do not give the additional stability which is afforded when they are placed outside.
BOAT WITH BREAKERS OR SMALL CASKS AS OUTRIGGERS.
Rafts.
The cumbrous mass of spars, water-casks, and other stores, which want of stowage under hatches often forces small vessels to carry upon deck, may easily be converted into a perfectly safe and buoyant raft, ready for instant use on an emergency, by the following arrangement of the lashings.
The spars, amongst which will generally be found one fit to make a topmast, another for a lower yard, and, perhaps, one or two more of equal length, are laid fore and aft on either side the main hatch; the water-casks, perhaps half a dozen on each side, are lashed to them; while the space between is occupied by the long boat, and, perhaps, one or two casks of meat or other stores, the whole being secured to the deck; but all this floating power is neither connected in itself, nor easily detachable from the sinking vessel.
It would not be much more difficult, when securing the row of casks and spars on either side the hatch, to connect all these by short spars lashed across the ends, as shown in the engraving, with a couple more crossing near the bow and stern of the long boat, and bearing others passing fore and aft beneath her bilge, to which she might be secured by lashings perfectly independent of the gripes by which she is fastened to the deck. Indeed, the chief requisite is to keep all the lashings that connect the parts perfectly clear of those which hold the raft to the vessel, so that, in case of need, it could at once be cut clear, and allowed to float bodily off from the sinking hull.
THE SPARS AND WATER-CASKS CARRIED ON DECK WITH THE LONG BOAT, USED AS A RAFT.
We have stated the absolutely necessary points as simply as possible; but many improvements might easily be suggested, such as the four casks, at the ends, being pointed like conical buoys, so as to offer less resistance to progress through the water; or that in two or more of the aftermost casks a quantity of salt or preserved meat, biscuit, or groceries should be kept in store for any emergency.
The smaller spars, of which there are generally plenty on board, might be crossed upon this framework, so as to make a platform, and a studding-sail spread over would prevent small things dropping through, or help to support the crew or passengers.
The boat, however leaky or battered, would always be a place of security and comparative comfort for the ladies or children, as the power of floatation would be in the spars and casks. We believe the Spaniards always endeavour to secure a boat on any raft they are obliged to make, using her, no matter how much she may be stove or broken, as a place of rest or refuge for the helpless or the weary.
It would be superfluous to give directions for the rigging of a mast or steering apparatus. Seamen in emergencies would improvise these according to the means at hand. Two or three small spars set up as a triangle would carry sail, where, perhaps, a mast could not be stepped; and the oars of the long boat, assisted by the trimming of such sail as could be set, would be most likely the readiest appliances for steering. Sometimes the “bridge” of a paddle steamer is made like a caisson, and shipped in grooves, so as to float off should the vessel sink. Small craft trading in the Indian islands, which carry a quantity of bamboo as small spars, are thus provided with a natural substitute for life-buoys, and a material for constructing rafts, or rendering boats, though leaky as so many sieves, perfectly unsinkable. Rafts of the large hollow stems of the bamboo are frequently used by fishermen in the Indian archipelago.
Life-belts.
It may, perhaps, be of little use to suggest that before a vessel leaves port attention should be given to the means of saving life should she go down at sea. The possible foundering of a seaworthy vessel is about the last thing a sailor thinks of; he trusts more to his presence of mind and ready application of the means at hand. Nevertheless, provision against danger would cast no imputation on their manliness. The law compels a proportionate number of boats to the complement of crew or passengers. Some owners provide cork belts or jackets for the men, with mattrasses, pillows, or cushions of cork, for the berths or sofas in the cabin; and it would be well if every passenger making a sea voyage were to provide himself, and each of those depending on him, with a life-belt, either of cork or of inflatable material, and likewise see that these were not stowed away in chests below the hatches, but kept at hand in the berths so as to be available when wanted; and also that their use was perfectly understood by those for whom they were provided.
We have seen a waistcoat with inflatable lining carried far into the interior by one of the boldest elephant hunters in South Africa; and it is stated that, after the sinking of the ill-fated steamer “Arctic,” some of the passengers provided with belts floated on the surface of the Atlantic for some days, giving, with a kind of desperate humour, the names of different hotels to the piece of floating wreck at which they had “put up last night,” or intended to do so for the next.
It is a pity that none of the waterproof materials at present in use are comfortable in ordinary wear, so that some common article of dress, as a neck-tie, a belt, or sash, might be made so as to be inflatable when an accident occurs.
Of all that we know at present, we should say the most effective, simple, and secure from damage, is the ordinary cork jacket, of the pattern supplied by the Life-boat Institution; it is sufficiently buoyant, does not impede the exertions of the wearer, and cannot be damaged by collision with rocks or other hard objects.
Life-buoys.
Perhaps the circular life-buoy now in common use is as good as any, but it requires some address and strength on the part of the swimmer to get it over his head to its proper place beneath his arms; it also lies low on the water when thrown overboard, and if at any distance is not easily seen by the swimmer or by the boat’s crew who eventually go to his assistance.
In the navy a breaker or small cask is used, with a staff six or eight feet long passed through it, the lower end projects say three feet, and is loaded with lead; the upper will stand from four to six feet above the water, carrying a small red flag by day, or a port-fire by night.
The slings of the buoy are brought up to the taffrail and looped over a small pin, which is withdrawn by pulling the trigger of a gun lock, and a quick match led to this at night serves at the same time to ignite the port-fire, so that the swimmer, the boat’s crew, and the commander of the vessel, have a conspicuous object to make for and are so prevented from losing each other.
In larger vessels, we believe, two breakers are used, connected by saddle-shaped iron bars; these enable one, or perhaps two men to sit, with their shoulders considerably above the surface; while beckets of rope all round would enable a greater number, say the crew of a capsized boat, to support themselves with a fair chance of safety. The size, however, of a life-buoy must always be limited. It is mostly required to save one person who has fallen overboard; and, though perhaps sufficient to support more, it should never be so large as to be dangerous or inconvenient when taken into the boat put out in a heavy and dangerous gale to the rescue.
Several fathoms of small line should be and often are attached to the buoy, so that if it is let go in time the swimmer may catch it, and be saved without the necessity of lowering a boat. We have seen a “life line” of coir or cocoa-nut fibre, which is very buoyant, successfully veered away to an overladen and endangered boat at a considerable distance, when a hempen rope, which sinks by its own weight, would have been of no service.
THE CALABASH FLOAT, MAKORO OR MAKARA, OF CENTRAL AFRICA.
Calabash float.
Nearly similar in principle to this last-named life-buoy is the calabash float, described by Dr. Barth as being used by the natives of Central Africa; it is simply a bar or plank of light wood, so laced to the bottom of two large calabashes, that a man sitting on the bar, as he would upon a saddle, will sink about waist deep, and may use his hands to paddle himself across the stream.
Reed boat.
Our illustration shows how any buoyant article in the traveller’s possession might be used in this manner. The boxes shown on pp. [8] and [9] are designed expressly for such emergencies. Small water “vatjies,” barrels, or tin cans, wooden boxes, even though somewhat leaky, wrapped in canvas or two or three thicknesses of calico, which need not be cut, would become sufficiently tight for a short voyage. To make a reed boat, take reeds of any length you wish, a foot or two more than half the length of your boat, lay them lengthwise on level ground, with their small ends toward the ends of your intended boat, and their butts overlapping each other by a foot or two; take cord or other material for lashing, and interweave it with the reeds till the part in the centre resembles a flat cheese-mat, then bend it round the hoop which you intend for the midship frame. Insert smaller frames toward each end, and finally gather up the ends of the reeds into a point, cover this with some waterproof material, oiled calico or canvas, &c., or canvas simply pasted with flour and water, and you will have a boat buoyant and more or less durable according to the strength of the material.
REED BOAT.
About 1844 we made such a boat in Cape Town, using what are there called Spanish reeds, which run between 10ft. and 15ft. in length, three quarters or an inch in their greatest diameter, tolerably strong and very buoyant; these were lashed on wooden barrel hoops with a light deal keel and gunwale, and covered with two thicknesses of oiled calico. There was no leakage, and our little skiff was so light that with the assistance of a friend we easily carried her to and from the house in which she was built. We often ventured beyond the shipping anchored in Table Bay, our guns being secured by lanyards to the boat in case of accident.
Reed raft.
On parts of the Nile where reeds abound, the natives make them up into bundles of perhaps 8in. or 10in. in diameter at the larger end, and tapering almost to nothing at the smaller; three or four of these are fastened side by side, their points are made to curve up a little, and they form a portable and convenient vessel for crossing the river or conveying small cargoes of grain or other produce to market. The stoutest part of the fan-shaped leaf of the doum palm is used as a paddle. The float is not a heavy load for one man, when carried overland, and one supported by a forked stick, or three or four with their larger ends set on the ground and the smaller resting against each other, form very good sun-shades, or huts to protect the inmates against more inclement weather.
REED RAFT AS USED ON THE NILE.
We have seen very useful and commodious rafts made by cutting very large quantities of marsh reeds, fastening them up roughly in bundles, laying these side by side, and then arranging another layer of bundles across the lower tier. A few vines, or twisted reed bands, serve to keep the bundles in their places, whilst a thick layer of loose reeds on the top makes a level surface for the traveller and his baggage to rest on. As the lower reeds become saturated with water others can be cut, and added to the top. Long river voyages, floating with the stream, have been accomplished on rafts of this description. Bamboo canes, when they can be obtained in sufficient number, form excellent rafts. They are also extremely valuable as outriggers, and outrigger beams for canoes, adding greatly to their stability.
In other parts, where reeds are not so common, floats of wood are used as an assistance to swimmers.
Floats.
When swimming our horses over many of the wide and rapid rivers of Central India, the natives who were employed in guiding the animals, first swam across with them without any artificial assistance, and then returned for others with billets of a peculiarly light wood held between their left arms and sides, under the shoulders; with these appliances, they floated with extraordinary buoyancy, and made rapid progress across the stream.
The inflated skins or intestines of animals, hollow gourds, earthen pots, bladders, or bundles of bark, may be used as aids in crossing rivers where canoes or rafts cannot be constructed.
Cattle boat.
On some of the great Indian rivers, large dish-shaped boats are used for the conveyance of horses or cattle. A boat of this description is very quickly made by first forming a basket-shaped framework of bamboo, here and there interwoven; this is securely lashed together with strips of raw hide, twisted cane, or common cord. When completed, the basket, or frame, is turned upside down, on the ground, pegged fast with hooked pegs cut from the branches of the nearest tree, and then covered with raw bullock hides, which are sewn fast to the frame, and to each other, grease being well rubbed into the seams. When complete, the boat is not unlike a common tea-saucer—measures between fourteen and fifteen feet in diameter, and is about two feet eight inches deep; made to these dimensions, the hide boat will safely carry from three to four tons of cargo. There is no possibility of upsetting it. When horses or bullocks have to be conveyed in contrivances of this kind, it will be necessary to lay branches of trees, and a good layer of reeds, or sedge grass, on the bottoms, in order to prevent the animals from thrusting their hoofs through the hides. The water-draught of hide boats is surprisingly slight, from five to eight inches being sufficient to float one with a full load on board. Long-handled shovel-shaped paddles are used to propel them with, and a store of raw hide, and some tallow, and an eyed awl, or large needle, for patching, enables the boat voyager to execute with expedition all the repairs his leather craft may need. All hide-covered boats, or floats, should be occasionally placed bottom upwards, on shore, to dry, in order to render the skins more durable.
Coracle.
The coracle, so much used by Welsh fishermen, is made much after the same fashion. A smooth level piece of turf being chosen, the frame-sticks, just such as coopers use for making into hoops, are bent and interwoven until the requisite form of the frame has been arrived at, the bottom being upwards. The edge, which afterwards becomes the gunwale, is formed by making a border of hazel-wand basket-work, the ends of the frame-sticks are trimmed off even with this, and a covering of Russia duck, or light canvas, is neatly sewn over all. The coracle is then paid over with tar, or some other water-proofing material; one thwart, or seat, is secured from each end to the framework, holes are made in this for a leather strap to pass through, which enables the fisherman to carry his coracle on his back. A single-bladed paddle, like a baker’s oven pile, is used to paddle with. Some considerable practice is needed to enable a new hand to conduct, or, as it is called, drive a coracle—not a little caution is required in both getting in or out. It is best, if possible, to depart from some shallow sand-spit, or gravel bed, where the coracle may be shoved off into deeper water, after the tyro has taken his seat, and established the proper balance. In landing, it will be well to observe the same caution until practice and experience give the confidence and dexterity which they alone can confer. There is a peculiar stroke of the paddle much used in coracle driving, to which the canoe man seldom has recourse. This is gained by turning the left arm round the handle of the paddle, until the hand is a short distance above the blade, and the shaft rests against the shoulder. The paddle blade is then worked in a figure-of-eight direction.
SKIN BOAT.
Skin boat.
The size of skin or canvas-covered boats will usually be determined by the available amount of skin or covering material. Any waggon ox requires 8ft. of room to work in, and his skin would give a square of leather of very little over 6ft.; the African buffalo would be about the same, the eland somewhat larger, the black or brindled gnoo, the koodoo, and some of the larger antelopes, rather less. Suppose you have two ox skins; cut them straight across where the neck is at its widest, and let the natives or waggon-drivers stitch them together with strong sinews or thongs of hide, using a round awl or piercer, to make a round hole that will close again, and not a sharp-edged one that will cut the hide and so leave holes that will afterwards become leaks. The sheet should be kept damp, not wet, by spreading ox-dung or damp earth upon it till the frame is ready. Suppose it now to be 12ft. long and 6ft. wide; you may make your boat of from 3ft. to 4ft. in width, and 10ft. in length and 2ft. deep. If you care to have definite stem and stern posts, it is very likely that poles may be found with branches projecting at the required angle, but practically it is best to let them curve more or less gradually into the line of the keel, and for this purpose to choose two long straight poles; bend their thick ends round a tree to rather more than the requisite curve, as they will always straighten again; then, having chosen a flat piece of stiff ground, make two holes 10ft. apart, for the thick ends of your poles to rest in, bend down their thin ends, let them overlap, the farther the better, and lash them together; then take another of about 8ft. (or a foot longer on each side than the width of the skin), and having curved this, stick the ends into the ground, about 3½ ft. or 4ft. apart, and lash it where its centre passes under the keel; do the same with two others, 18in. on either side, and you will have the three midship frames; take two poles for each gunwale, join them by overlapping their thin ends as before, lash them to these central frames, so far from the keel that the edge of the skin will just cover them, bend them till they come together at the bow and stern, let them cross each other by a few inches, lash them tightly, and do not be in a hurry to cut their ends too closely; the curve they take will guide you in the insertion of the other frames. As you come nearer to the bow and stern, forked branches of the proper angle may be advantageously used, and along the sides, where the rowlocks come, forks may be left on the extremities of the ribs to serve for them; a fork may also be lashed in at either end for steering or sculling. Lay two or more ribbands or bilge pieces along each side; fasten in such boards or poles as you have for thwarts, and, when the whole is firmly lashed together, spread over it the prepared hide and stitch it all round to the pole that serves for gunwale, the hair, if you have not already scraped it off, being inwards; grease plentifully while it is still wet, and then let it dry; look carefully to the seaming; give this as much grease as it will absorb, or you can afford; and when it is quite stiff, saw off the superfluous timber ends, not too close; turn it up, and it is ready for use: never let your boat lie in the water longer than is absolutely necessary, and turn it bottom upwards whenever you haul it ashore. The quagga hide is proverbially rigid; and we should think that if taken off by merely making one slit along the belly, distending with dry sand and letting it harden in the sun, it would make a tolerably safe boat in smooth water for one person, without any other fitting.
We have heard of mules or transport animals being killed when water carriage became available; their flesh jerked for future provision, and even their ribs pressed into service to do duty without even a change of name in the canoes for which their hides served as coverings.
Russian cargo boat.
In the United Service Museum is a very carefully-constructed model of a Russian cargo boat from the Aleutian Islands, Commander Pike, R.N., the donor, states that it carries 3½ tons of fur sealskins. No metal is used in it, the wooden frame is pegged or lashed together, and covered with walrus hide. No dimensions are given; but, as very nearly three feet are required for one oarsman, it is probable that the boat would be 25ft. long and 8ft. wide near the stern; it will be noticed that there are but single thole pins, and therefore grummets of rope or iron must be fastened on the oars.
Esquimaux boats.
The other boat is the oomiak, or woman’s canoe, of the Esquimaux. The frame is made of drift wood and bone, often in very small pieces, but so tightly pegged and lashed together with hide thongs, that the compound seems fully as strong as a single piece; it is very neatly covered with sealskin.
RUSSIAN AND ESQUIMAUX SKIN BOATS
The method of constructing the frames of both these varies but little from that we have just described, and we think will be made sufficiently plain by the drawings copied by permission from the models in the Museum.
The kayak, or man’s canoe, is longer, sharper, and narrower, and is completely covered with sealskin, with the exception of a circular aperture in the centre, and from the edges of this a skin comes up so as to tie tightly round the waist of the daring walrus or seal hunter, so that not a drop of water can enter his little vessel; while even if by any accident she should capsize, a vigorous stroke of the double-bladed paddle will suffice to right her; the harpoons or other weapons cannot possibly be lost, for bladders are attached to the lines of those prepared for use; while the reserves are not cast adrift till they are wanted. Marvellously ingenious as these fur-clad boat-builders are, their frail craft are so difficult to handle that no ordinary explorer can, without long practice, hope to use them with much success. Still there are many points connected with their construction well worthy of imitation.
The small sledge in the background has a screen of skins suspended across it, in which a hole is made for the seal-hunter to fire through.
Dug-out canoes.
Canoes, hewn and dug from the solid tree trunk, are general and valuable; and there are few portions of the earth where forest trees grow to the requisite size that dug-out boats of some kind are not in use. The natives of British Columbia construct very large and powerful boats from the trunks of the huge cedar trees found in that country. To the fortunate possessor of the axe, the adze, the gouge, and the mallet, the formation of a dug-out canoe is a matter of comparative ease; but to the Indian, unprovided with efficient tools, it is a task of no ordinary magnitude, still he undertakes it boldly, falling back on shifts and expedients to aid him in his toil. With such rude implements as he may chance to be possessed of, he fashions the exterior, flattens the surface of the log, and hews out the bow and stern; then fire, kept within due bounds by the assistance of clay, is brought to bear on the mass of timber, and as the wood ashes form, and the wood becomes charred, a sharpened stone or thick sea-shell is used to remove the mass and expose a fresh surface. By dint of labour, patience, care, and perseverance, the shell of the boat is at length formed, but lacking the curves and contour needed to render it stable and seaworthy. Indian ingenuity again steps in to meet the difficulty. The boat is filled to the brim with water, a huge fire is lighted, and a number of stones heated to redness. These are one by one dropped into the unfinished canoe, until the water is raised almost to the boiling point; then when the wood is under the full and softening influences of the heated water and steam, transverse bars of wood are driven in one after the other, until the requisite breadth of beam and bilge are gained. The water is then removed, and the canoe allowed to dry with the bars in it, when the shape thus given remains as long as the boat lasts. The removal of the bars and a little polishing up renders the canoe fit for sea. It is not uncommon for craft of this description, manned by crews amounting sometimes to as many as thirty, to brave the turbulent and formidable seas of the Pacific Ocean, in pursuit of the sea-otter, fish, &c.
We have seen many canoes of this description on the large rivers of Central India, Australia, and on the Zambesi. The aborigines of Australia are also in the habit of using bark canoes of the most primitive form of construction. A sheet of bark of suitable size is stripped from the nearest tree, the ends are guarded by little walls of clay, and with a rude stick for a paddle, and a lump of moistened clay for a fire-place, Corry, armed with his unerring spear, starts on a fish-hunting expedition on the pond or river.
Models of platform boat.
During the years 1863 and 1864, while enjoying the hospitality of our late friend Charles John Andersson, the chief, as he may be called, of the persevering explorers of South-West Africa, we devoted considerable attention to the construction of models of boats for the purposes of discovery and river navigation, and of substitutes for them. The first essential in the case before us was that of portability of the boat or of the materials to make it; the second, facility of construction when it reached the water, equal facility of separation into its original parts at any interruption of the river course, and also of reconstruction after it had been carried to a point where navigation could be resumed. Another, and not less important condition, was, that the materials should be such as were obtainable either in Damaraland, or, at farthest, from some of the vessels that occasionally called at its bays or harbours from Cape Town. The conversion of the usual waggon gear into a float will be presently treated on; and we will now describe the model we constructed for our boat, suggesting to explorers that when they find themselves under the necessity of building, they will save much time, trouble, and anxiety as to the result of their labour, by proceeding nearly in the same way.
DOUBLE BOAT OF IRON OR COPPER CONVERTIBLE INTO A SINGLE BOAT WHEN NEEDED.
In the first place, we had decided on the use of sheet metal, plain or galvanised iron in sheets of 6ft. by 2ft., or copper of 4ft. by 2ft., with screwed bolts and nuts in either case of exactly the same metal as the sheets, so that any galvanic action should be impossible. Next, the framework must be of wood; and as to form, it was absolutely necessary that the boat should have beam and buoyancy enough to launch, without fear of submersion through any rapid that had water enough to bear her clear of rocks, and was not steep enough to be considered as a waterfall. We purposed to put the materials together on the spot; and, therefore, their weight only, and not the dimensions of the boat, were taken into consideration with regard to waggon carriage.
For the mere purpose of passing from the head of the river navigation to the sea, and thus proving that such navigation was possible, nothing more than a single boat would be required. But for observing, mapping, sketching, or otherwise improving to some useful result the various opportunities of the journey, sufficient room must be provided for the voyager to work comfortably on deck instead of sitting cramped up in the stern-sheets, and we, therefore, decided on making ours capable of being used as a double boat when the breadth of the river permitted it.
The advantage of being able to use each part when separate, as an independent boat, so that the sharers in the voyage might trace separate branches of the river, had to be balanced against the disadvantage of having to take each of these singly through rapids, which their dimensions might not insure their passing in safety, and also against the fact that if the “double” is formed of two perfect boats, they cannot attain great speed either in sailing or rowing, from the fact that the volume of water admitted between the stems, which may be, for example, 8ft. apart, must be compressed as it passes the midship section, to 4ft. or 5ft., according to the breadth of beam of the boats, and will again have to expand as it passes the gradually increasing space between their “run,” or after section. And the loss of power thus expended in “heaping up water,” although imperceptible at a low speed, would become enormous if a higher rate were attempted. Therefore we made our model so that when not required as a double, she should become one single yawl or whale boat of 30ft. in length, and 6ft. beam, with 2½ft. internal depth in midships, rising to nearly 4ft. at either end to enable her to shoot a tolerably strong rapid without shipping water; the two sections were therefore each made like half a whale boat, the outer sides having their proper curve and the inner being perfectly flat, so that when used doubly the water might pass without resistance between them, and when singly they might be clamped together as one boat by screwed bolts through the keel, stem, stern posts, and the inner gunwales.
Our first care was to seek out a block of soft, fair grained wood, 30in. long and 3in. wide, and to shape this truly to the form required for one half section of our boat. We next provided a sufficiency of planking, ribbands, &c., also on a scale of 1in. to the foot, and then cut out from the thinnest tin case linings, forty pieces of 6in. by 2in., to represent our sheets of iron.
The dimensions of our boat had been previously so arranged that in the midship section the depth of nearly 2 ft. on the flat side should leave rather more than 4ft. of the iron available to form the curve on the outer, necessary to give a half beam of 3ft.
In building our model we adopted slightly different plans with each of the two sections. In that intended for the starboard side we laid along the flat or inner side of our block or wooden mould a batten, 1/4in. square (representing one of 3in.) and 24in. long (each inch being understood to represent 1ft.); to this we fitted the stem and stern post, each 6in. in length, both exactly alike, curving and raking forward and aft like those of a whale boat, so as to have an actual height, before the keel was added, of 3¾in. We then laid along the top of the flat side the inner gunwale 1in. deep, but as this would be an impediment to the rowers when the sections were clamped together to form a single boat, we cut out a piece (marked A, p. 106) ¾in. deep and 18in. long, so as to be removable at pleasure, the remaining quarter then forming the stringer on which the thwarts would afterwards be laid, the bottom of the three-quarter piece (A) having checks cut in it to allow it to fit over them. We then took the piece of tin representing the midship sheet, and drawing a line across it, 1½in. from its edge, bent it over the keelson, bolting the short end to the thwart stringer, and bringing the longer one of 4½in. round the curve to the outer gunwale; nine sheets were required aft and nine forward of this, and the only difference in laying them was that, as we proceeded forward, the edge of each sheet overlapped by nearly 1/4in. the one behind it, while in working aft, the edge of each had to be inserted beneath that which lay before it. When the curves of the stem and stern were reached, the sheets had to be cut to the required form instead of being bent, and were bolted in their proper places. The outer gunwale, ⅛in. thick and ¾in. deep, was now laid on and bolted to the metal sheets; another batten, ½in. wide, was laid from stem to stern along the bilge, and the keel, ¼in. thick and deep, was fitted in its proper place and bolted through the metal to the keelson.
Our half boat was now sufficiently firm to be taken off the mould. A short stringer of 18in. was laid internally upon the floor, and another the whole length along the inside on which to lay the outer end of the thwarts; and timbers, ¼in. thick, were bolted in with their heads projecting 1in. above the gunwale, so as to receive cross-beams of ½in. in thickness and 15in. long, by which the sections were kept apart when used as a double boat. We considered it better to secure the beams by cross-lashings than by bolts, which, if the boats worked much in troubled water, would probably rend the parts they served to connect. Along the gunwales, at short intervals, we intended to use lighter cross-beams, probably of bamboo, that is if it were procurable; but having carried out our model sufficiently to establish the general efficiency of our principle, we did not think it needful to spend time in completing every little detail, and this called forth the free but friendly criticism of Mr. Charles Bell, the Surveyor-General of the Cape colony, whose valuable and practical advice we take the liberty of giving (see [p. 115]).
The only difference of plan adopted in building the other or port section was that we built the whole of the inner or flat side of plank ⅛in. thick, by which we were enabled to cut 1½in. off each sheet, and this method in building a full-sized boat would have enabled us to use copper sheets of 2ft. by 4ft. instead of iron of 2ft. by 6ft.
THE SECTIONS CLAMPED TOGETHER AS A SINGLE BOAT, OR USED WITH CONNECTING BEAMS AS A DOUBLE.
Full-sized platform boat.
In building a full-sized boat on this model, our plan would be to make the flat side all of ¾in. plank, with the stem, stern post, and keelson all fast in their proper positions, and the keel left slightly apart, so as to allow the sheets of metal, whether iron or copper, to be inserted between it and the keelson. Then, laying the whole flat on its side, we would cross cut with a fine tenon saw our wooden model into eight pieces of equal length, and carefully enlarging the section of each length would make as many temporary frames, and set them upon the flat side, cutting checks in them to let in the stringers, which when bent down to the flat at either end would very effectually give the form of the boat. We would then fit the ribs, keeping them as light as possible with due regard to strength, cutting them, if requisite, out of wood selected with the proper natural curve; or, preferably, using flexible wood, such as ash, in pieces 2in. broad, and ½in. in thickness, and placing them not quite 2ft. apart, so that the overlapping edges of the sheets might coincide with the ribs, and the bolts might pass through them and also through the inner stringers, and the outer ribbands and gunwales at all their points of intersection. The ends of seven of these ribs, at nearly equal distances (as at sheets 2, 5, 8, 10, 13 and 16, on p. 106), we would leave standing six or eight inches above the gunwale, and about four inches from each we would set up another of equal height, so that the cross-beams might lie between them when required, and be secured by lashings passing down to the first stringer ([p. 110]), or so that when the two parts were connected as a single boat they might serve as rowlocks. Short struts from the foremost pair of these would give great additional stability to the masts.
In laying the deck, we should by all means endeavour to avoid injuring the planks by boring needless holes in them, as they might on an emergency be required for building a smaller boat. We should, therefore, lash them with raw hide to the foremost and aftermost crossbeams, and then laying lighter beams across near two or more of the intermediate ones, fasten them down where requisite by strips of the same material ([p. 110]).
For connecting the two sections, so as to form a single boat, we should use screwed bolts ½in. thick, and 7in. long, passing at intervals of about 16in. through both keels, stems, stern posts, and inner gunwales, thus firmly clamping both the flat sides together. The two removable portions of the inner gunwale (marked A) previously mentioned would, in this case, be unshipped to allow the oars free play, as in illustration on opposite page, and on [page 106].
Copper is the only metal we should wish to use or recommend to others, and all fastenings used with it must be of the same metal. We recommend in this case, screwed bolts and nuts, presuming that the boat would be built for a journey, the exigencies of which might oblige the traveller frequently to take her to pieces and rebuild her; but as our own means were at that time inconveniently limited, we made a calculation of the comparative cost of plain and galvanised iron and of wood.
The mode of setting the sails, spreading the awning, &c., will be sufficiently clear from the engraving ([p. 106]).
Our little model, when tried upon the flooded flats at Walvisch Bay, sailed “like the wind,” but had a tendency to bury the lee-bow, which was easily remedied by ballasting the weather quarter; an oar was the readiest and most convenient means of steering.
Estimate of material if the boat be built of copper, the flats or inner sides being of plank:—
All the bolts, screws, nails, and other fastenings, must be of plain iron, and none of them must be galvanised.
Galvanised iron would not be much cheaper than copper, and would be very intractable in working. We should not recommend it to a traveller who intends to build his own boats in the wilderness and expects to have to take them to pieces and rebuild them two or three times.
Tinned charcoal iron would be nearly as expensive as copper, and the fastenings would also have to be tinned.
Plain iron is the only metal on which any saving could be effected, even at the cost of additional labour. In this case, perhaps, three times the amount of paint should be taken.
A mixture of red and white lead, with half boiled and half raw linseed oil, should be used rather thickly for painting the inside of every joint, and all the bolts, screws, or nails, should be thrown into boiled oil, then taken out and allowed to drain and dry before they are used. The boat must be thoroughly well painted after completion, and the paint allowed to harden before she is put into the water.
If the boat is built of wood the same size—
Two deals and a half, as before, for keels, keelsons, stems, and stern posts.
Four deals, each to be cut into four ¾in. planks, for flat sides, gunwales, and stringers.
Five deals, each to be cut into six ½in. planks, or equal to 230 running feet of plank, to stand, when cleaned, not less than ⅝, and 630 feet not less than ⅜.
| 5000 | copper boat nails, 1¼in., with rooves. |
| 28 | lb. iron nails, assorted, from 1½in. to 3in. |
| 2000 | iron screws, from smallest size to 3in. |
| 90 | ½in. screw-bolts and nuts, 6in. grip. |
| 200 | ¼in. screw-bolts and nuts, 3in. grip. |
| 6 | rods of 1/4in. iron, to cut into lengths for bolts, as required. |
| Paint, oils, &c., as before. | |
If the traveller can afford to carry two or four good 12ft. ash oars and one of 14ft., by all means let him do so. Nothing is equal to them for pulling or steering, but let him carefully preserve his treasures, and not put them to any use that will twist or warp. If he engages natives as a permanent crew, they may be taught to pull very well; but if he hires temporary helps, let them bring their own paddles, and they will make the boat go well enough.
For the connecting beams, the masts, yards, &c., we should prefer bamboo, as being exceedingly strong in proportion to its weight. In the Indian islands we have seen oars made of bamboo poles, with a disk of wood about as large as a dinner plate lashed on the outer end, and the men pulled very well with them. If bamboo cannot be obtained, poles may generally be cut in the vicinity of a river; but the traveller in Africa or Australia must not expect to find any wood that will possess all the valuable qualities of good red deal, therefore we would say take as much of this as you can carry, without inconveniently incumbering your vehicles. The battens we were able to take to the Zambesi astonished the natives there, they had never seen wood so light, so strong, and so even of grain throughout its length; while the fresh smell it gave out when cut was their constant theme of wonder.
In 1864 Mr. Charles Bell, the Surveyor-General at Cape Town, who has built and used double boats since 1850, favoured us with the subjoined description of his method of construction:—
“My boats are only 12ft. long by 9in. wide, and 9in. deep, and 12ft. by 14in. I have never made them more than 15ft. long, with a bearing power of about 800lb. I have now built or directed the building of about five good boats on the principle, easy and swift under oars or before the wind under sail, and not very faulty even on a wind without any false keel, but you can never sail quite close without one. Mine were built to go through heavy surf all fore and aft, so that the wave could strike nothing except sharp edges, and in surf they are first-rate.
“Iron is objectionable both on account of weight for carriage, and liability to oxidisation in heat and moisture; nothing like canvas. A bolt of No. 3, 2lb. of tin tacks, and a few needles and hanks of twine, would be all I would bother myself to carry a mile. My first boat had not an ounce of metal in her barring rowlocks and rowlock sockets, and she cost me 17s. 6d. and some old plank, and carried me safely through wall-sided breakers that would have troubled a whale-boat’s crew. Say you want a pair of 30ft. boats of 3ft. beam and depth, tolerably safe even against snags and rocks. For each take a 30ft. batten, 3in. by 2½in. for keel; strut and erect on it knees’ planks and stem pieces as in Figs. 5 and 6, and section in Fig. 2 ([p. 116]).
“Trust greatly to lashing the frame; let the knees diminish in beam from the centre to each end as in Fig. 1 (p. 116): draw in your side pieces and planks, or rather press them down to your vertical side laid on a flat surface, and you will have lines that will astonish you. Of course you can raise stem and stern for the look of the thing, as I have done, but it gives more trouble than it is worth. If you want to make a safe lifeboat, tack tight over each knee-frame a piece of canvas (Fig. 3, [p. 116]), leaving an edge loose and broad enough to be sewn on to the outer canvas, loosely (so as not to interfere with the lines it will naturally take), and be tacked to boards and battens where they come in contact with it. I should have first said cover bottom and sides with tightly-stretched canvas, in which operation a cobbler’s pinchers are most useful, but any others will do, then grease outside and in. If you prefer tar and have it, well and good; then cover the deck in the same manner, stitching knee-piece canvases as you go. You will thus, if the workmanship be perfect, have in each half boat ten watertight compartments, which it will be no easy matter to damage; snags will be your worst enemies, and they cannot damage more than one at a time under ordinary circumstances, whereupon the first landing and a crooked needle with patch of canvas, twine, and grease, will make all right. In the deck of each such compartment you should pierce a marlinspike hole, button-hole the edges, and fit a plug, and as a large boat cannot be so easily turned upside down as ours, you may have a pipe, and any simple means of sucking out such bilge water as may get in. Next as to connection of the boats. If you wish it sliding, so as to increase or diminish the width between them when necessary, make it on the lattice girder or rafter principle, and avoid weight, as in Fig. 7; each not more than 6ft. from the centre. Stay and strut them to points near the stem and stern, and they will be quite strong and firm enough to support the mast and the awnings, with the other fittings. The knee-pieces may be left projecting when required to meet the sliding rafter; 1ft. between the boats will be quite enough, so 10ft. of rafter will be quite enough. The sail may be a long low lug, split if you like, to let it pass the mast when on a wind (Fig. 4). An oar will steer, and easily control the extra face of sail on one side when before the wind with the yard squared. But on a wind you must have a keel, one that will slide over sunken rocks, and not be damaged even when it takes them side on. It may fix with free play in the front beam, and lay loose in cleats on the after one with a projecting arm to be held upright by rope, as in Fig. 8.
“Of course there must be an opening between the deck planks, to allow of its rise. Such a boat will carry at least a ton and a half of cargo, if made sufficiently flat in the bottom, and it will require a very stiff breeze and large sail even then to submerge the lee boat. There is this advantage, too, that it cannot be done so quickly as to prevent the remedy by luffing up or otherwise with ordinary vigilance. Your goods and tarpaulins will be quite safe 6in. above the gunwale.
“Yours very truly,
“Charles Bell.”
Just before returning from South Africa we found that the clever author of “A Painter’s Camp in the Highlands” had also gone through nearly the same course of experiments, and had arrived, like us, at the conclusion that the double form of boat was the most safe, convenient, portable, and roomy on deck; and also that it was objectionable to have the inner sides rounded, for the reasons before given. He therefore finally adopted the flat inner side, and making his boats 30ft. in length and 4ft. apart at the stem, increased the width to 4ft. 1in. aft, so as to let the inclosed body of water glide away more easily. He found, however, that after working out his own idea for his own use, he was served with a notice for infringing a patent of which he had not previously heard; and in like manner, after our return from Africa, a description of a patent tubular life raft was submitted to Captain George, at the Royal Geographical Society, and he immediately saw that this was nearly identical with our own plan.
Making inflatable boats safe.
About 1853, a friend in Graham’s Town, with whom we left our model of the inflatable boat, subsequently used in Australia (see [p. 48]), made one for his own amusement, on a small river. He had but two tubes, each of them with a flat side toward the centre, with a small platform between raised on crossed struts, one pair of which on each side were very ingeniously made to carry the rowlocks, as in the next sketch (Fig. 9). And, as he was doubtful of keeping the canvas of his boats sufficiently air-tight, he either filled them, or proposed to do so, with the bladders of oxen previously inflated, so that, even were air to escape from the tubes which formed the boats, they could not collapse. This, in itself, would be a hint which a traveller, who must either shoot game or kill domestic animals for his followers, would do well to bear in mind.
Skiff of iron or copper.
Iron, whether plain or galvanised, is sold in sheets of 2ft. by 6ft., while those of copper are 2ft. by 4ft. We recommend only the copper; but economic or other reasons may very possibly compel the traveller to use iron.
We have, for facility of construction, chosen the form of a Norwegian praam, or wherry, with both ends alike. A semicircular section slightly flattened at the bottom, without a keel, and rising with an easy sheer to a sharp point at either end.
Eleven sheets of iron would be required; the central one being left of its original shape and size, while the five at either end are cut to the forms shown by the outer lines, and to the dimensions indicated by the figures marked along the lower edge: thus, in No. 1, from the centre there is no perceptible curve along the 6-foot side, but the ends are sloped off, with straight although diagonal lines, so that the side nearest the centre remains 6ft., while the farthest is reduced to 5ft. 9in.
In the next sheet, or No. 2, the side nearest the centre curves very slightly; the segment taking off only one inch at either end, the curved side (supposing we are now working from the centre forward) overlaps the edge of No. 1 two inches, and it is therefore cut, not to 5ft. 9in., but to 5ft. 10in., as No. 1 would be of that breadth, a couple of inches back; the front side is left straight, but is reduced in breadth to 5ft. 5in., and the after side of No. 3 is so much more curved that the segment cuts off three inches. The figures in the diagram will render the progressive diminution to the end sufficiently plain. It will be seen that the end remains one foot wide; this is usually filled in with a semicircular piece of plank, being quite sharp enough for all practical purposes, and affording room for a rowlock for a steering or sculling oar, or for a hole through which the boat’s painter may be passed. But, if desired, another piece of iron, which may be called sheet No. 6, may very easily be let in to continue the curve quite up to a point, as in the dotted end of Fig. 2. The half section is given on the side marked iron of Fig. 3, the outer line standing for the two edges of the central sheet, where the skiff is 4ft. wide and 1ft. 10in. deep. The next line, 1½in. smaller all round, is the section at the overlap of sheets Nos. 1 and 2; the third line, two inches within the last, is at the edges of Nos. 2 and 3; the fourth, three inches smaller, is at the contact of Nos. 3 and 4; the fifth, six inches less, is at Nos. 4 and 5; and the sixth, diminishing by nine inches, is the end of No. 5, which is filled in by a semicircle of plank about five inches in diameter.
The eleven sheets laid side by side would, of course, present a length of 22ft., but the overlap and the segment of the curve cut from those near the ends would reduce the length of the boat to 19ft.
Our diagram is on a scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot, but this is somewhat small for the needful accuracy; therefore if anyone intends to build, we would advise him to copy it on a scale of at least one inch to a foot, in which case the halves will represent six inches and the quarters three, and if he has a rule divided to one-twelfths, his work will be much facilitated.
It would be better to make, as we have done in preparing this description, a model block on which to test his work; indeed we would advise this in all cases of intended boat building. If the boat is to have a bow and stern distinct from each other, the model must be of the whole length, but may be of only half the breadth. If both ends are to be alike, it may be half the length and breadth, or one quarter of the boat.
In the present instance, take a piece of deal, as clean and straight-grained as possible, 19in. long (or 21in. if you wish the ends to come to a point), 4in. wide, and 3in. deep. Having smoothed this, draw a line along the centre of the top and bottom, connecting them by perpendiculars at the two ends; then on the top set off the line of one-quarter of the gunwale, or outer line, taking the breadths from the section in Fig. 3 ([p. 119]), and their distances from the centre, from the elevation in Fig. 2 ([p. 119]), bearing in mind that the centre means not either of the edges, but the middle of that marked as the central sheet. It will save trouble to cut out a piece of card to the size of this quarter, and trace the corresponding ones on the top and bottom of your block; then copy the elevation given in Fig. 2, and trace this, as before, on both sides. Now fix the block, with one end up in a bench vice, and with a narrow frame saw cut along the gunwale lines nearly to the centre, but do not cut them quite off, or you will lose your elevation lines (if a friend helps you by guiding the other end of the saw to the line on his side, you will be more certain to cut truly); then turn the block one-quarter round, and cut the line at top and bottom. Now place the other end uppermost, and repeat the process; and lastly, finish the cuts, and detach the superfluous pieces.
Take a piece of card or thin stuff, and draw on it the midship section, and cut this away, leaving a corresponding hollow; round off the edges of your model until she fits this hollow, and of this size 2in. of the centre must be left. Do the same with the diminishing sections, forward and aft; then cut eleven sheets of card 2in. by 6in., mark a central line across each, and also along the bottom of the model; lay one sheet uncut across the midship section, and tack it there; mark each of the others after the outlines given in the diagram (Fig. 1, [p. 119]), but test them in their places before cutting them. Take care also that as you go forward each sheet overlaps that which is behind; but as you work aft, insert the front edge under the one before it. You may think this operation would be tedious; but having once gone through it, you will build your full-sized boat with confidence. And let us again assure you that time spent in obtaining a preliminary certainty of your plan is saved over and over again when you come to actual work.
The sheets having been cut to the proper shape, set the two points of the gauge ¼in. apart, and so that the centre of the space between them shall be exactly 1in. from the shoulder, and gauge these lines all round the sheets, then, commencing from the centre of the longest side, mark off spaces of 3in., and with a flat-ended punch, and a dolly or matrix, or, in lack of that, a hard block of end wood, drive ¼in. holes on all the sides except those which are cut with a curve. Then lay the centre sheet on the rib or mould, which, like the rough frame on which bricklayers construct an arch, gives it its proper curve, and, under one edge, lay the curved edge of the next sheet. Mark where the holes should come; remove it and punch them, and fasten the two sheets together temporarily with three or more of the screw bolts. Do the same with the successive sheets towards each end, and you will find that the copper shell, even without ribs or strengthening of any kind, will assume its proper form and will be tolerably stiff. If the sheets are truly cut, the result may be attained, even without a mould, by driving one hole in the centre of the curved side, bolting it to the straight edge of the other sheet, and then bending both round till the curved edge coincides with the straight one. In this condition you may decide on increasing the width of your boat by forcing the sides farther apart; this will increase her sheer or elevation at either end, and will diminish her depth, or you may incline to reduce her beam, which will give her greater depth and will reduce the sheer till the elevation of the gunwale presents nearly a straight line. It would be better, however, if circumstances permitted, to adhere very nearly to the form given in the drawing, and set up such a frame for working on as is shown in the illustration on the next page.
Drive as many rough stakes into the ground as the number of sheets in your intended boat requires. Let these near the centre be three and a half or four feet high, and these at the ends slightly lower. Stretch a chalk line fore and aft, and see that all their centres are in true alignment and 1ft. 10in. apart. The line should be fastened to two posts in the same line as, but beyond these required for, the boat. Let it come low enough just to touch the central posts, then measure downwards from the line the amount necessary to be cut off those towards the ends, so as to give the proper sheer. Next, commencing from the centre, face off with a saw, or otherwise, as much of each post as is needful to let each frame lie truly against it, noticing that as the bottom of each is farther from the next than the top or part near the gunwale, it is more convenient to face that side of the post which looks towards the centre; then, with any rough slabs or planks, form two moulds the exact size and form of your midship section, just as bricklayers would do if they were building an arch. Nail these to their proper supports, and on them bend the strips, 2in. broad by 1/4in. thick, you intend for ribs, letting only one edge rest on the mould, while the other projects so far that you may have clear space to bore through the centre the holes for your screw-bolts. Do the same with all the others towards the two ends, confining them with a temporary ribband where the gunwale is afterwards to be; or, still better, leaving their ends 6in. too long, so that this ribband may not interfere with the completion of the boat. Have a chalk line stretched near the ground, along either side, parallel with the centre one above, so that any deviation from the proper form can be measured and corrected. Then lay on the sheets, insert the bolts, and screw them up, adding a keel or centre batten, bilge streaks, and gunwales, externally, and bottom boards to prevent the occupant treading on the copper, and stringers for the thwarts inside. The projecting ends of the ribs can be left where required for rowlocks, or cut off where they are not.
The same process, with attention to the different dimensions, will make you a copper boat, consisting of nine sheets, 2ft. by 4ft.; and this will be 16ft. long, 3ft. 3in. wide, and 10in. deep; but if the gunwales were made of plank, 4½in. wide, or half the width of a deal, the skiff would be quite deep enough to carry three or four persons in moderately smooth water.
If you wish to build the same boat of wood, ⅜in. planks (not more than 4in. wide) will be stout enough. The lines radiating from the centre in the sectional drawing are given for the purpose of showing the progressive diminution of the planks in width, from the central section towards each end. These should be tested by cutting strips of card and tacking them, like planks, on the block that serves as your model.
This would be a very handy form for a dingy for the traveller’s personal use, as it might be taken to pieces, and the sheets laid flat, occupying a space of 2ft. by 4in. in extent, and less than 1in. in depth, or they might be rolled up in three bundles, of which each must weigh less than 24lb., as the weight of the whole nine sheets of copper before being cut would be only 72lb. The screw-bolts would weigh probably more than the sheeting, but they could be divided into packets of any convenient weight for carriage by native porters or otherwise; and we should think that half a day would be quite sufficient to put the whole together when wanted, or take it apart when done with. The boat would pull or paddle, and would sail well enough off the wind, but would not compete with a keeled boat close hauled; if the iron sheets were used, she would, of course, be larger and heavier, and the material would be less portable.
In the boat built for Mr. E. D. Young, for use on the Shire river and Lake Nyassa, thin sheets of steel were at first proposed, but as these could not be readily obtained, the best iron was used, and the edges of these being turned upward and inward, formed the ribs of the boat, each sheet being connected by bolts passing through this inward edge to the next sheets before and behind it. This form of construction combines all the elements of lightness, simplicity, and strength; but we do not recommend it to a traveller who has to work up his own material, because none but a skilled workman could turn inward a broad segment of a sheet of metal, the outer surface of which has to present a curve. If anyone doubts this, let him try it by folding half an inch of the edge of a sheet of paper to a right angle with the other part, he will then find it impossible for him to impart a curvature to the sheet without tearing the upturned edge if he bends it outward, or wrinkling it if he gives the contrary curve. If he wished to adopt this form of joining the parts, his plan would be to cut up his sheets of copper into planks 4ft. long, and 8in. broad, then gauging a line all round 2in. within the edge, cut out the squares at the four corners and turn up the borders all round, he would thus have out of one sheet of copper 4ft. by 2in., three planks 4in. wide, and 3ft. 8in. in length, a waste of material that hardly any circumstance could justify.
Metal boats.
In 1858 we made a model of a metal boat, about thirty feet long, by six feet beam, to carry a crew of sixteen men, each of whom, when it was taken to pieces, should not find his share of the load to exceed 50lb. each of the thwarts; and the bow and stern sheets were continued downward so as to form a water-tight box, the lower outline of which coincided with the section of the boat, so as to supply the place of ribs and convert her into a lifeboat. Indeed, we would advise that in all metal boats some such portions should assume the form of lockers or of reservoirs of air, so that, should the boat be swamped or become leaky, she might not sink even when filled with water.
Our model was approved by Captain Washington, R.N., the Secretary at that time of the Lifeboat Institution, and the builder to whom we submitted it estimated the weight of the sheet copper and bolts of the same to be employed in the hull at 260lb. and the cost at 60l., while the internal fittings, somewhat less in weight, would cost 40l. This expense Dr. Livingstone considered to be too great; but, when we reached the Zambesi, it was a matter of frequent regret that we had not some form of boat portable enough to be carried over rough country to rivers we wished to explore.
BOAT BUILDING ON THE LOGIER RIVER.
One of the most beautiful little vessels we ever saw was built by the wrecked crew of a French steamer. She was 40ft. long and 8ft. or 10ft. beam, clinker-built, with thin and narrow planks, without a joint in their whole length, sawed out of the mainmast, and flexible ribs about a foot apart and not more than one inch in breadth or thickness. Her deck beams were, of course, somewhat more rigid, to sustain the weight of the men who crowded her. She was said to have sailed eleven knots.
Wattled boat.
Our friend, Mr. Wilson, an experienced African traveller, recommends a wattled or basket-work boat, and in a country where rattans, osiers, or flexible twigs, or green reeds, are obtainable, such a boat would be both light and durable; but it would be open to objection on the score of unavoidable roughness, and inequality of outer surface, which would impede its progress through the water, and expose parts of the canvas covering to constant liability to chafe whenever it touched the ground. Even if a traveller intends to purchase or hire native canoes, it is indispensable that he should have some small portable boat of his own, sufficient at least to show the natives that he is not totally helpless on the water and dependent on them.
In the case of our copper boat, illustrated at [page 53], we have already remarked that the difficulties of the road, and the mortality among Mr. Chapman’s cattle, obliged us to leave behind eight of the sections. The method we adopted with the other four is shown in our full-page illustration, representing boat-building on the Logier River.
On account of the danger from the tsetse, or poisonous cattle fly, our friend’s waggons could not be taken to the banks of the Zambesi, and everything had to be carried by the Damara servants and hired natives to Logier Hill, about eighty miles below the Victoria Falls, which we had selected as the first place from which continuous downward navigation was possible.
The building of the house will come more properly under its own heading, and we will now only treat of what concerns the boat.
About the 3rd of October, or towards the close of the dry season, we cut down a motchicheerie tree, which divided a little above the ground into two tolerably straight logs of manageable dimensions. These were first notched with the axe on the side we intended to “fall” them; the cross-cut saw was then “put in” as far as it would go without nipping from the pressure of the wood, and a notch being made on the other side, the saw was used freely, the weight of the tree on the “falling” side opening the cut as the work proceeded.
Fresh reports, however, caused us much uncertainty whether the Falls of “Moambwa,” or the rocks, were not still below the station, and some time was therefore spent in exploring the river down to Sinamane’s Island, when, having ascertained that the rapids and other difficulties appeared not quite impracticable, we set up the bow and stern sections of one boat, connecting them by the ribbands of red deal we had been able to carry up, and fitting at short intervals a series of frames on central posts, as described at [p. 122], and further supported by shorter posts on either side, in a line with the gunwale streak, testing the accuracy of all parts where correctness was required with plumb line and level, and leaving the rest rough.
Our bench consisted of ten stakes, nearly 3ft. high, driven into the ground, and two long straight poles laid fore and aft in their forks; smaller poles were laid across these as closely as possible, and lashed with the inner bark of the young branches of the “kookomboyon”—a kind of stercuhia, which, while still moist, answers very well, but becomes brittle in drying. The large smith’s vice was firmly lashed to the stoutest upright with raw hide, and forked poles were set diagonally to resist the forward strain to which the bench was subject when wood was being planed up.
It was just possible to get thin poles that would bend, but none were sufficiently flexible to take the true curve required for the ribs, and at the same time strong enough to bear the strain when they became dry. Therefore we had to cut crooks out of the motchicheeries, the wood of which looked something like coarse short-grained cedar; and first burning away the light stuff from the tree cut down a month ago, we found a great many available forks and curves.
We had great difficulty in selecting wood of a suitable size for plank; trees too small, or too crooked, or of unsuitable wood, were in abundance; while those of the wood we wanted were mostly too large and unmanageable. Sometimes, at a distance, one would appear to be small enough, but when we came near it would prove three or four feet thick and sixty or eighty feet high, and had only seemed small by comparison with those around it. One group of motchicheeries had grown to maturity, throwing a wide-spread shadow around them; and a young sapling had shot straight up from near their roots towards the air and light; this was 9in. thick at the base, and 4in. at nearly 30ft. up; it proved impossible to “fall” the top outward, and it was very difficult to clear from the other trees. We would have saved labour by floating it down stream to our building-yard, but the wet season was coming on, and the sap had by this time risen in the wood, so that a small piece sunk when thrown into the water. The labour of sinking a saw-pit would have been great, and besides this the expected rains would have kept it always wet. We therefore erected trestles of primitive construction; two triangles of forked poles, 6½ft. long, supported the ends of a stout cross-beam, firmly lashed to them with buffalo hide, and for greater security lashed also to the stem of a tree. The second trestle was destitute of this support, and therefore had to be shored by longer poles, the forks of which took the necks of the opposite triangles, while their hands were stopped by wedges driven into the ground; for additional firmness, lashings were passed at the points of intersection. Two stout poles were laid fore and aft upon the trestles, and shorter pieces across served to rest the log upon; there was some difficulty in lining the lower side, but by cutting notches in the cross-pieces large enough to let the chalk line pass freely, and “springing” it only by short lengths at a time, this was accomplished. It was difficult to teach a young Dutch lad, strong as an ox, and nearly as stolid, to saw with us; but at length the “sapling” was cut, and one of the larger logs lifted gradually up by forming an inclined plane with strong poles, and supporting it whenever we gained a few inches of elevation by forks of various lengths lying ready for that purpose. This having been felled before the sap was up proved much easier to saw, and we had so far overcome the difficulties in our way, that we had commenced laying the bottom plank of the first boat, when the difficulty of providing food, owing to the retreat of the wild animals to the pools which the rainy season was filling all over the desert, and the fever among the people, seven Damaras, mostly women and children, having died in Chapman’s camp, and one of the most useful men in ours, obliged us, for the sake of saving the rest, to retreat to the highlands of the desert, and on the 3rd of February, 1863, we hauled down our colours at Logier Hill, and commenced our return journey.
General hints on boat building.
Two general rules in boat building should be borne in mind. First, that clumsiness is not necessarily strength; and, secondly, that it is much easier to build a sharp swift boat with moderate sheer, and clear lines of entrance and run, than a short one with great beam, bluff bows, and wide overhanging stern. The stem and stern post should rake considerably, or even form parts of a curved line connected by the keel, as if they are made too upright, not only is the boat more difficult to steer when sudden alteration of the course is necessary, but, if she is built of wood, so much curvature is required in the ends of the planks that it is difficult for an inexperienced hand to lay them. A rudder cannot be nicely fitted to a curved stern-post, but if you decide to steer with one instead of an oar, make the stern-post straight, and if you wish to diminish its “rake” or inclination, make it one foot wide below and only a few inches at the top. A rudder is much more convenient in ordinary cases; but, when great quickness and power is required, nothing is equal to the steering oar.
In constructing a clinker-built boat some practice is required in clinching the nails. First, a hole is bored with a gimlet of such a size that the nail requires some driving, but very little, to force it through. This prevents any lateral curvature, which would be fatal to any attempt at clinching. A roove is then put over the joint and driven home to the surface of the plank, and the end of the nail is nipped off nearly close with a pair of cutting pincers. If you have a spring-handled hammer to screw on to the plank so that the face of it just rests on the head of the nail, so much the better, if not, you must hold your heavy hammer with your left hand or get a mate to do so; while with the edge of your little clinch hammer you tap as sharp and lightly as possible on the centre of the cut end of the nail, causing its sides to overspread the edges of the roove, when it can be nicely smoothed off with the face of the hammer. When one plank has been laid, the outside of its upper edge should be bevelled off so as to let the lower edge of the next lie truly against it in the position required by the curvature of the boat’s side; and, to retain it in its place, several pairs of “nippers” should be used. These are made of two pieces of wood—say sixteen inches long and two inches square—cut a mortice ½in. wide by 3in. long in each, and pass through them a piece of hard wood fitting the mortice loosely and 12in. long, so as to project 4in. at either end, in each end of this bore three ½in. holes, not quite in the central line, but one a little on one side of it, and the next on the other, so as to avoid the risk of splitting two into one; have pegs of hard wood or iron to put through these at the distance you may require, then having adjusted one end of the nippers on the planks you wish to hold together, drive a wedge between the other ends till the grip is tight enough. A pair of these is shown in our illustration at [page 106]. We believe that the traveller will find it generally most advisable to build his boat bottom upwards.
Cape-waggon boats.
We should think that a traveller in South Africa, using the common ox-waggons of the country, might easily, and without additional weight, carry up with him all the wood necessary for the purposes of boat building. The floor or bed-plank of the waggon is about thirty-six inches in width, and from twelve to eighteen feet in length. Four deals might be laid down for this. If they were twenty-one feet long, they would project considerably behind. It is not considered expedient to have the fore and hinder wheels too great a distance apart; but then the projecting ends need not be loaded. The usual holes for the fastenings of a waggon bottom should not be bored in them, but they should be secured by lashings of raw hide, and the parts liable to be chafed should also be protected with the same material. They might be previously sawed into planks or battens of the required size, and then tightly lashed together by thongs of raw hide, especially near the ends, which would otherwise be liable to split with changes of weather and rough usage. The waggon sides are usually a little more than two feet high in front and three or more behind, and the framing of these is an elaborate piece of work. Three deals 9in. wide would give 27in. in height all along. These might be cut into ¾in. or ½in. plank, and again bound up with raw hide, like those of the floor, and thus the traveller would have in one waggon nine deals, or more than sufficient, if he built his boat of copper; while, by raising the sides to 36in. with a couple more, he would have enough to construct her entirely of wood.
In building the waggon-tent or tilt, as it would be called in England, two methods are adopted in the Cape. The first is the kap-tent (E on next page), which is regularly framed by the waggon builder with stanchions about five feet high from the floor, neatly fitted to the sides, at intervals of two feet or thirty inches; with bows of flexible wood, forming a flattened arch about nine inches higher, across them, and fore and aft battens, half-checked in, so that the whole presents a smooth external surface to receive the inner sail, or cover of painted canvas, which is laid on before the outer sail, or snow-white neatly-fitted tilt, is drawn over all. The second is that which any competent waggon driver can extemporise for himself with a sufficient quantity of bamboo split into laths two or three fingers broad, stout Spanish reeds, common hogshead hoops, or an adjacent forest, in which flexible poles can be cut. His first care is to lift and shore up his waggon so as to set free one or both of the hinder wheels, on the circumference of which the flexible rods he intends for his bows are bent and fastened down, and in doing this some care is requisite. The rod must not be grasped by both ends and suddenly forced into the curve, for one part may be weaker than the rest, and it may break there, or be forced into an unsightly prominence; but, after having been steamed, if possible, or, as is more commonly the case, laid for two or three days in water or wet earth, the part intended for the centre of the arch should first be bound tight and flat upon the tire of the wheel, then the ends should be gradually pressed down by two assistants, the principal watching the inequalities of the curvature, and reducing them by passing turns of raw hide tightly over any parts that have a tendency to irregular projections. The bows, which should be about twelve or fourteen feet in total length, are now set up. Care having been taken that the waggon sides stand truly, the front and aftermost are first fixed, and the driver, if a man of average height, stands on the centre of the waggon floor, holding the bow as fairly as he can, with the crown of its arch about the level of his eye, say five feet six from the floor, while his assistants, standing outside, fasten the ends with screws or thongs of raw hide, to the styles or stanchions of the waggon sides. The lifter, the dissel-boom, or other straight and heavy pole, is now laid fore and aft upon the bows to keep them in a level line, and also somewhat to flatten the crown of the arch and expand it laterally. The laths or battens, fore and aft, are now lashed on, and the result is a less sightly but stronger and more durable roof for the exigencies of travel than the kap-tent. In the rear of the tent (letter N) are shown the ribs of an ox or buffalo slung to the roof to hang the saddles on.
CAPE WAGGON TENT (E) TO BE TAKEN OFF AND USED AS A BOAT (G).
Such a tent as either of these might be easily constructed so as to be available for a boat whenever it might be required. First let the stanchions, screwed or lashed to the waggon sides, rise to the usual height of about five feet, and let the bows forming the flattened arch across them be of any flexible material, but preferably of straight-grained ash, such as is used for the better kind of tubs or casks. The hoops of American flour barrels would answer well; they are somewhat thin, but three might be laid together, and would be much more flexible and strong than if one piece only was used.
Of these, supposing nine bows were used, three in the front and three in the rear might be permanently secured to the stanchions, as in the illustration (E, [p. 131]), while the three central ones should be so fastened as to be readily cast off. The laths or battens, on the contrary, should be securely fastened to the central bows, so as to lift off with them, and only slightly to those at either end.
When the boat is required, it would be but an hour’s work to cast off the temporary fastenings. Take off the movable part of the top frame, draw the ends of the battens together, as shown in the illustration (G, [p. 131]), inserting at pleasure three or four smaller bows at either end, and then taking the under sail—which is generally of oiled canvas—fold down the corners so as to narrow it at either end to the shape of the boat, and stitch or lace it with eyelet-holes to the gunwale. A second thickness of unpainted canvas might always be kept upon the roof between the inner and outer sail; and if this were also laced on the boat, previously reversing the ends of the two parts of canvas, so that if any portions had been chafed while on the waggon they might not coincide with each other, the boat would be as impervious to water as wooden boats generally are.
A few spare laths, previously lashed beneath the front and aftermost bows of the tent, so as to remain there when those required for the boat were removed, and perhaps two or three duplicate bows, would prevent the necessity of leaving the vehicle destitute of cover while the boat was being used.
Sculling.
Very often the explorer may find himself alone in a boat, or he may wish to cross a river or pass from ship to shore or back again without calling other men from their duties, and in such cases he who has the power of managing a boat with a single oar, has a great advantage over one who must ask the aid of another. We have been on boat trips where the scientific officers have cheerfully manned the oars and pulled against the stream all night, and when we volunteered to take our turn, the answer was, “No; you can scull, and none of us can. Keep the steering-oar, and help us onward with it.” The first great difficulty of the novice is to get the blade of his oar under water and keep it there, and to make the loom rest firmly in the rowlock; the natural tendency of the wood to float will at first seem insuperable, but as soon as he has acquired the proper motion of the wrist he will wonder that he ever had the slightest trouble in keeping the oar to its duty.
To learn to scull, go into a boat that is either fast to the shore or vessel, or have a comrade to pull the other oar with you should you fail. Then stand on the stern-sheets on the starboard side, so that the right hand may be toward the bow of the boat; plant the left foot on the starboard side seat, and advance the right to the middle of the aftermost thwart; grasp the small end of the oar with the right hand, and the loom with the left about eight or ten inches from it, so that when the blade of the oar is horizontal the back of the hands and arms may be uppermost and also in a horizontal line. You will find that when the blade is supported by the water, the loom will not lie in the rowlock; but now depress the wrists a little, raise the hands till the blade forms an angle of 40° or 45° with the horizon, the edge farthest from you being the highest; push the oar from you as far as you can without losing your balance, then, as your first stroke ceases, drop the hands and raise the wrists till the blade inclines as much the other way, the raised edge being then nearest you; pull the loom towards you, bending backwards at the same time as far as you safely can, and you will find the arms in the proper position, with the elbows at the side, the wrists lowered, and the hands ready to rise for the stroke from you. Make short strokes at first, and do not hurry. Never mind which way the boat goes, or whether she goes at all; stick her nose in a mudbank, if you like, till you can keep your oar below the surface, then give her her head; if your oar keeps under water she must go forward, and by making a stronger sweep to starboard or to port, you may steer her at your will. If you have a long narrow boat, she will keep a straight course, but with a short dingy, she will incline at each stroke a little to the right or left, and if you use the oar regularly, her wake will show a series of graceful and equal curves.
In default of an oar, the bottom board may be taken up and used by being laid on the point of the stem, the boat going then stern first. Lightermen, on the Ouse, frequently scull their horse boats in this manner. We have sculled a whale boat with one oar over the quarter, i.e., in the crutch of the stroke oar, much as a gondolier does; but tholes or rowlocks cut in the streak above the gunwale would not admit of this. We give no directions for this or for the use of the plank. When the novice can keep his oar blade under water, he can easily learn how to adapt his new power to any emergency.
Paddling.
In paddling a canoe sit near the stern, looking forward, and with the paddle on your right side make a long fair stroke; never mind the deviation of her head to the left; but just before you lift your paddle from the water, feather the blade of it by turning the right hand inward from the wrist, turn the right elbow outward, and draw the left hand inward across your breast; this will “port your helm” and bring her to her course again.
If you have a mate who handles another paddle this is less needful; but it is well to learn to paddle your own canoe practically as well as metaphorically, single handed.
The kroomen about Sierra Leone use a canoe pointed at both ends and with a great sheer; this, to a novice, is much more difficult to keep to a true course, but a single krooman tossing his paddle from hand to hand, without missing a stroke, will make her fly direct as an arrow the way he means to go.
In the gunning boats on the Norfolk coasts, when strict silence is not needed, and in canoes of some other countries, a double-bladed paddle is used. The pole is grasped by both hands, like the balance-pole of a rope-dancer, and equal strokes are given alternately, or the course is changed by a more powerful stroke on the other side.
We have occasionally found that the power of handling the native paddle has been of great service, for when we have wished to cross a river to secure some specimen of wading bird, and the bargaining over the hire would have occupied half a day, we have cut the matter short by stepping into the canoe, paddling to the other side, shooting our bird, and making the owners a sufficient present on our return; and, while we advise that all travellers should most scrupulously regard the rights of the natives, we must also intimate that they will not gain the respect of savages by submitting tamely to extortion, or showing themselves in any way afraid to maintain their own.
THE PROA.
Proas.
The proas, or outrigger canoes, of the Malays and Indian islanders, are so proverbially swift that they have fairly earned the title by which they are generally known, of “flying proas.” We have seen and admired many varieties of these, as well as their fan-shaped sails, sometimes of matting—bright and yellow while new, and deepening to browner tints with age, and sometimes of snow-white cotton, or of white alternated with cloths of blue or pink, and gay streamers floating from the bending yards. The most common, and we may almost say the most beautiful of these, were the little proas sailed by one man only, as represented in our sketch. The hull consisted of a single log, perhaps twenty feet in length, and hardly as many inches in depth and breadth; the mast was about six feet in height; and the sail, of triangular form, was laced to a couple of bamboos nearly as long as the canoe; the thick ends of these crossed, and were lashed together at the tack of the sail, and were made fast, loosely enough to give them sufficient play, a little before the mast thwart; a loop attached to the upper bamboo, or yard, at about six feet from the tack, was hitched over a knob on the mast-head, instead of hoisting the sail by halyards, and the sheet was attached by loops like kite loops, or bowline bridles, to the lower bamboo or boom; in hauling to the wind, the simple gathering in of the sheet trimmed the sail nearly down to the gunwale, as seen in the distant proa, while in going free the slackening of it allowed the sail to rise to the wind, till in the distance it reminded us of the beautiful fan-shaped sea-shells, so often found upon the coast. Stability was imparted under this enormous press of sail by two bamboos twelve or fifteen feet long, and from four to six inches thick, kept parallel to the boat at six or eight feet from her sides by two beams of the same lashed across her gunwales, bending slightly downward, but the foremost less so than the after, so that the fore end of the outrigger might be raised slightly above the water, and not impede the boat. The rudder was just like that of our own boats, except in its fittings, which consisted simply of a rope grummet at its neck, by which it could be hitched on to a timber head on either quarter, and we believe it made so little difference that the boatman seldom gave himself the trouble to shift it from one to the other. Of course a tiller was used, as yokes and lines would have been inapplicable. We cannot tell exactly their rate of sailing, but they passed our swift and handy little schooner the “Tom Tough” with ease, even when the breeze was at its freshest. The hull is generally whitened with a mixture of chunam, or coral lime, and cocoa-nut oil, and the raised ends are ornamented with devices in red or green, and sometimes a red streak runs along the side. The tambanga, or waterman’s boat for passengers, has more beam, no outrigger, and a smaller though similarly shaped sail.
Some of these proas were much larger, being fifty or more feet in length, and then the sides of the log forming the bottom of the canoe would be raised either by other planks sewn on or by a framework of bamboo, with pieces cross cut from the leaves of the fan-palm, so that the leaf ribs should stand vertically, stitched to them to form the extra height of side, while a roof of the same was built over the centre where cargo would be stowed, or over the after end, to form a kind of cabin. When planks are used for raising the sides, they are not sawn like ours, with economy of time, labour, and material, but are laboriously chopped out of the solid; and, instead of being bent, are patiently dubbed down to the requisite curve with numberless strokes of the keen little Malay adze, projections being left on the inner side through which holes are bored to lash them to the timbers, while rows of holes along the edges admit of their being sewn together with strips of rattan, and shreds of palm leaf laid along the seam and confined by the tightening of the stitches, help to reduce the leakage, which, if the vessel works at all in a sea-way, can never be entirely stopped. They have two large sails similar in form to those of the smaller proas, and sometimes a third, as a mizen. This is small enough to be hitched over the mast-head, as before; but the others have to be hoisted by halyards, and the long yards supported by propping them at some distance from the slings by bamboo poles. The stays were formed of slips of bamboo, and sometimes even of the poles, which, being well fastened, would not only resist tension on the weather-side as well as ropes, but on the lee would, by their rigidity, help to support the masts. The outriggers of these were more elaborately framed with a lighter set of beams, which supported stanchions and hand-rails, so that, when the wind freshened, men might run out upon the weather outrigger and, holding on by the hand-rail and stays, which lead from the mast-head, serve as a counterpoise to the immense sails as the boat dashed through the water. Reefing seemed never to be thought of, and our own men soon got into the habit of speaking of a one-man or two-man breeze, according to the number seen on the weather outriggers of the proas that flew past us. The appearance of these vessels when going wing and wing before the wind was very pretty. And others, in the fashion of the Chinese junk, or in every modification of European, engrafted on native form, afforded picturesque contrast, but need not be here described.
The professional pirate has the outrigger only on the weather-side, and this is frequently a log of light wood trimmed sharp at either end, so that while its specific gravity is small enough to keep it buoyant, it is still so heavy as not to be easily lifted out of the water, like a bamboo, and when requisite, men sent on it, as in the former case, will give it additional weight. But the chief peculiarity is in the hull of the vessel, which is only half a boat, the lee-side being perfectly flat, while the weather, or that toward the outrigger, is rounded as usual; they will be frequently more than fifty feet in length, and six or eight in breadth. We speak of the lee-side, because when the course has to be changed—say in beating to windward—they do not go about like a ship, that must go with her bows forward and be steered from the stern, and therefore turns to receive the wind on the other side. This would be fatal to the proa, as the buoyancy of the outrigger would not prevent her from capsizing; and therefore, while the steersman lets that end which is temporarily her bow fall off from the wind, the men who have charge of the tack run round with it on the platform to windward of the mast, the sheet is brought round to leeward, a steersman takes his place at the other end, and that which has been the stern now becomes the bow, and cleaves the waves at the rate of twenty miles per hour. But no one need fear a proa with a double outrigger, for she is not intended to lay alongside and board.
PROA WITH OUTRIGGER ON WEATHER-SIDE ONLY, TO SAIL WITH EITHER END FIRST, AS REQUIRED.
The engraving represents a proa with an outrigger only on the weather-side; and not only would the sail be made to traverse by shifting the tack to that end which, for the time being, was intended to go foremost, but the mast is also fitted to be inclined forward by slackening that which happens to be the back stay, and tightening that which is pro tempore the fore. Those which serve for shrouds, being exactly abreast of the mast, are so arranged for the purpose of facilitating this.
The commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., gives the following description of the Fejee canoes:—
Fejee canoes.
“They are superior to those of other islands. They are generally double, and the largest are 100ft. in length; the two canoes are of different sizes, the smaller serving as an outrigger to the other, and are connected by beams on which a platform is laid, 15ft. wide, and extending 2ft. or 3ft. beyond the sides. The bottom of each canoe is a single plank; the sides are fitted to them by dovetailing and by lashings passed through flanges left on each piece; the joints are closed by the gum of the bread-fruit tree, which is also used for smearing them. They have a depth of hold of about 7ft., and the ends are decked for 20ft., to prevent their shipping seas. Amidships[B] they have a small thatched weather house, above which is a staging on which several people can sit. The canoes of the chiefs are much ornamented with shells. The sails are so large as to appear out of proportion with the vessel, and are of tough and pliable mats; the mast is half the length of the canoe, and is stepped on deck in a chock; the yard and boom are twice as long as the mast; the halyards are carried over a crescent on the mast-head, they are bent on to the yard at a distance from its tack or lower end nearly equal to the length of the mast. The natives manage these vessels very expertly; they require much skill in beating against the wind, for it is necessary that the outrigger should be always on the weather-side, as, if it gets to leeward, no vessel is so easily capsized; in tacking, therefore, the helm is put up instead of down, until the wind is brought abaft the beam, then the tack of the sail is carried to that end which was previously the stern, but which has now become the bow, and the canoe is steered from the other end; they carry sail even when it blows heavily, by sending men on the outrigger to counterbalance the force of the wind. The canoes are of logs hollowed and built upon; they make long sea-voyages, and are provisioned only with yams; they are ornamented with Cypræa-ovula shells, and carry white pennants; they carry water in cocoa-nut shells, and, with fire and an ‘ava’ bowl, are equipped for sea. The chief holds the end of the sheet, and it is his duty to prevent the canoe capsizing; the steer oar has a large blade. In smooth water they sail very swiftly, but the force of the sail strains them, and they leak badly, so that the men are constantly baling. The planks are kept in shape by small ribs as with us. The principal tool used is an adze, which is now made by lashing a European plane iron to a crooked handle; they are anxious to possess our tools, and especially the American axe. Their knives are made of bamboo, cut into form while it is still green; after being dried it is charred, which makes it very hard and sharp; a second charring, followed by grinding on a smooth stone, will even fit it for surgical operations.”
The balsas.
The balsas, at Guayaquil, as described by Sir E. Belcher, in his journal of the voyage of the “Sulphur,” are rafts of ten logs 14in. in diameter, and 60ft. long. The wood is a kind of bombax, called balsa wood, they bear fifteen or twenty tons independent of their crew, and bring fresh water down the river in jars of seven gallons each. Houses thirty or forty feet long, and twelve feet wide, are built on some of them, and families take passage or live permanently on board.
The balsas, at Arica, in Peru, are differently constructed; they are simply skins, stripped off the animal, with as little cutting as possible; the absolutely necessary incisions are then securely closed, the hides are inflated and allowed to dry and harden, and two being laid alongside each other a platform is laid across them, on which the cargo is kept sufficiently high above the spray or ripple, and brought dry ashore even through a heavy surf. Two ox-hides would make a very serviceable balsa, as would also a pair of the large seal, the sea-elephant, porpoise, or other marine animal of suitable size.
Cape waggon chests as rafts.
We will now endeavour to show how the chests that are usually carried in Cape waggons might be converted into a buoyant, roomy, and manageable raft. These chests are generally about three feet in length, and sixteen inches wide and deep; two of them, the fore and after chests, are indispensable, as the waggon cannot be kept in shape nor the cargo properly secured without them; sometimes more are carried, and others of smaller size are affixed to either side, but the objection to these is that in a densely-wooded country, stumps and stout branches are apt to catch the angles of the side chests, and damage or carry them away.
CAPE WAGGON BOXES SO FITTED AS TO BE AVAILABLE FOR A RAFT.
We propose that, in the waggon used by the traveller for his own conveyance, as many of these chests should be stowed as will stand fairly on the floor beside each other, say ten, as in the illustration (A, [p. 142]). Then, instead of the two usual square-ended side chests, we would advise that four should be fitted (Nos. 11 to 14), each of them having one end 16in. square like the other chests, but tapering at the other end to the mere thickness of the plank, and with the bottom also sloping, so that the narrow end should be only 8in. deep. Two of these with the broad ends together could be fitted on each side the narrow points passing well clear within the wheels. Care should be taken to have them water-tight; and, if made of well-seasoned plank and well oiled, they would remain so for a long time. When they are required for a raft, take them from the waggon and place them in two rows about three feet apart, and also with an interval of 3in. between the ends of the boxes in the same line—as shown in the illustration (B, [p. 142])—with the tapered side boxes, as indicated by the numbers, forming the four ends. If you have been able to carry a couple of long stout bamboos, lay them along the inner side of each line of boxes, and if you have lighter ones to lay along the outer sides so much the better; if you have not bamboos, the dissel-booms and lifter poles of the waggons must be pressed into service, or poles sought in the nearest forest, as long and as straight as possible; then take the yokes of the oxen and lay them across in the 3in. spaces between the boxes, and passing the “reims” or other thongs cut from raw hide through the holes made for the yoke “skeis,” lash each yoke to the fore and aft poles, securing the boxes each in its own compartment by passing a few turns through the handles in the ends and round the yokes. When this is completed, you will have a very serviceable raft or double canoe. The hinges of the chests will, of course, be towards the centre, so that when opened the lids will fall inwards; and if other poles are now laid fore and aft upon the yokes, they will support the lids so as to form the deck, leaving the chests open, so that, if any of them should leak, the water may be at once seen and baled out; but should it be thought preferable to keep the boxes closed, the buik plank or floor of the waggon, or even its sides, may be made use of for the deck. If the traveller contemplates a long voyage, and requires a sharper boat so as to attain more speed, he may make four of his boxes (marked D 7, 8, 9, 10) tapering diagonally to 8in. at one end; but he must take care that they are made in pairs, so that he may be able to place the straight and the diagonal side of each in its proper position in the raft. He will then also find that they will be easily arranged so that each pair will stow square in the waggon; then the side boxes (D 11 to 14) must be made only 8in. wide at the larger end, tapering as before at the smaller, and, with a slight diminution of floating power, he will have a sharper and more speedy boat. The figures in the central spaces of B indicate the changes of position in the numbered boxes, and the dotted lines show the increase of sharpness at the ends. It is of importance that in the boxes which taper, one side should be straight and square with the end, and one only diagonal, as it might be necessary in a narrow stream, to place both the lines of boxes close together, and then the line of the inner sides being perfectly straight and the outer tapering, the whole would form one boat sharp enough at either end.
Some of the yoke “skeis” might be left in their sockets where required, as shown in the elevation, or other pieces might be cut to a proper length, to serve for tholes or rowlocks, awning stanchions, or belaying pins. If a mast were needed, it might be stepped by cutting jaws like those on the gaff of a cutter, and setting them across one of the yokes. The fork of a branch might serve; but as poles generally become thinner upward, and the natural position would be thus reversed, it would be less laborious to cut or fit on jaws to the butt of the pole, and leave the fork at top for the halyards to run over. Two back stays would be required, spreading at a considerable angle; and one or two fore stays, with sufficient spread not to interfere with the free motion of the yard; two, three, or four poles, set up as a triangle or sheer legs, would also serve, and then only one stay, stretching perpendicularly downwards between them, would be required.
In ferrying wheels over, the readiest way (if the breadth of the boat permits) is to keep each pair on their own axle, which is laid across the boat, with the wheels overhanging each side.
Even if the traveller be not provided with a waggon, he must have with him a quantity of stores, or materials for whatever scientific pursuit he is engaged in, as well as beads, calico, or other currency of the country, to pay for service, or purchase food; and if his boxes for containing these were all of uniform size, they would serve equally well as a raft; the copper boxes described at pages [8 and 9] are expressly designed for this service.
To float waggons.
In floating a waggon over without extraneous assistance, the buik plank or floor, the water cask, the fore and after chests, and the side boxes, will be sufficient, if tolerably water-tight—and if not, they may easily be made so, either by covering them with canvas, by caulking them or even laying them in the river all night to let the wood swell, which will generally have the desired effect. But it would be well, if this is at all doubtful, to remove the drag-chains, “reim-schoens,” and all easily detachable ironwork, and first float over only the under carriage and its wheels. If a line can be previously stretched across the river, and the oxen ready in their yokes on the other side attached to it, they may save much trouble by towing it across, while one or two men steer till the wheels take the ground, and it is drawn on shore in the natural way. The buik plank, with the casks and chests still fast to it, can be taken back for the rest of the heavy gear, and as much of the cargo as it will carry. If large hollow reeds—the drier the better—can be obtained, faggots of these can be fastened fore and aft, within the side chests, filling up nearly the whole space, except sufficient for the men to stand on in the centre; and a light platform can be laid above the top of the chests, on which to lay light goods which require to be kept dry. But bear in mind that the cargo a raft can carry above water is always small, and not at all like the mountain of treasure invariably represented on that of Robinson Crusoe.
About 1849 or 1850, while staying with our fellow-traveller, Joseph Macabe, at Vaal River, an extraordinary drought prevailed; the great river could be crossed dryshod at the “drift” by means of stepping-stones, though there were long reaches above and below in which a good-sized vessel might have floated, and on one of the sand-banks then laid bare appeared an upright pole, belonging to a waggon which the owner had attempted to float over with bundles of green reeds, leaving the “rein-schoems” and drag-chains on as ballast, and previously removing the sides, the chests, buik plank, and everything else that could impede its passage to the bottom.
EXTEMPORE SHEARS.
Extricating waggons from quicksands, &c.
Whilst gazing at this odd landmark, Mynheer appeared; with him came a goodly staff of tall athletic sons and nephews, attended by a numerous train of native helpers. On digging for the waggon, it was found to have settled so far below the sand that when the tallest of the family stood on the tire of the wheel his shoulders were barely at the surface of the water, and Mynheer had yoked his oxen and was attempting to draw out the waggon by a horizontal strain. We forbore to offer advice which would certainly have been rejected, but retired to the house, and when one of the sons visited us after the day’s fruitless labour, we rigged a pair of miniature shears, and, letting them incline over a weight, showed how easily it might be lifted by applying a horizontal strain to cause the shears to rise to a vertical position. The result of this was that Mynheer sent up a request that, as “een groote zee-water’s men,” we would come and give him a bit of advice. We accordingly suggested that, as the sand was not firm enough to set the shear legs upon, he should cut three good-sized beams, and laying one horizontally, cut mortices in the ends, while tenons were cut on the other two to fit in them, the apex of the triangle being firmly lashed with the “reims” or thongs of softened hide, used for spanning in the oxen. The triangle was now set up, sloping somewhat over the fore-stell or carriage of the buried waggon, and one of the drag-chains was fastened to the wheel and led over the top of the shears, whence, lengthened out by the other chain and spare rope, it was bent on to the “trek-touw,” to which the oxen were already yoked. At length the cattle bent them to the yokes, the gear tightened and strained, the dissel-boom, that so long had been our beacon, began to rise, when some fastening gave way and all came down by the run; the pole, however, remaining a foot higher than it was before. A native was desired to refasten the chain; and, sticking two fingers of his left hand into his nostrils in a manner no European could imitate, he settled down below the water, and worked with his right hand only. Piece by piece the waggon was hauled out during the succeeding days, after having been three years and three days imbedded.
In exploring countries covered with dense forests or difficult to be traversed, rafts are wonderfully useful for navigating lakes and rivers, or for conveying your goods. Dr. R. Brown, commander of the expedition in Vancouver’s Island, favours us with the following note:—
Trenneled rafts.
“We travelled long distances by rafts in Vancouver’s Island, and, in order to have facilities for making them, we caused an auger (2in.) to be constructed with a ring-head instead of the usual spike with a nut, so that, by a piece of wood being put through it, a handle might be extemporised. Generally speaking we could find dry fallen cedar (Thuja gigantea, Natl.) by the borders of lakes or rivers, or if not living cotton wood (Salix Scouleriana) will do; and in fact any wood, though pine is rather too heavy and apt to get waterlogged.
“Cutting two lengths of logs, the length of the raft required, sharpening the ‘bows’ off roughly, we laid them on the ground, parallel, and as far apart as we wished them. Then two cross-pieces, composed of a log split in two, were pegged by means of the auger across near the ends, over them was built a floor of split cedar boards. Two rowlocks were pegged in here and there according to the number of rowers required, and one pair at the end for a steering oar. Oars were soon extemporised by means of the axe, and the raft moved lazily along at about one and a half or two miles an hour on a lake, but the labour was infinitely easier than working through the wood with a seventy or eighty pound load on your back.
“Sometimes we constructed even ruder rafts than these. Mr. Frederick Whymper and Mr. Ranald M’Donald once descended twenty miles of a river on a little raft composed of the boards out of an Indian’s hunting lodge, tying it together with withes of cedar twigs, which are very tough, and used by the Indians for sewing their canoes and fastening their lodge planks together. The holes they made with pistol bullets.”
Principles of raft building.
The general principle on which all rafts are or ought to be constructed is nearly the same; that is, if they are intended to be worked or to make progress through the water, as in most cases is desirable. The exceptions to this are generally when it is merely desired to float down a stream, abandoning the raft as worthless when the voyage is completed, or when produce or manufacture of any kind has to be brought down from a higher country to a lower, and, from its buoyancy it may be collected into a raft, which, on reaching its destination, may be reduced to its component parts and sold; or where, as in still more exceptional cases, it is necessary to provide floating habitations for families or small communities without reference to locomotion, which is effected by other means.
In the first and most general case, the object is to obtain sufficient carrying power with as little resistance to progression as possible; and to this end the larger spars, on which the buoyancy of the whole depends, ought to be laid parallel to, and at such a distance from, each other as seems necessary either to insure the requisite stability, to give sufficient room on deck, or to suit the length of those that are to be used as cross-beams; but they should never be laid close together so as to present a broad united surface to be forced through the water, nor even so close as to convert that portion of fluid between them into dead water to be dragged like a solid body with the raft. We would say, if there be two or more spars of equal size, let the interval between them be at least three times as broad as their diameter, and generally let the width of your raft be not more than one-sixth of its length. If you have only one large spar, let that form the centre, or, as it may be called, the keel, and let the smaller ones, either singly or lashed together in bundles of convenient size, be laid parallel to it at proper distances on either side. Endeavour as much as possible to keep your cross-beams as high above the water as possible, for if these are submerged, their sides will offer as much resistance to your progress as if the whole raft had been filled up with solid logs. On this account, therefore, it would be advisable to lash or pin on the top of each of the main beams either a smaller one to increase its height, or short pieces at intervals, as chocks on which to lay the cross-beams.
Let the ends of the spars that form your floats be pointed to an acute angle by either sawing off wedge-shaped pieces of about 15° or 20° in the sides, or chopping them with axe or adze.
The cross-beams at each end and one in the centre must be securely fastened. Do not have too many, nor keep them too close together; but let the others cross diagonally in opposite directions, or even brace the frame thus formed by stout ropes stretched diagonally from corner to corner, and seized together with smaller lines where they cross each other in the centre, which will give great firmness and rigidity to the structure.
Let us suppose, for instance, the case of a stranded or waterlogged brig of about 200 tons, of which the lower masts and the wreck of some of the other spars are still available. If the masts can be got out so much the better, for they would be in the whole not much short of 60ft. long; but it is much more probable they would have to be cut by the board, and perhaps also below the hounds, which would still leave clean spars between 30ft. and 40ft. in length, and most likely 14in. thick. If the mast-heads were left on they would be at least 10ft. longer, but the tops should be removed, and the projecting portion of the hounds chopped down so as to offer as little impediment to progress as possible; the masts should be laid parallel to each other about 8ft. apart, and the main boom, lower yards and jib boom, or spare topmast, if available, lashed together as a faggot, and laid between them as a central spar. A short, stout spar, such as the heel of a broken topmast, should then be laid across at 6ft. or 8ft. from either end, and firmly lashed to them, and one, or at most two, more may be laid across in like manner near the centre; the intervals between these should be occupied by small spars laid across diagonally, or by cross bracings of rope as before described; it is of little use to peg or treenail the parts together, unless the water is very smooth, for the pegs would be sure to break with the working of the raft in a heavy sea. We have suggested the heels of the topmasts as crossbeams, because their thickness would help to raise the platform above the level of the sea, and this might be farther raised by laying a couple of studding sail booms fore and aft upon the masts under them, and laying the deck with short spars or pieces of plank across the booms. If tools can be got at or used, mortices may be sunk in the masts, or fore and aft spars, and handspikes or capstan bars set upright in them at intervals of 6ft.; these will carry a light rail to prevent men being washed off, and will serve to spread an awning when such a luxury can be attempted, and also as supports to which rowlocks can conveniently be fastened.
If the vessel is provided with sleeping bunks, which are sometimes lashed to ring-bolts on the deck, it might be well to secure at least one of them; if not an empty hogshead or anything that can serve as a place of temporary shelter for a wearied man, or for the commander to consult his charts and compass in, should be fitted on the platform. A sheet of iron, or non-combustible material of any kind, should be taken to form the foundation of a fire-place; and if there is choice of provisions, preserved fresh meat should be taken in preference to salt, with as much biscuit, vegetables, vinegar, sugar, tea or coffee, and fresh water, as circumstances permit. If canvas is at hand, sails will be easily made, if not, any flat surface, sheets of iron or planks, either separate or framed together, may be set up that the raft may sail free, or trimmed for her to go as near the wind as she will lie.
If three casks are available as floating power, make a triangle of studding sail booms, and lash each angle firmly on the top of one of the casks, taking care to keep their heads pointing forward to that which is intended to be the bow; then on these spars build such platform as you need, and erect your mast and sail.
A couple of spare topmasts brought together at their heads, and extended by a shorter spar at their heels, so as to form a triangle more or less acute, form a good foundation for a raft; the space between may then be filled with whatever buoyant material you possess, whether casks, boxes, or smaller spars. No rules can be considered absolute in raft making; anything that will float, and can be lashed together in any manner, must be used; if a portion of the vessel’s deck can be cut out by axe or saw it may form a good foundation; if the raft can be built on board the wreck, or on the beach beside her, so much the better, but it would be better to throw the materials overboard, and, at the cost of any extra labour, construct it in the water, than not be able fairly to launch it when completed. We have seen the waist stanchions of a waterlogged vessel cut away for such a purpose, or in extreme cases the hull may be expected to go down, and then the only anxiety will be to complete the raft so that it may be capable of floating off the sinking vessel. In the water a rectangular raft is best built alongside the vessel, but the triangular one must be built astern.
Pot raft.
Of buoyant merchandise formed into rafts for the purpose of floating down rivers to the markets, we have an example in the pottery floats upon the Nile, where a number of jars having been made, are bound together, and a platform of reeds laid on them. Tho long timber rafts upon the Rhine and on the rivers of Canada and North America are also examples of this principle.
Sedge-grass rafts.
On some of the larger rivers of Africa, as the Okovango, discovered by our late friend C. J. Andersson, the Teoughe and others, rafts of sedge grass are used; sometimes these, if only intended to carry a few persons across a river, are small and comparatively manageable, and have even an attempt at comfort and security in a kind of rail raised round them of faggots of the same material. Others, used in hippopotamus hunting, are mere floats on which the small canoes are drawn up, and their chief merit is that they are so like natural accumulations that the animal does not think of getting out of their way.
On a still larger heap of these Mr. Andersson descended the tortuous course of the Teoughe for many miles; and Mr. Oscar T. Lindholm, who accompanied the eminent but unfortunate Swedish naturalist Wahlberg, gave us a most graphic account of a similar voyage. Immense quantities of sedge was collected, and bundles of it were thrown upon the water in some quiet nook, without any regularity and with no other fastening than its own natural cohesion and entanglement when one layer was thrown almost at random across another. A small hut was built upon the heap when it had acquired sufficient size, and the whole, when ready, was forced out into the stream, which brought it down at an average rate of two and a half miles per hour. If it took the ground, the only consequence was the loss of a few reeds from the bottom layer as the mass swung round and cleared itself. Snags, projecting points, or other impediments might tear off more, but nothing could stay the quiet but irresistible movement of the great raft, which, as the grass below became densely pressed and sodden, began to draw nearly 6ft. of water, and sank deeper every day; to remedy which, fresh grass was cut and thrown daily upon the upper layers. Frequently overhanging trees tore off portions, and once a large trunk lay so close to the water that it fairly swept the decks fore and aft; the occupants saved themselves by climbing over the tree, but the hut, with many valuables, was carried right away. With this exception the voyage was accomplished safely, but it was a task of great difficulty to prevent the unwieldy mass being swept by the stream into Lake Ngami, in the still waters of which it might have floated for an indefinite period without coming nearer to the shore.
The obelisk of Luxor was removed by laying a vessel ashore, with her head towards it, when the river was at its highest; the masts were lifted and shored up from the deck, so as to allow an immense packing case to be built upon the keelson; ways like those for launching a ship were built, and on them the heavy monolith was forced onward till it lay at length fairly in the vessel, occupying nearly her entire length; a deep channel cut from the vessel to the river, and at the next rise of the water she floated off. But without forgetting this, we do not remember a case of more ingenious and persevering adaptation of apparently insufficient means to great and important ends, than that of the conveyance by our countryman Layard of the great human-headed bulls and lions from the magnificent ruins in which he found them to the point of embarkation on the Tigris, and thence, by rafts so frail that we almost wonder how the ponderous masses were supported, to a place where vessels more adequate to the carriage of such a burden could receive them. It would be a pity to curtail the brief and graphic description, and we therefore give it in his own words:—
“I did not doubt that the skins, once blown up, would support the sculptures without difficulty as far as Baghdad. The journey would take eight or ten days, under favourable circumstances. But there they would require to be opened and refilled, or the rafts would scarcely sustain so heavy a weight all the way to Busrak; the voyage from Baghdad to that port being considerably longer, in point of time, than that from Mosul to Baghdad. However carefully the skins are filled, the air gradually escapes. Rafts bearing merchandise are generally detained several times during their descent to enable the raftmen to examine and refill the skins. If the sculptures rested upon only one framework, the beams being almost on a level with the water, the raftmen would be unable to get beneath them to reach the mouths of the skins, when they require replenishing, without moving the cargo. This would have been both inconvenient and difficult to accomplish; I was, therefore, desirous of raising the lion and bull as much as possible above the water, so as to leave room for the men to creep under them.
“It may interest the reader to know how these rafts, which have probably formed for ages the only means of traffic on the upper parts of the rivers of Mesopotamia, are constructed. The skins of full-grown sheep and goats are used. They are taken off with as few incisions as possible, and then dried and prepared. The air is forced in by the lungs through an aperture, which is afterwards tied up with string. A square framework, formed of poplar beams, branches of trees, and reeds, having been constructed of the size of the intended raft, the inflated skins are tied to it by osier and other twigs, the whole being firmly bound together. The raft is then removed to the water and launched. Care is taken to place the skins with their mouths upwards, that, in case any should burst or require filling, they can be easily opened by the raftmen. Upon the framework of wood are piled bales of goods and property belonging to merchants and travellers. When any person of rank or wealth descends the river in this fashion, small huts are constructed on the raft, by covering a common wooden “takht,” or bedstead of the country, with a hood formed of reeds and lined with felt. In these huts the travellers live and sleep during the journey. The poorer passengers seek shade or warmth by burying themselves amongst bales of goods and other merchandise, and sit patiently, almost in one position, until they reach their destination. They carry with them a small earthen “mangal,” or chafing-dish, containing a charcoal fire, which serves to light their pipes and to cook their coffee and food. The only real danger to be apprehended on the river is from the Arabs, who, when the country is in a disturbed state, invariably attack and pillage the rafts.
INFLATED FLOATS.
“The raftmen guide their rude vessels by long oars—straight poles, at the end of which a few split canes are fastened by a piece of twine. They skilfully avoid the rapids, and, seated on the bales of goods, work continually, even in the hottest sun. They will seldom travel after dark before reaching Tekrit, on account of the rocks and shoals which abound in the upper part of the river; but when they have passed that place they resign themselves, night and day, to the sluggish stream. During the floods in the spring, or after violent rains, small rafts may float from Mosul to Baghdad in about eighty-four hours; but the large rafts are generally six or seven days in performing the voyage. In summer, and when the river is low, they are frequently nearly a month in reaching their destination. When the rafts have been unloaded, they are broken up, and the beams, wood, and twigs are sold at a considerable profit, forming one of the principal branches of trade between Mosul and Baghdad. The skins are washed and afterwards rubbed with a preparation of pounded pomegranate skins, to keep them from cracking and rotting. They are then brought back, either upon the shoulders of the raftmen or upon donkeys, to Mosul or Tekrit, where the men engaged in navigation of the Tigris usually reside.”
In one of the sculptures thus brought to our own country by the energetic traveller, an army is represented crossing a river, and the soldiers are supported each by an inflated goatskin held under the chest, while one of the legs being led upwards to the swimmer’s mouth enables him to keep it distended, should any air escape. In making these bags, the only sewing necessary is at the aperture through which the animal is skinned; the neck, cut close to the head, may be tightly bound up with a thong, and an over-hand knot cast in the three legs; the fourth being left with a tube for re-inflation.
Sir Samuel Baker says, when speaking of crossing the Atbara River, “I had eight inflated skins attached to the bedstead, on which I lashed our large circular sponging bath, 3ft. 8in. in diameter. This was perfectly safe for my wife, and dry for the baggage; the watertight iron box that contained the gunpowder was towed as a pinnace behind the raft. Four hippopotamus hunters harnessed themselves as tug steamers, and there were relays of swimmers. The raft answered well, and would support about 300lb.; the sponging bath would carry 190lb.”
American portable boat.
Colonel R. C. Buchanan, of the United States service, is the inventor of a very useful form of portable boat. It was used in several expeditions, in Oregon and Washington territory, with much advantage. It is thus described:—
“It consists of an exceedingly light framework of thin and narrow boards, in lengths suitable for packing, connected by hinges, the different, sections folding into so small a compass as to be conveniently carried upon mules. The frame is covered with a sheet of stout cotton canvas or duck, secured to the gunwales with a cord running diagonally back, and put through eyelet holes in the upper edge. When first placed in the water, the boat leaks a little, but the canvas soon swells, so as to make it sufficiently tight for all practical purposes. The great advantage to be derived from the use of this boat is, that it is so compact and portable as to be admirably adapted to the requirements of campaigning in a country where the streams are liable to rise above a fordable depth, and where the allowance of transportation is small. It may be put together or taken apart and packed in a very few minutes, and one mule suffices to transport a boat, with all its appurtenances, capable of sustaining ten men. Should the canvas become torn, it is easily repaired by putting on a patch, and it does not rot or crack, like india-rubber or gutta-percha; moreover it is not affected by changes of climate or temperature.”
COLLAPSIBLE BOAT.
Collapsible boat.
We have not seen Colonel Buchanan’s boat, but we remember one perhaps not very dissimilar, it was, in fact, a collapsible boat—the gunwales, the keel, and all the intermediate pieces being exactly alike, and made of ¾in. plank from 4in. to 6in. wide; these were hinged together at the two ends, just as are the frames of the oval reticules, and covered with stout canvas; the thwarts have hinges below the centre, from which also the third board, serving as a stanchion, reaches downward to rest upon the keel. There is a ring-bolt near the centre of each of the midship thwarts, and when the boat is hoisted out of the water by tackles at either end, a couple of small lines from these rings jerk up the centre of the thwarts and allow the gunwales and all the corresponding boards on either side to fall down beside the keel, as shown in the upper figure of our illustration (p. 155). There are also ring-bolts to the gunwales, and a couple of lines from these are held fast while the boat is lowered; the gunwales rise, and a man sitting upon the thwarts presses them into their place and the boat assumes its proper shape: of course the segments of plank below the gunwales have to be cut a little shorter at each end as they come nearer to the keel, or the boat would not shut up on its hinges. A boat 4ft. wide would collapse into a width of not more than 1ft. Such a frame could be readily taken to pieces by withdrawing the bolts of the hinges, and if each piece, supposing the boat to be 4ft. wide and 16ft. long were hinged in its centre, it would not be much too long to carry on a mule, except the country were more than ordinarily difficult, when it might be hinged in three lengths.
At the meeting of the British Association, in Birmingham, we saw some model boats of good form, but with very little projection of keel or stem or stern post, so that one might be fitted into the other without rising more than a few inches above the gunwale of the first; the thwarts of the lower one are stowed between the two very conveniently, and three or four may be thus packed, the uppermost, however, retaining all her fittings in readiness for immediate use.
Canoe birch.
The aborigines of many countries make use of the bark of certain trees for the purpose of canoe building. The most important of these is the canoe birch (Betula papyracea); its range may be estimated at 37° north to 43° south. Trees of this description not unfrequently grow to 70ft. in height, and are proportionately thick, so that sheets of bark of very large size can be readily stripped from them. The bark canoes of the Canadians and Indian traders are often of a very large size.
In the absence of forest conservators, economic considerations go for very little. It may be convenient, when canoe building or repairing is the object, to “fall” the tree, and, in doing so, care must be taken that the bark shall not be rent or bruised, either by fracture of the tree or by falling across a rock or stump, while the log ought to lie with both ends somewhat supported, so that the required sheet of bark may not be crushed between it and the ground. Perhaps it will be found generally easier to detach the bark while the tree is standing, and in this case a cut must be made all round the tree at the lower end of the sheet; the most perfect side should be left for the bottom of the canoe, and the longitudinal slit should be so made as to cut right through any defective portion which may thus be cut out with the least possible waste of material. If the tree has an inclination, it will be easier work to make the slit on the upper side. The bark should be detached by broad round-edged spuds of soft wood, thrust gently and cautiously between it and the tree; and it may also be previously loosened by striking it with a broad log or mallet on the outside, taking care not to break its texture. Steps may be cut in the wood to stand in, and hand-holds also as the work proceeds; and the lower part of the bark should be made fast with cord or slips of bark, passed loosely round, so that it may not swing clear of the tree and split the upper part before it is finally detached.
CANADIAN BARK CANOE.
Canadian bark canoe.
The sheet should now be taken to a plot of level ground, carefully spread out with the inside downward, and the outside should be cleaned from any knots, excrescences, or hard and brittle layers that increase its weight without adding to its strength; and it should then be cut nearly to the form shown in the sketch (Fig. 1). A sufficient number of ribs or hoops of light flexible wood should be provided, and great care should be taken, in bending it, not to split or unduly to force any part so as to make an unsightly protuberance, which would also most probably become a leak. The holes should be carefully bored along the edges that come in contact, and they may be sewn with fibres from the roots of pine trees or from small cedar twigs, and rendered water-tight by the use of pine-tree gum. Flexible poles or laths are then stitched in for gunwales or thwart stringers, and the canoe is more or less tastefully trimmed off and ornamented, according to the taste of the builder, as in Fig. 2 (p. 157).
Nothing can be lighter or handier than these canoes, but their very lightness and want of “hold on the water” makes them difficult for Englishmen to handle until experience has been their instructor.
Queen Charlotte’s Island canoe.
Canoes of this description are wonderfully buoyant, and draw very little water; and, when managed by skilful hands, few boats are more reliable. Our friend, Mr. F. Poole, who has spent many years among the Indians of North-West America, and is a canoeman of no ordinary skill, has recently completed a tour of extraordinary extent and interest, paddling fearlessly, and alone, far out to sea. The dimensions of the canoe he uses, which was made expressly for him by the Indians of Queen Charlotte’s Island, are as follows: Length, 15ft.; width across beam, 3½ft.; depth, 15in.; weight, 100lb.
BIRCH BARK CANOE OF QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S ISLAND.
In her Mr. Poole started from Liverpool, paddling to New Brighton, from thence to Southport, Blackpool, Fleetwood, Dutton Sands, Whitehaven, Kirkcudbright, Whitehorn, Port William and Glen Luce. From thence by the use of wheels—two pairs of which, composed of iron, mounted on iron axles, are kept, until required, stowed away in the canoe—Mr. Poole proceeded overland to Stranraer; from thence paddled along the coast and up the river to Glasgow; then by canal to Grangemouth, and by sea to Leith. For two nights and the greater part of two days Mr. Poole was out of sight of land, and the voyage was prosecuted during the prevalence of the equinoctial gales. Such of our readers as may contemplate canoe voyaging will do well to borrow a few hints from Mr. Poole’s equipment. A powerful bull’s-eye lamp was always carried, lashed fast to the stem at night, and a mariner’s compass was provided to steer by.
The wheels before referred to are extremely useful in many ways. They are like those of an ordinary perambulator, only of light wrought iron; they are 1ft. in diameter; the axle is also of wrought iron, ¾in. square, and long enough to carry the wheels clear of the canoe’s sides when mounted on them. To travel the canoe on dry land, the axles, each covered with a strong common pillow, are brought under the fore and after portions of the canoe, like the axles of a long narrow carriage. Rope lashings are now brought from the thwarts down to the axle bars, through which iron belaying pins pass; these keep the lashings from shifting, and keep all secure when the canoe is pushed or drawn onwards. The wheels are an immense assistance in beaching the canoe and getting her above high-water mark, when there is but one voyager. They also serve as ballast, and are useful for a number of camping and make-shift purposes.
The paddle shown in the accompanying illustration, kindly furnished by Mr. Poole, is of the exact form requisite to obtain perfect efficiency. It is composed of red cedar, and is exactly one-tenth, diminished scale.
CEDAR-BARK CANOE.
Cedar-bark canoe.
SHOE CANOE.
The bark of the cedar (Thuja gigantea) is also much used by certain Indians of North-West America for canoe building; but the form usually made from it differs materially from that just described. The cedar-bark canoes are in shape much like some of our iron-clad rams, having projecting beaks, or prows, almost in a line with their keels. The Indian paddling one of these frail craft, sits, or rather squats, at one extreme end of the bottom, which has the effect of tilting the bow end up in the air, burying the stern end deeply in the water. The sharp tail-like point thus immersed seems to impart speed and capability of evolution to a remarkable degree; much practice is required before the exact poise and adjustment of weight are acquired. The Indians, who half live in their canoes, manage them with extraordinary dexterity, ascend and descend rapid rivers, and cross wide stretches of lake fearlessly. The form of these canoes, and of the bark sheet used for making them, is shown in the above illustration. The mode of sinking the stern of a canoe is also had recourse to by the Rockingham Bay savages, who manage the so-called shoe canoe with much skill. The frame is of rough wicker-work, the covering of hide, and the two short shovel-shaped paddles made use of are shown in our [illustration]. A canoe of this kind is very easily made, and is not difficult to manage.
FUEGIAN CANOE.
Fuegian canoe.
We have just seen a small canoe sent from Terra del Fuego by the Governor of the Falkland Islands to the Royal Geographical Society. It is small, and was paddled by a girl eight years of age; it is chiefly interesting as showing how small pieces of bark may be utilised. It is about 8ft. long, 22in. wide, and 18in. or 20in. deep; the centrepiece of the bottom is nearly 3ft. long and 10in. wide, and to this are stitched two pieces, each about 4ft. long, tapering to a point, and curving upward to a high peak at either end. The sides are pieces of bark nearly 8ft. long and 18in. deep, straight on the upper edge, and cut to the curve of the bottom on the lower. The whole are stitched together with wood fibre, for which sometimes strips of whalebone are substituted, and caulked with the fibre of the wild celery. The boat is kept in shape by ribs of winter bark twigs, not thicker than the little finger, and packed closely side by side through the whole length; nine small sticks lashed athwart the gunwales keep them in their proper shape, and a sheet of bark midships serves to sustain a patch of clay on which to keep a small fire. A bundle of weapons of the chase accompany this canoe.
The spears are pointed with bone, and the barbed one used for fish and cetaceans is only shipped loosely into the shaft, to which it is attached by a lanyard, so as to remain fast during the struggles of the animal; while that used for birds is serrated, and is firmly fastened into the shaft.
AUSTRALIAN BARK CANOE.
Australian bark canoe.
The tea-tree bark is sometimes used in Australia for canoes. We have seen a length of it roughly tied up at the ends, and strengthened a little by poles along the gunwales, in use at Moreton Bay, as shown in our [illustration]EB. It is just possible to make the bark of the gum tree answer the purpose in the absence of better material. We have often searched in Africa for a tree with bark fit to make a canoe of, but never succeeded in finding one. Along the eastern coast of Australia, especially towards Torres Strait, we frequently fell in with canoes, some with outriggers and others double. They were generally long straight logs, of very little breadth or depth; and the advantage of this seemed to be that though the ripple would frequently wash into them, yet, if they pitched ever so little, their great length and shallowness would tilt out the greater portion of the water. The outriggers were mostly logs of wood sharpened at either end, and with pegs set up in them, so that the outrigger beams might not dip into the water and impede the motion of the canoe.
MANGROVE FLOATS.
When we reached the Victoria River we found that the natives were accustomed to support themselves in crossing on logs of the light mangrove wood, either singly or tied up in bundles. The part near the roots seemed to be the favourite, as the stumps of the roots formed pegs on which to hang their spears, skins, or other possessions. The wood of the milk bush, which is about half the specific gravity of cork, is much used by the natives of equatorial Africa for the above purpose.
Long canoes.
At Shupanga, on the Zambesi, we have seen dug-out canoes, 50ft. long and about 5ft. wide and deep; at all events, a tall man standing beside them did not stoop much when he rested his arms upon the gunwale. These were hollowed and roughly shaped in their native forests, and hauled along nearly thirty miles, on rollers, by the long rope-like stems of the vines and creepers common in tropical forests. They were made only for the Portuguese. The upper part of the bows expanded into a platform sufficiently large for the chief boatman to stand on, while the stern was cut into an imitation of a run and dead wood, with a couple of holes in the after part, to which a rudder was secured by lashings. Nothing can be better for hollowing a canoe than the adze, but our Kroomen used a broad spud or chisel on a staff about 6ft. long, driven in a manner which will be best understood by a glance at the statue of “Michael overthrowing Satan.” The Krooman’s method of baling is characteristic. Should the canoe fill, all hands jump overboard, seize the gunwales, and sally her fore and aft till the water flies out at either end and leaves her absolutely free. We have seen a canoeman, near Lake Ngami, walk to one end of his leaky craft and, thus depressing it, cause the water to flow towards him, when, making his broad foot do duty for a scoop, by a succession of vigorous kicks, he soon had his canoe as free as he desired.
MASSOOLAH BOATS.
Massoolah boats.
In many parts of the world, boats of almost any size are built without metal fastenings, and the Massoolah boat of Madras may be taken as a fair type of those which are sewn or laced together. It will be seen in our illustration, copied by permission from a model in the United Service Museum, that the bottom boards are flat and form an oval elongated and pointed at the ends, so that the side planks curve naturally to meet the stem and stern-post, and give the boat an easy sheer. They are sewn together with coir yarn (or cocoa-nut husk fibre), the stitches crossing over a wadding of coir or straw, which presses on the seam and prevents much leakage. They are very elastic and give to the shock as they take the ground in the surf, which runs sometimes nearly 16ft. high; they are from 30ft. to 35ft. long, 10ft. or 11ft. wide, and 7ft. or 8ft. in depth; they pull double banked, six oars on a side, made of long rough poles with oval pieces of board lashed on the ends; they are steered by an oar. Our illustration shows also the catamaran or log float, on which the natives will pass to and from the shore when no other craft, not even the Massoolah boat, would venture. It must be remembered, however, that the men are themselves nearly amphibious, and care as little for being washed off their rafts as so many frogs; while the letters or small parcels they carry are kept dry only by being worn in a kind of oil-cloth turban.
Norwegian boats.
We have seen very nice boats built in Norway with dowels instead of nails; they were clinker built, and the dowels were about ½in., or fully as thick as the planking. A number of rods, from 3ft. to 4ft. long, are planed up to the required size, and cut into lengths say, when two thicknesses of ½in. plank are to be clinched, to 1½in., or, when the two planks and a timber of perhaps 1in. are to be fastened, to 2½in., so that both ends may project a little beyond the wood they are to fasten; the dowel is then split at each end with a sharp chisel, taking care that the cut is made at right angles to the grain of the plank or rib, wedges are driven in, and the end, being slightly spread out by the use of the clinch hammer, is trimmed off not too close; the wedges should be all neatly cut with a fine saw, and by sawing them in breadths from a board, and then splitting them to the required size, labour may be greatly economised. The holes should be bored with a sharp centre-bit; and if the dowels fit tightly the wedges may be dispensed with, as the ends will spread sufficiently under the clinch hammer without breaking the grain.
In building, if any difficulty should be found in drawing down the end of the plank to the stem, it will be advisable, after having fitted it carefully, to slack up the centre, let the end come to its place, fasten it, and then again bend the plank downwards. In some boats, especially in the navy, the planks do not run fore and aft, but two thin layers are crossed over each other diagonally, and clinched together; this leaves the outside perfectly smooth, and is perhaps the strongest known method of boat building. In planing up the edges of planks, &c., it is absolutely necessary to have a vice of some kind, and nothing is better than a tree vice, unless you have a blacksmith’s. Saw off a young tree from 6in. to 8in. thick, at about 3½ft. from the ground; saw the stump down the middle as low as you can; bind the lower part tightly with thongs of raw hide to prevent its splitting, then insert wedges to open the upper part, put your planks in, withdraw the wedges, and it will hold tight enough. It is as well to cut the upper part of the opening sufficiently wide to admit an inch plank, as short pieces can easily be put in to fill up should you wish to hold a thinner one.
Portable steel boat.
We have already mentioned the principle on which Mr. E. D. Young’s portable steel boat for the Livingstone Search Expedition was built; and although, as we then said, none but a skilled workman could hope to turn up the edges of a curved sheet of metal, we think the principle might be applied to a flat-bottomed boat by merely snipping the flanges at the turn of the bilge, and bending upward the sides at any convenient angle; by cutting these more and more diagonally from the centre, the boat might be tapered to each end—not, indeed, in a true curve, but in a succession of short straight lines, which would tolerably represent one.
The number of pieces composing the “Search”—the boat used in the expedition sent in quest of Dr. Livingstone—were as follows: Thirty-six side pieces of steel, each being a load for one man; the midship piece required 2; the stern piece, 3; the bow piece, 3; the mast, 2; the boom, 2; the sails, 2; chain cable, 6; anchor, 1; and the whole with provisions, luggage, &c., made up 180 loads.
Captain Faulkner, who, as a volunteer, accompanied Mr. Young on the Search Expedition, has determined on returning with a party of ardent hunters and explorers, and an engineer, to Lake Nyassa, and for this purpose an iron steamer has been built 50ft. long, 5½ft. deep, and 11½ft. broad. The little craft, appropriately named the “Faugh-a-ballagh,” is composed of 75 sections, put together with 8000 screws, so that she may be carried, as was the “Search,” past the rapids and cataracts of the Shire River.
American life raft.
The American life raft “Nonpareil,” which recently made the voyage across the Atlantic, may be taken as a successful application of the tubular system. It will be seen that she was constructed of three parallel inflatable tubes, covered with stout canvas, connected by breadths of the same, and with a rectangular frame laid over all to support the masts and rudder fittings; but the sketch is introduced here also to show the use of the droge, by which the little craft may in effect be anchored in the open sea, or at least may have her drift effectually checked, while the sea itself is broken before it reaches her. The droge in the present instance is of canvas, stretched on a large hoop with four lines, so attached to its circumference that when the strain comes on it it stands vertically in the water, and opposes the resistance of its entire surface. The oars or mast, and sails of a boat, will also answer this purpose; and we have heard of one instance in which the imperilled crew added also a number of the skins of freshly-killed seals, the oil working out of which calmed the water for a considerable distance. It is necessary to watch the length of the sea, so that the boat may be veered as far from the droge or raft as it will serve to protect her against the breaking waves. We have heard the captain of a vessel say that he would never incur the risk of wearing in a gale, but would rather sacrifice some spar or piece of lumber to bring the ship’s head to the wind. In doing this, the hawser would be carried round from the droge on the weather bow, under the bobstays and bowsprit rigging to the lee bow, and finally to the quarter; the droge would be thrown over, sufficient line paid out, and then held on to till the ship’s head came to the wind; the strain would be then changed for a moment to the lee bow, and then to the quarter, whence it would be cut away as the ship fell off upon the other tack. A spar held by a hawser and bridle, with a stout sail bent to it—the clews, or lower corners, being weighted with shot, lead, or iron, to make them heavy—forms an excellent droge for a small craft to lie to under.
Temporary repairs of vessels.
Although this subject may seem almost beyond the province of our work, it is by no means improbable that explorers may have to turn their attention to it, or that shipwrecked crews, or dwellers on a lonely coast, may have to repair or build small craft for themselves. We have seen first-class waggons built by missionaries, and others have built vessels; and the reader may remember with advantage the description given by Ulysses of his laying down side by side ten or a dozen pine trees more or less smoothed off as a foundation on which to build his upper works.
During the progress of the North Australian Expedition, we were ascending the Victoria River with our little schooner, the “Tom Tough.” There was little or no wind, and with the boat ahead towing and the lead going we were drifting up with a strong flood-tide, and the captain, elated by success, and anxious to make the most of his opportunity, kept going onward instead of prudently anchoring while the tide was still rising. In consequence of this, when the vessel touched the ground, there was no subsequent rise of water to float her off; indeed, it was remarked that the water began to fall while the tide was still running upward, and she was left at low water on the 27th of September, 1855, on a mud bank, with her bows uncomfortably propped up by a projecting rock.
On the 29th she floated; but the flood-tide was so nearly done, that we had no time to choose an anchorage, and the schooner grounding with the ebb, parted her chain cable and heeled over with the force of the tide till we could barely stand upon her decks.
Day after day the schooner drifted to and fro upon this sand-bank, sometimes moving a length or two, and sometimes only a few feet during a tide; the sand scoured out from beneath her bow and stern, leaving holes with 6ft. or more of water there, while hillocks accumulated under her in midship; and the sand seemed to travel so evenly with her, that the usual criterion—a hand lead, allowed to trail upon the ground—was of no service in enabling us to estimate the distance she had moved.
On the 10th of October the decks had rifted, the combings of the main hatch had started up, the starboard side between the masts was hogged up 18in., and at the turn of the bilge, where the floor timbers join the ribs, one of the planks had split for 15ft. or more, leaving spaces into which the flat hand might easily be passed.
We laid broad strips of blanket and sheepskin well tarred on the principal rents, and nailed thin planks over them (Fig. 8, p. 170), but in another day or two she was just as bad on the other side; her stern was peaked into the air, while her bows dipped about 7ft. into a hole, the water pouring out of the fresh rifted planking as the tide fell. The mainmast rose up through the partners, so that we were obliged to slack off the rigging, and it became a question whether the stanchion under the main hatch should be knocked away to prevent its bursting up the deck, or whether it should remain so that the strength of the deck might keep the bottom a little longer from breaking.
On the 25th we again floated, after nearly a month of straining to and fro upon the sand-banks, and drifted rather than navigated the vessel up to the camp we had established below Steep-head.
Captain Gourlay with his crew, and some of the expedition men, found suitable trees some little distance up the river at Timber Creek, which, however, after a rather exciting adventure with some wandering natives, acquired the name of Cut-Stick Creek instead. Two long heavy gum trees as straight as possible were selected, brought to the vessel, and laid as sister keelsons (Fig. 2) alongside the real one, which, as well as all the original framework, is marked Fig. 1 in our illustration. Three or four pair of heavy crooks, each representing the half of a floor timber (Fig. 3), were then laid on the inner skin, with the inner ends abutting on the sister keelson, and the outer reaching up above the junction of the ribs with the floor heads. Heavy riders (Fig. 4) were placed upon them crossing the three keelsons, and were secured by clamps (Fig. 5) made of the tires of our dray wheels, which we had no hope of being able to put to their proper use. Being now above the rise and fall of the tide we could not beach the vessel, and, therefore, the frame could only be bolted to the true sides above the water line (Fig. 6), but it was pressed down upon the bottom not only by its own weight but by stanchions (Fig. 7) between it and the deck beams.
The schooner being detained for repairs, it was decided to undertake an expedition to the Albert River in the long boat; and thus, by reaching Mr. Gregory in time to assure him that a vessel was coming, prevent his starting for the colony with insufficient supplies; Mr. George Phibbs, the overseer of the expedition, and Mr. Graham, the mate of the “Messenger,” volunteering for the trip, we commenced our preparations. The boat was cleaned, repainted, the leaks stopped; and two inflatable tubes were made, each of them of one piece of canvas, 14ft. long, lined with waterproofed calico, folded so that the two sides should come together, a rope along the seam, with eyes turned in at the corners, to make it fast by, and, with one of the screw valves from our worn-out boat (p. 48), let into the after end, to receive the nozzle of the bellows. These we at first intended to stretch beneath the thwarts, inside, but eventually laced them outside each gunwale, where they were less in the way, and, when kept in a state of semi-inflation, projected sufficiently to prevent a great deal of the ripple of the sea washing into the boat, and this advantage we made the most of when we were fairly at sea, by fitting light bamboo stanchions forward, and securing the tubes to them, so as to make a kind of raised wash streak round the bows.
BOAT FITTED WITH INFLATED TUBES.
We left the vessel on the 23rd of October off New Year’s Island, and at first had fine weather with good working breezes, but in a few days strong adverse gales came on. On the 2nd of November we worked all day clawing off a lee shore, the sea raging furiously over the shallow bottom; but our boat, though only 18ft. long and 6ft. beam, behaved well, and we weathered the rocks by less than a quarter of a mile after sunset. Darkness came on at once, and, as we dare not run in for shelter, we made the boat snug and hove to under foresail and mainsail all night. We ran through between the Crocodile islands, the crest of the short sea behind us foaming around our quarters, while our bowsprit was actually dipping in the next, and began to fear that we should have to pass the islands without finding a shelter, when Phibbs volunteered to swim ashore. We let go our carronade as an anchor, and ran in to the full length of the line; he sprang overboard, and with some difficulty reached the shore, where he soon found a quiet little nook to which he beckoned us to steer.
We will only add that on the 17th of November, after having sailed nearly 750 miles, we reached the mouth of the Albert River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Sails and their substitutes.
We cannot dismiss the subject of boats without appending a few remarks on such simple forms of sails as are likely to be of service in such small craft as a traveller might possess, and we shall take, as the maximum, one of those swift and handy fore and aft schooners in which the Americans push their trade in all quarters of the world. Each lower mast and topmast would most likely be in one piece, combining great strength with neatness, and obviating the necessity for much staying. The bowsprit is also of a single piece; the sails are a jib from the foremast head to the bowsprit end, a forestaysail set to the stem head, a foresail and mainsail on gaffs made to lower when the sail is reefed or taken in; the foot of the mainsail is always extended by a boom, and that of the foresail sometimes; if they are laced to the boom, as in the yacht “America,” which had booms even to the foot of her jibs, the sails sit flatter and better on a wind, but if they are not, there is the advantage of being able to reduce the sails without the trouble of reefing, by tricing up the foot; gaff topsails may be either jib-headed, like the fore, or on a gaff, like the main, in Fig. 1. The mainstay causes some little difficulty; if it goes from mast to mast, the tack and sheet of the fore gaff topsail must be passed over to leeward of it when the vessel goes about; if it leads down to the deck there must be two parts, one on each side the foresail, and the lee one ought to be slacked, and the weather one set up on each tack. If a foreyard, or rather a cross-jack, is carried, a flying squaresail, half the width of the yard, may be sent up on the weather side, and a topsail may be set in the same manner, the fore and aft sails supplying canvas enough on the lee side.
The cutter (No. 2) has a jib, a foresail on the stay, and a mainsail; the jib topsail runs with grummets on the topmast stay, but the halyards only reach the lowermast head; a lug-headed gaff topsail gives opportunity for a greater spread of canvas.
The boat (No. 3) is rigged with foresail and spritsail. An eye in the peak of the latter receives the upper point of the sprit, while the lower end is set into the eye of a snorter, a bight of rope passing round the mast and tightened chiefly by the strain of the sail upon it. Sometimes it is pushed up by hand while the sail shakes, so as to set it properly up, but it is better to have a small tackle as seen on page 171 to set it up with.
No. 4 has shoulder-of-mutton sails, the peaks of which are bent on to small taper yards which slide up and down on and abaft the lower masts like gunter topmasts; this facilitates the reefing of the sails, and also the setting of the jib from the foremast head.
No. 5 is a lugger, the yards are slung in the thirds, the shortest and thickest arm is forward, and the longest tapers aft; the foremost leach of the sail is very strongly roped, so that the tack holds down the forearm and elevates the peak. Sometimes in well-manned vessels the lugs are dipped so as to pass to leeward of the mast whenever they go about, and in this case the tack may be bowsed down considerably in front of the mast and a large sail carried; but in short-handed craft the tacks are brought down to the mast, and the foresail and mizen are set on one side and the mainsail on the other, and are not dipped. The after leach of the jib must be cut so as to go clear of the foreyard, the topmasts to slide abaft the lower masts; and there is always some difficulty in setting a fore topsail, as there must either be a double tack to pass the sail over the jib halyard in going about, or its fore leach must remain to leeward of it.
The lateen (No. 6) has triangular sails with very long taper yards, the head and fore leach becoming one; indeed, if there be any distinct fore leach, the sail becomes an ill-shaped lug, and not a lateen. The masts are somewhat short; sometimes mere stumps, but then the halyards and the tacks must be enormously strong to counterpoise the immense length of the yard.
The proa sail (Figs. 7 and 8, p. 173), a triangle spread upon two bamboos, hitched upon a stump mast in small boats, we have described at p. 135. No. 9 is a modification of it, by which a boat sets jib and mainsail in one, the angle formed by the yard and boom becomes more acute at each reef as indicated by the lines. It would be difficult, however, to work the boat without a small mizen to help her round in staying. No. 10 is the shoulder-of-mutton sail, set on a single taper yard or mast.
Palm leaves are sometimes used as sails; our sketch represents three or more cocoanut leaves, so woven together as to present a surface to receive the wind. Blankets and articles of clothing are used in emergencies. Oars are set up, and a boat will gather considerable way under them. Planks, the broader and flatter the better, are excellent substitutes, and may be trimmed at pleasure. It must not be forgotten that, however graceful in art and poetry the bellying canvas may be, the chief object of the sailmaker is to get it “to sit like a board.”
Reefing of sails from the sides.
Sometimes when a sail is split, or otherwise rendered unserviceable, it is desirable to use another for a substitute without spoiling it by cutting. We remember reading of a vessel in which the topsail was split in a heavy gale; a spare foresail was got out and stout bands sewed on it, from the clews to the reef-band, diminishing upwards to the width the topsail head ought to be; eyelet holes were worked in, points or lacings inserted, and the sail, thus reduced, sent up to do duty as a topsail.
Captain (now Admiral Sir E.) Belcher, when in command of H.M.S. “Sulphur,” made use of a very clever expedient for imparting motion to his vessel when the wind failed. He constructed a couple of bolts, with stout umbrella framework covered with canvas at their heads, and with their butts so thickened as to fit loosely into the bow guns. A line was attached to each butt, and one was given in charge to the port and the other to the starboard watch; the first was fired to a good distance ahead, and as soon as the line was hauled upon the frame expanded and opposed its full resistance, so that, as it could not be drawn backwards through the water, the vessel must begin to move. Before this was hauled in the next was fired, the ship would increase her rate of progress, and, the impetus being once acquired, she would “hold her way,” so that eventually the men would have little more to do than gather in the slack of the line. No sailor likes the inaction of a calm, and besides this the captain had judged rightly in exciting the emulation of his men by giving one to each watch, and further stimulating it by an occasional glass of grog to the hardest working side, so that the cry of the port watch would be, “Haul away, and run her up to the umbrella before the starbowlines get theirs laid out,” and vice versâ, till sometimes a speed of four knots an hour was obtained. Thus was the good ship hauled out of many a belt of calms, and brought into the region of the winds, which might be only a few miles distant, while other vessels not so provided might have lain becalmed for weeks; and not only this, but her position in a bay or anchorage could be shifted at pleasure, and she became almost independent of wind or extraneous assistance by this ingenious expedient.
Paddles worked by mill sails have been proposed; but of these it will be sufficient to remark that the power of the paddles to drive the vessel’s head to wind will be less than that of the wind to drive her backward by the full amount of all that is expended in overcoming the friction of the machinery; in every other position the wind on the sails would do its work without the paddles.
Hints in emergencies.
A Prussian vessel, with the leaks gaining on her and her crew exhausted, was saved by lashing a spar across the mainmast, with one end projecting overboard with a barrel half full of water fast to it, so as to rise and fall with the sea. The pump brakes were made fast to the spar, and the vessel was thus kept afloat, while the crew were relieved from their labour.
A boat has been known to come ashore safe through a heavy sea by means of a handful of oil judiciously thrown over by one of the men whenever a wave threatened to break near her; and Captain Basil Hall relates how one of his boats was hove to all night under a droge of all her spars and sails and two or three seal skins, the oil of which working out calmed the water for a considerable distance.
Instances of this kind might be indefinitely multiplied; but we note only a few as suggestions. No amount that we could give would supply the want of presence of mind and the ready power of adapting the means at hand to the emergency.
Our space will not allow us to go into all the details of boat sailing, but we must find room for one or two general rules. In seeking to land through breakers, which must always be effected by the oars, wait just outside them till you find the heaviest roller coming in; then give way, and come in upon it, with your boat’s bow all but overhanging its crest, and, as it lands, you jump out and haul your boat beyond the power of its reflux. Some crews are in the habit of giving two or three powerful strokes just before they reach the shore, and then pitching their oars simultaneously as far from them as possible, picking them up again when they have secured their boat. It is well, however, to know that there is no current to set the oars out to sea before doing this.
In coming off face the breakers boldly, but judiciously watch the smaller waves, and give her good way through them. Keep your boat’s head on to the sea, and never let her take a breaker more than two points on either bow.
Trim the sails so that when brought to the wind the boat will very nearly steer herself, and she will attain her utmost speed. The action of the rudder has always a slightly-retarding influence, but if there is any want of balance let it be on the side of ardency or tendency to fly up in the wind, so that she may carry a little weather helm rather than want helping up by a lee one, and thus, in case of sudden squalls, the boat will, as if by instinct, obey the first touch of the lee helm, and, shaking the wind out of her sails, will right herself. The main sheet of an open boat should never be made fast, but held either by the steersman, or some one near him, in readiness to ease off. A squall seldom comes so suddenly that the first puff, if well watched, will not help the boat into the wind before the full strength comes; but on the coast of Australia we have known a squall come so suddenly through the dead calm of the night that it struck us at once like a blow from a sledge-hammer, and, though we had taken all the usual precautions, the sea was pouring like a jet-black cataract flecked with diamonds over 8ft. of the lee gunwale before the boat came to the wind; and we would say, therefore, if there is not an air to bring the boat’s head up when you expect a squall, help her with the sweep of an oar into the best position to receive it.
If you want to carry on sail do not attempt to stiffen the boat by making all the crew sit to windward; for, should the mast break, as is not unlikely with the increased strain, nothing can prevent her capsizing; let them sit in the bottom. In the way of ballast, nothing can be better than bags nearly filled with fresh water. They will assume the form of any place you want to stow them in, and will not sink the boat if she should fill; in fact, being lighter than salt water, they would impart a trifling buoyancy.
Temporary rudders.
The loss of the rudder, an accident which is by no means so unfrequent at sea as may be imagined, involves also, for a time at least, the loss of control over the vessel’s course. Even in the open sea this must be attended with considerable peril; but when it happens in the vicinity of rocks or shoals, and the vessel has not sea-room, the danger becomes appalling. The careful and vigilant trimming of the sails is the readiest means of regaining command of the vessel, and we believe the “Wager” was extricated from a most perilous position by this alone; but it is a work of immense labour, and harasses the crew severely. A stream cable payed out astern, and veered to either quarter, is sometimes used; or, if the accident should occur in moderate weather, by striking on a bar, the jolly boat with the plug out may be lowered and towed astern, but both these plans check the speed of the vessel, and are only useful when they can be made to impede one side more than the other; and that this is not the true principle of steering is known to every butcher’s boy, who apologises for wearing but one spur by saying “if one side of his horse goes the other must.” The rudder may be considered as a continuation of the keel, capable of moving on a hinge to an angle of 22½° on either side, and when the vessel moves forward, and the helm, for instance, is put to port, the water impinging on the starboard side of the rudder is reflected from it at an equal square to that of its incidence, and the resulting force tends to drive the stern to port and incline the head to starboard. But as the force acts in the direction of a line midway between the angles of incidence and of reflection, it has also a retarding tendency, and if the helm were put over to an angle of 45° the greater part of the power would be expended in stopping rather than in steering the vessel. If a ship could be made so flexible as to be converted like a fish into the segment of a circle either way at pleasure, the very perfection of steering would be attained, and the rudder is merely the best imitation of this that can be devised.
Our illustration shows one expedient for the remedy of the misfortunes we have named. A warp or cable is faked down upon the deck in lengths equal to that of the required rudder, all the parts are then so closely pressed together that it resembles a board of the required breadth; it is then stiffened by longitudinal and cross bars, a weight is attached to the bottom, and a tiller projects aft, from the extremity of which the steering tackles (A) lead in over each quarter. When lowered into its place, the heel is confined to the stern-post by chains or hawsers leading to the gangway on either side, and in the present instance ropes are reeved through the gudgeons on the stern-post. Sometimes two parts of the cable are left longer than the rest to come up the rudder trunk and form the neck of the rudder, a short spar passed through the bight on deck serves to suspend the whole. Very frequently, however, when the rudder goes, the gudgeons, and perhaps also part of the stern-post, are carried away, and it then becomes necessary to devise some plan which shall supply their loss.
Several expedients are given in the Nautical Magazine for 1836, and from these we extract two or three examples. A spar, such as the spanker-boom or jibboom, is first passed over the stern, secured to the centre of the taffrail by temporary “partners,” and to the heel of the stern-post by stout guys leading forward to the gangways on either side; the gaff is then fitted on this, just as it would be on a mast, and one of the smallest and stoutest storm staysails is laced, with the head downwards, to the upright spar, and also to the gaff, the foot of the sail being cut off, if it be too large. It is then hauled down to the lower end by a halyard previously reeved, and the gaff, which should go a little below the surface of the water, is hoisted until the sail sits “as flat” as a board. If greater power is thought necessary, the outer end of the gaff can be sawn vertically down the centre, and boards clinched in, as shown in the sketch (Fig. 3); or either the sail or boards might be used separately. The ship is steered by guys leading from near the end of the gaff over each quarter. Sometimes the principle of the steering oar is adopted: a spar, with planks fastened on its outer end, is got over, and the foremost end is fitted to the stern by ring-bolts or lashings, so as to allow it to work freely without too much play. The outer end is kept down either by a lower guy or by a piece of pig ballast or other weight; and if a topping-lift be attached, leading to a boom over the stern and thence to the mizen topmast-head, the oar may be lifted out of the water when one stroke has been completed, carried back again to the other side, and thus bring the ship’s head round by a succession of sweeps.
Sometimes it is necessary to make a temporary stern-post, and the spare lower cap (which, however, we may remark, is generally stowed away where it is least likely to be found on an emergency) can be fitted on this by enlarging the masthead hole and securing it, as before, by lower guys. A topmast, with its heel upwards, may be passed down through it, and such additional spars or planking bolted on as will give the needful increase of breadth. The surface should be as smooth as circumstances permit, so that the water may glance off readily; the fid-hole will then receive the tiller, but the spar must be well banded or lashed round to prevent its splitting with the strain, or perhaps breaking off where the sheave-hole weakens it.
Scarfing or fishing of broken spars.
The captain of our battered little vessel had always some rough and ready expedient at his finger-ends. When one of the iron davits of the quarter boat was bent by a collision, he extemporised a forge with some pig ballast, on deck, and, though the planks beneath were somewhat scorched, he rendered the davit again effective. Once, when running before the wind, the mainsail jibed in consequence of careless steering, and the boom, being fastened by a “lazy guy,” a slovenly shift a little too common among us, broke short off; however, a good stout plank was found, cut into four pieces, which were laid round the fractured part so as to inclose it in a kind of packing-case, of which the four sides did not meet at their edges; wooldings of rope were passed round at intervals and tightened by driving in wedges, and the boom, though somewhat clumsy, was again fit for duty. (See illustration.)
If a spar, with both ends alike, breaks at either end, a very neat and effective scarf may be made by sawing it down the centre and reversing the two parts, end for end, so that the fracture in one half may come against the unbroken part of the other, as in our sketch (p. 181). If the fracture is long, there may be no need for that unsightly appendage called a fish, and, even if it is short, a very small one will serve the purpose.
If a mast breaks, much above the deck, it may be again used, with little or no diminution of its strength, by reversing it, and stepping what used to be the masthead upon the keelson, so that the fractured part may come below the deck, while that which was the heel is shaped and fitted to become the head. It will be evident from the sketches we give that in a ship with a very deep hold, where very nearly half the mast is below the deck, this plan is more likely to be of service than in a shallow one, where the part below bears but a small proportion to that above.
Kites.
As a substitute or as an auxiliary to the common sails, or as a means of sending up a signal or effecting communication between a ship and a lee shore, a kite of sufficient power would frequently be useful.
Every voyager knows how frequently all the lower and larger sails of a vessel are becalmed, the uppermost and smallest catching only a gentle air, while at a little height above them the wind, as indicated by the fleecy clouds, may be blowing much more briskly.
In this case, when even the flying kites, as the upper sails are figuratively called, have become useless, real kites flying at a sufficient elevation would do good service; and even though the wind might not be fair, still so long as it was a little abaft the beam the vessel might be steered to her course. One thing must be kept in mind, and that is, that when it has once fallen calm below the kites cannot be raised to the breeze that is blowing above, therefore it would be well either to send them up before the breeze fails, or at least to send up in preparation a small one, to the line of which the larger could be hitched, and jerked clear when it had been carried to a sufficient altitude.
A kite of 12ft. in height spreads about 50ft. square of canvas, and will pull, in a fresh breeze, with a strength of about 200lb., if the height were doubled the strength would, of course, be fourfold; and as it would act as a lifting or buoyant instead of a depressing sail, the only risk in “carrying on” would be the parting of the line connecting it with the vessel; on this account it would be the best possible form of sail to rig in an open and over-crowded boat when leaving a wreck, for its tendency would be to lift the bows over the seas instead of depressing them. And even if a man about to risk the passage by swimming from a stranded ship to a lee shore could send up a small kite, such as he could make with a cotton shirt, a couple of sticks, and a few fathoms of fishing line, it would most likely buoy him over the crests of the breakers in which he would otherwise be overwhelmed. But the greatest objection to the general use of the kite is, that in the usual mode of flying we have no command of it except that of letting it go higher or hauling it in at the risk of breaking the line; this has been met by a very ingenious invention, and although it is patented, we think that we may do the public some service, and Mr. Pocock, the patentee, no harm, by describing it.
POCOCK’S KITE.
The common form of kite is best. The standard is made into two or three equal lengths, connected either by fishing-rod, by tent-pole, or by parasol joints; the wings have hinges at the head of the standard, and, if large, joints in each pinion. The flight band consists of two lines, the uppermost of which has an eye upon it through which the lower, called the brace line, reeves, and both come down to the hand of the conductor, and by these the deviation of the standard from the perpendicular is controlled. By hauling on the brace line the surface is opposed fairly to the full strength of the wind (Fig. 1); by slackening it the kite floats more horizontally, allowing the wind to pass gently beneath it, so that even in the strongest gale the power may be regulated at pleasure (Fig. 3). The power may be increased by backing the first with a second kite as in Fig. 2, all the lines of the second kite being made fast to their corresponding places on the first, so that both assume the same relative position in all cases. Two smaller lines from the wings, also passing through eyes on the upper line, act as braces by which to trim the kite upon a wind; and it appears from a diagram given by the inventor that a vessel braced sharp up will lie within about five and a half points of the wind, or as close as most vessels can with their usual sails, and, therefore, may turn to windward. With a kite the operation of tacking would be very easy. Even should the boat not answer her helm, the kite line taken aft would bring her head up to the wind, and, being carried round on the other quarter, and again forward to its proper place, would help her to her proper course; and in manœuvring the absence of masts would be an advantage rather than not. A carriage with the fore wheels capable of being turned by a tiller would also turn to windward, and the draught power might be increased at pleasure by backing one kite with another, the connecting lines all being fastened in their proper places, as in the illustration ([p. 183]), so that whatever change of position was imparted to the lowermost kite might be also assumed by all that were harnessed to it.
Signals by day or night might be sent up with great facility by hitching the halyard block upon any part of the kite line, when the flags or lanterns might be sent far above any spars or sails that could obstruct the view of them. In case of shipwreck, even a common kite extemporised with the roughest materials would very generally be useful.
SENDING LINE FROM WRECK TO LEE SHORE BY MEANS OF A KITE.
When the ship is on a lee shore, a common kite, flown from on board, could not fail to bring a line to land, and, with this communication once established, all hands could probably be saved. Their own boat might be veered ashore, or the men sling themselves with grummets and warp themselves hand over hand; or if passengers are on board, a cot or hammock, slung to notched blocks running on a hawser with a line to haul it back to the vessel, and one to bring it again towards the shore, might be employed.
But with kites rigged as we have described, there would have been a greater chance of safety, for they may be braced to fly three and a half points either way from the direction of the wind, and if they are employed to carry a grapnel or small kedge, they may be braced and veered within a limit of seven points of the compass towards a suitable spot; may be lowered gradually by the slacking of the brace line, and, if the hold is not good, again elevated by hauling it in, to drop the anchor in a more suitable spot.
In our full-page illustration the extemporised kite is not so completely rigged, but the flight line is led through a block, so that the wrecked crew could make fast to one end a stronger line; and, having hauled that through, could next bend on a sufficiently stout hawser.
The inventor states that he has travelled in a carriage, at twenty miles per hour; that a boat so drawn outsailed the speediest vessels of the usual rig; that a lady ascended to a height of a hundred yards; and that his son, with a 30ft. kite, scaled a cliff 200ft. high. Tho main and brace line of a kite of this size were ½in. in diameter, the braces (proper) were somewhat smaller. The discovery that a statue once stood on Pompey’s Pillar was made by some merchant captains who ascended it by means of a line carried over by a kite.
Weather signs.
The canoe or boat voyager should at all times pay particular attention to the instructions which foretell the approach of storms; these are not at all times so unmistakable as to enable him to surely count on the kind of day or night which he has to pass through; still, the remarks of the late Admiral Fitzroy, published by the Board of Trade, are of much practical value:
“Whether clear or cloudy, a rosy sky at sunset presages fine weather; a red sky in the morning, bad weather, or much wind (perhaps rain); a grey sky in the morning, fine weather; a high dawn, wind; a low dawn, fair weather. Soft-looking or delicate clouds foretell fine weather, with moderate or light breezes; hard-edged oily-looking clouds, wind. A dark, gloomy blue sky is windy; but a light, bright blue sky indicates fine weather. Generally, the softer the clouds look, the less wind (but, perhaps, more rain) may be expected; and the harder, more ‘greasy,’ rolled, tufted, or ragged, the stronger the coming wind will prove. Also, a bright yellow sky at sunset presages wind; a pale yellow, wet; and thus, by the prevalence of red, yellow, or grey tints, the coming weather may be foretold very nearly, indeed, if aided by instruments, almost exactly. Small inky-looking clouds foretell rain; light scud-clouds driving across heavy masses show wind and rain; but, if alone, may indicate wind only. High upper clouds crossing the sun, moon, or stars, in a direction different from that of the lower clouds, or the wind then felt below, foretell a change of wind. When sea-birds fly out early, and far to seaward, moderate wind and fair weather may be expected; when they hang about the land, or over it, sometimes flying inland, expect a strong wind with stormy weather. There are other signs of a coming change in the weather known less generally than may be desirable, and, therefore, worth notice; such as when birds of long flight, rooks, swallows, or others, hang about home, or fly up and down or low—rain or wind may be expected. Also, when animals seek sheltered places, instead of spreading over their usual range; when pigs carry straw to their sties; when smoke from chimneys does not ascend readily (or straight upwards during calm), an unfavourable change is probable. Dew is an indication of fine weather: so is fog. Neither of these two formations occur under an overcast sky, or when there is much wind. One sees fog occasionally rolled away, as it were, by wind, but seldom or never formed while it is blowing.”
Waterproofing.
The traveller will not unfrequently wish to render sailcloth, duck, calico, and other materials water-proof; few handy methods surpass that of the Chinese. They proceed as follows: to every ounce of melted white wax is added one quart of spirits of turpentine. The mixture must be stirred with a stick until quite cold, when the material to be treated is thoroughly dipped, allowed to drain out, and then finally hung by the corners in a current of air to dry. In making common tarpaulins it is well to soak the canvas thoroughly in sea-water before laying on the dressing, and as the water evaporates the tar penetrates the fabric. In Africa we used the acrid milky juice of the Euphorbium, mixed with a little boiled oil, on calico. It was very flexible, and perfectly protected a common open packing-case, with books and papers, on the deck of the vessel from the Cape to London. Boiled linseed oil, when allowed to soak into linen or cotton cloth, much increases its power of resisting the action of water.
The deep-water glass.
To those who are engaged in boat expeditions, researches along the sea-coast, or lake investigations, it is of the greatest importance to be able to see far down into the depths below; as, for example, for the recovery of sunken seals, which often go to the bottom like lead when struck dead by a shot, the examination of rocks, and the detection of lost objects. The late Mr. Wheelwright gives such a thoroughly practical account of his deep-water glass that we insert it in his own words: “I have had a little experience myself in seal-shooting off our north-west coast, and when I first began I had the mortification of seeing many a seal which I had shot stone dead go down like a plummet, and we lost him. But afterwards we used a seal-glass, a kind of machine very similar to a small hand-churn, like a bucket, about one yard high, tapering towards the top, about 9in. wide at the top and 18in. at the bottom. Of course the top was open, and in the middle of the bottom was fitted a square piece of glass (I believe common window glass). As soon as a seal sunk dead, we cast over a small buoy, kept in its place by a grapnel, as near the spot where the seal sank as possible, and then we examined the bottom after this fashion: We sunk the glass over the boat’s side (just where we fancied the dead seal lay) into the water, within about two inches of the top (glass downwards), and by steadily looking down through the little glass window we could distinctly see the bottom of the sea and what lay on it. As soon as we saw the dead seal we hooked him up with a line and a drag. I don’t know what is the greatest depth of water in which such a glass is available, and it is now some time since I used one; but I am sure I have often seen a dead seal lying in eight or ten fathoms; and just round the rocks where we shot the seals the water was never very deep, but still we rarely could see the bottom with the naked eye. I do not believe the glass at all has any magnifying properties, but I suppose the focus of vision is better concentrated below the surface of the waves in the comparatively still water. I was at this time living with one of the Customs’ officers on the coast, who often used such a glass with great success in finding kegs that were sunk by smugglers off this coast.”
Treatment of the apparently drowned.
Our remarks and directions concerning the various means which may be had recourse to for traversing rivers, lakes, and the sea would be incomplete without instructions for the restoration of the apparently drowned. None that can be drawn up are more perfect than those given by the authority of the Royal Lifeboat Institution, which were published, with some of the following remarks, in the Field newspaper some short time since:—“Hanging the body up by the heels to drain out the water which is supposed to have been swallowed, is not one of the least injurious of the popular expedients in cases of suspended animation, and it is, in itself, sufficient to keep up the engorgement of the brain, which is one of the chief dangers to be apprehended. So, also, warm baths, tobacco smoke, and other depressing influences, should be strictly prohibited; and also that horrible practice of rolling the body over and over, which is so frequently adopted by those who are ignorant of its effects. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution and Humane Society constantly circulate printed papers containing cautions against the adoption of these expedients; but, unfortunately, they are seldom to be met with when they are wanted, and, on that account, we venture to impress upon our readers the importance of making themselves intimately acquainted not only with the objectionable practices to which we have alluded, but also with the methods which scientific men are agreed upon as those most likely to restore the circulation and respiration.
“In the first place, it may be observed that for several hours after the submersion all hope of recovery should not be given up, unless it is declared by a medical man of experience that life is extinct. The signs by which this opinion may be formed are pretty clear to him, but by an ordinary spectator they are liable to be mistaken, since they are all more or less comparative in their nature. When, however, for half an hour there is not the slightest evidence of breathing, or of the action of the heart—when the eyelids are half closed, with the pupils turned upwards and dilated, the jaws clenched, and the fingers semi-contracted—there is little doubt about the result, especially if the tongue is partially protruded, and the lips and nostrils are covered with frothy mucus. The temperature of the body is often not a reliable sign, because that is kept up by artificial means; but if, in spite of these, and in addition to the existence of the above symptoms, the coldness of the surface is very manifest, even if there is no medical authority for the relaxation of all efforts at restoration, it can serve little purpose to persevere. Still it is better to err on the safe side, and in this country there is seldom a long interval of doubt.
“But supposing a body to be brought out of the water, it becomes a question, What shall be done? Shall it be taken to the nearest house, or at once be treated on the spot? The answer is, proceed at once in the open air, whether on shore or afloat, and lose not a moment in the attempt to restore breathing, and keep up the temperature of the body by the application of dry heat. The first of these is the main object, and the second must be for a short time sacrificed to it, but only for a few minutes, after which the two objects must be jointly pursued. These efforts must be continued energetically till they are either found to be successful, or declared to be useless. Should the breathing be restored, the circulation should next be encouraged by rubbing the limbs in the direction of the heart, with firm and steady pressure, and with the aid, if possible, of warm flannels or silk handkerchiefs, protected by a blanket over all. Beyond these general directions, however, it is necessary to give others more minute, and this will be best done in the words used in the printed directions of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which are given in a succinct tabular form, and should be hung up in every public place near which accidental drowning is at all likely to occur.” These directions are as follow:
TO RESTORE BREATHING. To clear the Throat. 1. Place the patient on the floor or ground with his face downwards, and one of his arms under the forehead, in which position all fluids will escape by the mouth, and the tongue itself will fall forward, leaving the entrance into the windpipe free. Assist this operation by wiping and cleansing the mouth. 2. If satisfactory breathing commences, adopt the treatment described below to promote warmth and natural breathing. If there be only slight breathing, or no breathing, or if it fail, then— To excite Breathing 3. Turn the patient well and instantly on the side, and— 4. Excite the nostrils with snuff, harts-horn, smelling salts, or tickle the throat with a feather, &c., if they are at hand. Rub the chest and face warm, and dash cold water on it. 5. If there be no success, lose not a moment, but instantly To imitate Breathing— 6. Replace the patient on the face, raising and supporting the chest well on a folded coat or other article of dress. 7. Turn the body very gently on the side and a little beyond, and then briskly on the face, back again; repeating these measures deliberately, efficiently, and perseveringly about fifteen times in the minute, or once every four seconds, occasionally varying the side: [by placing the patient on the chest, the weight of the body forces the air out; when turned on the side, this pressure is removed, and air enters the chest.] 8. On each occasion that the body is replaced on the face, make uniform but efficient pressure with brisk movement, on the back between and below the shoulder-blades or bones on each side, removing the pressure immediately before turning the body on the side: [the first measure increases the expiration, the second commences inspiration.] ⁂ The result is—Respiration or Natural Breathing; and, if not too late, Life. Cautions. 1. Be particularly careful to prevent persons crowding round the body. 2. Avoid all rough usage and turning the body on the back. 3. Under no circumstances hold the body up by the feet. | TO PREVENT ANY FURTHER N.B.—These efforts must be made very cautiously, and must not be such as to promote Warmth and circulation rapidly; for if circulation is induced before breathing has been restored, the life of the patient will be endangered. No other effect, therefore, should be sought from them, than the prevention of evaporation, and its result, the diminution of the warmth of the body. 1. Expose the face, neck, and chest, except in severe weather (such as heavy rain, frost, or snow). 2. Dry the face, neck, and chest, as soon as possible with handkerchiefs or anything at hand; and then dry the hands and feet. 3. As soon as a blanket or other covering can be obtained, strip the body; but if no covering can be immediately procured, take dry clothing from the bystanders, dry and re-clothe the body, taking care not to interfere with the efforts to restore breathing. |
| N.B. The directions are printed in parallel columns to avoid confusion, and to insure that the efforts to obtain both objects shall be carried on at the same time. | |
CHAPTER III.
WORKING IN METALS.
It would be of great advantage to every traveller if before starting on an expedition he were to spend a few hours in learning from a blacksmith how to weld together two pieces of iron, and from a tinman how to solder tin or copper. In the absence of this experience, a man who is determined to help himself need not despair of success if he will bear in mind that the chief essentials in both cases are proper heat, strict cleanliness, and sufficient quickness of manipulation without hurry. If the traveller possesses a portable forge, it is most likely he will have learned how to use it before starting; if not, he may in many countries, South Africa especially, find almost in every tribe some native who could make one; or if not, he might adopt some of the expedients described under that head. His first care should be to see that his fire burns clearly and with sufficient intensity, and this he may aid by occasionally dashing in a little water, which, by the decomposition of the gases, will increase the heat under the direct blast, while the surplus, falling on the surrounding coal, will prevent the fire spreading farther than is requisite. The broken ends of the iron to be rejoined should then be placed in the fire, one of them in the centre of the heat, and the other near enough to acquire a preparatory warmth; the first, heated to a bright orange red, should be taken out and thickened by stamping the broken point upon the anvil till it is considerably shorter than before; if the heat is sufficient, the scarf, or smooth diagonal surface which is to form one part of the welded joint, may be worked upon it; if not, it must be returned to the fire while the other part is taken out and driven up in the same manner. In using the hammer, some care is needful to proportion the force of the blow to the size and comparative heat of the metal you are working, and also to turn the iron under the hammer so that each stroke shall help to consolidate the mass instead of splitting it into fibres. When the surfaces of the scarf are worked smooth, fair, and perfectly free from scales or dirt of any kind, place them side by side in the fire and bring them to an intense white heat, so that when drawn forth they may almost spontaneously give off small white sparks. We would add a caution against burning the iron, or partially fusing it, by too much heat, but we do not think a traveller with an extempore forge is in much danger of doing this. The anvil should now be perfectly clean; the “smith,” with his hammer ready in his right hand, should grasp with his left one of the pieces while his attendant draws out the other and lays it with the scarfed side uppermost on the anvil; prompt action without hurry is now the one thing needful: the smith withdraws his piece, lays it with its scarf turned downwards on that of the assistant’s, and with one decisive stroke of the hand-hammer unites them; a few more smart and rapid strokes while the iron is slightly turned to and fro to receive them properly, complete the union; and when the first heat is lost the iron is again put into the fire, and the joint which, owing to the thickening and shortening previously described, should present a clumsy appearance, may be trimmed and hammered down to its proper dimensions, the iron, if this is neatly done, having lost but little of its original length; and it is now for the operator to judge whether he will restore this by beating the metal a little thinner or sacrifice a little of it for the sake of retaining the original thickness. Among the Kafirs a rock is most frequently used for an anvil, and a smaller stone for a hammer. The West Africans use a conical block of iron, about the size and shape of the link extinguishers, some of which may yet be seen before old houses in London. The work has, in consequence, a slightly indented appearance, which distinguishes it from the smooth-faced hammer-work of England; but their weapons are of excellent metal, and so flexible, that they will almost tie in a knot rather than break. The Abyssinians also use weapons of this temper; for they say if a steel sword breaks, who can mend it, but if it bends we can sit on it and straighten it.
Scrap and hoop iron.
We have often made very good knives for skinning or cutting up animals from the handles of broken gridirons, frying-pans, stout hoop, or other bits of iron. Broken sheep-shears are also excellent substitutes. The hoop iron used to bind the bundles of compressed hay issued to troop horses can be made use of for an immense number of useful purposes. The walls of many of the stables we erected in the Crimea were composed entirely of this material, closely interwoven, like basketwork. Excellent gabions can be made from it, as can the framework of hut roofs. A piece a couple of yards long, doubled forward and back in zigzag form, makes an excellent gridiron. Short pieces, straightened out by hammering, form useful make-shift knife blades for the use of native servants. Tent poles are greatly strengthened by having a spiral strapping of this iron nailed to them. Saws for cutting or rather fretting blocks of stone can be made by stretching a strip of this material edgewise in a wooden frame, aided by water, sharp sand, and a suitable balance weight, such as marble masons use. Excellent eel traps are made by arranging long strips of hoop for a body, and then securing them by small nails, as rivets, to hoops made from the same material. Eel traps will be fully described under the head of “[Fishing.]” We once made a complete set of bars for the bottom and front of a camp stove entirely of forage hoop iron, made a scraper for the door, a set of hooks for a gun rack, and a set of cross hooks to hang meat on. Never heedlessly throw away forage iron.
Trimming and filing up are matters which may be left very much to the taste and opportunities of the traveller, but it should be remembered that, cæteris paribus, a neatly finished piece of work, besides being more satisfactory to the eye, is in itself stronger, as the inequalities, flakes, flaws, or roughnesses of the surface, which, under any strain, might form the commencement of a fracture, are removed; and besides this, especially in wet climates, a well smoothed piece of work is less liable to rust in patches than one of unequal surface. If you intend to file-finish your work, remember to let it cool slowly, and do not harden it by immersion in water.
The use of cold or of joiners’ chisels.
In some cases incisions may be required, too sharp or clean to be cut with a file, and, if proper care be taken, a fine, sharp, joiner’s chisel may be used without more injury than may be set right by fresh grinding it; it is advisable, however, first to render the angle at which the edge is set a little more obtuse, so as to lessen the danger of flawing it, taking care at the same time to keep it as keen as possible.
Tires and wheels.
In all expeditions in which wheeled vehicles are used, nothing causes more trouble than the loosening of the tires, owing to the shrinking of the woodwork, and possibly some slight expansion of the metal, from the heavy pressure on the rough roads, as well as from the intense heat of a tropical climate. If sufficient skill be available, the proper course is to cut and shorten the tire, for all other make-shifts have the disadvantage either of being insecure, or positively injurious to the fabric of the wheel. Supposing the shortening to be determined on, the tire must be taken off, and if, as is frequently the case, it be fastened with rivets through the felloes, the clinch on the inner ends of the bolts must be first cut or filed away, the “washers” or iron rings taken off, and the rivets themselves driven back with a long punch or drift pin; the “band” or tire will then either fall off or require but a few blows to detach it. The streaks used to protect the wheels of field artillery guns and waggons are removed and replaced separately.
It is impossible to measure the relative circumference of the felloes and the inner side of the band without an instrument similar to the perambulator; i. e. a wheel or disc of wood or metal, mounted on a handle. A chalk mark is made on the felloe and a corresponding one on the edge of the disc; the two are set together, and the disc—say 1ft. 6in. in circumference—will then revolve perhaps ten and a half times in going round the hinder wheel of a Cape waggon of about 5ft. diameter. As soon as the disc has again reached the starting point another chalk mark is to be made upon it, and the distance between the two marks on the disc, say 9in., is to be added to the number of revolutions counted; it is then to be applied to the inner side of the band, the ten revolutions counted off, the additional 9in. to be run, and the distance between the starting point and the finish of its course is the amount by which the band is too long. Some judgment is required to decide whether more or less than this piece shall be taken out. If the wheel looks very firm and close in its joints, perhaps a little less should be cut, as the overlapping of the weld will take up a trifle—especially if it be not very skilfully and neatly done; if the wheel is loose and the spokes not firmly shouldered up to the nave, a little more may be taken away; and in this case it is proper to estimate whether the felloes will close up sufficiently to force the spokes home upon the nave; if not, the ends of four or more felloes opposite each other should be cut a trifle shorter with a fine tenon saw, great care being taken not to cut the dowels by which the ends of the felloes are kept true to each other. A smooth, hard place must now be sought out, on which the wheel can be laid flat, the front downwards, a hole being dug, if necessary, for the reception of the nave; flat stones, plates of iron, or slabs of hard wood, laid evenly under the circumference, would be of advantage when the shortened band is to be driven on. The next essentials are plenty of water and abundance of heating power. The ends of the band must now be heated, and the smith will bevel off each of them, one from the inside and the other from the out, so as to form the scarf; an attendant or two holding the band, as he directs, upon the anvil. The tire should now be reversed, and the curvature increased by resting it on two points of support and striking heavily between them on its inner surface till the scarfed ends close upon and begin to overlap each other. It is again placed in the fire with the ends equally exposed to the intense heat, and at the proper moment is lifted out by two attendants and promptly, but carefully, placed upon the anvil; a few smart decisive blows are given, and the joint is made. The hammer man now comes to the assistance of the smith and consolidates it by striking alternate blows with the “sledge,” under his direction. The circumference is again tried with the revolving disc, and if it be too short, as it ought rather to be, it is again heated and hammered out, the weld, if this be rightly done, gaining solidity in the process. The band is then laid upon the ground and a fire of wood, dry cow dung, or other material made, so as to heat it to redness through its whole circumference. It is then lifted by tongs or other means (if hooks are used they must be applied from the outside), and placed upon the wheel, and, as quickly as possible, hammered down nearly into its true position. The workmen will soon find what “smoke to the eyes” is like, but they must disregard this, and, before the wood is too much burned away, quantities of cold water must be dashed on, the hammer men all the while beating down the shrinking band to a level with the felloes; before it is quite cold the wheel should be caught up and brought to the anvil, or a smooth rock, where the tire is faced up true to the felloe front by heavy blows, and finally cooled off and tightened by another deluge of cold water.
Everything depends upon prompt action; and the tiring of a set of waggon wheels at some out station is really an exciting event, at which all hands are required to work with a will.
Repair of perch-bolts.
Not unfrequently the “schammel-bolt” or perch-bolt will give way in the grip, and if this flaw be detected in time, and the bolt be long enough, the evil day may be staved off by removing it, boring a hole through the “buik” plank or floor of the waggon, right above, and dropping the bolt down through it so that its head remains 3in. or 4in. higher than before, and the nip is brought upon a fresh place, as shown by the dotted line above H (p. 216).
Extempore anvils and vices.
For small work, the “reim schoen,” or drag, turned up upon a block of wood, will form a very decent anvil; and the next essential is a vice, which ought to be as large and powerful as can be carried. A weak inefficient vice is worse than useless. The means of attaching it ought also to be good, for if it is not firmly fixed no work can be properly finished in it. No part of the waggon ought to be used as a holdfast for the vice, unless indeed it were properly fitted with iron guards for that purpose before starting, for the claws and screw-bolts would speedily tear and split the wood, and only damage the vehicle to no purpose. It would generally be better to cut down a convenient tree, leaving a stump about 3½ft. high, and in this to cut a niche, partly to let the vice in: it might then be secured by hoops of iron, if available, such as the nave bands, or anything similar, tightened with wedges, and lashed in its place by thongs of raw hide, which, when they dry, acquire almost the rigidity of iron.
If the vice cannot be fixed firmly, it is better to cut with the saw a deep groove down into the solid stump, and, having inserted the iron you wish to file, to tighten it with wedges, screws, lashings, or such other appliances as you may have at hand ([p. 166]).
The tapping of screws on bolts or nuts, especially if of any size, requires that the work be firmly held; but we should rather advise that duplicate bolts and nuts of the principal sizes used in waggon work—½in., ¾in., ⅞in., and 1in.—be carried, as a set of taps and dies could not be had even in Cape Town for much less than £5, and an unskilled hand would be more likely to break the instruments than use them to advantage. For the smaller sizes, suitable for gun-locks, &c., a plate and set of taps might advantageously be carried.
Cutting bolts and gun-barrels.
Sometimes a bolt, rod of iron, or a gun-barrel, has to be cut off to a given length, and the most convenient way of doing this is to file a row of small teeth upon the back of a handsaw, and with it to saw off the superfluous iron: the first illustration shows the manner of cutting the teeth, and their exact size and shape. Always put in a bit of copper, lead, or leather to protect the gun-barrels from the grip of the vice. It may, perhaps, be well to remark here, that nearly all Russian saws are made to cut backwards, and all the gun breech-screws made in that country are cut the reverse way to ours.
For repairs of guns, it is well to have sufficient wire of different thicknesses; but when a hardened pivot is required, a broken gimlet or a bradawl will often supply the material; and we have before now earned a goat or sheep for dinner by supplying in this manner some deficiency in the arms brought to the white man to be repaired. It is convenient to buy a musket-lock or two before starting, and to save all sorts of screws, tumblers, springs, &c., out of old locks.
We were once asked, far away in Namaqualand, to perform no less a service for a friend than to put a new hammer on his gun. Modest disclaimers of ability were not received, and there was nothing left but to do our best. We found a bit of flat iron, which, fortunately, had a hole in it: this we first squared up with a small “three-square” file, and then fitting it to the tumbler, and making sure that the flat surface of the hammer should strike upon the nipple, laboriously cut and filed away the intermediate parts, and before morning the hammer was fixed. Mr. Rae, the engineer of the Zambesi expedition, proceeded more scientifically; he employed a native to weld up a quantity of iron hooping into a plate quite thick and large enough to make the hammer, then, drawing the outline, he bored small holes close together all round it, broke off the superfluous iron, and finished with the file.
On one occasion we were unfortunate enough to break the little S-shaped bridle which connects the claw of the mainspring with the arm of the tumbler. Most of our readers will remember that this portion of a gun-lock is of a most peculiar form, being not only S-shaped, but flat-cheeked and T-ended. Notwithstanding the apparently complicated nature of the undertaking, a new one had to be made; so we proceeded as follows:—One of our small mining picks chanced to have an iron wedge (which had originally been cut from an old patten iron) in the handle. This we softened in the fire, worked into form on the head of an upturned hammer with one of smaller size, and then roughly finished it up with a handsaw file. The screw hole had then to be made, and, as we had no drill, we took the scissors from our fishing-book, ground down the point on our bit of Turkey hone, tempered it in the candle, and then, by dint of hard labour and persistent boring, made a hole through the end of the bridle. We then gave our work a few finishing touches, tied it up in a bit of old leather, heated it in the fire, plunged it in water to case-harden, and then secured it in the lock, where it performed its work well until we parted with the gun so repaired.
Sighting guns.
Most of the hunters in South Africa find that ivory, from its agreeable creamy white, is better adapted for the “korel,” or front sight of a gun, than the polished metal used for that purpose by the maker. Sometimes the sight is accidentally lost, and has to be replaced; but more frequently the dazzling bit of metal is purposely knocked off.
A broad flat groove, say ½in. broad, or as wide as a handsaw file, and 1⁄16in. deep, is cut across the midrib of the gun (Fig. 1), and the edges of this are under cut, either with a sharp-edged file, or, if the operator is expert in the use of tools, with a chisel and mallet. A piece of ivory (Fig. 3), cut so that the grain runs with the length of the barrel, and with an elevated ridge left in the centre, is then fitted tightly in, adjusted as nearly as possible, and the metal clinched down upon it; then the central ridge is filed on either side until, by occasionally firing at a mark, the gun is found to shoot without lateral deviation. It should, in the beginning, be considerably too high, and should then be filed down so as to carry the bullet point blank to its mark at a hundred yards.
If the back sight is lost, cut a notch across the midrib as before, and fashion a piece of iron (Fig. 2) to the same shape as you did your ivory, only let the elevated ridge in this case be across the barrel. File a notch in the centre, and leave the iron a little wider than the rib, so that it may admit of being driven a little to either side, and the superfluous metal filed off when the adjustment is nearly perfected. Mark it, and take it out to do this; then put it in again, clinch it, and test it by firing at a mark.
Figs. 4 and 5 represent the position of the two sights. If the gun shoots to the right, shift the back sight (Fig. 6) to the left and the front sight (Fig. 7) to the right; if to the left, shift the back sight (Fig. 8) to the right, and the front one (Fig. 9) to the left. If the gun shoots too low, file down the front sight; if too high, file down the notch of the back sight.
In one of our own rifles the front sight was, as usual in military patterns, based on the block of iron which forms the check for the bayonet (Fig. 11). We did not remove this, but cut behind it a very shallow groove an inch broad, and in this fixed and soldered a piece of iron with a longitudinal groove, to carry a knife-edged sight of ivory, as seen in Fig. 10.
For night shooting, we used the only sixpence to be found amongst our party; bending and polishing it and clinching it on to a saddle of zinc painted black. Holes were punched in this for leather thongs, and in front was a notch cut to fit the actual sight, and so insure the central position of the silver one when in use (Fig. 13). By day the saddle was turned beneath the barrel (Fig. 12), and the little flat thongs of antelope hide were not at all in the way. With guns not of military pattern the sight could not so conveniently be turned under, but would have to be removed by day; but we should think a broad silver sight might be fixed on a steel spring on the rib behind the sight, with a broad ring to slip over and keep it down by day, as in Fig. 15, or to draw back and let it rise into view by night as in Fig. 14 (p. 201). For the same purpose our late friend, C. J. Andersson, used to wrap a bit of white paper round the muzzle of his gun, pinching it up in the centre, or laying a cord under it to give it a little elevation (Fig. 16).
As a protection, and also for the contrast of the colours, the Dutch, and many of the English colonists, stitch very tightly over all a bit of skin from the inside of the elephant’s ear (Fig. 17). This is very fine, exceedingly strong, and, when rubbed with a little grease, intensely black; it is then very carefully cut, to allow the front sight to appear through, and left to dry. Another advantage of this plan is, that it corrects the errors often caused by the mirage or refraction of the sun’s rays from the polished barrel, which, especially in the tropics, causes the object aimed at to become indistinct, to assume the appearance of motion, and to be seen sometimes considerably above its true position, thereby causing the marksman to miss by shooting over it.
Sheath knives or bayonets.
No wise traveller ever encumbers himself with a long sword or bayonet of ordinary pattern; but every one carries a sheath knife, of from 6in. to 12in. in the blade; and the handle of this ought to be made so that it may fix as a bayonet on his gun. We have seen natives considerably astonished by this sudden conversion of our gun into a spear to kill a wounded animal.
If the knife handle were simply made round, so as to stick into the barrel, like the bayonet of old times, it would be better than nothing; but if the side-springs were generally adopted, it might be well to arm our troops, intended for service in wild countries, with a good serviceable sheath knife, of 8in. or 10in. in the blade, to be used for general purposes, and fixed as a bayonet when wanted, rather than with the orthodox triangular needle, that is only of use in opportunities that occur but rarely. We remember a party of a certain line regiment coming upon a number of Hottentots, when their officer ordered them to fix bayonets, forgetting for the moment that as usual they had been left at home—just as were the swords and steel scabbards of the Cape Corps—lest their rattling should give warning to the crafty foe. It is a common custom in India, when real work has to be done, to throw aside the steel scabbards and replace them with wooden ones, which have the double advantage of being noiseless and a preservative to the edge of the sword. We have heard a man of the Rifle Brigade say, he should not fear even though lost in the bush. “Shoot the first Kafir that attacks you,” said he, “and arm yourself with his assegai, and no other will come near you.”
THE ASSEGAI GUN REST.
Our allies, the Fingoes, in the war of 1850–53, generally carried one or more assegais, using the shaft as a ramrod, or holding two of them crosswise in the left hand as a rest for the musket. The Kafirs, when hard pressed, retain the largest assegai, and, breaking off the shaft, use it as a sword or dagger. The contest is often prolonged by picking up the assegais thrown by the other party, and sending them back again. To prevent this, sometimes a tribe, bent on a sharp decisive conflict, will cut the shaft half through, so that it may break when it strikes, and become useless to the enemy.
RAMROD GUN REST.
The Dutch Boer sits down, rests his elbows on his knees, and extending his left arm, with the ramrod grasped firmly and planted on the ground, obtains an almost immovable rest for his heavy roer. Many of them shoot from the left shoulder, and some few can shoot from either shoulder equally well—an immense advantage if a man on horseback is surrounded by enemies.
Watch-key, to make.
In an out-of-the way corner of Central India we were so unfortunate as to lose our watch-key—the last of three. This we replaced as follows: We first routed out a piece of soft steel about the size of a small black-lead pencil. After filing off one end perfectly flush, we placed it in the fire, whilst we prepared the square end of a saddler’s awl by grinding it to the exact size of the key-square of the fusee of the watch. When the steel was heated to a cherry red, we fixed it upright in the vice, and then supporting the bit of awl with a pair of pliers we, with a light hammer, drove it a fair distance into the steel bar. When it cooled, it was reheated, and the bit of awl driven deeper, until a square hole of sufficient depth was formed. The bar was then filed down to the size of the key-hole of the watch. The requisite length was then cut off; the end flattened out for a thumb-piece; and a hole drilled in it to pass a thin strip of tendon through. A few finishing touches were given with a fine file; the work was heated to a blue heat on a bit of red-hot iron, and was then dropped into a cup of water. So we made our watch-key, which did its work well through about 4000 miles of travelling, and was as good as new when we returned to England with it hanging at our whip-cord watch-guard.
Tools, to temper.
In all cases in which heat is required for iron work care should be taken that the fire is perfectly clear, especially if it has been previously used for melting lead, when any dross or other extraneous matter should be scrupulously cleared out. Sulphur in any form is most destructive. It would be well that the operator should learn before starting how to work up and fresh temper a cold chisel, or punch, or even to make one if needful out of a broken file or rasp; of course, the punch is round, square, or octagonal, according to circumstances, and generally flat at the end to drive back the nail or bolt that is to be withdrawn. Sometimes a tapered point on a triangular instrument, such as a handsaw file, with the edges sharpened, is useful for driving into a broken nipple, and by turning it against the sun to extract it when sufficient hold has not been left for the usual nipple key. The cold chisel is first forged to a chisel edge, more or less finely tapering according to the strength required, the two sides forming an angle of about 15° to 20° with each other; the cantle is then filed or ground till its sides form an angle of from 45° to 90°; it is then heated to a cherry red, and dipped in water cautiously at first, being frequently taken out and watched during the process till it assumes a pale straw colour, a deeper tint or even a deep blue or purple, according to the degree of hardness required, and is finally ground sharp upon a stone with plenty of cold water. Small tools may be tempered by laying them on a piece of red-hot iron, such as a bit of waggon-wheel tire; the changing colours should be watched, and when the desired tint appears the tool may be plunged into water. Should it be too hard the temper may be reduced by dry grinding; when a temper not quite so hard and less liable to fly is required, it may be given by cooling the steel in grease or oil. The tools carried for this purpose must vary according to the means of conveyance. On the North Australian Expedition we had a portable forge, which remained at the main camp, but on our inland journeys with packed horses we took as many horse-shoes as were thought requisite, a small hand hammer, a pair of tongs, a few files, rasps and punches, and a supply of nails.
It not unfrequently happens that some object, such as a fish-hook, key, portion of a gun-lock, or gun furniture, will require being so treated as to harden the surface whilst toughness of texture is retained. This process is known as case-hardening, which is, as its name implies, one by which a hard case or crust is formed over the surfaces of the articles operated on. There are numerous instruments and contrivances in constant use in the construction of which the toughness of iron combined with the hardness of steel, communicated by the process about to be described, is taken advantage of. Gun furniture, fish-hooks, and handcuffs are examples, the latter most remarkedly so, as, were they composed of ordinary iron, nothing would be more easy than to file or saw them through; if of steel, a blow with a stone, or any other heavy substance, would break them as though made of earthenware. When case-hardened neither of these devices is available. Too hard to cut, too tough to break, the metal is all that can be desired. Having fashioned, filed up, and finished the article or articles in hand, procure a fair quantity of leather cuttings, or horsehoof parings. These should be roasted crisp, and pounded up until a sufficient quantity of coarse powder is obtained to bury the “work” when laid in a little iron box, which can be conveniently made by doubling up the edges and ends of a bit of sheet iron. In the absence of iron, clay may be used to form the box. This, when filled and gently pressed down, must be placed, when dry, in a clear bright fire, and heated up to a blood red heat, at which temperature it should be allowed to remain for a short time, taking care not to increase it. The box and its contents may then be withdrawn with the tongs, and thrown into a pail of cold water. The work may, when cold, be washed and brushed clean, made thoroughly dry, oiled, and put aside for use. Ferrocyanide of potassium is also extensively used for case-hardening, being either sprinkled over the work when hot, or mixed with some convenient substance, such as dried cow dung, and placed in the box; but, unless in the hands of those accustomed to use it, the surfaces of the work at times become “pitted” from the contact of stray particles of the salt.
To platinise iron, &c.
Professor Church gives the following directions for covering the surfaces of metallic objects with a film of platinum: “Dissolve in 1oz. of distilled water 60grs. of bichloride of platinum and 60grs. of pure honey. Add to the above solution ¾oz. of spirits of wine, and 1/4oz. of ether. The mixed liquids, if not quite clear, must be filtered through a piece of white blotting-paper. The objects to be platinised, which may be of iron, steel, copper, bronze, or brass, are to be thoroughly cleaned by washing them in soda, then in water. When they have been dried they require heating over a lamp to a heat below redness. For this purpose they may be suspended, by means of a fine wire, over a spirit or an oil lamp, in such a way as not to touch the flame. Suddenly, before they have had time to cool, the objects are to be completely plunged beneath the surface of the platinising liquid. One immersion for a single minute generally suffices, but the process may be repeated if necessary, care being taken to wash and dry the pieces operated upon before re-heating them. The composition of the solution may vary considerably, and yet good results be obtained. Sometimes the addition of more honey improves it; sometimes the proportion of bichloride of platinum may be increased or diminished with advantage. Indeed, it will be found that the appearance of the platinum film deposited upon the objects may be altered by changing the proportion of the bichloride present. The solution may be used several times; gradually, however, it loses all its platinum, the place of this element being taken by the iron or copper dissolved off the immersed objects.”
If the film of platinum deposited by this method is found to be permanently adherent, the plan promises to be very valuable. It would be a great boon to travellers in warm, damp countries to be able to protect iron and steel articles by so simple a process. In the same article Professor Church describes a new and very simple plan of inlaying iron with silver, and also for enamelling metals with different colours. Both these processes really come within the scope of amateurs, and we can strongly recommend the entire paper to those interested in the chemical arts.
We may now appropriately mention a few examples where this platinising process seems to furnish desirable results. Articles made of iron or steel—watch-chains, seals, sword-handles, keys, and similar useful or ornamental objects—are greatly improved in appearance, and, moreover, preserved from all chance of rusting, by this treatment. The colour of the platinum film is of a neutral greyish black, and it often shows at the same time a faint iridescence. Iron or steel which has been inlaid with gold or silver, forming what is known as damascene work, is greatly improved by platinising. Neither the gold nor the silver are in the least degree affected, and they will be found to afford a better contrast with the colour of the platinised than with that of the original iron.
To preserve iron from rusting.
Iron which has become deeply rusted cannot be platinised by our process. In order, however, to preserve from further destruction objects of steel or iron having an archæological or artistic interest, a very excellent plan may be used as a substitute. The purest white paraffine is to be melted in a clean pan, and maintained at about the temperature of boiling water. The rusted and corroded specimens are to be immersed in this paraffine bath till they cease to froth from escape of moisture. They are then withdrawn, wrapped in blotting-paper, and kept in a warm place till the excess of paraffine has been absorbed. The objects thus treated, while preserved from further decay, do not acquire that disagreeable greasy aspect which the varnish ordinarily used imparts. We have been obliged to tar our saw blades, which was very inconvenient in working, but this was better than having them spoiled by rust.
Smith’s tools.
If the traveller has a waggon, as in South Africa, he may either carry a portable forge or trust to finding natives capable of building one and supplying bellows of their own manufacture. If he thinks the weight of a small anvil too great, he should carry a heavy sledge hammer, which will serve as an anvil for ordinary purposes; two hand hammers of different weights; half-a-dozen pair of tongs, of such form and size as will enable him conveniently to hold the different sizes of work he may find necessary to do; at least a dozen files or more—square, flat, half-round, or rat-tail; and of these the temper should never be destroyed by working with them on iron that has not yet become cool, though occasionally time may be saved by using a worn-out file to work on iron while it is yet hot and comparatively soft; cold chisels of different sizes, from small ones of 1/4in. or ½in. wide, to be tapped with a small hand hammer, to others of 1½in., to be held by pieces of rod iron coiled round them, or still better by rods of osier, and to be struck with the sledge hammer; if there is an anvil, of course a chisel to fix upright in the hole provided will be taken with it; punches of various sizes, and a stock and set of drills for boring holes up to ½in. in diameter, with rymers, or tapering four-edged tools for gradually enlarging them, and countersinks for letting in the heads of screws, &c., to the surface level. For small work, such as gun-locks, &c., an Archimedean drill and set of bits are very convenient, a hand-vice and set of gunsmith’s small files—triangular, square, flat, half-round, round, and knife-edged—should accompany them.
Muskets, to repair.
A traveller will frequently have occasion either for his own servants or for the natives of the country to put “fresh fire” into the pan cover of a musket; for this purpose nothing is better than the blade of an old saw, the thinner the better; a piece is broken off, softened and filed down to the exact size; it is then bent so as to fit the face of the pan-cover, and is bound on to it by several turns of iron wire, not drawn so tightly but that bits of copper wire may be thrust beneath them all round the edges that are to be joined; borax, dissolved in water, is now laid on with an old brush, and, if necessary, small lumps are also added, and the whole is placed in the fire and heated till the copper melts and brazes the two parts firmly together; let it cool slowly, finish it carefully with the file, heat it to a dull red, and temper by cooling it in water. Half-civilised Hottentots frequently do this.
Fish-hooks, to make.
The snoek-hook used in Table Bay is a bit of brass wire as thick as a quill and 7in. long; the point is filed sharp, and the barb is merely such a triangular notch as might be made with a handsaw file. It is not bent in a true sweeping curve, like our fish-hooks, but turned sharply up at about 2in. from the point, so that when the lip is pierced, it slips at once into the sharp bend of the hook, and the struggles of the fish are less likely to break it than they would be if it afforded the leverage that the usual form of fish-hook gives. (See Fig. 20, p. 211.) Fish-hooks can be made by taking a wire or rod of the required size and softening it by heating it to a bright red and letting it cool very slowly in sawdust or leaving it till the fire dies out; let the soft end abut against something solid, and, with a sharp chisel and mallet, make a deep cut at such an angle as to form the barb; file up the point, heat it again, and bend it round a stick of the proper size so that the curve may be true. We have, before now, broken up a gridiron at the galley fire, and with a hook thus formed from one of the bars caught a young shark, whose flesh formed a very desirable addition to our fare. On another occasion, while exploring a branch of the Victoria River, in North Australia, we halted, as usual, at noon, with scanty rations, which Mr. Gregory improved by taking from his hat a stout sewing needle, softening it in the fire, and bending it into a fish-hook, baited with grasshoppers; a few strands of thread made a sufficiently strong line, a small sapling formed a rod, and, in a few minutes, he had caught three fish, resembling mullet, nearly 18in. long. The needle had done good service, but was too precious to be thrown away, so Mr. Gregory carefully restored it to its pristine straightness, tempered it, and again stuck it in his hat, to be used, when required, for its legitimate purpose.
Brass, and its treatment.
It is rather curious that with brass the softening process is the very reverse of that we use with iron. Heat a bit of brass and plunge it into cold water, and, with a sharp knife or chisel, you may carve it almost like pewter; heat it again when finished, let it cool slowly, and it becomes as hard as before.
A traveller in Africa should be well provided with brass, the best form being that of stout wire as thick as stair carpet rods; this will serve for many useful purposes: hooks, rings, ramrods for guns, or almost anything can be made of it. While, in lengths sufficient to make armlets, it is always a convenient medium of barter, or payment for the services of the natives, who, though they will give nothing for hollow lacquered curtain rings, will always appreciate solid metal, that may be cut, worn away, or broken, and remains the same throughout.
Tinning Copper.
To tin copper: first clean the surface carefully by rubbing it with sandpaper or stone, or washing it with diluted nitric acid or aquafortis; heat it till it is rather too warm to handle, by placing a hot iron or pan of fire under the part to be tinned; rub on, with a feather, a little hydrochloric acid (commonly called spirits of salt) with zinc dissolved in it; then, with a soldering bolt previously rubbed on sal-ammoniac, touch the bit of tin you hold upon the copper, and, as you melt it, spread it evenly with a bit of rag over the surface you wish to tin; this ought to be done with the insides of all copper vessels that are to be used for containing liquids or for cooking, and also for the edges of sheets that are afterwards to be soldered together. Even if the edges were to be riveted, it would still be advisable to tin them, as they might then also be soldered by slightly heating them and running a little tin into the joint, by means of the heated bolt rubbed on sal-ammoniac, as before.
Small iron nails, tacks, fish-hooks, &c., are protected from the effects of rust by tinning. The process is carried out as follows:—First cleanse the objects to be operated on in diluted sulphuric acid, then place them with broken fragments of tin and sal-ammoniac in an earthenware bottle over a strong charcoal fire. When the coating of tin is found to be complete, they are first washed in clean water, and then dried in hot bran or sawdust.
Sheet metal, to join.
A very strong joint may be made by turning up, say ½in., more or less, of the edge of one sheet (Fig. 1), then laying in it the edge of the other (Fig. 2), and turning up the edges of both (Fig. 3); then, keeping the joint pressed down, lift up the second sheet as you would open a book, and press it out flat and open (Fig. 4). You cannot make this joint in the two edges of the same sheet, turned round upon each other (Fig. 5), unless you first nearly flatten the two parts (Fig. 6), when they may be doubled upon each other, and the sheet restored to its cylindrical form by the insertion of any pointed cylinder, such as, for instance, the horn of the anvil or a block of wood rounded and tapered at the end (Fig. 7). Suppose it is required to make a pannikin, this joint, whether previously tinned so that it may be soldered or not, is the only proper one, but the corners should previously have been cut away, so that only a single or, at most, a slightly overlapping double thickness may be left at top and bottom (Fig. 8). The bottom edge is now turned outwards by gently tapping it on the block or anvil edge with a hammer till it resembles a narrow flange (Fig. 9). A circular piece is now cut for the bottom so much larger as to allow a rim to be turned up all round (Fig. 10), and to admit the flange within it (Fig. 11); then setting it flat upon the anvil, and forcing into it a block of wood that has been cut perfectly to fit it, clinch down the rim of the bottom upon the flange (Fig. 12), and turn them both up against the side together (Fig. 13). The top edge may now be rolled over in the same manner, and it will give additional strength if the rim is strengthened by the insertion of a piece of wire. If the foregoing joints have been carefully made you will have a water-tight and, what is more, a fireproof pannikin with or without the aid of solder, and a handle can be riveted on or not just as suits your convenience. One great advantage of the folded joint is, that if it is not too tightly hammered down, the parts will slide freely on each other, and advantage may be taken of this for making an opening in one side of a cannister to be closed by a sliding lid; or, if you are making a pannikin or other vessel, and your metal is not large enough to make the whole circumference in one piece, cut a small strip (Fig. 14) of the breadth you wish the joint, say 3⁄16in. or ¼in., and fold the edge of the metal twice over it (Fig. 15), then draw it out; do the same with the other edge, and also with the edges of the piece you intend to insert (Fig. 16), and you may then, with a little care, slip the parts together, and clinch down the joints as closely as you wish (Fig. 17). If the corners have previously been snipped off, or smoothed with a file, it will considerably increase the facility of doing this.
Utilisation of meat tin cases.
During the North Australian Expedition, when Mr. Gregory was preparing for the journey from the Victoria River to the Albert, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, he collected all the emptied preserved meat tins, and burning off the old paint by placing them above the forge fire, smoothed down the tin upon the surface with a piece of greasy rag, trimmed up the ragged edges, and, in most cases, obtained sheets of tinned iron nearly equal to new; from these he made pannikins of graduated sizes, in fact a nest of them, one fitting into the other from the largest to the least, thus securing comfort and convenience to his party, and utilising material which many persons would have thrown away as useless.
In opening a packing case lined with tin, care should be taken to cut the edges as clean as possible, for not only are ragged points liable to tear the hands very disagreeably, but if you wish to make use of the tin in any other manner, it is of great importance that it should be kept quite clean, flat, and free from unsightly wrinkles; a smooth sheet of tin may be cut, turned, or bent almost at will, but if it has previously been wrinkled, it is absolutely impossible to restore it to flatness, and to make a true joint in it is as much out of the question as to write freely on note paper fall of unsightly folds or creases. For cutting tin or other sheet metal, a pair of small tin snips, say 8in. or 9in. in total length, will be found exceedingly useful: stout copper or sheet-iron may be cut with them.
Dishes and plates, to make.
To make plates or dishes of sheet iron or other metal, cut out a disc or oval, of the size you wish, and then draw a line parallel to the edge all round it (Fig. 18); then draw lines radiating from the centre, like points on a compass card, as many as you please, say twelve, which will divide each quarter into three parts, answering to the hours on a clock face.
Make a small hollow across the end of a block of wood, the stem of the nearest small tree cut off at a convenient length for instance, lay the edge of your plate on it with one of the radiating lines corresponding with the hollow; strike it with the edge of your hammer till you have slightly indented it, do the same on the opposite side, and then with the other two quarters; repeat this all round, and you will have a very neat and useful plate, with scolloped edges like the patty pans usually sold by tinmen (Fig. 19).
Rivets.
A few rivets of various sizes, of iron, tin, and copper, should be taken; but, if the work is to be exposed to the action of the water, care should be taken not to fasten iron sheets with copper rivets, as the action of the metals on each other will be most destructive.
Tin rivets may be used to fasten any other metal where great strength is not required, and they are very advantageous for many purposes, as handles of tin or copper pannikins. By these we mean rivets of tin, not of iron tinned over, which also are useful, but not so easily worked.
Make-shift forge and bellows.
To extemporise a forge and bellows, the natives of Africa and India, who invariably squat down to their work, simply make their fire on the ground, which is previously smoothed and clayed over; behind this is raised a bank or fence of clay, perforated for the admission of a tube, either of wood of the bark of a small tree, or of the horn of an ox, or other large animal.
NATIVE INDIAN BLACKSMITH.
Their bellows are variously formed, but in every instance a pair are used, being worked alternately, one with the right hand and the other with the left, so as to keep up a continuous blast. They are generally formed of goat or antelope skins of about the same size, which are skinned off as “sacks,” and braiied or softened in the usual manner.
The sack is made by cutting the skin of the animal along the inside of the thighs, and then, without making any other incision, stripping it over the fore part of the body, the head being previously cut off, the skin of the legs is sewn or knotted up to prevent the escape of air. In one of the hinder legs of each bag is fitted a smaller tube, frequently of gemsbok horn, and to the sides of the aperture of the neck are sewn two pieces of stick with loops upon them for the insertion in one of the thumbs, and in the other of the fingers, so that by expanding the hand the neck can be opened while it is raised to inflate the bag, and closed up by grasping it tightly when it is pressed down to force the stream of air upon the fire; then by inflating and compressing the bags alternately, the primary object of a continuous and sufficient supply of air is obtained.
There are various modifications of form, in some of which more or less wood is very ingeniously used; but as the power of the whole depends entirely on the amount of air that can be inclosed in and forcibly expelled from the skin bags, we think the foregoing description will sufficiently answer the purpose.
If the traveller wishes—as an Englishman generally does—to stand up to his work, he can build up for his forge a square of rough stones, and then smooth over the top with a mixture of cattle dung and clay, of which last anthills broken up afford the finest quality; or if the hills are sufficiently large, he may at once smooth off the top of one and shape the embankment in the rear. But in this case he will also have to raise another platform, not only to carry his bellows, but for the blower to sit upon; for we doubt whether a native in the wilderness could be prevailed upon to blow them in any other position.
One of the most important portions of a waggon, and at the same time one most liable to damage, is the axle, and it is therefore of vital consequence that the traveller should understand properly how to set about repairing it.
New axles.
Suppose it be necessary to condemn the broken axle and make a new one; the first care is to seek out a tree of good hard wood—“kameel doorn” (Acacia giraffæ) is about the best a traveller is generally likely to find, though many other varieties may be used—and in thinly wooded countries this may imply a day or more spent in searching for miles around, for the trunk should be of tolerably straight grain, solid, and capable of affording a log 6ft. or 7ft. in length, 10in. in depth, and 4in. in thickness. A yoke of oxen may be sent to draw it home, and it should then be truly, however roughly, squared up to the above dimensions.
The size of the aperture in the nave, both at the back and front of the wheel, should then be taken, they will generally be about 4in., tapering to 3in. or 2½in.; the length of the arm will probably be from 14in. to 16in. In cutting the arm nothing is to be tapered off from the front (Fig. 1) or from the lower part (Fig. 2), all the taper being cut from above and from behind, so that the wheels may incline a little inward in front and below, and if the axle arms should bend a little with the weight of cargo and with the forward draught, they may only have a tendency to resume a true position.
The arms should be carefully lined off in accordance with these rules, and in cutting the shoulder (Fig. 3) it should be squared, not from the edge of the axle, but from a line (dotted in the illustration) drawn along the centre of the arm, so that the back of the nave may bear truly against it. In cutting the shoulder be sure not to weaken the arm by letting the saw go, however little, beyond the proper depth, for where so great a pressure has to be borne the slightest cut would become the beginning of a fracture. When the arms have been cut and roughly rounded by saw and adze or axe, trim them with the spoke-shave, and occasionally try on the wheel, whirling it round to test the truthfulness of the work—there is almost sure to be sufficient grease or tar left in it to mark all the undue projections, and to leave clean the hollows on the arm, and the marks should be carefully examined that you may know what parts require to be trimmed away. It is now time to take off the iron work from the condemned axle; and sufficient notice should be taken of every piece, to know exactly to what portion of the woodwork it is to be restored, for much extra difficulty is occasioned by any uncertainty on this point. Bolts, though of the same apparent size, should not be transferred at random from one side to the other, and every nut, when once removed, should be scrupulously restored to the individual bolt it belongs to. These injunctions may seem needlessly strict; but we speak from experience, and if the reader has to attempt the work now under consideration he will do well to attend as strictly to them.
The iron skeins, or friction guards (Fig. 4), should be removed from the arms of the old axle and carefully let into the corresponding ones of the new; and when nearly fitted they may be slightly heated so as to char and smooth the bed for themselves, as well as to grip more tightly, in cooling, the wood they are meant to protect. Before fastening them with their proper bolts the wheels should be tried on to ascertain that they have been truly fitted.
Note.—The sketch above shows, on one side, the kap tent, or properly-built roof, and on the other, the wattled substitute. O is the front of the “kadel,” or swinging bed frame, L, 8, M, on the next page, are the yokes, skeis, and trek gear, drawn to the scale given at the side.
If, as is most frequently the case, the new axle is a front one, it must now be fitted under the rest of the fore “stell” or “carriage” (H), the holes for the connecting bolts and perch-bolt marked and truly bored, and the clamps which bind it to the upper portion heated, driven into their place, and tightened by being suddenly cooled with water.
Sometimes, when it is not necessary, or wood sufficiently large cannot be procured, to make a new axle, a new arm (I) may be let in, and this should be scarfed and checked in, and the inner end (Fig. 5), which reaches nearly to the centre of the axle, cut, not square, but diagonally across, so that the after side is somewhat longer than the front, and this, preventing the inner end from coming forward, will also counteract the natural tendency of the draught to force the arm backward.
If the longitudinal cut (Fig. 6) for the scarf is also made not square across, but a little inclined upwards in front, it will also help to resist the backward pressure of the wheel. No fastening beyond the bolt which passes through the quarter of the axle and the band at the shoulder is absolutely necessary for the fixing of a new arm. We have, upon one occasion, not only made a new axle, but when, from unsoundness of timber, a new arm was necessary, have put in one on which the heavily-loaded waggon ran nearly 1000 miles; and besides this, the fore “tong” (J), or socket in which the dissel-boom or pole (K) works being much broken, we cut off the jaws on either side, and fitted new ones in a manner that will be much better understood by the above sketch than by description; and these, after running from the Zambesi to Otjimbengue, were still so firm that the professional waggon-wright, deemed it necessary only to secure them by the addition of a couple of bands put on hot, and shrunk down on them with water.
Repairing poles.
Frequently the “dissel-boom” or pole will break, but the cutting and fitting of a new one is too simple a matter to need much more instruction than a careful inspection of the old one will afford; it was our practice, however, to bore a hole perpendicularly downward behind the dissel-bolt (Fig. 7), and by means of a ½in. bolt and nut, tightly screwed, preserve the pole from splitting when subjected to a heavy strain.
Mr. Reeder, whom we met near the Zambesi, showed us a very ingenious plan of staying the dissel-boom when the fore tong was weakened. Chapman went out and shot a rhinoceros, and Reeder first nailed a chock upon the dissel-boom, and fixed on it a grummet of rhinoceros hide as tight as possible, then, taking a long, stout strip of the same, he hitched the middle of it on in front of the grummet, leading the parts to each side of the splinter bar, and thence under the axle to the bolts behind it, where the ends were thinned off sufficiently to admit of their being easily made fast. These stays did not come forward enough to gall the after oxen. The great virtue of raw hide is that, instead of slackening like rope when it dries, it shrinks, and becomes as hard as iron. Suppose a dissel-boom sprung where another could not be procured, the skin from the leg of an ox, or a wild animal of corresponding size—say a buffalo or quagga—drawn on while wet and allowed to dry, would make the joint firmer even than the unfractured part (Fig. 8). The skin from the tail of an ox will, in the same manner, mend a broken waggon whip; and that of a calf’s tail is in like manner used by the Kafirs to bind the part where the iron of their assegais or light javelins is inserted into the shaft. Quagga skin, indeed, is especially used for this purpose, and hardly for any other, as it is so rigid that the ordinary means for softening leather are of no avail. Sometimes the Dutch farmers use the skin, just as it is stripped off, as a jar or barrel to hold corn or other produce.
The repair of wheels.
A long journey over rough roads and in an intensely hot country, like Africa in the dry season, will tell upon the best-made wheels, and the spokes and tires will become loose most frequently where it is impossible properly to rectify the defect. In such cases a number of wedges of dry, straight-grained wood must be prepared, and for this purpose some box or packing-case, made of deal, must be sacrificed, as it will be almost impossible to procure anything so suitable in the bush; the plank must be cut into pieces between 3in. and 4in. long, and, if these are again sawn diagonally along their length, material will be saved by the production of two wedges, where only one could have been made by the whittling process. These must be driven tightly in from back and front, between the felloe and the tire, and as equally as possible all round the wheel; if they are then wetted with, and allowed to absorb, a strong solution of salt in water, they will swell, and will not again shrink as they would if wetted with water only. We knew one very practical Englishman who used to soak his wedges in salt and water before driving them in, but what he gained by thus previously swelling them we never were able to learn. If the spokes become loose in the nave the temporary remedy is to cut two stout bars, in length just equal to the diameter of the wheel; half check them so as to give them a better hold on the felloe; lay them parallel to each other on the front of the wheel, one on each side the nave, and bind every spoke as firmly as possible to them with thongs of raw hide, taking care to keep the lashings quite close to the centre of the wheel; the drying up of the thongs will shrink them so much that the fabric of the wheel will be as firmly bound together as if clamped with iron.
If a spoke be broken, cut a new one much thicker than the rest, half check it on to the back of the felloe, and let the other end abut upon the nave, filling up nearly the space between the sound spokes on either side; it should need to be driven in tightly, and, when in position, should be secured by thongs of raw hide, both at the nave and at the felloe, to sticks laid across the front of the spokes on either side, and securely lashed to them.
Lead, and its uses.
Lead is useful for a multitude of purposes; its great specific gravity, and the ease with which it can be melted, cut, hammered, moulded, and bent, render it especially valuable as a handy metal. Our space will not admit of our giving more than a few of the most noteworthy purposes to which it can be applied by the hunter and explorer. Projectiles of all sizes can be made from it, from the ponderous cannon shot to the small sizes used by the hunter naturalist.
Cannon shot.
Round shot for artillery, of excellent quality, can be manufactured from lead; and there is no doubt that for certain purposes it is far superior to the iron missiles in general use, the cheapness of the latter material being its great recommendation. It will sometimes happen in wild countries that although regular cannon balls are not obtainable lead is, and to make round shot from it two or three methods may be adopted. The first is to form a ball from well-mixed clay, or carve one from wood, of size to fit the bore of the piece easily, but not too loosely. The clay ball will require thorough drying in the sun or before a slow fire before use. The wooden one will merely require sprinkling over with fine ashes from the camp fire to fit it for use. Two large calabashes, wooden boxes, bowls, or cooking pots, are now to be rather more than filled with well-kneaded clay, which has been carefully freed from stones or grit, pressing it well down with a flat board until it is quite even at the surface and is perfectly compact. The clay round the edges of the two clay holders must now be trimmed off with a knife even with the sides of the holders, but projecting about an inch beyond the brim. The surface of each is now to be sprinkled with very fine ashes, and the ball pressed into the centre of the clay until it is half imbedded. It is then to be carefully removed, and pressed in like manner on the other holder. The ball is then taken out and laid aside, the two holders being allowed to dry slowly, care being taken that the clay is not cracked by the too sudden application of heat. When thoroughly dry, the vessels or holders are to be placed mouth to mouth, and so fitted, by scraping the clay, that the two indentations formed by the ball fit exactly facing each other; when this has been done, a funnel-shaped inlet must be cut for the admission of the molten lead. The two holders may now be put together, secured with a lashing of cord or strips of hide, and the metal run in at the inlet. Some time must be allowed to elapse before the mould is disturbed, or the lead will not have sufficiently settled to admit of the shot being removed without injury to the apparatus. The tail of lead formed by the inlet serves to lift the shot out by, and is then cut off flush with the surface. A number of balls may with care be made with the same pair of holders, only the greatest caution is needed in this, as with all other operations in which molten lead is used, to guard against the presence of moisture in the mould, or most serious accidents will happen.
We were busily engaged one night over the camp fire casting heavy bullets for our large smooth bore, making use of an iron ladle for the lead, and a large pair of iron moulds for the balls. These had become rather hot and were laid aside to cool; and whilst this was doing, as the lead was beginning to run rather short, we started for the tent to get more, desiring one of the Indians, who was keeping up the fire and generally aiding in the operations, to go on casting so soon as the moulds were cool. That no time might be lost, our dusky assistant plunged the hot mould in a pot of water, closed it up, and proceeded to pour in the charge of heated metal, when a violent explosion instantly took place, scattering the boiling lead broadcast over the naked legs and bodies of the unfortunate natives, sending the ladle one way, the mould another, and causing a perfect panic and dire dismay throughout the party.
Soft stones of many kinds can be conveniently made use of for casting in, taking two of equal size, scooping out the cavity in each stone of the form intended to be given to the casting, and then cutting an inlet. Common Bath scouring bricks answer this purpose admirably. We constantly use them for casting fishing leads, plummets, bodies for artificial baits, &c. &c. Two bricks, or portions of brick, are made use of. The surfaces are rendered smooth by rubbing them together. The intended cavity is then marked with a sharp point on each half, and scooped neatly out with a knife, chisel, or other convenient instrument; when finished, notched, and the inlet cut, the two halves are tied together with tape and the lead poured in. Objects of six or seven pounds weight can be made by the use of two common scouring bricks. Balls of large size are often made in the East by hammering square masses of lead, or iron, on an anvil until sufficiently round for use. Great labour and no little skill are required to perform the operation, which after all leads to very unsatisfactory results, the balls being rough and untrue, corresponding with the interiors of the barrels they are intended to be fired from. We have seen heavy stones and bits of iron covered with lead fired from the most unpromising looking matchlocks, which, somehow or another, deliver their charge with greater force and accuracy than would be anticipated on a first examination. The best moulds for casting bullets of all sizes and forms are those made from gun-metal, bronze, or brass.
Buck-shot mould.
A buck-shot mould of either of these materials will be found of great value. We have one which has proved on many occasions of the greatest service; it is constructed to contain two rows of cavities for the shot, seven in each row, one above the other; so that when the groove leading to the inlets is filled with lead, and all the cavities are charged, the second row is turned upwards and treated in the same manner. The shot, when cold, are cut from their necks with a knife or strong pair of scissors, and are then fit for use. They should be about the size of common peas, and a charge of them from a large powerful gun is tremendously effective; they are extremely useful for deer jumping, antelope shooting, wild goose or bustard stalking. At very short distances, and in close encounter with a large animal, they may be used with destructive effect, but must be only considered in the light of a makeshift when the true large game of the forest has to be dealt with. Against attacking hordes of savages, in a bush fight, or canoe encounter, they are invaluable. The charge must be proportioned to the size of the guns; those of heavy metal and large bore generally deliver them best.
Slugs, to make.
Slugs are to be made by filling a box or large pot with fine clean sand, forcing it down tight, and then with a smooth round stick, about the size of a small pencil, making a number of holes from the surface to the bottom of the vessel or receiver in which the sand has been placed. When as many are made as the space will admit of, pour the molten lead steadily into them until they are filled; when cold, the sand can be thrown out, and the leaden rods or pencils separated from it. These, when laid on a board in rows, can be cut up into short junks by placing a strong knife on them, and striking it on the back with any convenient instrument. Thick sheets of lead are cut up into dice in much the same manner. These are usually shaken about in a tin box or an iron pot, in order to round off the corners.
Shot, to make.
The manufacture of shot by the amateur, although not quite as easy of accomplishment as the preparation of slugs, may be, with the exercise of a little ingenuity, successfully carried out; and although the produce of his labours will not equal the perfect spheres produced by the professional shot manufacturer, by the aid of his costly tower, yet it will be good enough for the description of shooting he will be likely to obtain in situations where the making of shot is rendered necessary. We were driven to the necessity of devising the plan we are about to describe by the impossibility of obtaining shot, coupled with the urgent want of that to be procured with it. Thus is the operation to be conducted:—A piece of iron, such as horse-shoes are made from, is to be obtained if possible, if not, any other piece of iron, about 2ft. long and of moderate width and thickness, will answer the purpose. About an inch from the end of this drill a wide-mouthed, funnel-shaped hole, of the form known as a countersink, until within about the eighth of an inch of going through the bar; then, with a drill about the size of a knitting-needle, extend the hole quite through; next, get a piece of dry plank, about 3ft. long, and in it, with a handsaw, cut as many longitudinal cuts as the width of the board will admit of, making them a little over the eighth of an inch deep and the thickness of the saw wide. The board, when placed slightly on the incline, must be so treated with a charge of molten lead that all the cuts are filled with it from the upper end; the result will be the formation of a great number of long lead wires. These are to be taken from the grooves and fresh batches run, until as many pounds have been made as it is intended to make shot. A preserved-meat tin, or an ordinary tin pot, must now be about one-third filled with water, and the remaining two-thirds filled up with oil; the pot must be placed on a plate or dish, in order to catch any oil which may run over as the work proceeds. The end of the iron bar which has the hole in it is now to be placed in the fire and heated to a bright-red heat: when the other end, round which a piece of cloth may be bound, is grasped with the left hand, and the bar quickly withdrawn from the fire, struck smartly against some solid body, in order to remove adhering dust and ashes, and then held with the wide mouth of the hole upward, a short distance above the surface of the oil in the pot. A lead wire is now to be quickly taken up in the right hand and its end pressed well down into the hole (as shown in the above illustration); if the iron is well heated, the wire will melt away very rapidly and run in a succession of drops into the oil: wire after wire is to be thus melted, until the iron requires reheating. (It is a good plan to have two or more irons at work, but it is not essential.) This wire-melting process must be continued until all the stock has been expended, when the solid contents of the pot may be taken out. If the operation of dropping has been properly performed the result will be shot of about three sizes—No. 7, No. 4, and duck shot. Certain conditional circumstances somewhat alter these sizes, but approximately they are to be expected, and a certain number more or less tailed will generally be found amongst the rest. To separate the three sizes of round shot two flat tin boxes or empty sardine tins are required. With a piece of nail filed down, so as to make a hole the size to just let No. 7 shot through, punch a number of holes in the bottom of one of the boxes, so as to make a sort of sieve of it; then with another nail make holes in the bottom of the second box, just large enough to let your No. 4 through. When these are prepared, wash your mixed shot in water, with wood ashes in it; this removes all the oil in the form of soap. The shot, when dry, is ready for sifting with the boxes. The first box lets only No. 7 or a size or so smaller through, keeping back the No. 4. The second box lets the No. 4 through, retaining the duck shot. Each size may now have its own respective tailers, or pear-shaped shot, mixed with it; these can be got rid of by allowing the shot to run down over a sloping board, when the round shot run straight to the bottom, whilst the tailers run off at the sides, and can be collected to melt up again.
Lead plates, to make.
Plates of lead for writing inscriptions on can be cast by turning up the edges of a piece of sheet copper, iron, or tin, just high enough to form a sort of shallow tray to hold the molten lead. In the absence of sheet metal, the surface of a box of sand, or a flat stone with a little wall of clay round it, may be made use of.
Lead pencils and stock whip handles.
Lead pencils, for rough carpenter’s work, can be made by filling joints of small cane, marsh reeds, or weed stalks, with melted lead, and then pointing them with a knife. The handles of stock whips and some other implements are weighted, and prevented from splitting, by having lead run into them; some of the former are occasionally very elaborately ornamented. The operation is performed by first cutting out the intended pattern on the handle with a sharp-pointed knife or other instrument, taking care that the cutting penetrates the wood deeply, that the form of the groove is slightly undercut, and that each ring of the pattern communicates with the one below it. The first ring on the stick must have an inlet made in it; strips of stout brown paper are now, after being slightly moistened and touched over with paste, rolled round the stick, layer after layer in spiral form, until its whole length has been thickly covered like the case of a rocket. When thoroughly dry the lead is run in at the inlet, and when cold the paper can be stripped off, and the handle finished off and polished with sand-paper or a bit of fish-skin.
Bruised gun-barrels, to repair.
Indentations in the sides of gun or rifle barrels can be taken out by the following process:—Take the barrel out of the stock; cut a cork so as to fit the muzzle tightly, and then force it down three inches, ram in about a quarter of an inch of dry powdered clay on the cork, twist a cloth dipped in cold water several times round the barrel in order to prevent the rib from becoming unsoldered by heat, and then fill up the space above the clay with molten hardened lead. (See “To harden bullets,” p. 228.) You will then have a metal plug exactly fitting the barrel. Remove the cork and clay, and fashion from strong hardwood a rod just long enough to reach a few inches beyond the indentation. A bar of iron is now to be heated to a red heat, and placed against the indented spot on the outside of the barrel; the wet cloth being at the same time wound above and below it. The metal plug is now to be forced down the tube with the rod until it rests on the obstruction, when a few blows with a piece of heavy wood on the upper end of the rod will generally pass the plug onwards by forcing the tube back to its proper position. It will be well to reverse ends with the plug and force it up and down several times, until it travels quite freely past the point of obstruction.
Make-shift rifle shells.
Rifle shells may be extemporised by having little tin tubes the length of the conical bullet and the size of the gun nipple made. These, when their ends have been plugged with wood, are placed one by one in the mould, held upright by a bit of very fine brass wire, and the lead cast round them, so that the lead at the base of the bullet may extend beyond the end of the tube and cover it. The thin end of the tube should project just a trifle beyond the apex of the cone, as a rest for the cap. The wooden plug at this end is now taken out; the tube filled with the best sporting powder, and a strong, well made percussion-cap put on the tube, and secured there with strong varnish, sealing-wax, or pitch. The loading of a breech-loader with these is accomplished with no danger, but with a muzzle-loader the very greatest caution is required. The end of the ramrod or loading stick should be very deeply countersunk, in order to take all pressure off the cap; and even with this precaution it is well to make use of an overhanging branch of a tree to place the rod against, whilst the rifle is thrust muzzle upwards until the ball is home. Shells somewhat on this principle were first brought into notice by the late General Jacob, of the Scinde Irregular Horse. They are tremendously destructive when skilfully used: destroying large animals by exploding in them, and blowing up magazines of gunpowder at all but incredible distances; but we have known them explode outside the elephant and other large pachyderms, thus failing completely in the object they were used for. Mr. Metford’s improvement on the Jacob shell is worthy of remark. Finding that it did not always explode, he mixed equal parts of chlorate of potass and sulphate of antimony; the two can be mixed on a plate with a bone paper-cutter or a quill pen. The more they are mixed, the more sensitive is their detonating power. The bullets are moulded with a hole from point nearly to base, as for Jacob’s shells, but no copper tube is used. The powder is filled in with a quill to the top, and settled down by a few taps of the base of the bullet on a table, and the end is then stopped with wax. But it is very questionable whether, in close encounter with large animals, it is not better, after all, to rely on the more certain effects of heavy balls of ordinary construction, with strong charges of powder behind them. With the numerous improvements in rifle shells we cannot deal, as many of them are too complex in their component parts for a wandering hunter or explorer to be able to imitate successfully.
Ladles, spoons, and other substitutes.
Small ladles or iron spoons are usually used to melt lead in, but, in the absence of these, bullets and other small matters may be cast in the following manner, which is a favourite one amongst the Indians:—A piece of dry hard wood, about 16in. long, 3in. broad, and 2in. thick, is prepared; on one end of this a spoon-shaped cavity, with a lip-shaped groove in the end, is made; in the bottom of this a few red-hot wood embers from the fire are placed on these same fragments of flattened lead, and on the lead some good-sized pieces of red-hot embers. A bit of bark is now twisted into a blow-pipe, from which a steady stream of air is directed to the miniature furnace, which almost instantly melts the lead, and fits it for running by the lip into the mould, just as it would from a spoon. Clean, excellent bullets are to be made in this way.
Lead ore smelting.
It sometimes happens that lead ore or galena is discovered. Lead as a metal, except in very rare instances, is not found in a native or malleable form; and as the ore is a sulphuret, brittle, and easily pulverised, some method must be had recourse to in order to smelt and render it fit for use. Some Indians do it in the following manner:—After reducing a large quantity of the ore to powder, between heavy stones, they seek out a hollow tree stump, clear out the bottom flush with the ground, and dig a pit just outside it. Then on the bottom or floor of the stump a thick layer of dry wood is placed, evenly on this a layer of the powdered ore, then another layer of wood, then one of ore, and so on until the stump is quite full. A small hole is then chopped with a tomahawk through the side of the stump, level with the ground and opposite the pit. Through this orifice fire is introduced, and the stump soon becomes a mass of glowing heat as the air rushes in at the hole at the bottom; so fast as the galena (which is usually very pure) is reduced to melted lead it trickles through the interstices of the heated pile, and runs out into the pit, where it is allowed to settle and cool.
The Dutch-Africans like to have their bullets of such a size that when one is put into a clean barrel it passes slowly down without rattling, the slight noise of the escaping air being heard as it descends. In a skirmish they load very quickly; the powder is poured from the large ox-horn into the hollow of the hand, and thence into the gun: a number of bullets are held in the mouth, one is dropped in, and the moisture cakes the powder round and holds it in its place with a very slight tap from the ramrod, or sometimes perhaps without; though we should never advise any one to incur so great a risk of bursting his gun.
LEAD SMELTING IN THE FOREST.
To harden bullets.
For such game as the elephant or rhinoceros the hunters harden their bullets with a little tin—not more than one-tenth; if too much is added it makes the bullet brittle, and detracts from its specific gravity; it should be just hard enough to show a slight indentation when bitten. The lead must be first melted as requiring the greater heat, and the tin added afterwards. Type metal, or worn-out type from printing offices, is much used for this purpose; but quicksilver, which, from its own great specific gravity, does not detract from the weight of the bullet, is the best alloy. Sir S. Baker says:—“The lead is melted in a pot, which is kept at red heat. Enough to make three or four bullets is taken in a smaller ladle, and one-tenth of quicksilver added and stirred into it with a bit of iron, as if the quicksilver is exposed to the great heat of the larger pot it will soon evaporate. The rifle bullets used in the army, being compressed instead of cast, are hard enough without alloy; and in breech-loaders, where the bullet has to pass through a barrel which is generally a trifle smaller than the chamber, it would be unsafe to harden it too much.”
Cleft bullets.
The Fingoes and Kafirs cut a small piece off two bullets, so as to produce flat surfaces (Fig. 1); then, while the lead is still clean, press them strongly together, giving them a half turn to expel the air and bring them perfectly in contact. They will adhere so strongly as to bear throwing on the ground, and when fired at a hundred yards will separate only a few inches. A bullet cleft very nearly through with two cuts, so that it spreads into four parts (Fig. 2), makes a fearful wound at close quarters—a conical cut from its base (Fig. 3) particularly so. Sometimes two bullets are connected by a bit of bell wire rolled up spirally as a spring (Fig. 4). We have seen bundles of nails bound together with wire by the rebel Hottentots in imitation of conical bullets. The Kafirs use bits of the legs of iron pots. Some of the native hunters use iron bullets, or rather bolts twice as long as their diameter; but they creep so close that they cannot miss, and follow the wounded animal till he dies, so that they always recover their bullet.
Extemporising bullet moulds.
Bullet moulds may be extemporised in many ways. Two shallow boxes may be made and filled with loam or clay, much as the moulds for cannon shot, before described, are made (of which last no material is better than a pounded anthill), and the surface of the lower one must be smooth. A piece of stiff paper pierced with holes the size of the bullet laid on it, and as many bullets as convenient pressed half way into the clay, the other half must then be pressed down upon it, and when nearly dry the bullets must be taken out, holes made through to the outer surface, on which a small channel should be cut, so that the lead may run to the entrance and not waste itself by spreading. Most likely the mould would be damaged after two or three castings, but it is easy to make a new one. The Dutch boers frequently use blocks of steatite or soapstone, with half the bullet cut into each, and pegs or projections on one half, with corresponding hollows in the other, keep the two parts in true position (Fig. 5).
In Sydney we required a conical bullet mould; and, as such things were not generally kept for sale, we engaged a founder to make a solid block of brass, as in Fig. 6, and in this to bore a cylindro-conical hole, point downwards, about ½ in. deeper than the length of the bullet; another piece was made with a handle at one end, and at the other a projection (Fig. 7), to fit into the block and give the form of the hollow back of the bullet; a hole was bored through this a little smaller above than below, so that when the superfluous lead was cut off the bullet would come away with a tail about 1 in. long, tapering to the end; this was easily cut off with proper pincers; there was a small notch cut up the side of the inserted block so as to allow of the escape of air as the lead was poured in. In some conical moulds the lead is poured in from the side, and in others from the point. We do not approve of either of these methods. The greatest hardness, weight, and density should be at the point, and therefore this should be downward in the mould, while the metal is poured in at the base.
Of course the great range acquired by some of our most perfect rifles with cylinder conical bullets is an immense advantage, for if animals cannot be approached they may be shot at long ranges; and very frequently during the last Kafir war, while parties with the common musket have been defending themselves against savages who occupied almost impregnable positions, those among the colonists who possessed long ranged rifles would occupy a hill perhaps a couple of thousand yards off, and send bullets among the enemy with quite sufficient accuracy to create a very uncomfortable feeling of insecurity.
A very favourite form of gun was a double-barrel, with one barrel rifled, and very carefully sighted for long ranges, and the other plain, and capable of throwing a good charge of buck shot, which we have seen very effectively used at thirty or forty yards.
Sporting rifles.
When the elephant hunters lie at the water by night, and shoot at very close quarters, they find that a sharp-pointed conical with very high velocity, pierces so suddenly and sharply, that the animal feels no shock to the nervous system, and gets away for many miles, and dies beyond their reach. They therefore choose a short, smooth-bore gun, with a very large round bullet. We have seen them as large as half a pound; and this, with a comparatively small charge of powder, say 9drs. or 10drs., bruises rather than pierces, communicating such a shock to the adjacent parts that the creature is stunned as well as wounded, and is not able to make those marvellous last efforts that in the former case would enable him at least to die in peace far out of reach of his pursuers. We, after a fair trial of the conical ball in India, abandoned it on account of the quantity of wounded game lost, and returned to the old spherical projectile.
Cartridge making.
Improvements in guns are long before they are generally adopted in wild and distant countries. The old flint musket is to this day the favoured weapon of most of the border tribes of South Africa, America, and the East; it will shoot quite well enough for them, and, if of military make, it lasts a long time in comparatively good order. Percussion guns found their way very slowly even among the Dutch colonists; many admitted their superiority, but there was always the uncertainty of being able to obtain a supply of caps, and, in the same way, many excellent forms of breech-loaders cannot be adopted by persons travelling or residing far from civilisation, because complicated and expensive cartridges are required, and when the supply runs short the gun is useless. And sometimes, because however perfect the gun may be while well taken care of, its delicate adjustments soon give way under the rough wear and tear of actual hard service. The advantages of facility in reloading, especially on horseback, or while running after or away from the game or enemy, are so great that if a breech-loader can be made sufficiently strong and simple in all its parts, capable of being used as a muzzle-loader on emergencies, or with cartridges so simple that a person of ordinary skill can make them for himself, it will surely commend itself to men whose lives, in many cases, depend upon the effectiveness of their guns. It would be invidious in us to compare the merits of the various forms. We have already mentioned the satisfaction with which we used the single-barrelled Wilson breech-loader, the simplicity and strength of which, combined with facility of loading, were all that could be desired, unless, indeed, it were made self-capping, which we believe could easily be done. A metal breech-plug, to be inserted when required, converts it into a muzzle-loader; but then a smaller size of bullet must be used, and the cartridges are so simple and inexpensive, that we found it more easy to make them on the spot. The materials required were a few sheets of tissue paper, a quantity of felt wads, tolerably stout, half of them the exact size of the bore, and the rest a little smaller. A piece of tin of the form and size indicated by the diagonal lines (Fig. 1) in our illustration was used as a pattern by which to cut the paper. The straight edge that was to surround the bullet, and the farthest diagonal side, were touched with a little gum, gathered from the nearest mimosa. A small cylinder of wood (Fig. 3) was then taken by the knob, in the left hand, and, with the right, the hollow base of the bullet (Fig. 2) was fitted on to the convex end, laid fairly on the paper (Fig. 6) and rolled forward until the cartridge case was formed. The wood was then withdrawn, and the paper, adhering to the bullet, left to dry. When a sufficient number were completed, they were set upright in any convenient trough, or in a block of wood (Fig. 7), 3in. deep, bored with holes of the proper size (Fig. 11). The charge of powder was poured into each and covered with a small disc of card or paper. One of the small wads, saturated with grease, was next put in (Fig. 8), the superfluous paper folded down on it (Fig. 9), and a full-sized wad was then affixed to the
end with a drop of gum (Fig. 10). The tissue paper was quite strong enough to confine the powder, and a military cap, of fair average quality, never failed to drive the fire through it to the charge. We found it best to saturate our wads by melting, or rather heating, our hardest fat nearly to boiling point, throwing them in and letting them absorb as much as possible, and then spreading them out on a clean surface to cool. Of course we carried a couple of wad punches of the proper size in case our supply should run short.
In making a cartridge for a muzzle-loading rifle, the wooden roller should have a hollow to receive the point of the bullet; the bullet is placed on the paper with the base towards the right hand, just so far within the edge as to allow a wad to be put behind, and the paper turned down over it. The powder is then measured into the case on the point, and, in loading, the powder is first poured into the gun, then the bullet is reversed and the paper torn off before it is rammed down. It is questionable, however, whether any form of single-barrelled rifle or shot gun can compete with a double barrel for general usefulness and efficiency. Whilst on the subject of cartridges, it may not be amiss to refer to the tallow cartridges used for shot guns. They add greatly to the length of range, and are extremely valuable for wildfowl shooting. The following communication to the Field newspaper will serve to explain the mode to be observed in their manufacture:—
Grease cartridges, to make.
“A represents a piece of common cartridge paper; B a roller of boxwood, or any hard wood, turned to the size to admit the paper A being rolled once round it, and then fitting into the chamber C; C a chamber turned out of a solid piece of wood, the chamber to be the exact size of bore of gun the cartridges are intended for. To make the cartridges, cut a piece of paper in the shape of the drawing A, cutting the top to the width requisite, to allow the paper at top to overlap nearly a quarter of an inch; then gum the edge of the paper to about the eighth of an inch, as marked by the dotted line on the drawing A. Place the roller B on to the paper at D, and roll up firmly; wind round it a little thread, to keep the paper from slipping. In a few minutes it will be dry. You can then push the roller out of the case, and proceed in the same way till you have enough cases.
Secondly, take the roller and return it to the case, excepting that you leave the roller exposed at the top, say for 16-gauge about ⅜in.; place the case and roller in the chamber, bottom upwards, then take some fine strong twine and place round as in drawing No. 1. When drawn tight, tie firmly, and it will appear as in No. 2: then reverse the roller and case, bringing the tied end down to bottom of chamber, press down hard to flatten the bottom of case, draw out the roller, pour into the case some melted tallow of about the consistency of cream, and then put in your charge of shot, having sufficient quantity of tallow to just cover the shot. Put by until cool; when set firm, place on the top of the tallow a leather wad (the size for 16-gauge cartridge will be 18-gauge). Any leather not too thick will do, and you can cut the wads out with a punch. Turn down the case neatly over the leather wad, and make fast with sealing-wax. When loading place the tied end of cartridge next to the powder. These directions are for both muzzle and breech-loaders, the only difference being in the roller, which for muzzle-loaders must be made 1⁄16in. smaller at the bottom end, as marked by the dots in drawing B. After a little practice the cartridges do not take long to make.”
Makeshift cartridges.
Wherever the means of transport will permit, take plenty of Ely’s wire cartridges, but when they cannot be obtained, a makeshift form, well adapted for general use, may be made as follows:—Prepare a stick, about 18in. long, by rounding it carefully and making it fit the bore of your gun loosely. Round this take two or three turns of oiled silk, such as chemists sell. Then draw off the end of the stick tube enough to hold the charge of shot and admit of two ties being made round it. Now, with a piece of fine twine, put on the first tie close to the stick; then put in your charge of shot, and when it is shaken into place, put the other tie on the outer end, just as sausage skins are secured. The cartridge is now complete, and can be cut off next the stick, when you proceed as before until all the tube has been used. We manufactured a great number of these in Tartary, and found them hard-hitting and durable. We usually carried a waistcoat pocket full of them, and rammed one down on each charge of powder without any wad between the cartridge and powder, but always placed one over the cartridge, in order to prevent it from rising in the barrel. Cartridges of this description kill considerably farther than a loose charge, and are exceedingly handy when shooting from the horse’s back. We, with 1oz. of No. 4, killed in this way, near Phoros Pass, an eagle, which we gave Captain Blackiston, R.A., who, we believe, deposited it in the Royal Artillery Institution at Woolwich. The fingers of old kid gloves should always be kept, as they serve as excellent covers both for shot and ball. Shot will require one tie to keep it in; balls will remain in without fastening. A little grease or oil should be smeared over them when first made.
Hints on firearms.
On many occasions we have been obliged to fire shot from a rifle, for the purpose of obtaining birds, when the smooth-bores were not at hand. Either the oiled silk or glove-finger cartridge is very far superior to a loose charge. In loading ordinary guns with loose shot, it sometimes happens that a few grains get dropped into the loaded barrel between the ramrod head and the barrel. When this happens, invert the gun, pass the rod upwards, and the shot will fall out, when the rod can be withdrawn. The ramrod will also at times get firmly fixed in a foul barrel, and defy every ordinary effort to get it out. A little water, spirit, or any other fluid poured down the barrel almost instantly releases it. Should a gun or rifle miss fire, or be exposed for any time to damp, cut a small peg of dry, soft wood, hammer it well down into the nipple, cut it off flush, put on a new cap, and pull the trigger, when the weapon is almost certain to go off. We first saw this plan in use among the Sardinian Bersigliari, and have since found it answer perfectly.
When hunting through wet jungles, or the reeds of the marsh, percussion caps can be rendered almost waterproof by melting a little beeswax on a piece of tin and then dipping the mouth of each separate cap in it. These, when cold, are set aside for use. When placed on the nipple, the wax forms a shield between the cap and nipple, which prevents the water from working its way up. All vegetable oil used about gun-locks should be prepared as follows:—Partly fill a common vial with oil, throw in a half charge of shot, hang it in the air with the cork out, and in a few days drain off all the clear oil from the top for use.
Gun cleaning.
Spirits of turpentine, when it can be procured, is very valuable for cleaning the interiors of guns, pistols, and rifles. When water is used, wash the barrels out thoroughly with cold water, making use of a tough wooden rod with a number of notches at the end. Round this a piece of woollen cloth may be twisted until of a size to act as a sucker in the barrel. Woollen is better than tow, linen, or cotton, as there is no danger of ignitable threads being left behind, and it can be used repeatedly by washing and drying it. When the barrels are thoroughly clean, fill them with boiling water. When this has all run off through the nipple holes, commence with a fresh strip of cloth to dry out the barrels, which must be held in a folded cloth, in order to guard the hand from the heat of the water. When quite dry, and before the barrels are cold, finish off with a little spirits of turpentine. Lead may be removed by the use of a little quicksilver. The cleaning of fire-arms in a wild country is a matter of the very greatest importance, and should never be entrusted to servants, unless, from long service and great experience, they may be implicitly depended on. Even with such followers about us, we always, however fatigued, clean our own guns.
It not unfrequently happens that white men residing alone or in small communities in the vicinity of numerous and powerful native tribes possess cannon of some kind or other, generally small signal guns from merchant ships, perhaps recovered from wrecks upon the coast, or field-pieces abandoned as not worth the trouble of bringing away when some military outpost has ceased to be occupied.
Mounting cannon.
During 1863 and 1864 the barbarous and desultory war between the Namaqua Hottentots and the Damaras, whom they had so long oppressed, was keeping the country in a state of alarm for many hundred miles around, and we were requested to take charge of a couple of brass yacht guns. It was necessary to mount them, so that they might be easily moved from point to point on the plain around the village; and for this purpose we took for each the hinder wheels and axle of a Cape waggon, inserting a pole to serve as the “trail” into the socket of the “lang-wagen” in the centre of the axle; we then took a plank of stinkwood, 1ft. wide, 3in. thick, and about 4ft. long. About 1ft. from the foremost end a stout bolt passed through it and the centre of the axle so as to let it work freely, the after end was tapered to a point and travelled on a quadrant, made from the felloe of an after wheel.
On this, as a swivel bed, we bolted down a pair of cheeks of 2in. stinkwood to carry the guns. The quoins and wedges ran in grooves, formed by 1in. slips of stinkwood nailed upon the bed, to which they were secured by lanyards of raw hide; the boxes for ammunition on either side were covered with raw hide, and that containing the powder was thickly lined with green baize; the matches were kept in a small box in front of the gun-carriage; the fuze-holder was made from the segment of a hollow brass curtain ring fixed to a handle of hard wood; the fuze itself was a strip of calico 1in. broad, doubled and loosely twisted into a two-stranded rope; it was steeped in a solution of gunpowder, and the colour indicated its strength—light grey was slow match, and dark grey was quick.
As we did not contemplate moving the guns farther than necessary for the defence of the village, we made no provision for yoking draught oxen, but this could easily have been done if needed. It was enough for our purpose to provide man ropes, one pair behind the gun and one before, so that, either in advance or retreat, its muzzle might be towards the enemy.
The bullets were all tied up in calico, with wads made by cutting off sections of soft deal rods, and cartridges of twelve or fourteen musket balls or fifty revolver bullets were made up.
TIME GUN.
Time guns.
One use to which one of our guns was put is shown in the illustration. We were asked to repair the clock, but this is always difficult, and it is uncertain how long it may go correctly afterwards. We therefore erected a frame over the gun, and fitted the lens of a camera on an axle placed due east and west, so that it could turn in the plane of the meridian, and so be adapted to the sun’s gradual change of declination. Below the lens we fitted a piece of tin with its edges turned downwards, to hold a piece of quick match, a strip of calico, steeped in a strong solution of gunpowder, beneath it; a small slit in the tin was then so adjusted as to let the focus of light fall through it exactly at 12 o’clock; a small clip of tin confined the other end of the match over the vent. The moment of noon was announced with a regularity that no clock in our possession could have attained; and one great advantage was, that if by the interposition of a cloud, which would not happen once in nine months, the gun should fail to fire at the proper moment, it could not go wrong, for the speck of light would pass the narrow slit, and no discharge would take place till the next day.
The absence of the cap squares of a gun can be remedied by lashing the metal firmly down to the carriage with a raw hide rope, and then twisting it up tight with a stick, as shown in the above illustration; which also exhibits the mode of raising a gun by making use of the trail as a lever. A heavy gun may be mounted by letting its muzzle into a hole in the ground while the carriage is run under it.
Percussion caps and substitutes.
During the continuance of the Damara and Hottentot war we were becoming exceedingly short of percussion caps, and were obliged not only very carefully to husband the few that were left, but to turn our attention to the manufacture of substitutes. The tips of Congreve matches, with the wood cut to a point so as to stick in the nipple of the gun, proved very effective, but were liable to be brushed or shaken off, or to become damp if carried for any length of time before firing. We, therefore, first inclosed the end of the match in the shell of an expended cap, and finding this answer, we dissolved the composition, and put a drop into the cap without the wood; we then dissolved it off a whole box of matches at a time, and with a camel-hair pencil put small drops into as many cap shells as it would serve. This answered admirably; but our next fear was that the supply of matches would run short, and therefore, drawing on our own artificial horizon for the quicksilver, on the photographic stores for nitric acid, and on our friends, the missionaries, for a supply of alcohol from their natural-history department, we set about the manufacture of fulminate of mercury according to the following recipe:—Dissolve 10 grs. of mercury in 1½ oz., by measure, of nitric acid; the solution is poured cold into 2 oz., by measure, of alcohol in a glass vessel, and gentle heat is applied till effervescence is excited, though it ordinarily comes on at common temperatures, a white vapour undulates on the surface, and a powder is gradually precipitated, which is immediately to be collected in a filter, well washed, and cautiously dried. It detonates by gentle heat or slight friction. Two grains and a half, with one-sixth of gunpowder, form the quantity for one percussion cap. We used a conical twist of blotting-paper for the filter, and mixed the fulminate, while still moist, with a small palette knife upon a plate with the gunpowder, treating it very gently, and in small quantities. We collected all the shells of expended caps, and for new ones cut out a cross of thin copper; then, making a hole in a piece of iron and a punch the size of the nipple, we drove the centre of the cross in, and the shell was formed. Stiff cartridge-paper stiffened with gum would have answered for dry weather, but would not have been secure against wet.
Brass guns and their charges.
The block-houses erected by the Hudson’s Bay Company, as depôts and forts in connection with the fur trade, usually have guns mounted in them. Brass field guns and howitzers are also at times to be met with at the border stations of wild countries, and it may, therefore, be well to know the charges and ranges of the ordinary kinds, which are as follows:
BRASS FIELD GUNS.
| 6-pounder Gun. Weight, 6cwt. Service Charge, 1½lb. | ||||
| Elevation. | Ranges. | |||
| Round Shot. | Shrapnel. | Case. | Length of fuse. | |
| P.B. | 310 | — | 100 | ·3 |
| ½° | 470 | 450 | 150 | ·4 |
| 1 | 620 | 600 | 200 | ·5 |
| 1½ | 760 | 710 | 250 | ·6 |
| 2 | 890 | 820 | 300 | ·7 |
| 2½ | 1000 | 920 | — | ·8 |
| 3 | 1100 | 1020 | — | ·9 |
| 3½ | 1190 | 1110 | — | 1· |
| 4 | 1280 | 1180 | — | 1· |
| 4½ | 1370 | 1250 | — | — |
| 5 | 1450 | 1320 | — | — |
| 5½ | 1530 | 1380 | — | — |
| 6 | 1600 | 1440 | — | — |
| 6-pounder Gun. Weight, 6cwt. Service Charge, 1½lb. | ||||
| Elevation. | Ranges. | |||
| Round Shot. | Shrapnel. | Case. | Length of fuse. | |
| P.B. | 300 | — | 150 | — |
| 0½° | 500 | — | 200 | — |
| 1 | 680 | 670 | 250 | ·3 |
| 1½ | 830 | 800 | 300 | ·4 |
| 2 | 960 | 910 | — | ·5 |
| 2½ | 1080 | 1020 | — | ·6 |
| 3 | 1190 | 1120 | — | ·7 |
| 3½ | 1300 | 1220 | — | ·8 |
| 4 | 1400 | 1320 | — | ·9 |
| 4½ | 1500 | 1410 | — | ·9 |
| 5 | 1590 | 1500 | — | — |
| 5½ | 1680 | 1590 | — | — |
| 6 | 1760 | 1680 | — | — |
| 12-pounder Howitzer. Weight, 6·5cwt. Service Charge, 1¼lb. | ||||
| Elevation. | Ranges. | |||
| Common Shell. | Shrapnel. | Case. | Length of fuse. | |
| P.B. | 200 | — | 100 | — |
| 0½° | 310 | — | 150 | — |
| 1 | 420 | 400 | 200 | ·3 |
| 1½ | 530 | 520 | 250 | ·4 |
| 2 | 630 | 630 | 300 | ·5 |
| 2½ | 715 | 725 | ·6 | |
| 3 | 800 | 820 | ·7 | |
| 3½ | 885 | 910 | ·8 | |
| 4 | 970 | 1000 | Ricochet | ·9 |
| 4½ | 1050 | 1090 | 1·0 | |
| 5 | 1135 | 1180 | Charge 6oz. el ·7°.600 | 1·1 |
| 5½ | 1220 | 1270 | ” 8oz. ” ·6 .600 | 1·2 |
| 6 | 1290 | 1350 | ” 10oz. ” ·6 .600 | 1·3 |
| 24-pounder Howitzer. Weight, 12·5cwt. Service Charge, 2½lb. | ||||
| Elevation. | Ranges. | |||
| Common Shell. | Shrapnel. | Case. | Length of fuse. | |
| P.B. | 270 | — | 100 | — |
| 0½° | 390 | — | 150 | — |
| 1 | 520 | — | 200 | ·3 |
| 1½ | 640 | 500 | 250 | ·4 |
| 2 | 760 | 630 | 300 | ·5 |
| 2½ | 860 | 870 | ·6 | |
| 3 | 960 | 980 | ·7 | |
| 3½ | 1060 | 1090 | ·8 | |
| 4 | 1160 | 1200 | Ricochet | ·9 |
| 4½ | 1260 | 1300 | 1·0 | |
| 5 | 1350 | 1400 | See Table B. | 1·1 |
| 5½ | 1440 | 1500 | 1·2 | |
| 6 | 1520 | 1600 | 1·3 | |
| Table B. | |||||
| Ricochet. 24-pounder Howitzer. | Ricochet. 24-pounder Howitzer. | ||||
| Charge. | Elevation. | Pitch. | Charge. | Elevation. | Pitch. |
| oz. | deg. | oz. | deg. | ||
| 6 | 7·5 | 400 | 12 | 5·25 | — |
| 9 | 4·38 | — | 14 | 5· | — |
| 8 | 9· | 500 | 14 | 7·75 | 600 |
| 10 | 7·5 | — | 12 | 6·5 | — |
| 11 | 6· | — | 16 | 4·75 | — |
| 11½ | 7·5 | — | 12 | ||
Cartridges and wads for cannon.
Cartridges for either brass or iron guns are best made of some woollen material; trade serge or old blanketing answers very well for the purpose. Bags should be made a little less than the bore, and into these the charge of powder is to be poured. A piece of woollen thread, double worsted, or twine should now be used to close the end of the bag, after which it is to be passed two or three times round the bag, giving it at the same time a compact cylindrical form by rolling on a board or table under the hand. Passing the thread through the substance of the cartridge aids much in keeping its form and facilitates loading. A cartridge needle should be used to perform this operation. This needle can be easily made from a piece of stout copper or brass wire. Flatten out one end, drill or punch a hole in it to form the eye, and file the other end sharp for a point. Fourteen inches is a convenient length for a cartridge needle. It is said that a sailor’s wife enabled a British vessel to continue a long and desperate fight by pillaging the officers’ quarters of all the stockings she could find, and handing them up to be filled for cartridges. The intestines of animals, according to their size, would make as good cartridge cases as could be desired. Wads may be made of picked oakum twisted in a flat spiral to the proper size of the bore, when they are made to retain their shape by being secured here and there with fine twine passed through with the needle. In the absence of oakum, wooden wads may be made by first spokeshaving a stout pole to the size of the bore, and then sawing it up into convenient lengths.
Guns to unspike and repair.
Old guns which have been laid by will not uncommonly be found spiked, by having a common nail driven into the vent. If efficient tools are at hand this may be drilled out, if not, put a charge of powder in the gun, bore a gimlet hole in one of your wooden wads, through which pass a loosely-twisted string well impregnated with dissolved gunpowder, and afterwards dried. Cut the end of your prepared string just at the muzzle of the gun, light it, and get out of the way, when the explosion, which soon takes place, will not unfrequently expel the spike. A gun which has had its trunnions knocked off, with a view to rendering it useless, may be made nearly as effective as ever by cutting with the axe or adze a bed for it in a stout piece of log, of such a form that the cascabel of the gun and the breech end are rather more than half buried in solid wood. The log may now be trimmed off to convenient dimensions, and all made secure by a lashing of wet raw hide rope, which rests in a broad shallow notch cut in the log to receive it. The gun and its bed are thus, as the rope dries, held together by a material little less rigid than iron.
Priming cups, to make.
The bed log and gun may now be mounted by placing a very strong round bar of hard tough wood across the slide or carriage immediately below where the trunnions would have rested. This receives a deep semicircular notch, cut to exactly correspond with it on the under side of the bed log. The gun can now be elevated and depressed in the usual manner by placing wedges under the log. The common mode of priming a gun from a flask or horn, when there are no percussion or friction tubes to be obtained, is, to say the least of it, inconvenient and dangerous. It is far better to keep on hand a few priming cups. These are made as follows: From the joints of a bamboo cut a number of little cups, the bottoms being formed by the knots of the cane; in the centre of the bottom bore a hole, with a gimlet or red hot wire, large enough to admit a piece of marsh reed, hollow cane, weed stalk, or quill, about 3in. long, and small enough in diameter to pass down into the vent of the gun easily; stop the small end with a bit of melted sealing-wax; secure the large end in the cup by the same agency.
The cup becomes now a sort of funnel, through which common fine sporting powder should be poured until both tube and cup are full, when a piece of oiled paper is strained over the top of the cup like the head of a drum, and is tied fast with twine. When the gun is to be fired, the cartridge is pierced in the usual way with the priming wire. The tube of the priming cup is now to be inserted at the mouth of the vent, and pressed down until the bottom of the cup rests on the metal of the gun, when on the port fire or linstock being applied, the paper lid is instantly burned through, and the gun discharged. In windy weather, heavy tropical rains, or at night, these cups are extremely useful.
Makeshift firearms.
A cannon, of very tolerable efficiency for close quarters, and slug or bullet charges, may be made by boring a hole partly through a piece of tough strong log, with a pump auger; bore a vent with a gimlet, put on one or two hoops or rings of iron or raw hide, and the gun is ready for use. We have seen several of these, which were effectually used during the rebellion in Canada.
In 1838, at the siege of Herat, Mahomed Shah brought up a quantity of metal on the backs of camels, and had a heavy bronze gun cast, and completely finished before the town; and when the siege was raised the king had his gun sawn to pieces and taken to Teheran. Shah Abbas, of Ispahan, had a heavy piece of artillery, but said it would delay his march, and he would much rather carry metal on camels and cast artillery before the enemy’s town.
During the Indian mutiny, the rebels pulled down the telegraph-posts which had iron tube sockets fitted to them in order to keep off the white ants. These sockets were taken off, and vents drilled in them. They were then loaded with powder, and charges of slugs made from doubled up and hammered pieces of the telegraph wire. We have seen a piece of common iron gas-pipe, a piece of wood, and a few bits of sheet copper, converted into a very formidable matchlock pistol.
In our Australian boat voyage we had a small 1lb. swivel carronade. We jammed a pole about 6ft. long into the fork of the swivel, and had we met any of the Malay trepang fishers, who go in companies of a hundred or more, we should have made the swivel-bolt fast to the bowsprit just outside the stem of our boat, and, letting the trail rest on the mast thwart, have defended ourselves with heavy charges of musket bullets. Of course the fishers might have been friendly, or, if not, the knowledge that we had a gun would have made them so, and we should not in any case have been the aggressors.
The Zemboureks, or dromedary artillery.
Light guns mounted on dromedaries or camels are valuable for the defence of caravans, &c. The Afghans first used these in an emergency against the Persians. A number of pivoted arquebuses were mounted on the saddles of dromedaries, which were taught to kneel while the pieces were fired from their backs. The Persians, profiting by the lessons of their defeat, also organised a similar force, the guns weighing not more than 75lb. The saddle was originally constructed of two-forked branches connected by wooden bars, and if the gun was slightly overloaded the recoil would injure the fittings, and disturb the animal; but subsequently the saddle was much improved, and wheels were added, so that it might be taken from the animal’s back and used as a field gun. It will be seen that the staff of the bannerol carries a little tent, and this covers the ammunition bags. A skin of water hangs under the belly of the camel. The Persians have sought out with eagerness and perseverance the best form of artillery to be carried on the backs of animals; and, as it seems that dromedaries have been successfully imported into America and Australia, it may be of advantage to know that they are capable of being utilised in this way. Other animals, perhaps oxen, might be trained to carry smaller guns.
Very efficient common case shot can be made by filling empty preserved-meat tins with rifle or pistol balls. A bag of cooper’s iron hoop rivets is a very favourite charge among the South-Sea whalers. Round shot can be made as directed under the head “Lead, and its Uses.”
Grenades and rocket arrows.
Extempore grenades can be made from empty soda-water bottles or old ink jars. On one occasion we made a number from the latter vessels by filling them with a mixture of buck shot and strong sporting powder; stoppers of wood were then fitted by notching the upper ends, and fastening them down with wire, like the corks of champagne bottles, a gimlet hole was then bored in each, and a few inches of quick match put in. When the fuse has been lighted, these vessels are either hurled from the hand or fired from large powerful cross-bows, when they, by exploding in full flight or on the ground, cause no trifling confusion among an undisciplined enemy, a pack of wolves, or a sounder of hog in a cactus brake.
An unarmed merchantman was chased by a pirate galley; she hove to, and pretended to surrender, but two men stood at the gangway with a cask of powder. As soon as the long low open boat came alongside they threw it into her, and the cook, running out of the galley, threw a shovelful of hot coals after it. The ship forged ahead before the smoke had cleared away, and escaped, leaving the desperadoes to their fate.
Large arrows tipped with strong paper cases, such as are made for rockets, only choked at the bottom, become most formidable projectiles. The cases are partly filled with powder, a wad, with a hole in it, is rammed down on the charge, a quill is put in the hole, about thirty buck shot are deposited round the quill, which is filled with meal powder. The case and quill head are then capped with paper which has been soaked in dissolved gunpowder or nitre. Arrows thus made are to be fired from powerful hand-bows, after the match has been lighted. In the true rocket arrow the touchpaper is ignited just before the arrow is fixed in the bow, and it is shot just before the fire reaches the composition; the combustion then aids the flight rather than retards it. The head is strongly barbed, so that it may not easily be drawn from thatched roofs, &c.; the Chinese and Indian tribes often use these.
It sometimes happens that the hunter or explorer has, like many members of the Algerian, Tartar, and Mongolian tribes, to turn gunpowder manufacturer. To make gunpowder three ingredients are requisite: viz., saltpetre (nitrate of potash), sulphur, and charcoal. The two former ingredients should form a part of the equipment of an expedition (see “Farrier’s Stores,” [p. 84]). Still, where such stores are not carried, sulphur and saltpetre are usually to be obtained, more or less pure, from the natives of all but the most unfrequented and isolated countries. The saltpetre will require recrystallisation, which is carried out as follows: Take equal quantities, by measure, of the saltpetre and boiling water, stir them well about with a stick until all the lumps are thoroughly dissolved; strain the resulting fluid through a coarse cloth in order to get rid of sticks, chips, and stones, and set it aside to crystallise; when the process is complete drain the water from the crystals, set them to dry on a skin or a cloth. The sulphur, if in lumps as imported, will require purification by melting. This operation must be conducted over a very slow fire, and immediately the mass becomes liquid in the pot it should be put to stand for a few minutes in hot wood ashes in order that impurities may settle to the bottom. The neck of the vessel may then be held fast in a twisted stick, and the contents poured dexterously out into a convenient mould until the sediment at the bottom, which is useless, is left. Flour of sulphur will not require this treatment. The charcoal (see “Charcoal Burning,” [p. 267]) should, for gunpowder making, be prepared from some light, clean-grained wood. In this country willow, withy, alder, hazel, linden, &c., are held in high esteem for the purpose; but in wild countries the nearest approach to these within reach should be obtained. The three ingredients must be first separately ground, either in a native quern or stone handmill, between two conveniently-formed stones, or in an extempore pestle and mortar, until reduced to perfect powder, quite free from lumps or grit. The three powders are to be now weighed out carefully in the following proportions: One part sulphur, one part charcoal, and six parts saltpetre. Mix these on a skin pegged out on the ground, and rub the mixture together with the palms of the hands until most intimately and thoroughly blended; then, with an empty percussion-cap box or drinking cup, measure your mixture, and for every ten cups or boxes of powder put down a stone or make a mark, and for every mark put aside a cup full of warm water, so that you have just one-tenth of fluid. This you sprinkle with a bunch of feathers or grass, a little at a time, on the powders, until, by constant and persistent working and kneading, a smooth homogeneous paste is formed. Two well-selected stones much facilitate this stage of the process; one should be large and flat, the other water-rounded and oval; in fact, a water-worn pebble of about 2lb. weight. By sitting on the stretched skin with the flat stone between the legs, the water and sprinkler at the side, and the pebble between the hands, the paste can be effectually worked up; and it is well to bear in mind that on the perfect homogeneity of this paste depends, in great measure, the quality of the gunpowder.
The paste—or devil as it is sometimes called—being thoroughly elaborated, make square flat cakes of it 6in. square and 2in. thick, and wrap them compactly up in cotton cloth or old sheeting four or five times doubled; then stitch up a stout hide bag just large enough to contain all your cakes and their coverings when built in compactly one on the other, and sew up the opening; then, with a chisel, scoop out a cavity in the end of a log just deep enough to half bury your case of cakes; then, with the aid of a neighbouring tree, and a few suitable pieces of wood, which are easily fashioned with the axe, prepare such a press as is shown in the above illustration. The weight should be increased gradually, and the pressure intensified until the cakes are pressed into compact masses. The coverings are now to be removed, and then the process of coming begins, and the help of a corning sieve is required. This is made as follows: Make a wide stout hoop of any pliant wood, and over one of its edges stretch a head of parchment, like that of a banjo, nail or lace it on wet, and when dry it will become perfectly tight, like the head of a tambourine. Now, take a very small-sized key, file off the wards and bow, sharpen the lower edges round the tube with the file until it is converted into a sharp hollow punch. Turn your tambourine upside down on a smooth-faced log of suitable size, and, with a small hammer and your little punch, proceed to perforate the parchment until the head is covered with small round holes. Now fashion from any dry, hard, heavy wood a flat disc 1½in. thick and 4½in. in diameter; this, with the broken cake, is put in the sieve and rattled about forward and back until the small broken granular fragments are in numbers forced through the holes in the parchment, and fall on the skin stretched to receive them. It will be found that among the grains thus formed there will be a certain quantity of fine dust; this can be separated by sweeping the grains over a sloping board on which flannel has been stretched, the grains pass on, the dust remains amongst the fibres of the wool, and can be collected to work up again. The granules can now be placed in a little wooden box and shaken about until rubbed smooth against each other. To finish them off it is well to place a large sheet of iron, copper, tin, or any other metal over a pot of boiling-hot water, throw the now all-but-finished gunpowder on the plate and stir it about until completely dry. A clean frying-pan is by no means a bad instrument for powder drying; take care that it is only placed on hot water, and not subjected to fire heat, or a blow-up will probably follow. Too much caution cannot be used after the powder has been subjected to the granulating process; before that there is little to fear, after it a great deal.
SEARCHING FOR GOLD.
Geology for travellers.
Metals, to identify.
Hints to gold searchers.
In travelling through little known or comparatively undescribed countries, it will be well for the experienced traveller to closely investigate and carefully study the geology of the region he is passing through; outcropping rocks and the stones of the river beds should be closely investigated. Sand should be gathered on the borders of the deep pools, dried, spread out on paper, and examined under the lens. Thus will the formation of inaccessible mountain regions be often brought to light. The winter ices and spring floods, by breaking up and disintegrating the rocks they flow through, gradually, by friction and the grinding power of water-moved boulders, reduce the detritus which accompanies them to sand, more or less ponderous according to the metallic elements of which it is formed. Thus, by the breaking up of quartz veins by the agencies just referred to, gold is released from its matrix to enrich the sands and shingle beds of certain rivers. Alluvial tin is in the same way set free in grains and nodules from the granitic or other formations in which it resides, and, water borne, travels onward until arrested by some deep pit or crevice in the river bed, where it remains until disturbed by floods of more than ordinary magnitude, or the pick and shovel of the miner. Our space will not admit of our dealing at length with the indications of gold or other metals, or of the regions in which the precious metals and gems are to be sought. Metals, to identify. We shall, therefore, content ourselves by giving a few plain, and we trust practical, hints for the finding and identification of such metals, stones, &c., as the traveller is likely to meet with. First in importance we class gold; and, although precarious and uncertain in the bulk of its deposits, is more generally distributed throughout the earth’s surface than any other metal. Hints to gold searchers. Clay slate formations, traversed by iron-stained quartz dykes, are well worth investigating; and most of the streams which flow through such formations will be found, on careful examination, more or less auriferous. In prospecting a stream, or river bed, choose localities where the stream, after a sharp descending run, has impinged against a perpendicular bank, forming an eddy before flowing onward. Dig away boldly all the top deposit until the bed rock is reached. Rout out all the depressions, crevices, and holes in this, scooping up all the clay, gravel, and grit they may contain. Place all this in convenient quantities in a broad shallow metal pan or dish, add water to it, rub it about briskly with the hand, pour away all the dirty water, add more, shake it about, give a sweeping rotatory motion to your pan, pick out all large lumps of stone or quartz, giving a sharp look at the latter; still add water, and work the pan until nothing but fine clear sand remains in it. A dexterous rolling, tilting motion is given by the initiated, which at once clears away the baser fragments, and reveals the “colour,” as the gold dust is called by the miners. A broad shovel is at times used somewhat in the same manner, the handle being held as shown in the full-page illustration “[Searching for Gold],” when the process is called vanning.
Mining and miners’ tools.
To carry out a regular system of investigation among quartz reefs, mineral veins, and metalliferous rocks, certain tools and appliances will be needed—picks of Cornish pattern, such as is represented in the above [illustration], sets of steel borers, with cockscomb ends, sets of steel gads or wedges, borer, steel and gad steel in bars, blasting powder, safety match in coils, some heavy hammers, a portable forge (such as is [here represented]), set of smith’s tools, shovel blades, spare pick-heads, and hilts of ash, &c. When it is deemed requisite to blast a portion of rock, the borer and hammer are used much as shown in the [annexed illustration]. One man, sitting on the ground, holds the borer upright and turns it freely round, whilst his assistant strikes it with the hammer. A little water dropped from time to time down the hole keeps the bit cool, and facilitates the operation. As sludge collects, it is removed with a species of scraper, fashioned from the end of an iron bar. A small rod or stick, with its end fibres frayed and set up like a mop, is used for drying out the hole. Should it be in wet ground, where moisture remains in spite of swabbing out, a cartridge composed of tallowed cotton or oiled paper, may be used to inclose the powder in. According to the old-fashioned plan, which some miners still follow, a long pointed copper rod or needle was pressed into the charge after it had been rammed into the bottom of the hole. Round this rod clay, pulverised clay, slate, &c., was closely packed, and driven with a copper tamping rod until the hole was compactly filled up. The needle was now withdrawn, and a match, composed of a long marsh reed filled with mealed powder, thrust down the orifice until the charge was reached, when the upper end was held in its place by clay. A bit of rag, smeared with moistened powder, was attached to the head of the reed, which, when fired, burned long enough to afford time for the miners to shelter themselves from the effects of the explosion. Since the introduction of the so-called patent safety match, it has been with great advantage substituted for the reed; the burning of this match or fuse is generally so uniform, that it has only to be cut according to the distance between the hole and the place of shelter. Even this great improvement in the means of ignition falls very short of exploding by voltaic electricity, which should always, when practicable, be had recourse to. The wandering miner and explorer will, however, seldom be able to avail himself of its valuable aid, or the use of gun cotton or nitrate of glycerine, which agents have of late been much lauded as substitutes for gunpowder in mining operations.
It not unfrequently happens that diamonds and other precious stones are found in river beds, and such other localities as miners are in the habit of examining. We therefore offer a few hints and directions for the identification of these in their rough state, as given by Professor Tennant:
Precious stones, to identify.
“Fig. 1 is an octahedron; Fig. 2 an octahedron having six planes on the edges; Fig. 3, dodecahedron with rhombic faces; Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are rarer forms. Out of 1000 diamonds I have generally found about one of the form of Fig. 6; about ten like Fig. 5; fifty like Fig. 4; and the remainder like 1, 2, 3, in about an equal proportion. With regard to the size and weight of diamonds, 500 out of 1000 which came in the same parcel were found smaller than Fig. 1, which is the exact size of a diamond weighing half a carat; 300 were of the size 3, 4, 5, and 6—none of these exceeded a carat in weight; eighty of the size 2 weighed a carat and a half; only one was as large as Fig. 16—this weighed 24 carats. The remainder varied from 2 to 20 carats, a carat being equal to three grains and one-sixth troy. Fig. 7 consists of a conglomerated mass of quartz pebbles rounded through having been water-worn, a crystal of diamond, the size of a small pea, and various grains of gold, the whole cemented together by oxide of iron. This specimen is peculiarly interesting at the present time, as showing the association of diamonds with gold. In 1844 a slave was searching for gold in the bed of a river in the province of Bahia, and discovered diamonds. It being a new locality for diamonds, 297,000 carats were collected in two years, which produced upwards of 300,000l. I see no reason why diamonds should not be found in Australia, Canada, California, as well as in those other gold districts from which they have hitherto been obtained. The value of the most inferior diamonds, unfit for jewellery, is 50l. per ounce. Could they be found in sufficient abundance to be sold at 5l. per ounce, the benefit to the arts would be incalculable. Not only would the seal engraver, watchmaker, lapidary, glazier, &c., be able to procure them at easier prices, but numerous substances would be rendered useful which at present cannot be profitably worked owing to the high price of diamonds.
“Figs. 8 to 11 represent four crystals of corundum. This substance is commonly found in six-sided prismatic crystals, and frequently terminated at each end by six-sided pyramids. When transparent, and of a blue colour, it is known in jewellery as the sapphire; when merely of a red colour, it is called Oriental ruby; and when this colour is of a rich depth, the stone is more valuable than even the diamond.
“Figs. 12 to 14. Three crystals of spinel-ruby. It is of various shades of red, and is easily distinguished from corundum by the peculiarity of its crystalline form and inferior hardness.
“Figs. 15 and 16. Crystals of garnet. These are chiefly found in the form of the rhombic dodecahedron; are occasionally of a beautiful red colour; when semi-transparent, are called by the jewellers “carbuncles.” They are of comparatively little value.
“Figs. 17 and 18. Two rhombic prisms of topaz. It is found in rivers, frequently with all the edges and angles of the original crystal worn off, and presenting a round appearance, in which state it is often mistaken for the diamond, owing to the colour and specific gravity of each being the same. It may, however, easily be distinguished from it by the difference of the hardness and fracture. The diamond yields readily to mechanical division parallel to all the planes of the regular octahedron, the topaz only at right angles to the axis of the crystal.
“Fig. 20. Tourmaline. A crystal having six sides, deeply striated in the longitudinal direction, and terminated by a three-sided pyramid; colour varying from black to brown and green. Transparent specimens are useful to the philosopher in experiments on polarised light.
“Fig. 21. Crystal of transparent quartz or “rock crystal,” frequently called a “diamond” in the mining districts, as “Bristol diamond,” a “Cornish diamond,” &c. The crystal represented by this figure was brought from California by a person who refused 200l. for it, under the impression that it was a real diamond, because it scratched glass and could not be scratched with a file. Its real value, however, is not more than 2s. 6d.
“Fig. 22. Beryl, presents a six-sided prism, and is usually of a green colour.”
River pearls, to find.
When substances are found which are supposed to be precious stones, the file test should be at once applied; if the teeth of the instrument “bite,” as it is called, or cut into the substance, it will be at once fair to infer that some inferior mineral has been discovered. The bit of sapphire from the case may also be called into use, and if the stone you have found is of white colour, and a corner of your sapphire bites or scratches it, there is no hope of its being a diamond. If on weighing it the specific gravity of the specimen is found to be less than 3·9, it will not turn out to be a ruby or sapphire. The application of heat is another test, as if no electricity is manifested it will not turn out to be a gargoon or a topaz. If, on testing it on your piece of flint glass, the surface of that is bitten by the specimen, it will probably be found to be either rock crystal, quartz, or perchance beryl. The rivers of many countries, our own amongst the number, not unfrequently contain large mussel-like shells; these are the fresh-water pearl mussels (Unio margaritiferus), and the pearls which these at times contain are of considerable value, and well repay being looked for when the rivers are low.
“All is not gold that glitters.” Sulphuret of iron and yellow mica are not unfrequently mistaken by the inexperienced for gold, and we have not unfrequently had some little difficulty in convincing the sanguine discoverer of his error. Sulphuret of iron, pyrites, or the mundic of the miners, is a bright yellow glittering mineral, which sometimes has gold associated with it. The differences between it and gold are sufficiently marked. Strike the suspected fragment on a hard substance with a hammer, and if “mundic,” it at once becomes reduced to minute fragments, whilst gold would be only slightly flattened. Gold is malleable; mundic is not. Gold can be cut with the pocket-knife just as easily as copper; mundic resists the knife, turns its edge, and will strike fire against its back, giving out sulphurous fumes. Mundic, after being made red hot, is attracted by the magnet; gold never is. Hot nitric acid causes it to decompose with much effervescence, leaving such spangles of gold as it may contain free in the bottom of the test tube. Gold dust is readily taken up by quicksilver; mundic is not. Yellow mica is so much lighter than gold that its comparative want of ponderability should at once distinguish it; a small portion placed on an iron bar, and heated in the fire to redness becomes, on cooling, flakey and lustreless, whilst gold would remain unaltered; it floats on the surface of mercury, refusing to unite with it, whilst gold is immediately converted into an amalgam. Sulphuret of copper, or copper ore as it is usually called, breaks freely under the hammer, but can be cut easily with the knife, only instead of producing a solid metallic chip it crumbles into powder, just as soft stone or chalk would. Alluvial tin can in no case be mistaken for either gold, silver, or copper. It is dark coloured, breaks into powder under the hammer, and is exceedingly ponderous. With the so-called rosin and wood tin we cannot deal here, as the explorer is not very likely to find them. Minute fragments of stream tin are to be easily distinguished from small bits of iron ore by first heating them red hot, and then subjecting them to the magnet; iron will be attracted, tin will not.
Iron ore, to smelt.
Many wild countries produce iron ore of remarkable purity, and a number of native tribes, by a rough system of smelting, contrive to obtain enough metal for the manufacture of their weapons, implements, &c. The greater the purity of the metal, the less difficulty will be experienced in dealing with it. Should the explorer at any time be called on to smelt a little iron ore, he may proceed as follows: Build a turret-shaped furnace, proportioned to the quantity of ore to be treated, line it with ant-hill clay, or common clay and sand, leaving a hole in the front near the bottom, which has a temporary stopper of clay placed in it, and another orifice about 2ft. up the back for the air blast to enter at. Either a large pair of double bellows, compressible skin air-bags, such as we have before described, or blowing cylinders, such as are represented in the annexed [illustration], must be set up at a convenient distance from the back of the furnace. These cylinders are used by the inhabitants of New Guinea instead of bellows, and answer remarkably well. They are composed of two hollow tree trunks, placed side by side; a wooden tube, which serves to let the air out, unites them; and a man or boy sits on the tops of the tubes, and works alternately up and down a couple of mop-shaped pistons, which are made from poles armed at the ends with bundles of fibre, feathers, or dry grass, so adjusted that they expand on being thrust down and collapse on being drawn up. As one piston man gets fatigued, another takes his place; thus a continuous stream of air is kept up. Whatever method of blast is decided on, it must be so arranged as to be continuous and powerful. When the interior of the furnace is quite dry, throw in a good quantity of well-burned charcoal; then a layer of split dry wood until it reaches about 1ft. above the entrance of the blast; then another layer of charcoal and dry cow dung a few inches deep; then sprinkle in loosely a layer of broken iron ore, mixed with a little limestone if you can get it; then another layer of charcoal and dry cow dung, and another of ore; and so on until the furnace is all but full, only one layer of wood being used. Now through the blast entrance introduce some well-ignited and glowing embers from your fire; put in the tube of your blast, which may be of baked clay; lute it fast in its place, so as to prevent any escape of air; and proceed to blow, when your furnace will soon be in a state of active ignition and glow. Keep up the blast steadily, and as the contents of the furnace sink down add to them from above layer by layer as before directed, until it is considered that enough metal has been cast in. So soon as it is thought probable that the iron has melted, a small portion of the clay of the tap-hole may be removed with an iron bar, when, if in a sufficiently fluxed condition, the iron will run freely out into long shallow pits dug to receive it. The iron thus procured is called bloom, and has to be heated in pieces in the forge fire, and thoroughly roasted and thumped about until it is soft and tough enough for general use. The natives do not as a rule wait for their iron to flow, but open the furnace when it cools down, and then drag out such bloom as may have settled to the bottom. Excellent steel is made from iron thus procured by the natives of the hill districts of India, by putting it in small earthen crucibles with charcoal, rice, chaff, peroxide of manganese, and green leaves. These pots are then luted down with clay, and placed in a clay furnace heated with dry cow dung and charcoal. Here they remain for a considerable time, when the fire is allowed to burn out; the pots are then, when cool, removed, and the steel taken out to be fashioned by the hand of the smith into any form required. We have used a great deal of both iron and steel prepared as above described, and found both of admirable quality.
Chemical tests for minerals.
A common horse-shoe magnet, such as can be bought for a mere trifle at any toyshop, will be found very useful for extracting particles of iron from other mineral. Whenever the means of transport will admit, it is well to take a small compact case of simple appliances, tests, and reagents. The whole, by a little ingenuity, may be easily packed in a solid leather case very little larger than an ordinary sandwich box. Its contents should be as follows: Small glass-stoppered and capped bottle of nitric acid, ditto hydrochloric acid, ditto liq. ammonia, ditto quicksilver, small corked bottles of ferrocyanide of potassium, bi-chromate of potash, fused borax, and common salt; a small jointed blowpipe, a pair of forceps, a small pair of scales, fitted for taking specific gravities, and a set of weights, a bit of flint glass, a piece of sapphire, which can be obtained from any lapidary; half a dozen test tubes to nest one within the other; half a dozen old watch glasses, to be obtained for a few pence from any watchmaker; half a dozen narrow strips of window glass, cut to a thickness little greater than stout wire, and 5in. long (these are for stirring up hot acids, &c.); a piece of stout copper wire, shaped like the figure 9, to hold the watch glasses on whilst they are over the lamp or candle flame; a small fine file and a few narrow slips of well burnt light charcoal; a common wire cigar-holder, to hold the test tubes in whilst heated; and a very small bright-faced hammer, such as watchmakers use. It is truly astonishing how much qualitative analysis can be carried out with these comparatively limited means. We will suppose that a little bag of sand has been obtained; that it shows, on being spread out, a number of particles of a glittering yellow substance, as well as black-coloured grains, mixed with common quartz and minute fragments of stone. We first place our sand on a sheet of white paper, and with our pocket lens have a thorough examination of the various constituents. Should any grains of sufficient size and questionable character present themselves, they may be at once taken up on the moistened point of a pin. If one of them should look like gold, place it on some hard substance and give it a blow with your hammer. If it flattens without powdering, drop it into one of your test tubes, pour in a little nitric acid, and hold it in the flame until it boils thoroughly. If your particle gives off a train of minute bubbles and gradually dissolves, pour a little of the contents of your tube into two separate watch glasses placed side by side, add a little water to each. Add a little common salt to No. 1; if the particle is silver, you will at once have a thick white precipitate—chloride of silver. Drop a few drops of your liquor ammonia into No. 2; and if copper, the beautiful and well-marked blue colour of ammonuret of copper will at once appear. Should the particle have crushed under the blow, it is probably either sulphuret of iron or copper ore. To distinguish these two substances when in a minute state of division, proceed with the acid as just described, and test one watch glass with a small fragment of ferrocyanide of potassium, when, if sulphuret of iron or “mundic,” you will have a dense cloud of Prussian blue in your watch glass. Treat the other with your liquor ammonia, and you will have the same brilliant ammonuret of copper colour as if the particle had been native or malleable copper. Having satisfied ourselves as to the selected particles—for should the flattened grain resist the action of the hot acid and remain bright, it is surely gold—we place our sand on a shovel, and hold it there until the whole is red hot; it may then be taken from the fire, and allowed to cool on the shovel. The magnet will now take out all the bits of iron. Now with a hammer-face or smooth water-worn pebble proceed to crush all the substances on the shovel fine. Then at the nearest stream of water, or in a large tub, carefully van and wash your sample until all the earthy and worthless matters have been washed away; then the practised eye will instantly distinguish the gold, if any. The utterly inexperienced may, however, be deceived by remaining fragments of mundic or copper ore before referred to; therefore, to make assurance doubly sure, let him dry his washed metal powder on the shovel over the fire, then carefully place it in a small, clean, dry vial-bottle with a little quicksilver. Shake and rattle it well about until all the particles have been brought well in contact with the mercury. Such fragments as it will not take up are not gold; but to find that which it has converted into an amalgam, place the mercury in a piece of clean chamois leather, press it carefully, and the mercury will force its way in minute globules through the leather, leaving the gold in a soft mass within. This, by being heated to redness, throws off the remaining quicksilver, and can be estimated as gold. Silver will also amalgamate with mercury, but can always be distinguished from gold by the nitric acid and salt test before described. Lead ore is rarely mistaken for anything else, its peculiar colour, cubical form of crystallisation, and gravity being generally sufficient to identify it. A small quantity, reduced to a fine powder and mixed with a little fused borax, readily fuses on a charcoal slip before the blowpipe, and is then ordinary lead. The silver often associated with lead ores can alone be estimated by a regular assay, requiring the use of crucibles, cupels, furnace, &c. Sulphuret of antimony, although massive and somewhat lead-coloured, leaves a thick rough deposit on the charcoal, and fuses into a brittle crystalline regulus, in no way resembling lead. Small specimens of galena, or lead ore, should always be preserved for future investigation, as it is at times extremely rich in silver, whilst at others a mere trace only remains. We have analysed lead ore from Cornwall which yielded between 90oz. and 100oz. of silver to the ton, whilst other samples, raised in Wisconsin, although yielding 85 per cent. of lead, did not contain enough silver to render its extraction remunerative. The points of distinction between minerals and metals we have thus been briefly laying down do not properly apply to the investigations of the regular gold-digger, but are mainly intended for the use of those who are engaged in exploration and research. The professed gold-seeker, as a rule, casts all aside save the one great centre of his hopes and pursuit. He, in his prospecting expeditions, makes use of the broad shallow metal pan shown in the illustration which represents “[Searching for Gold.]” The quantity of gold brought to light by its aid guides him in his choice of a locality. If it is considered rich enough, he, with his mates, sinks down to “the pay dirt,” or deposit containing the gold; this is either washed out at once on the cradle, or piled in heaps for future treatment. With gold quartz-crushing, amalgamation on a large scale, or the washing down of drift by hydraulic power and the use of flumes as practised in California, we cannot deal here, as the appliances are far more complicated and ponderous than the mere traveller could carry with him.
Base metal, to detect.
It sometimes happens that imposition is attempted in far-off lands, and imitation gold ornaments offered to the traveller. To test the quality of these, it will be requisite to have a bit of black terra-cotta pot, or a fragment of any hard smooth black stone. Rub the suspected ornament on this until a metallic streak is left, dip one of your bits of glass rod in your nitric acid, and let a drop or two fall on the track left by the metal. If of base material, the particles will rapidly turn green and dissolve; if gold, they will remain unchanged; and if an alloy, the combined metal will be removed, and the gold wall remain stationary on the black surface. The exact standard of mixture or combination can only be arrived at by the use of a set of touch-needles, which are rubbed and compared with the doubtful marks on the stone.
Stone, to quarry.
There are many situations in which stone may be advantageously used for the erection of houses, forts, or defensible depôts. On the discovery of a bed of rock adapted for the purpose, the head or covering earth should be removed, either by the agency of water obtained by diverting some neighbouring stream for the purpose, or by digging with the spade or shovel. Careful examination will now generally disclose veins or seams traversing the stone, such of these as run in favourable directions should be selected, and the gads or wedges before described had recourse to. It is well to have, at least, a dozen of these for stone splitting. They should be about 5in. long, 1½in. wide, and ½in. thick, tapering to the edge, which should not be too sharp. All gads should be made of the best gad steel, carefully pointed and tempered. In entering the gads, it will be well to insert them in the selected seam at about 1ft. apart; then, with the heavy hammer or pick-head, strike each gad a blow or two in succession, which will serve to open the seam, and not unfrequently detach the required fragment.
When large square or oblong blocks are required, it is well to first mark out the size required on the rock with the pick’s point, and then with either the borer before described, or a jumping bar (of form shown in the annexed illustration), drill a row of holes about 8in. apart on the line before marked out, in depth proportioned to the intended thickness of the stone, in each hole should be placed a pair of gad cheeks—these are pieces of half-round iron bar. The rounded sides rest against the sides of the holes as the gad is driven between the flat surfaces, thus forcing open the grain of the rock without breaking away the sides of the holes by gad clinching. As in the former case, each gad is gradually driven home until the line of holes run into one long fissure and the block is detached. In breaking out flat slabs of comparatively thin stone, it will be found a good plan, after measuring and marking the size decided on, to sink a shallow groove either with the pick’s point or a stonecutter’s chisel across the extreme length of the slab; then, by inserting the gads at the outer face or edge of the deposit, the slab will not only be raised but evenly broken off. Fire is a most powerful agent and aid in stone-breaking, especially when assisted by water. The huge and massive boulder of rock which bids defiance to the sledge-hammer may very soon be reduced to fragments by making a strong fire round it, and, when thoroughly heated, throwing buckets of water over it.
The treatment of stone.
Some Indians are particularly clever in the art of stone dividing. They build a double wall of clay the whole length of the stone, leaving about six inches of bare rock between them. They then lay more clay on the outsides of the walls, nearly the width of the stone. Then between the walls of clay they make a long line of fire with dry cow dung and chips of hard, dry wood. An incredibly short space of time elapses before the division of the stone is completed, when the fire is carefully extinguished with earth or sand, and the stone allowed to cool. Rocks, so placed as to prevent recourse being had to either of the expedients described, may be split out by the action of a small charge of powder, fired, as before directed, in a hole made by the jumping bar. To drill a hole with this no hammer man is required, but the weight of the protuberance on the instrument, when aided by a jumping and rotatory motion, is sufficient to cut away the rock. Water swab, shell scraper, &c., are used with these implements, just as they are with the miner’s borer, which can be used in confined spaces and under outlying works, where the jumper would be useless. A crowbar or two will be found very useful for lifting out broken pieces of stone, &c. There is also an instrument much used in America called a “canthook,” which is [here] represented. It is extremely valuable for moving both stones of large size and logs of unwieldy dimensions. The handle, or lever, is made of tough, well-seasoned timber, and is usually from 6ft. to 7ft. long. The claw is of sound, tough, wrought iron, and proportioned in weight and spread to the bodies it is applied to. Two or three sizes of claws fit one handle, just as a dentist’s key is adapted to the size of the tooth it is to grasp. An oblong square hole is cut through the lever for the claw’s end to pass through, and a stout iron pin, with a hole in the end for a split stop to go into, keeps the claw at its proper point of adjustment. The boulder claw is another most useful implement. It is used for turning over and rolling out large boulders of rock, lifting out logs, &c. These claws, and the chains and rings to which they are attached, should be made of the best Swedish iron; the claw point should be of gad steel, welded in. The form of the hook or claw is very important, as, if not turned to the exact bend, it will not grip or hold. The above illustrations will serve to show both the form of the claw and its mode of action when in use.
THE BOULDER CLAW.
Miners’ pump, to make.
When water settles in a comparatively shallow pit, too large to be conveniently emptied by the aid of buckets, a very simple form of pump will be found useful. Nail four long planks together in the form of a narrow square box or tube, say 1ft. square; now procure a stout pole a little longer than the box, nail a flat board to one end of it just as a table is attached to its stand, cut away the edges until it fits the box loosely, then nail a bordering of old boot leather or hide round the edges until it fits tight enough to suck; cut a large square hole in it, and fasten over this with tacks a piece of tapping leather or raw hide backed with wood for a valve; bore a hole in the upper end of the pole to put a cross handle through; bore an auger hole through the lower end of your box about 1ft. from the opening, and through this drive a stout stick to keep the sucker from coming too far down; your pump is now complete. Place it in a slightly slanting direction in the pond, and secure it with a crooked stick driven in by its side; push the sucker to the bottom, pour a bucket of water or so in to make it draw, and you will, by working the piston steadily up and down, soon have the water pouring in a flood over the upper edge of the box, where it can be caught in a hollow log or a pit lined with clay. One of these box pumps is shown in the full page illustration “[Searching for Gold.]”
Charcoal burning.
The traveller will find it extremely useful to be able to manufacture his own charcoal. There are several methods by which he can do this, all depending on the same general principles. Pieces of wood of suitable length and convenient size are prepared. We show here the most effective arrangements.
The pile, when evenly and completely built up, is covered with turf and a little sand or earth—leaving one fair-sized orifice as a draught hole. Fire is introduced either at the bottom of the pile through a hole left for it, or dropped down through the space left by the withdrawal of the centre post. The orifices of all charcoal pits or chambers should remain open until the fire has become well distributed through the mass of wood, but should be covered with a stopper of turf or clay directly the light grey smoke of active combustion shows itself. The contents of the pile may from time to time be tested by removing a small portion of the stopping or covering turf and inserting a hooked iron rod, by the aid of which a sample of the baking may be withdrawn for examination. Immediately on being satisfied that the charcoal has been sufficiently burned, more earth, turf, sand, &c., should be heaped on the top of the pile, until every crevice is stopped completely. The fire will then soon die out, and the contents of the pile can be removed. We also [represent] a contrivance for preparing charcoal for gunpowder making. A small cask has one head removed, a stout pole run through the bung-hole, and is then evenly packed with selected billets of light suitable wood. (See “Gunpowder, to make,” [p. 247].) The head is then replaced, the cask covered with well-worked clay, and then sunk in a pit prepared for its reception. The pole is then withdrawn, and a good quantity of red-hot embers thrown down the hole. The cask, after being used for charcoal making, is very useful for an oven, as will be shown when cookery is under consideration.
CHAPTER IV.
HUTS AND HOUSES.
Timber felling.
Before proceeding to give directions for building huts and houses, it may not be amiss to give a few hints on felling trees. Hints they can only be, as it is just as impossible to teach the art of wielding the backwoodsman’s axe by writing as it is to communicate the faculty of tracking wild animals through the forest by verbal directions. Experience and close observation are the only two true masters in both cases; still, we may be enabled to give such general directions as may save our readers from some of the humiliating predicaments we have seen the inexperienced wood-chopper placed in.
Nothing is more common than to see one of this class hopelessly pinching his axe at every cut, from having commenced his chop too narrow. The length of the chop, or chip as it is sometimes called, will, of course, depend on the size of the tree; but in all cases it should be made in a long wedge form, as shown in the annexed illustration. By cutting in this way, the surface of the stump is left as level as a planed board, and the log which is separated from it has, when it falls, a wedge-shaped end. It will, in most cases, be found that the tree which you are about to fell will lean more or less in one direction. Station yourself, axe in hand, on the side towards which the tree leans; then measure your distance by placing the edge of your axe on the centre of the boll of the tree, at such a height from the ground that the axe lays in a straight and true line according to the stature of the axe man. The check or flange at the end of the axe helve should rest in the hands as the arms are extended towards the tree. This will give the distance at which the axe blade may be best brought to bear on the tree trunk. In delivering the cuts, which should follow the distance test, the axe should be dexterously and powerfully whirled round the head; sometimes obliquely from above downwards, and at others in a straight and direct sweep across the line of the log. The horizontal form of the lower cut and the wedge shape of the upper will be thus preserved until the tree is half cut through, when exactly the same system of operation should be followed out on the side of the tree opposite to that on which the first incision was made. On the second chop being nearly completed, the tree will fall directly away from the axe man in the line of its inclination. On all the tops, lops, and branches being removed, and the log cleared from surrounding impediments, it may become a question as to what purpose it is to be applied.
If it is of great length, and comparatively short pieces are required, the process known as “logging up” must be had recourse to. This is carried out as follows: After measuring the length of the log, and dividing it into the requisite number of pieces by marking it with the axe, stand on the tree trunk, with your feet pointing across the grain of the wood, then with your axe proceed to cut two sloping or wedge-shaped cuts, as shown in the annexed illustration, carrying them into the log until half through it; then face about, and make two on the other side, which, when finished, should meet the others at their widest diameter, which will be that of the tree. Some settlers in wild countries burn down the trees in order to save labour; others girdle them. To perform this latter process, it is necessary to cut a wide band of bark from the butt of the tree near the ground. This prevents the sap from ascending, and thus quickly destroys vegetation. Where timber is scarce and valuable, the cross-cut saw may be made to aid the axe, and the tree taken off almost level with the ground. It sometimes, although not frequently, happens that trees are found too large to be felled by the axe or saw. This was the case with the so-called “big tree,” one of the “mammoth trees” of California. It was felled by boring a complete circle of holes round and into its immense trunk with augers. Five men were occupied during twenty-two days in completing the final overthrow of the tree, which was effected, after all the holes had converged, by the introduction of a number of wedges. Its period of growth was estimated at 3000 years; it measured 302ft. high, and was 96ft. in circumference at the butt. The bark measured nearly 1ft. in thickness.
When to cut timber.
The quality, strength, and durability of timber are much influenced by the season of the year in which it is felled. In all temperate regions the autumn or winter season should be chosen, as at that time little sap is flowing through the vessels of the tree. In this country it but too often happens that well-grown oak timber is all but sacrificed in order that the bark may be procured. Early spring, the season for bark rending, is the very worst that could by any possibility be chosen for cutting timber. Charged as it is with vegetable juices, rich in saccharine matter and albumen, the seeds of dry rot and decay are carried with it, which no after treatment will serve to eradicate. In tropical climates it is well to fell such timber as is intended to be kept for future use at the end of the dry season and before the setting in of the rains; all logs intended for rails, posts, &c., should be split up, immediately after felling, into the rough forms of the objects into which, when fully seasoned, they will be converted. The bark should be all stripped off, and the rough timber placed under cover in such a situation as will admit of light and air penetrating freely through it. Timber cut and thus treated one season, should not be used until the next. The durability of seasoned timber is infinitely greater than that of green.
Timber, to split.
For efficient timber splitting, a set of thoroughly well-made and correctly-formed iron wedges, and a number of equally well-shaped wooden wedges or gluts, are needed.
The iron wedges should be made of the very best tough iron, tipped with gad steel, as in the form of the annexed illustration. All the edges and corners should be slightly rounded off in order to give freedom in driving; the length, from head to point, should be 10 in., the width across the wedge 2½ in., and the thickness of metal across the edge at the head 2 in. Some judgment is required in tempering wedges, as they must be hard enough at the point to prevent bending, and yet not hard enough to break. The file test is as good as any. The edge of the wedge point should never be hammered thin before tempering, but left rather thick to be reduced to the proper degree of sharpness on the grinding stone. The wooden gluts are usually considerably larger than the iron wedges; these are to be made from hard, tough, well-seasoned timber—round stout poles are convenient for making them. The proper lengths, which are mainly dependent on the size of the logs to be operated on, are sawn off. The sides or cheeks of these pieces are then chopped off with the axe in approximately true wedge form, an even surface and exact pitch is afterwards given to them with a cooper’s drawing knife or a spoke shave.
Wedges, whether of iron or wood, should never be driven with an iron hammer. A wedging beetle, of form shown in the accompanying illustration, should be always made use of. The hardest and toughest wood to be obtained should be used to form the head; the ends are usually hooped with flat iron rings, and the handle fashioned from some tough elastic wood, such as ash or hickory. Scarcely any two men use the same size beetle, but the following will be found fair average dimensions from which to make one: Length of beetle head 9in., binding hoops 1¼in. wide and ½in. thick, diameter of beetle head 5½in., length of handle 2ft. 8in. Great care should be taken in fitting in the handle, as it is essential to the efficiency of the instrument that it and the head should be exactly true with each other.
A slightly flattened handle lies in the hand more compactly, and works more freely, than a perfectly round one. Nearly all logs split best from the small or crown end towards the butt. If it is intended to divide the log into four pieces, the wedges must be inserted as shown in the annexed illustration (A), if into three they are placed as at B. When rails, &c., are to be made, the log must be divided into quarters, by first making a cross-shaped cut in the end of the log, and striking the back of the axe with the beetle until the edge enters deep enough to afford a hold for the iron wedges. Longitudinal cuts with the axe are now to be made, the whole length of the log corresponding with the cross. The wedges, gluts, and beetle do the rest when the latter implement is properly wielded.
Logs for shingle making are quartered much in the same way, only instead of being split out in the full length, the log is cut up into short lengths before quartering. The shingles may be 15in. long by 9in. wide, and in form like that represented in the above illustration. The axe and beetle may be used for splitting off these wooden flakes, but the lath render’s froe is a far more convenient instrument for the purpose.
The diagrams in the next page will serve to show the mode by which the long log quarters are split up into rails, &c. Some particular species of tree will split without the aid of wedges; the axe alone being used to cleave them. Two axe men attack a log, one chops in his axe blade in the line of grain, the other follows behind and chops in his, when the first man becomes the second, and so on until the cut is complete and the log is split.
Such posts as are intended to be driven into the earth require accurate and careful pointing. Each cheek of the timber should be smoothly and evenly sloped off to about the proportion shown in the illustration representing the wedge. The centre of the post will thus become the point.
The accompanying illustration represents a log clip for holding a post whilst undergoing the process of pointing. The side wedge holds the post securely in the notched piece of log laid to receive it. A camp, garden, or cattle inclosure may be easily and expeditiously fenced in by either of the plans shown in the following illustrations. The first system of railing consists in driving double posts into the earth at equal distances, and then dropping trimmed poles and pieces of wood or stones alternately between them. A wooden pin driven through the heads of both posts at each nip keeps all compact and secure. To erect a fence by the second plan, posts are driven into the ground singly, in the position shown in the diagram on the next page, and then poles are laid with their ends crossing at a sufficient inclination to rest against and be held by the posts. The rails can be adjusted to any distance apart, by fitting in short pieces or junks of pole between the ends of the long bars. A very simple and useful fence for marking the bounds of a camp, or piece of cultivated ground, is formed by planting short stout poles obliquely in the earth, so that they may cross each other like the letters XX. The points at which the poles cross are secured with a twisted withy, a bit of raw hide, a strip of twisted bark or root. Fences of this kind are very useful to show natives the nearest point to which they may stray towards the packs and bales of goods.
The natives of British Columbia and some other countries laboriously hew and chop away the two cheeks of a log with their primitive hatchets until they form a plank by the reduction of a whole tree. In India and China the natives make use of a long cross-handled saw, not unlike our pit saw, for the division of a log into planks. They do not, however, sink a sawpit as we do in this country, but set up a pair of cross legs or shears, and run the log obliquely across the upper fork until it is some distance in the air. They then saw down to the fork of the shears, and, when that is reached, reverse the log, end for end, by tilting it, and commence at the other extremity. The hunter or explorer will, as a rule, be mainly dependent on his skill as a woodsman, and wielder of the axe, for a comfortable dwelling amongst the forests. The number of a party and the duration of a visit to any particular locality will influence the kind of structure it will be best to erect. A single trapper or hunter naturalist can content himself with very moderate accommodation.
Board wigwam.
Log house, to build.
A simple form of wigwam can be thus built with the aid of the axe only, in a very short time; search out and cut four stout fork ended posts between 6ft. and 7ft. long, sharpen their ends, drive two of them into the earth firmly at 9ft. apart, then cut a couple of straight strong poles of about 1ft. girth and 10ft. long, lay one of these in the forks of the two posts and fasten it there with a twisted withy or a bit of raw hide; then measure off 5ft. from one of the posts, and, parallel with it, set up one of the others, plant the remaining one at the other end, lay in the second pole, secure it as before, and the framework is complete. Now look out for a free splitting tree, log it up into 13 ft. lengths, split these into boards, place them in a sloping direction against the poles which rest in the forks, and arrange them so that the upper ends do not meet, but leave a good wide opening for the smoke to come out. Split up a log or two the length required to board up the ends of the wigwam; this can be done by setting the boards upright, leaving a wide one movable to form a door, drive in a few hard wood pegs so as to catch the bottoms of the boards and all is made secure. During the day a board or two to leeward may be slid aside to let in light, by night air enough comes in through the chinks. Log house, to build. As a more permanent home for a party who are about wintering in the woods, it is best to construct a log hut of the description represented in the following illustration; its size must, of course, depend on the number of its proposed occupants; it can be made either oblong or square. When a sufficient number of trees of convenient bulk for handling have been felled and logged up into proper lengths, the ends should be notched with the axe, as shown in the illustration. The four ground logs are then laid and keyed together by their notches; the second row are then placed on these, either by the aid of skid bars placed in a slanting direction on the lower logs, or by manual labour. When all the walls are high enough, the doorway must be cut in the following manner: Begin on the upper log and chop through at each end, the exact width of the proposed opening follow down, cutting log by log until the ground log is reached; cut this nearly half through and then split out the piece, the other portion below forms your threshold. Take a fresh log, and in it split out a space exactly to correspond with that in the ground log, place this as a crowning log with three others, uncut, to form your wall plate, the split-out piece will form the top of your doorway; the square hole for the window or shutter is chopped out in the same way. The gable ends and ridge log must be adjusted at such a pitch as to insure a free run for rain water or melted snow; the four ends or butts of the gable angles should rest and be firmly wedged in four holes axed out for them in the ends of the upper row of wall-plate logs; where the gable peak crosses, the logs should be notched together and pinned; the ridge log will then rest in the crutches formed by the intersection. Now, after having selected the most convenient spot for a fire-place, chop a hole through the logs, including that on the ground, about 3ft. wide and 4ft. 6in. high. There are several ways of forming a chimney and fire-back; one is to build a beehive-shaped wall outside the opening, plastering the inside with clay, and forming a rough chimney stack with turf and stones. All chinks or crevices between the logs are stopped with clay and moss. Some American trappers and hunters proceed as follows: They cut a number of poles long enough to reach the top of the proposed chimney, which is, of course, a little higher than the ridge of the roof; they then plant the sharpened ends of the poles in the earth in such a way as to form a semicircular hedge surrounding the back of the hole in the logs, and about 6ft. at its widest part from them. An inner hedge of sticks about 6ft. long is now planted within the row of long poles, at about 8in. from them; a number of bushy twigs are now collected and interwoven between the poles and sticks until a sort of double wall of basket work is formed between these wicker partitions; a quantity of wet clay and small gravel is firmly impacted, and rammed down until the space will hold no more. The long poles are then gathered together into a sort of inverted funnel form, a hole being left where their small ends meet for the smoke to pass through; a thorough slap-dashing with thin wet clay within and without finishes the affair. The inner layer of basket work consumes in time, but leaves the clay and stone hard enough to resist an ordinary heat. Huts of this description are either half log-roofed or shingled; that represented in the illustration is covered by the former mode. Logs of fitting size and length are split in halves; the surfaces of one-half of these are slightly hollowed with the axe or adze, and then placed side by side with the round surface downward on the ridge bar and wall plate; on the hollowed faces of these over every interval is laid face downward one of the flat-faced pieces. (See illustration, [p. 275].)
Temporary wigwams.
To roof-in one of these log huts with the shingles we have before described, the builder must proceed in a different manner; rows of rafters must be pinned on to catch the shingles. The first row, or that at the wall plate, should project some inches beyond it; on the heels of these a long flat lath or batten of wood is secured by wood pegs driven in here and there, this nips the row of shingles and keeps them in place. The second row is laid over and beyond the batten and so on, much as slates or tiles are laid for the roof of an English house.
Doors and shutters for log houses are usually made of boards obtained from split logs pinned together with cross-bars, and are generally called dowel hinged; an auger hole is bored a few inches into both frame and door, a hard wood peg placed half-way into each hole gives perfect freedom of motion, and will last as long as the house. A flooring is very easily made by splitting a large log into rough boards, and much increases the comfort of the establishment. The above illustration represents a rough temporary wigwam, which may be easily made as follows: Select either a large fallen log or high bank for a back; drive two stout forked pieces sufficiently far from the back and far apart to give space for the interior; lay another pole across the crutches for a front wall plate, and two side poles from the back, long enough to rest on and be secured to this.
Thatch with hemlock or balsam fir branches, arranging them layer upon layer, butt end upwards. The gable ends can be closed with either branches or grass-covered hurdles or frames. Another kind is made by placing all the posts double, and then dropping the planks down between them, so that they are nipped by the uprights, as shown in the accompanying sketch.
The huts of savages.
As an almost invariable rule, the huts built by savage nations are round, or approximate more or less to the circular form. But sometimes they are shapeless things, like the rude “gunyah” of the Australian, which consists merely of a sheet of bark of the tea-tree (one of the Eucalypti) broken across the middle and set up in a triangular form to shelter “the body” from the inclemency of the weather; while small fires are lighted all around for warmth and defence against the mosquitoes, or a dry log, 6ft. or 8ft. long, is laid on either side, and set on fire in several places. Equally simple is the hut of the desert bushman. A few sticks are set up against each other, so as to form an irregular cone, with one side left open to admit “the body” of the sleeper, as shown in the illustration on [p. 279]. In almost all tribes the commencement is made in the same manner. A circle is traced or imagined on the ground, and the women, squatting down, with sharp pointed sticks work holes a foot or more apart all round it; long flexible wands are inserted, and their tops bent over and lashed together, and if the hut be large, one or more poles are placed inside the circle as supports. In Kafirland the fire-place is simply a flat hearth, occupying the centre, so that the poles, when there are any, are arranged round it. Smaller rods are wattled all round, or bound tightly to the ribs with strips of the inner bark of the mimosa, or other tree, and the hut is thatched with reeds, grass, or whatever may be the favourite or most convenient material of the country.
In Kafirland the huts are hemispherical, like beehives, or rather like inverted bowls, slightly flattened on the top. The thatching is very neatly and compactly done, and generally small ropes of grass are carried many times round and round outside the hut, and laced with smaller strips through the thatching to the inner frame. The floor is nicely clayed with a compost of “kraal mist” or cattle dung, and the fine clay of ant-hills broken up and well mixed. Sometimes the inner wall for 2ft. or 3ft. high is plastered with the same, and pumpkin seeds stuck into it in fanciful patterns, and picked off again, when the clay is dry, leaving a glazed film sparkling in the hollow.
In one of our sketching trips through Kafirland in 1848 we had been advised by Captain Roper, of the Rifle Brigade, who commanded at the Buffalo Mouth, always to go to a hut or village at night, as should any accident befall us our “spoor” could be traced, and the owner of the hut or headman of the village be held responsible; while, on the contrary, should we sleep in the bush, and our horse be stolen, and the thieves act on the principle that “dead men tell no tales,” it would be very long before we were missed, and tracing might be impossible.
There is one fault in these Kafir huts. They resemble an inverted bowl; the door is cut out of the edge, and there is no other aperture whatever. The consequence is that if one stands up his lower extremities may be absolutely chilled, while from the waist upward he is immersed in a bath of smoke or heated air; and when the fire has gone low, and the intensely cold air of the early morning fills the lower part, driving the warm air above the level of the doorway, the sleeper is glad to wrap himself more closely in his mantle.
In countries where stratified rocks, as sandstone, &c., which split easily into flat slabs, abound, huts are frequently built of stone. A circle of blocks is laid on the ground, then another on them, with the edges projecting a little inward, so that the circumference of each course is less than that of the one immediately beneath it; a large slab covers the top, and finishes the building. Such huts are found in the north-eastern part of the Free State in South Africa, formerly the Orange River Sovereignty.
Among the various Bechuana tribes in and beyond the Free State, the building of a hut is a more elaborate and artistic affair; in fact, it deserves rather to be called a house, consisting, as it does, of walls and a roof perfectly distinct from each other. In its simplest form it consists of a row of stakes from 4ft. to 7ft. high, set up in a circular form, and of a conical roof, the frame of which is mostly made separately on the ground, and then lifted into its place, and bound firmly upon the upright wall. In the larger huts a smaller concentric circle of stakes (of course much longer than the first, as they have to reach the roof at a higher point) forms an inner chamber, and generally the eaves of the roof are extended, so as to form also a verandah, or shade, all round; and, besides this, there will be a larger circular wall inclosing a courtyard, frequently of considerable dimensions.
CHIEF’S HUT, VAAL RIVER.
Sometimes, as on the Lower Zambesi, the row of stakes forming the outer wall of the house is plastered round with a broad central horizontal band of red or yellow clay, leaving about a third above and below it open for ventilation, and sometimes the whole is elaborately smoothed with a mixture of the fine clay of broken ant-hills and cattle dung, which, being left of its natural colour, has the appearance of a light greyish stone. All this is performed by the women, who put it down and smooth it with their hands, finishing not only the house, but the outer walls and even the floor of the courtyard, with so much nicety that, as good housewives say at home, “you might eat off it.” Raised seats are generally built in the form of segments of a circle, and these are as carefully smoothed over as the rest. The hut of a Bechuana chief at Vaal River was a model of neatness in its way; the walls had been marked off into blocks, zigzag lines had been traced on them, and uncouth patterns were painted in black or coloured clay over the low door of his inner chamber, which, hung round with antelope skins, was, as he said, very nice and warm—in fact, insufferably hot. The outer apartment was 3ft. or 4ft. broad, and ran all round the inner. The part nearest the door served as a reception room, and the remoter regions were used for the stowage of rough skins, household gear, the musket and ammunition, and large pots and calabashes of outchulla or native beer, which kept up a constant simmering as it fermented, and to the taste seemed very like spoiled vinegar. Large frames are made of wattled work, and coated with clay till they resemble capacious jars; in these the corn is stored, small roofs are raised over them, and the timber around is wastefully heaped up to form a kind of shelter from the sun for the chief and council to sit under.
The hartebeeste hut shown in the full-page [camp scene] in Kafirland, mostly used by colonial Hottentots, is simple and easy enough to make. It has one straight side, and one lean-to, and derives its name from its resemblance to the sloping back of the animal.
The huts of the Damaras are generally of very rude construction. A circle of sticks is planted in the ground, and the tops bent over and lashed together, generally with their own bark; they are then roughly wattled, and plastered over with clay and “kraal mist.” Rain so seldom falls that they seem to take no precaution against it, preferring rather to risk the few drenching showers of the wet season than to take the trouble of making their huts waterproof. Sometimes the hides of the few cattle they slaughter are spread over their huts, and kept in their places by stones or heavy poles laid on them. In one respect only they have an advantage over the Kafir hut, and that is, the smoke escapes through the cracks and interstices of the roof. Internally there may be a dried hide to sit or sleep on, an earthen pot for cooking, a calabash or two, or a bambuse or wooden bowl for milk or water; two or three skins stripped off whole, as sacks for “uintjies” or earth nuts; and it may be an axe, of Ovampo, or more rarely of European, manufacture.
The box made of stiff leather, in which they carry grease and red ochre, may also be here; but, with the exception of their cattle, the Damaras seldom possess much more property than can be carried on the person.
The huts of the Berg Damaras are still more primitive; and sometimes they seek no other shelter than one or two small bushes, the lower branches of which are cut away, while the upper ones are brought together and interwoven—others being added if needful—and grass thrown loosely over all.
Indeed, small trees, with the lower branches cleared away, and the upper ones drawn together and interlaced, form very convenient huts or arbours. The Bechuana women, in making a kraal, beat the mimosa branches on the ground till they flatten them into a fan-like form, then they plant them side by side and interlace the branches.
The Namaqua Hottentots, the Makobas or canoemen of the Bō-tlét-lē River, and many of the Bechuana tribes in the Orange River Sovereignty and elsewhere, build hemispherical frames of flexible wands, and cover them with mats of rushes like cheese mats. These are very neatly made. The Hottentots use flat awls, 18in. or 20in. long, for this purpose, but the Makoba awl is not more than 5 in. or 6 in. Small thongs of dressed antelope skin, or cords twisted from the fibres of different plants, are used for sewing the mats. These might be easily made by a traveller needing them, and he could best do it by having two or three needles of any convenient length, from 4in. or 5in. to 20in.; they should be flattened at the point, and pierced with an eye to carry the cord on which the reeds are strung. The most convenient method would be to fix the needles upright at the proper distance from each other, and then press upon them as many rushes as their length would allow; these, with the strings drawn through, should then be removed, and a fresh set threaded on, care being taken to see that the strings are kept clear, so that they reeve consecutively through all the rushes, and make a smooth uniform mat. Generally, however, it will be found that, where the proper materials grow, the natives will make and sell them cheaply enough. Mats of this description are much used by the natives of North-West America in hut building; the needles used in that country are not unfrequently 5ft. long.
Crook and prong house, to build.
It often becomes necessary for the traveller, if he contemplates a stay of a few months, or even weeks, in any one place, to build his own hut; and it is as well that this should be, if possible, somewhat superior in size and form to the dwellings of the natives around him. If the nature of the ground and the materials at hand will admit of it, this may as well be a house regularly walled and roofed, and at least the four corner posts, as well as the two which support the gables, should be firmly let into the ground. If care is taken to cut all these with a fork, so that the ridge pole of the roof may rest in the forks of the gable poles, and the wall plates in those of the four corner posts, the building will be much stronger, and the work greatly facilitated. The rafters may also have forks, which can rest upon the wall plate, but this would leave the thickest part of the branches upward; a little labour in thinning them off would remedy this, or they might, in favourable localities, be so chosen that it would be of very little consequence. Every alternate rafter should be reversed, so that its forks might help to support the battens. All the poles forming the side walls should have forks to help to support the wall plate, and those which form the sides of the doors or windows should be so selected that smaller forks, at the proper height, would serve to receive the sills of the door and windows. Such a frame as this would present the greatest amount of strength and firmness with the least possible necessity for lashing, pegging, or other fastening.
The sketch of the framework of a house indicates the manner in which the forks and branches may be used to the best advantage. If trees of proper size are abundant, the builder will be able to choose them so as to suit their places, with as much regularity as indicated in the drawing; if not, he must make the best of the materials.
The smaller framework beside it represents that of a hut we built at Depôt Creek. We set up three forked poles as a triangle at either end, laid a ridge pole between them, and lashed it firmly there. Rafters and battens were added, and we stripped off large sheets of tea-tree bark (Eucalyptus melaleuca?) to cover it. We also obtained some of the white-barked red-gum tree (Eucalyptus resinifera); but this is more brittle, and did not answer so well.
The roof may be covered with the reed mats already spoken of, one or two thicknesses of which, if the roof has a pitch of not less than 45°, will suffice to keep out rain; or it may be thatched with grass, reeds, or the broad leaves of the fan palm-remembering that, whatever material is used, it will cast off water much better if the point of the leaf is downward. The lowest course will be laid and securely fastened first; then the next, overlapping it; and so on to the top. This may be done by simply lashing the stalks of each course to the proper batten; or a thatching needle may be made of wood, smooth and flat, an inch or more in breadth, and pierced near the point with an eye to carry the lashing. The inner bark of many trees, though unfit to make cord which is to remain permanently flexible, will answer very well for this purpose; for if stripped as required, and used while still wet, it will tie in any knot, and bear straining tightly. It will hold well enough when dry, though it would not again bear working up, on account of its brittleness. The leaves of the Phormium tenax, of New Zealand, which grow much like those of the common flag, are very generally used in that country, just as they are gathered, for binding various matters. Excellent twine, thread, cloth, and rope are made from the fibre, as will be seen as our work proceeds.
The walls may be filled up, according to taste or necessity, with mats or reeds; or, if permanent shelter from bad weather is required, nothing is better than wattle and daub, and if the wattling is carefully done, and good clay or broken ant-hills and “kraal mist” used for the daub, a very neat job may be made of it. We have shared the hut of a sergeant of Sappers in the forest of the Pierie Hills in Kafirland, where he had a clay hearth, and wattle and daub chimney, and, though a roaring fire was kept up, he did not anticipate any danger. He had charge of a party who were cutting timber, and one noble “yellow wood” they had just felled was no less than 7ft. diameter at its base. The bush vines hung in long straight lines, like ropes from the upper branches of this tree; and on one of these, 60ft. or 80ft. long, and not more than an inch thick, the sergeant, who was a heavy man, raised himself, and swung to and fro without fear of breaking it. In fact, these vines may be used while green for many of the purposes of rope or cord. We have disentangled nearly 30ft., as fine and almost as tough as a small fishing line, from the forest in front of the Victoria Falls, and rolled it into a small coil; but once dry, it becomes brittle, and cannot be straightened. Some of these vines bear fruit, which, though not equal to the cultivated grape, is by no means to be despised.
When looking for a spot along the banks of the Zambesi on which to establish a camp and rebuild our boat, in September, 1862, Ave were warned by the natives who came to meet us against the pretty little sequestered spots beside the tributary rivulets, as they were certain to be infested by mosquitoes. We, therefore, having in view also the probability of being obliged to stay far into the unhealthy season, tried back about a mile, and selected a limestone spur which had a small valley between it and the higher range in its rear.
Roof, to raise.
This we named Logier Hill, after our old and steadfast friend in Cape Town; and, setting to work with a keen American felling axe, cut down the thorns and brushwood on the top, while the people assisted us in cutting or dragging the fallen bushes to the verge. Three mimosas, which were in a good position, we left standing, and added one for the fourth corner post. Then selecting flexible branches, we framed upon the ground an oval of corresponding size; on this with lighter poles (most of them the young straight branches of the “kookom boyou,” a gigantic sterculia in general appearance, somewhat resembling the baobab), we framed a roof similar in form to that of a marquee, using for lashings the inner bark, stripped from the branches just mentioned. To lift this, as its weight was considerable in proportion to its strength, and all the people were away collecting poles or grass for the completion of our huts, was rather difficult, but we had fortunately a small coil of manilla line and a few blocks. With two of these we made a tackle, and lifting one side of the roof 2ft., supported it by a forked branch while we raised the rest, shoring it in the same manner all round, and then lifting it again and supporting it on longer forks till it was high enough to be fastened securely in its place. We placed forked uprights under it at proper intervals, but as the eaves projected considerably we did not find it necessary to close in the walls, but when the rain came on laid fresh poles upon the roof and thatched it with grass and reeds to the ground. For central supports we took two forked poles, and instead of setting them upright at the two ends of the ridge pole gained additional rigidity by crossing them like an X, and lashing them together in the centre. At one end, raised upon forks above 18in. high, we made a platform of small poles as straight as we could get them to serve for a bed, and when a buffalo was shot spread over it the dried hide to level it a little more. This platform was continued all round between the uprights and the eaves, and various stores were laid on it.
One advantage here was the immunity from the ravages of the white ant, which is seldom found in a limestone country. But as the rainy season came on hosts of the destructive little white-shouldered beetle that feeds on skins, preserved hides, and specimens of all kinds—seeming rather to enjoy arsenic soap and other preservatives—ravaged everything made of untanned leather; while other kinds, larger and still more unpleasant to the eye and touch, would actually commence eating the velschoens off our feet during the short meal time.
We should have preferred reeds for thatching, as when laid at a sufficient angle, say anything above 45°, they cast off water perfectly, although if laid at a lower angle they might be by no means water-proof. Of course the cut ends of the stems must be upward, and the leaves pointing down, or the water will be retained, and allowed to leak through instead of being thrown off; and this rule holds good when grass or such like material is used. If the roof of the hut be conical, the ends may simply be brought up and tied tightly together, or they may be worked into an ornamental form like those of the Bechuana (see p. 281). If it has a ridge as ours had, it must be covered with a horizontal layer, sufficiently thick to keep the water from insinuating itself between the meeting of the two sides.
In our own house we stretched the sails of our boat and calico tent within the roof to keep off any leakage during heavy showers, and added fresh poles and grass to the outside. Sir Richard Glyn, who visited the hill after we had been compelled to abandon it, and who returned to England before us, reported that our house was the strongest building of the kind he had ever seen.
Bamboos, for building.
In countries like the Indian islands, where bamboo can be obtained in any quantity and of any size, from a reed fit for a lady’s arrow to one big enough for the mast of a small sloop, it is easy enough to build a house; the extreme strength and lightness of the material, with its glossy surface and neat and uniform appearance, rendering it in every sense most valuable for such purposes. Poles of uniform size may be planted closely so as to form a wall, or pillars may be placed more or less apart, and mats or blinds of smaller reeds, or larger ones split up, may occupy the intervals. Balconies, strong and sufficiently ornamental, may be formed; and the eaves of the roof may be made to project to any distance, so as to form an effectual verandah; while palisades or fences of any form or height may be constructed ad libitum.
Bamboo, from its polished siliceous covering, is, externally at least, proof against the ravages of the white ant, which destroys without mercy all the softer kinds of wood and vegetable or animal fibre, whether in the form of boxes, furniture, books, clothing, specimens of natural history or botany, drawings, or articles of necessity or luxury of any kind.
If thunderstorms are frequent or dangerous, a glass bottle on the highest point of the roof will act as a non-conductor, and may not unfrequently avert the flash that might otherwise destroy the building. It is not always, however, effectual.
Doors and gates, to make and hang.
Doors or gates may be made as closely worked or as open as may be desired; and, while upon this subject, it may be as well to mention a very convenient way of hanging them in the absence of regular hinges. The hinge side of the door or gate should be a standard of some strength, to which all the rest is framed and securely fastened with pegs or lashings; round this and the corresponding doorpost a strap or thong of leather or cord should be passed in figure of 8 fashion to form each hinge, or it may simply be passed round both and “seized” between them with smaller cords. This, however, will not hold the door with sufficient stiffness to let it swing true and easily; therefore, take a common ale or porter bottle, bury it neck downwards in the ground, leave the lower end of the standard somewhat longer than the door, point it a little, and insert it in the hollow at the bottom of the bottle—the gate will swing fairly on such a pivot, as it never gets out of order, and it may almost be said will never wear out.
The gate itself (Fig. 1) may be built of rough branches—one tolerably stout limb, for the hinge or swinging side, should have a good branch projecting from its lower part diagonally upwards to the upper part of the latch side; another fork, with its branches as nearly at right angles as possible, will form the latch side and top rail; and a third will make the lower one. Never be in a hurry to trim off small branches; generally they will weave in and add to the strength; and, if not, they are easily cut off afterwards. When the posts are set up on the ground, it is as well to char the ends as a protection against damp or wood-destroying insects; cut notches near the ends, and in them wedge good heavy stones—they will keep the posts firm, and in countries where there is frost nothing else can prevent their rising out of the ground. We found this arrangement very valuable in the Crimea. It is not necessary that the bottle should be whole; if the “cup” under the bottom is perfect, the broken edges of the sides will give it additional firmness.
In Fig. 2 the gate post has a fork, and another on the branch serving as the top rail makes the upper hinge. One of the other branches has a fork projecting from the lower angle and working on the gate post as a cutter’s gaff does on the mast. This is easy to make, can be unshipped at a moment’s notice, and hung up again as readily. Fig. 3 is a more regularly made gate on the same principle. The top rail has a hole working on the thinned upper part of the gate post, which is pierced with holes, and has a peg so that the gates may be raised or lowered as required; the lower part works on the gaff principle.
It is generally desirable to hang a gate so that it may shut of itself after it has been opened; and to ensure this, if iron hook and staple hinges can be had, let the hook of the upper hinge project a little farther from the gate post than the lower one, as in Fig. 5. If it is requisite that the gate should remain open—which is sometimes, though not often, the case—the upper hook should project less than the lower, as in Fig. 4. Generally, if the hinges be equal, the gate will hang in whatever position it may be left; but if the post inclines from the perpendicular to right or left, the gate will swing to the same side.
Very good standards for fences may be made by cutting half mortices in the opposite sides of a squared log, 4ft. or 5ft. long, as in Fig. 6, then cutting it into planks, and, before these are quite detached, sawing it down in the direction of the diagonal line; a pair of these are matched together, as in Fig. 7, and the lower end morticed into a flat plank so far as to let one hole come below it to receive a key to fix it there. The horizontal plank should rest upon a short log at each end, and it may be held in place by a couple of notched pegs driven into the ground.
Walls, to build.
Many of the natives of South Africa are very handy at building rough stone walls; but they require an overseer to insure the proper binding of the stones as they are laid. Some of their own countrymen may be found with skill enough for this. It is no use to build up two fair faces, as in Fig. 8, and then fill up the middle with loose stones—their weight would be sure to force out the sides and bring down the whole structure; but large flat stones should be chosen, as in Fig. 9, to reach either quite through the wall, or at least so far that the stones on the other side may meet and have a bond with them. Such walls, miles in length, are built without cement of any kind. If galvanised iron wire is to be used for fencing, to support upright rails, it is a good plan to have two rail-heads fixed at the proper distance, and to make the turns of the wire on these to insure each loop being equidistant, as in Fig. 10.
Chalk lines and measuring lines of all kinds suffer from being coiled or rolled up by hand—turns and kinks are put on or taken out of them; and it is much better to have reels, either like the log-reel of a ship, or like Fig. 11 (see [p. 290]), where a peg in the circumference of the disc serves as the crank by which to wind it up.
Plank screens to make.
Effective screens can be readily extemporised with planks of any kind and ropes; the simplest plan is to double the rope, making one part somewhat longer than the breadth of all the planks to be used, and leaving whatever spare end may be upon the other to hoist the screen by when finished. The first plank is laid in the bight of the rope, the two parts of which are then crossed and the next plank laid between them; they are crossed again for the third plank, and so on till all are inclosed. If there is not an eye on the shorter end of the rope, make a bow-line knot or two half hitches on it (see “[Knots and Hitches]”), and pass the longer end through; then lead the spare line at each end of your screen over the forks of trees, or sheer legs, or whatever support you mean to use, and hoist away simultaneously and carefully; for this arrangement, though perfectly strong and secure while every part remains in its proper place, is most easily disarranged; and in fact the great advantage of it is that, when no longer required, it can be shaken to pieces like a house of cards, leaving neither holes or imperfections in the planks nor kinks or knots in the rope. We have shown the boards rather far apart in our illustration for the sake of distinctness, they will lie closer, but they must always be separate by more than the thickness of the rope. They may be made to lie closer by omitting to cross the ropes and “stopping” them together with small cord, as in Fig. 2; or a perfectly weather-proof wall with overlapping edges may be obtained by looping the rope into a chain, as in Fig. 3, taking care to make the lower link well fast, for on this the security of the whole depends. To take this to pieces nothing more is necessary than to slip each loop off the end of the plank; let go the fastening of the lower end, and all the links of the rope chain will shake out.
Great firmness may be imparted to any of these arrangements by placing a small pole inside, and securing every plank to it by successive hitches of a smaller line, as in Fig. 4; or, if stouter poles be used, the walls may be built up in this manner, commencing from the bottom plank and fastening the upper ones as you go on. Each plan will have its advantages under peculiar circumstances. In the Indian islands, large hollow bamboos are either split into three or four parts, making somewhat rounded narrow planks, or an incision is made in the side of the cane, when it is opened out, laid flat, pressed, and converted into a single plank. Movable screens of considerable size are made in the same manner as in Figs. 1 and 2 already referred to.
Makeshift shelves.
A shelf is easily made by piercing holes in the four corners of a plank, passing lines through, and suspending it to a beam. A very neat set of bookshelves may be obtained by doubling two cords of sufficient length, working an eye in the bight of each, passing the ends down through the holes in the first plank, and turning double knots on them, so that it hangs fairly; then passing them through the next and knotting them, and successively through as many more planks as you require shelves.
Reed houses, screens, and sheds.
We have seen houses built by traders or missionaries almost entirely of reeds, some of which grow from 10ft. to 20ft. long and more than 1in. thick. Bundles of these, with the thin ends and butts reversed, and overlapping each other so as to equalise their strength as much as possible, are laid on the ground to serve for top, bottom, and centre battens; then across these the reeds are distributed in two or three layers, according to the required thickness of the wall; other battens are laid on the upper side to correspond with those below, and the cords—slips of bark, palm leaf, twisted grass rope, or thin and flexible forest creepers—are passed through to bind the whole tightly together. If a number of these are made say 12ft. or 15ft. square, they may easily be arranged on the framework of a house, or set up as a continuous fence. A trench is dug about 1ft. deep, the screen inserted in it, the earth well pressed down, and support is given either by shores, if needful, or by the next screen forming an angle with the first. If the wood of the country is more available for making hurdles, they can be used in the same manner.
We have had very excellent temporary stables and sheds erected in Central India, composed entirely of poles, cords, and grass, forming what is called “chupper” screens. These are formed by laying together double poles; in the space left between these poles long tufts of jungle grass are arranged, until the whole frame is filled up, when the sticks or poles, being tightly drawn together with cord, the grass is nipped between them, as shown in the above illustration. When in the Tartar country, we saw a number of very comfortable huts made by cutting out a kind of notch in the hill side. The space thus formed was first framed over with strong poles, and then covered with brushwood; a layer of turf covered all, and soon took root, forming feeding grounds for whole families of goats, which walked about on the houses quite at home. The fronts of these hill dwellings were composed of wicker work, plastered with clay. Logs were hollowed out by the Tartars almost as thin as paper, when their ends were stopped with clay. In those the bees laid up their stores of honey, which was taken as required, without disturbing the industrious swarm in the next log. The annexed illustration represents one of these huts and a pile of bee logs.
Defensible farm-houses.
During the Kafir war we visited the homestead of a Scottish farmer, who, although upon the very border, had gallantly determined to stand his ground, and to that end he had built a small defensible tower; the flat roof covered with raw hides, and surrounded by a loopholed parapet, and the only door fronted by a solid shield of brickwork, with a small aperture on one side, so that an enemy attempting to enter must do it in a stooping position, and before he could turn and straighten himself in the doorway, must present his head in the most convenient possible position to have it split by the defenders.
A large water cask was kept filled in the fort, and even should the enemy gain possession of the lower room the women and children could still be tolerably safe in the upper, except from random shots fired upwards through the floor, and which of course could be returned in the same manner from above. Against fire their only defence lay in the supply of water we have already mentioned, but care was taken to have nothing inflammable in the lower room. There was no staircase; the ladder would be drawn up through the trap. The beams and flooring would require a considerable blaze to ignite them, and against any quantity of material being brought in for that purpose the defenders relied upon their rifles, or no less deadly smooth bores, loaded with loopers or buck shot.
Blockhouse.
Blockhouse, among military edifices, is, as its name implies, a building constructed chiefly of timber. If alone, it constitutes an independent fort; if formed in the interior of a field-work, it becomes a retrenchment or redoubt, and serves to protect the defenders from the inclemency of the weather when the work is occupied during a considerable time, or to prolong the defence when the work is attacked, and after it is taken to enable the garrison to obtain a capitulation. When the blockhouse is to be employed only as a retrenchment, its plan is generally a simple rectangle, and its walls consist of a single row of piles placed upright in the ground. These are pierced with loopholes at the distance of 3ft. from each other, in order that the building may be defended by a fire of rifles from within. The roof is formed by laying timbers horizontally across the inclosed area and covering them with fascines and earth. The interior breadth of the building may be from 18ft. to 20ft., in order to allow a passage between the two rows of bedsteads. These are placed with their heads to the side walls, and serve as stages on which the men may stand to fire through the loopholes when the latter are much elevated above the floor. In a mountainous country the blockhouse possesses great advantages over an ordinary field fort, inasmuch as the interior of the latter would be incessantly ploughed up by the fire of artillery directed into it by the enemy from the surrounding heights. Here, then, the blockhouse may with propriety be constructed as an independent work; its plan may have re-entering angles, or be in the form of a cross, in order to allow the faces to be defended by flanking fires from the rifles and revolvers from within; and the walls may be thick enough to resist even the shot from 9-pounder guns. For this purpose they must be made by planting parallel to each other, at a distance of 3 ft. or 4ft., two rows of strong piles, those in each row being close together, and the interval between the rows being filled with earth up to the height of the loopholes, which should never be immediately under the roof of the building. The roof must be made shell proof, as before; but it has been recommended, when the work is not overlooked by the enemy, and when its breadth will permit, to have the piles forming the side walls long enough to arise above the roof, and, either alone or with a mass of earth behind them, to serve as a parapet.
Where blockhouses have to be constructed among hostile or doubtful Indian tribes, who are not the possessors of artillery, the fascine and earth roof and double rows of piles may be easily and safely dispensed with.
Logs, squared with the axe and laid on each other, may be substituted for piles with advantage, as the labour of planting firmly in the earth so many ponderous beams of wood is considerable. It is well, in building a blockhouse, to construct a raised breastwork of small logs round the margin of the roof; these may be roughly squared and doweled together with short wooden pins. The roof itself should, after shingling, have a goodly layer of sand, earth, or raw hides laid over it in order to guard against the fire-tipped arrows of hostile savages. A few auger holes here and there serve to carry off rain water or melted snow, and the log breastwork can be both loopholed and fired over with ease.
Frontier blockhouses are usually built of squared logs of timber dowelled together; loopholes are made for firing rifles through, and portholes for one or two iron guns. Some frontier posts are merely squares of heavy log palisades, with all the requisite offices and buildings erected within them. A banquet runs from end to end of each side of the square in order that the defenders may command the attacking force. All trees and bushes within long shooting range are carefully removed so that there shall be no cover.
Waggon burgs, to make.
Bands of travellers in Africa not unfrequently so arrange their waggons as to form substantial defences against the attacks of hostile natives. We have often assisted in forming these so-called “waggon burgs.” They are made as follows: One waggon, with all the women, children, and ammunition, is placed in the centre. Others are drawn up, each with its inner fore wheel nearly touching the outer hind wheel of the one before it, and forming just such an angle with it that the dozen or thereabouts of vehicles form an almost perfect circle, their poles and trek gear extending on the outside, so that the oxen can again be yoked to each without disorder or confusion. There is room inside for the horses and cattle beside the defenders; and, should danger be imminent, the waggons can be locked together by the drag chains, and all the interstices choked with thorn bushes, the stems of which thrust inward would be securely fastened by pegs driven into the ground, or by lashing branches, cut short for the purpose, to the inner wheels, or by “reims” or thongs reeved through the bifurcations; while the tangled branches would oppose a barrier that no enemy could force in the face of the bullets or the small shot that would be poured through. The gear of the oxen would also be brought in and used in strengthening the defences.
Farm and village, to fortify.
In rendering a farmhouse defensible regard must be had to the character of the expected enemy. In countries like South Africa, where the main object of the Kafir is the acquisition of cattle, the house ought to command and protect the kraal, the fence of which will often of itself form a shelter for the crafty foe. It is usually circular, as this form is most easily made, and will inclose the greatest number of cattle, with a given amount of material; but, if it were made triangular, with bastions on the two angles nearest, the guns of the defenders would sweep the other two sides, their fire crossing at the farthest angle, and leaving no place for an enemy to conceal himself. The house itself, with its outbuildings, should if possible be in the form of a square, inclosing as large a courtyard as is convenient for the accommodation of the defenders and their allies, and on emergencies for their horses, with a few sheep or oxen. If there be a spring or well in it so much the better; a ledge or bank, 18in. or 2ft. high, should run along the inside of the wall, so that the loopholes may be too high for the enemy to look in at or fire through; and there should be small chambers projecting from the angles, or at least from two diagonally opposite loopholed, so that each can enfilade two sides of the wall.
ENTRENCHED VILLAGE OF OBJIMBENGUE.
But perhaps it will be better, instead of describing an ideal defensible homestead, to give an example of a real one, which, though not quite perfect in a military view, was as nearly so as the accommodation required for the traffic and the work carried on there would allow. Our illustration is a plan, drawn from memory, of the village of Objimbengue, to the south of which (Fig. 1) is the flat sandy bed, 400yds. wide, of the Swakop River, filled only during the flooded season, but in the dry retaining a vast amount of water beneath the sand, while a little rivulet represented by the faint line appears here and there upon the surface. Fig. 2 is a low bank or foreshore, overgrown with wild tamarisks or dabbie bushes, and partly cleared for a garden (Fig. 3) in which is a well, and used in other places for corn land, care being taken to reap the crop before there is any possibility of its being swept away by the floods of the next season. On the east of the village is a small tributary, generally dry, called the Artip (Fig. 4), and beyond this, and the limits of the picture, would be the Mission House of Regterveldt and the Damara village, with its curious entrenchments scattered without order, but not without great judgment, over the face of the hill wherever a few men could find a place to shoot from. The trench (Fig. 5), fronted by the mound of earth thrown out of it, and by a breastwork of dabbie logs, made by the Damaras, formed the outer line of defence of his homestead, and he could in emergency have depended on a thousand men to man it. Fig. 6 is the opening for the southern road leading across the river from the country of the hostile Namaquas. Fig. 7, the road leading from Walvisch Bay; and Fig. 8, the continuation of it toward Lake Ngami, and Fig. 9 is the steep edge, 15ft. or 20ft. high, of the plain, on which the village is built. Fig. 10 is a small breastwork for a brass 1-pounder gun commanding the southern road, and Fig. 11 for another sweeping the open space to the south-east, where, in fact, an attack actually took place. The guns were, however, usually kept beside the house, where one served as a time gun, and they could easily be moved whenever they were wanted. Fig. 12 was a dwelling-house; the central space is open and would serve as a shelter for native fugitives, for horses, sheep, and a few of the most valuable working oxen; the front is composed of a voor-house or entrance-hall, usually occupied for general family purposes and reception of visitors, and before it is a verandah.
At each angle are rooms used as sitting or bed chambers; on the western side are spare chambers for the reception of guests; in the rear are kitchen, bath-room, and other offices; and on the east are store-rooms and the entrance gate. Fig. 13 is the wheelwright and waggon maker’s shop; Fig. 14, the smithy; Fig. 15, the sawpit; Fig. 16, the tiring plate; Fig. 17, small trenches with angular mounds before them, commanding the eastern gate of the village; Fig. 18, the graveyard; Fig. 19, the workmen’s cottages; Fig. 20, the slaughter-house and waggon-shed; the walls of all these buildings being musket-proof, and the windows more or less convenient for firing from. Figs. 21 and 22 are stoutly stockaded cattle kraals; they were both square, but the triangular outline of Fig. 21 shows what would be gained in defensibility and lost in accommodation by adopting that form; Fig. 22 has small “scherms” at the angles protected by the fire from the house, and commanding the other two sides; Fig. 23 is a storehouse, adding but little to the strength of the position, but indispensable for its use. The dotted lines indicate the directions of effective fire from the dwelling-house.
In most frontier villages the church, as the most substantial building, is used as a place of refuge, and as a last stronghold against savage assailants; and on the east coast, the natives, when they throw up a rough tower of defence, always call it by the Portuguese name, “Egregia,” or church.
Churches, to fortify.
We have seen the church at Shiloh converted into a very pretty little fortification by one of our own engineer officers. Bastions were raised at the angles of the outer wall, the building itself was unthatched, and a breastwork, with loopholes, raised upon the walls.
We have known friends who have had to entrench their waggons for months among tribes whose friendship was dubious; and they seemed to prefer that, especially for a night attack, or for a sentry’s accommodation, the embankment should be behind the trench, and not before it, so that they might look from the very edge of the pit and see the dark figure of an approaching enemy against the sky, whilst they would be invisible against the mound behind them; whereas, if the mound were in front, they would have to raise their heads to look over it, and an enemy creeping close to the ground, would be absolutely invisible, and would, moreover, be able to see clearly the elevated figure of the sentry.
Mission churches, plans for building.
We have on several occasions been asked to draw plans for churches on remote stations, and for defensible farmhouses; in the former case, regard must be had to the nature of the materials at the disposal of the missionary, to the number of the congregation he wishes to accommodate, and also to the number and skill of the assistants, whether European or native, he can employ or persuade to join in the work. Generally, it is better so to draw the plan that a portion of the church may be commenced, and sufficiently furnished for almost immediate use; while the remainder is left to be finished as the congregation increases, and as the tribe become more and more alive to the benefit conferred on them by religion and civilisation. Some regard must also be had to the doctrinal views of the missionary requiring the plan.
If, as is frequently required, the men and women of the congregation are to be separately seated, the best form is that of the Greek cross, and the seats of the men must be placed in one arm and those of the women in the other; while the position of the pulpit, with its back against the angle of the other two, gives every individual a fair opportunity of seeing and hearing the minister.
Where this regulation does not prevail, the Latin cross is the best form; the longest limb lying east and west affords space for the congregation and the preacher. The wings or shorter limbs on the north and south give very great support to the walls, and serve for vestries or other offices; the tower and porch at the eastern end form the continuation of the longer limb, and it should also be capable of increase if necessary, by the addition of a smaller continuation at the western end.
In this case, too, it is the part intended for the congregation that should be first built. It is most probable that the materials would be rough unhewn surface stones, for powder to blast out more solid material would be expensive. Tools for quarrying would be unattainable, and men with skill or industry to work them even still more so, while ant-hill clay would be the only available cement, unless the erection should be in a limestone district, or near a beach, where shells in abundance could be procured and burnt into lime.
Bricks are often made, but they are frequently of inferior clay, and often merely sun-dried, or inefficiently burned, and are in no case equal to the well-squared and hardened article known by the same name in England.
It would, therefore, be prudent not to make the walls more than 10ft. or 15ft. in height, and to allow at least 2ft. of thickness at the base for every 10ft. of height, and even then they ought to be supported by buttresses not more than 20ft. apart; the top should not be less than 12in. or 15in. in width, and if good planks for wall plates cannot be procured, they ought to be rather more to allow for the proper bedding in of rough substitutes. The roof must have a pitch of 45° to enable it to throw off water in the rainy season, and each rafter must be two-thirds the width of the building to the outside of the walls, and so much more as is required for the projection of the eaves.
If, therefore, rafters can be procured 20ft. in length, of which 2ft. are required for projection, this will leave 18ft., and the possible width of the church may be found by adding half the length of the rafter thus—18+9=27—27ft. to the outside of the walls, or about 24ft. in the clear; this, with 4ft. of passage down the centre will give two benches of 10ft. capable of accommodating six persons each. Each sitter ought to have 3ft. of space from front to rear, although it is possible to sit in 2ft.; thus, a space of 60ft. would accommodate a congregation of 240 or 360 persons, according to the room allowed.
In many cases the fitting-up of benches may be deferred, as the natives will sit naturally on the ground, or will bring their own seats with them. At least 15ft. or 20ft. ought to be reserved for the pulpit and the communion table, and this would give an aisle of 80ft. long by 24ft. wide.
A high gable and Gothic window is doubtless a great ornament to a church, but it would be dangerous to build the wall 15ft. higher for that purpose; and it is much better, therefore, to make the end no higher than the sides, and let the roof incline at an angle of 45° instead of having a gable end.
The windows must be small, and it is better to make them lancet-shaped and narrow; if the buttresses are 20ft. apart there may be two windows, 2ft. wide between each. The rafters ought not to come over the windows, even if the wall plates be good, but ought to rest on the solid space between them.
The rafters are half checked at each end to the cross-beam and let into checks on the king-post; thus (Fig. 1) struts to the beam will considerably strengthen them, and if these are fitted into checks nailed on instead of being mortised or half checked in, the strength will not be impaired. Fig. 2 shows more clearly the manner in which the square ends of the rafters abut on the king-post. If it should be desirable to avoid having cross-beams the rafters may be framed as in Fig. 3; but unless this is very substantially done the weight of the roof is apt to expand them and force the walls outward. We, therefore, advise the common form, at least until the assistance of skilled workmen can be procured. The upper part of the king-posts may be a forked branch, and the ridge pole will lie very nicely in this.
Makeshift houses, foundations, and fences.
In extemporising rough frame-houses in dry countries, the foundation is a matter of small importance; generally, when the ground is cleared, a place sufficiently hard and smooth, and a little elevated so that rain may not flood the house, is easily found. But sometimes a foundation must be formed, not only to afford a support to the fabric, but to raise the floor above the influence of damp or of low-lying noxious vapours. We have heard of barges or vessels being grounded and houses built upon them, and have in fact seen instances of this as well as of the deck houses being removed from wrecks and set up, sometimes raised on low walls, forming very comfortable habitations ashore, and of tents being set up as roofs over walls of rough stone. We have heard of the foundations of a house in San Francisco being laid with the 21lb.-sized oblong boxes of tobacco with which the market had been glutted. In Cape Town, when meat was a few halfpence a pound, we have seen bullocks’ heads used as stop-gaps in the fences near Green Point. The cores of bullocks’ horns are not unfrequently used for the same purpose in this country. In Walvisch Bay we saw bags of coarse salt used as part of the foundation of the original wooden shed in which, notwithstanding its lowly appearance, many a traveller has found so hospitable a reception.
We wondered a little at first at the use of such a material on a beach overflowing for miles at every spring tide, but found it was protected from actual contact with the sea by an embankment of sand, supported by posts and planking. Rain would not occur perhaps once in two years, and the fresh water from the Kuisip overspread the flats so rarely that such a contingency was hardly taken into account. The bags and their contents seemed to be in a normal state of dampness, but did not appear to waste in consequence of it.
When more commodious houses were required, the samphire, that formed the only vegetation on the flats, was collected by the Hottentot women, spread in layers alternated with sand well trodden down into it until mounds were formed about 4ft. high. On one of these a store was erected of corrugated iron, and on another the Rhenish missionaries built a wooden house they had brought out in frame, so solid and substantial, as to prove that timber in the land it came from was of far less value than metal or any other material. Perhaps for parties who can afford the carriage, corrugated galvanised iron houses offer as convenient a method as any of obtaining accommodation sufficiently permanent, and yet easily removable. The rigidity imparted by the corrugation could not be attained by any thickening of plain sheets, while scarcely more room is required in packing; for although one sheet of plain iron occupies much less room than one of corrugated, the sheets of the latter fit so closely one upon the other that a dozen or twenty require not much more space than one. Dr. Livingstone took a house of this kind to the Zambesi in 1858; it formed a very efficient shelter for our stores on Expedition Island, but, as we never made any permanent camp beyond the Portuguese town of Tette, it was not again required. The sheets, however, used separately or together in any number according to the weight they were to support, formed excellent bases for tables, beds, settees, as well as benches, raised a few inches from the floor, on which to store such things as we wished to preserve from the white ants.
Buildings of the Portuguese in Africa.
At Tette, on the Zambesi, there are ridges running parallel to the banks of the river, with hollows between them, which may have served as supplementary channels during extraordinary floods; and, to avoid the low-lying malaria, which is of greater specific gravity than common air, the Portuguese colonists erect their houses on these ridges. The hollows serve as streets or roadways, and also as channels to carry off the deadly exhalations, which, being heavier than air, naturally seek the lowest level. The dwelling rooms are also further elevated by being built over a basement, which serves as a store-room, the elevation of a few feet frequently making all the difference between the chance of catching fever and of escaping it. In these store-rooms they build isolated platforms about 3ft. high, on forked posts of hard wood, which are carefully swept every morning, while salt is strewed around their base to prevent the white ants approaching. Probably tar or turpentine would have the same effect, but in remote regions these are not always at command. The tarred wood of our iron house was never touched; and the camphor wood of India is valued very much on account of its immunity from their attacks.
PORTUGUESE HOUSE—ZAMBEZI RIVER.
When the Portuguese on the Zambesi build large houses that are to be divided into rooms, they build into the central and side walls a row of pillars, into the thickness of which stout poles are built, with the forks left upon them, and perhaps other rows of pillars without the connecting walls are built for the verandah.
Dr. Kirk, when consulted as to the best method of colonising the Shire, or Sheeree River, gave it as his opinion that the estates lying low in the fertile valleys should be cultivated by natives only (who in their own country do not seem susceptible to the deadly influence of fever, though when removed to another locality that is not perceptibly worse, they are as liable to be attacked as Europeans), and that the proprietors should have their residences upon the hills, as far as possible above the level of the malaria, with a small military force at their disposal, to keep order when necessary among the inhabitants of the valley. This certainly appears to be the only feasible plan of occupying such a country with any benefit to the various parties concerned.
Rio Negro huts.
An Indian cottage, on the banks of the Rio Negro, has been thus described:—“The main supports are trunks of some forest tree, of heavy and durable wood; but the light rafters are the straight, cylindrical, and uniform stems of the Jará palm. The roof is thatched with the large triangular leaves of the Caraná palm in regular alternate rows, neatly bound with sipos or forest creepers. The door is a frame of thin strips of wood neatly thatched over. It is of the split stems of the Pashiuba palm. In one corner is a heavy harpoon for cow-fish; it is of the black wood of the Pashiuba barriguda. By its side is a blowpipe, 10ft. or 12ft. long, and a little quiver of small poisoned arrows hangs near it. With these the Indian procures birds for food or for gay feathers, or shoots the hog or tapir; and it is from the stem and spines of two palms that they are made. His great bassoon-like musical instruments are of palm stems; the cloth to wrap his valued feather ornaments is a fibrous palm spathe, and the rude chest for his treasures is woven from palm leaves. His hammock, his bowstring, and his fishing line are fibres of palm leaves; the first from the miriti, and the other two from the tucum. The comb on his head is the hard bark of a palm. He makes fish-hooks of the spines, or uses them to puncture on his skin the peculiar markings of his tribe. His children eat the agreeable red and yellow fruit of the pupunha or peach palm, and from the assai he has prepared and offers you a favourite drink. A carefully-suspended gourd contains oil from the fruit of another, and the long elastic-plaited cylinder used for squeezing dry the mandiocca pulp to make his bread is of the bark of one of the singular climbing palms which alone can resist for any considerable time the action of the poisonous juice. In each of these cases a species is chosen adapted to the special object to which it is to be applied, and often having different uses which no other plant can serve so well.”
Papuan tree houses.
The arboreal dwellings of the Horaforo tribe in New Guinea have been thus described by Dr. J. Coulter:—"Against each tree rested a notched pole, and at a whistle from the chief, answered by hundreds of similar sounds in every direction, natives with flambeaux flitted down the poles till the whole forest was brilliantly illuminated. In fact, they had their houses, or rather nests, in the trees, and when they retired for the night the pole was hauled up to prevent surprise. These abodes were made by thinning away some of the branches, and laying horizontal poles on others sufficiently stout to bear them; the uprights are cut with forks, which rest on the lower branches, while their upper ends are lashed with cocoa-nut fibre to those above; the sides are formed by bamboos lashed closely together; the roofing is also of cane covered by sheets of thick bark sewed together, and perfectly proof against the heavy rains. The flooring is laid with split bamboos and light wood, and the walls are lined with stout matting, which gives sufficient shelter against the piercing winds. The shape varies according to the spread of the tree; sometimes when they extend all round an extensive house is made to inclose the whole tree; the smallest will measure 16ft. square, but sometimes they are longer and less wide; and when the whole tree is built in they are three times as large. They are perfectly safe, for the lower branches are as thick as an ordinary tree.”
PAPUAN TREE HOUSE.
American Indian lodges.
The lodges of the North-American Indians are perhaps the most convenient residences which could be devised for people of their nomadic habits. The lodge poles, or supports, are made from tough durable wood, well-grown young saplings being selected for the purpose. On the line of march they are, by fastening them to a sort of pad, secured on each side of a horse, or even dog. The ends trail on the ground like the skids of a sledge, and are packed with various odds and ends, which are prevented from falling off by cross-bars and a lashing of hide or twisted bark rope, as shown in the full-page illustration. When the camp is about being formed, the poles are freed from their attachments and set up in a circle, forming an irregular cone, the apex of which consists of the converging and collected ends of the poles, through which the smoke escapes. The lodge covers are made from prepared skins, on which are depicted, in rough outline, some of the most noteworthy achievements and events in the life of the owner. The lower borders of the skin covers are secured to the ground with pegs, whilst thongs are made use of for binding the poles in places and uniting the skins. The tracks of the trailing lodge poles in the sand, or across the plains, may be looked on by the traveller as peaceful indications, as, where the lodge gear is, the squaws and papooses will be found. On the war path all such impedimenta are left behind in some place of safety.
INDIAN LODGES.
The full-page illustration, representing “Indian Lodges,” will serve to explain the manner in which dwelling places of this description are set up.
Fuegean pole houses.
Some of the natives of Terra del Fuego construct small but tolerably comfortable huts from straight trimmed poles; these are arranged in a shallow pit, the exact size of the floor of the intended hut; they are arranged side by side in conical form, the tops of all the poles being brought together become self-supporting. All the interstices, except those where the heads of the poles come together (which form exits for the smoke), are filled in tightly with a mixture of clay and thick soft moss. Huts thus built will resist the action of the heaviest storms, and are tolerably dry. Peat, when cut in slabs or blocks, makes a valuable building material. We once built a shooting house, or rather hut, near the banks of a large river with this substance. We thatched it with reeds laid over willow poles. The door was made of wicker work covered with clay; the hinges were twisted willows. The window was made of oiled paper; the fireplace was plastered with clay, and we mounted a small barrel in lieu of a chimney pot. The fuel used was peat, so there was no danger of its taking fire.
Hutting in the Arctic regions.
In a continuous Arctic winter the usual relations of fluids and solids are so completely changed that entirely new necessities arise, accompanied by as novel means for supplying them. Water, either for drinking or other purposes, is as scarce as in the driest parts of India or Africa; for though in temperate countries it may be a luxury to let a piece of ice melt in the mouth, the expenditure of animal heat in thawing a mouthful of snow in the Arctic regions would be greater than even the most robust constitution could afford.
Water, in fact, unless kept in constant agitation, loses its fluidity. A sheet of ice is as dry as a piece of glass, and snow seems to have no more moisture in it than the dust of the highway on a Derby day.
Owing to this quality snow does not accumulate on small surfaces elevated and exposed to the wind. Captain Parry found that from the roof of his vessel a fresh breeze invariably carried off any snow that had settled on it in calm weather, and also from the masts, yards, sails and rigging. His opinion is that in high latitudes the less the ship is dismantled the better, for the frost does not hurt the gear, and no harm can occur from thawing till the season for refitting arrives.
Should you at any time be so situated as to be compelled to winter on board ship in the Arctic regions, it will be well to follow the plan pursued by Dr. Kane to render his ship and cabin as cold proof as possible. He procured large quantities of moss and turf, with which the quarter-deck was thickly covered. Down below he inclosed a space about 18ft. square, and packed the walls forming it, from floor to ceiling, with the same materials. The floor was carefully caulked with plaster of Paris and common paste, on this was laid a stratum of Manilla oakum 2in. thick, and over this deposit a canvas carpet was spread. The entrance was from the hold, by a long moss-lined passage or tunnel, formed after the manner in which the Esquimaux arrange the “topsut,” or rabbit-burrow like passage which leads to their huts, as shown in the illustrations at pp. [313] and [315]. A number of doors and curtains were then constructed at such points as afforded a chance for the ingress of cold. This moss nest, or den, was constructed to accommodate ten men.
The outside of the ship was banked up with moss, and over that a thick bank of snow was made.
The snow, indeed, when lying in proper thickness, and sufficiently compressed, forms the best possible material for building. Cold as it is in itself, it seems to act as a non-conductor of heat; and if an internal structure, however slight, can be set up, the thicker the outer wall of snow is made the better. Captain Parry’s men proceeded in the following manner: In banking the snow against the ship’s sides, a wall of sufficient height was built about 4ft. from them, and loose snow was thrown in till it covered nearly the whole of the upper works; about 8in. of snow was also laid on the decks and hatches, and above this a layer of sand cemented by water, for the double purpose of preventing the escape of heat from below, and saving the planks from being rifted by the frost; and the waste heat of the galley fire was utilised by making the funnel pass up through a tank, which was kept filled with snow, thus without any extra fuel producing 65galls. of water per diem. A wall of snow, 12ft. high, was built at a distance of 25yds. all round the ship, to afford a comfortable shelter from the wind. It is also essential to make and keep always clear of ice a ‘fire-hole,’ from which water can be procured at any moment in case of need.
The observatory was built on shore: first of planking lined with canvas, with a layer of turf outside, and completed by an extra thickness of solid slabs of snow; it was flat-roofed, and as small as possible, the instrument room being 8ft. square, and the working room 5ft. by 8ft., thus economising either natural or artificial heat. In fact, it seems that the primary object in building a house is to make the actual dwelling room as small as possible, and the passage to it so long and narrow, that it requires almost a long journey to reach the external air. Dr. Hayes describes a snow house, or rather cave, dug by an Esquimaux in a snow drift that had collected in a sheltered hollow. He dug downward first about 5ft., then horizontally about 10ft. more, tossing the detached snow blocks out behind him, and then began to excavate his cavern, to which, when finished, he built a doorway just large enough to crawl through. The floor was covered with a layer of stones, and then with several layers of reindeer skins; the walls were also hung with skins; two native lamps lighted, a skin hung across the doorway, and he and his family were “at home,” the temperature soon rising to the freezing point.
SNOW HUT—ARCTIC REGIONS.
The doctor’s temporary encampments were thus formed: A pit is dug 18ft. long by 8ft. wide and 4ft. deep; over the top are placed the oars to support the sledge; over the sledge is the boat’s sail, and on that is thrown loose snow. In one end of this den is a small entrance hole, closed with blocks of snow; over the floor is a strip of india-rubber cloth; over this two buffalo skins, between which the whole party of twelve pack themselves as closely as possible, the only change of costume being to take off the boots and stockings and replace them with sleeping hose of reindeer skin. A pot of hot coffee, or a hash of dried meat and preserved potatoe, cooked over a lamp of oil or alcohol, forming the repast, of which the most estimable quality is its warmth. Captain Parry, being rather surprised at the short time in which an Esquimaux village sprung up near the vessel, induced some of the natives to build a hut, and found that two or three hours were enough to complete the establishment. The only materials are snow and ice, the latter being only used for windows. A number of slabs of compact snow, 6in. or 7in. thick and 2ft. long, are cut and laid edgewise in a circle, on a level spot, covered with snow, from 8ft. to 15ft. in diameter; on this is a second tier, sloping a little inward, each slab made to fit closely by running a knife along its edges, the top is then smoothed off with the knife, and the builder, standing in the centre, receives the slabs for the successive tiers from the men outside. When the walls are 4ft. or 5ft. high they begin to lean inward, so that it appears as if the blocks laid on them would fall; but the workman still goes on raising and closing in the hemispherical walls, and when they have become too high for the slabs to be handed over to him he cuts a hole at the bottom with his knife and has them passed through. The dome is often 9ft. or 10ft. high, and it is carefully finished by the men outside dropping the nicely rounded block that serves as a keystone, to be received and fitted by the man within. The outside workers heap snow round the foundations, and carefully stop up any accidental holes between the blocks. The builder lets himself out by cutting an arch 3ft. high and 2½ft. wide, and from this they construct two passages—end to end—each 10ft. or 12ft. long and 4ft. or 5ft. high, the lowest being next the hut, as shown in the outline ground plan. The roofs of these passages are sometimes arched, and at others covered with flat slabs.
If a single apartment is required the hut is now complete, but if several families are to reside together the passage is made common to all, the first hut becoming a kind of antechamber, and is commonly a little smaller than the rest, which are entered by arched doors 5ft. high. Sometimes the ground plan assumes the form of a cross, as in the instance we now illustrate. A hole is cut into the side of each compartment, and a circular plate of ice 3in. or 4in. thick, and 2ft. in diameter, let into it. The light is like that transmitted through ground glass, and is quite sufficient.
GROUND PLAN OF SNOW HUT.
A bank of snow, 2½ft. high, round the interior of each room, except near the door, forms the bed and fireplace, the former occupying the sides and the latter the end opposite the door. The beds are made by covering the snow with a layer of stones, on which are spare paddles, tent poles, whalebone, pieces of network, and a quantity of birch twigs, reindeer skins in profusion are heaped on these, creating not only a comfortable but a luxurious resting place.
The fireplace is a shallow vessel of stone, the wick is of moss rubbed dry between the hands, disposed along the straight edge for about 18in., it supplies itself from a long strip of blubber hung near enough to be melted gradually, and drop slowly into the hollow of the stone; over the lamp is a network, on which wet boots or mittens are usually laid. Frequently there are two other lamps in the corners next the door, for no married woman or widow can be without her separate fire.
With all the lamps lighted, and the room full of people and dogs, the thermometer on the net over the fire stands at 58°; 2ft. or 3ft. away it falls to 32°, close to the wall it is 23°, the temperature of the open air being at the same time 25° below zero. If the temperature is raised higher than this, the melting of the roof causes great inconvenience; but when an inclination to drip is observed, a patch of cold snow is plastered on to absorb the superfluous heat. In the time between the extreme cold of winter, and the season when it is possible to live in tents, the natives suffer much from this melting of their walls.
The cooking is done in pots of hollowed stone (lapis ollaris), slung over the lamps. Many of these are cracked, but are joined by lacings of sinew, or rivets of copper, iron, or lead, which, with a sufficient coating of dirt, makes them again watertight. Their knives are sometimes of ivory, but the best are of iron, obtained from the Hudson’s Bay Company.
They procure fire by striking two pieces of iron pyrites over a leather case with dried moss in it, and a little floss from the seed of the ground willow helps to convey the flame to a bit of oiled wick—sometimes the wick for the lamp is made of asbestos.
At times, especially in the commencement of the winter, the huts are built of ice instead of snow. They approximate to a circular form, but from the flatness of the material necessarily present a number of flat sides and obtuse angles. They are cemented entirely with snow and water, and roofed with skins, which are replaced by snow as winter advances. The entering tunnels are also of slabs of ice, as are the kennels for bitches and puppies. The skin canoes are propped up on slabs of ice high enough to be out of the reach of the dogs. The semi-transparency of the walls give these huts a strange effect, and some of our later voyagers have called them crystal palaces; but all the purity, either of ice or snow, disappears, and whatever cleanliness the Esquimaux possess is forced upon them by the annual thawing of their houses.
ESQUIMAUX HUT OF ICE SLABS.
The summer tents are made of several seal or walrus skins, the former without the hair, and the latter with the thick outer coat taken off, and the rest shaved down so thin as to admit light through them. They are irregularly sewn together, forming a kind of oval bag, supported in the middle by a pole of several deers’ horns or bones of other animals lashed together. On the top of this is a cross or T-piece, which serves to extend the top of the tent, 6ft. or 7ft. from the ground the lower part of the tent pole rests loosely on a large stone, from which any accident will knock it off. The borders of the skins are kept down by stones laid on them, and the top is stayed by a thong on the outer side, stretching to a heavy stone at some distance. The door is merely two flaps, one of which overlaps the other, secured by another stone.
Sometimes a little shelter from the wind is given by an outer wall of stone.
If a larger tent is required, two of these bags are made to overlap at the edges, and are set up with a couple of poles.
The accumulation of seal and walrus flesh and blubber during the summer months makes these habitations disgustingly filthy; but it is to be remembered that the great necessity of the Esquimaux is to keep himself warm, and he cannot afford to lower the temperature of his skin by washing off the grease and dirt which encrust it.
On one experimental trip Captain Parry was compelled by a sudden decrease of temperature to shelter his party in a small tent. They attempted to warm themselves by smoking, and found the temperature at their feet to be 1° below zero, while overhead the smoke had raised it to +7°, the outer air being -5°, soon falling to -15°. It was then found possible to dig a kind of cavern in the snow, the spade being lent as a favour to the men who most required to warm themselves, a small fire and a pot of soup were made, and by confining the smoke and hot air the temperature was raised to +20°, while outside it was -25°.
CHAPTER V.
EXTEMPORE BRIDGES AND MAKESHIFTS FOR CROSSING
RIVERS OR RAVINES.
The solitary traveller in a wild country will be very rarely compelled to construct his own bridge, for, as a general rule, he will only have to pass once, or at most to return by the same route. The labour of making a bridge would be greater, and more time would be lost, than by seeking for a practicable passage at some distant point, or, in case a river was the impediment, forming a float of some kind.
Swamp roads, to make.
There are, however, occasions when there is no alternative but bridge-making, as when exploring expeditions, accompanied by pack animals, or a field force on the march, have rivers, swamps, ravines, or, perchance, rotten ice, to pass over. Where there is not water enough to float a canoe, but where there is sufficient to cause the formation of deep pools and dangerous mire, over which few animals used for the conveyance of baggage could pass without the aid of some artificial footway, narrow deep channels may be very often rendered comparatively easy to cross by filling them up with bundles of brushwood or marsh reeds. We were constantly in the habit, when engaged in making forced marches through Central India, of making use of the stalks of the recently cut juhari for this purpose. Unsafe ice can be rendered firm and secure by strewing a thick layer of reeds over it, and then throwing water enough to cause the whole to freeze into a compact mass.
Before, however, proceeding to describe the various modes usually had recourse to for rendering trees available for bridging purposes, it will be well to give a few plain and practical directions for ascertaining the width of rivers, ravines, and the arms of swamps, without the aid of scientific instruments, and also for finding, by makeshift modes, the altitude of trees.
To find the Width of a River without Instruments.
Fig. 1. If you have a pocket compass, and the river runs, say east and west, and you are on the south side, choose a well-defined tree, A, or other object on the opposite shore, and bring it to bear north of you; mark your position by putting in a stake or peg, B, turn to one side, say the left, and walk westward till A bears north-east, which will be the case at C; then C B will be exactly equal to B A, or the breadth of the river, because from the point C, A will bear north-east, and B will bear east, subtending an angle of 45°, and as the line C B is east, and B A is north, they subtend an angle of 90°, or a right angle, and must be of equal length; the triangle you have formed being the half of a square, divided by a diagonal line from corner to corner.
If you have room repeat this by walking east till A bears north-west from D; and if the first operation has been correctly performed, the second will confirm it; or if the first be in error, it is likely that the second will be exactly as much in error the opposite way, and the mean of the two observations will be approximately correct.
Fig. 2. If you have not a compass, choose A as before, set in a stake at B, and prolong the line to C; then on this line erect a perpendicular by looping a cord on the stake at C, and with a sharpened peg held at the other end of it drawing the arc, D E; then, making D and E equidistant from B, draw through these three points the line D B E F; on this line retire toward F till A and B form an angle of 45°, which may be measured either by folding a square of paper diagonally, or by pegging out a piece of string divided into two lengths of 24in. and one of 32in. See that the longest or diagonal side bears truly upon A, and one of the shorter sides on B, which will take place at the point F, then F B will be equal to B A, or the breadth of the river. Repeat this also if the ground allows, on the opposite side G, and take the mean of the two observations.
The correctness of all these observations may be greatly increased by resting your rifle on each successive point, and carefully sighting all the lines with it.
Fig. 3. Another excellent and simple plan is—choose A; set in B; from B erect the perpendicular B C, C D, divided equally at C; from D erect the perpendicular D E; retire along it till the stake C bears truly upon A, which will be at F, then F D will equal B A.
Fig. 4. If the river bank is so curved that you cannot draw B C D at right angles, you have two alternatives. If there is plenty of room retire as far as you please from the bank before planting the stake B, and deduct from the result the distance you retire from the bank. Or, if there is not room, you may draw B C D, as in Fig. 4, diagonally, and contrive to keep D E as nearly parallel to A B as you can; but any defect in parallelism will greatly affect the correctness of your measurement, as will be evident from the dotted line G.
Fig. 5. If the river is wide, choose A as before; set in B, and retire any measured distance, say 6yds., to C; then from B and C erect perpendiculars of equal length, and draw the square B C, D E; test it by stretching a cord from corner to corner; then, prolonging the line C E, bring the stake D in one with A, and produce the line A D till it intersects C E at F; then divide F E into six parts, measure as many of them as you can on the line E D, and you will find as many of them as there are yards on the line B A; therefore, in the present instance, 11yds. will be the breadth of the river, and one may be deducted because the marks are not close to the edge of the banks; or say, as E F is to E D so is B D to B A.
Fig. 6. To erect a perpendicular on a given point on any line, measure equal distances on either side; set in pegs, loop a cord on them alternately, and strike two arcs, their intersection will be perpendicular to the given point. To cross the end of a line by another at right angles, set a peg some distance back, loop a cord on it, and strike an arc. Measure equal distances from the end of your given line to the arc, then a line drawn through the three points will be at right angles to the first.
A scale of equal parts may be made by folding a slip of paper in half, then folding each part in half, and so subdividing it as much as you wish, but do not fold it in half, and then double the two parts to get the quarters at one operation, and then double the four parts to get the eighths, or you will find them come out very unequally.
A measuring tape may be made by taking a narrow white tape, say ¼in., and winding it on a slip of card barely an inch wide, just so little spirally that each turn may not half cover the preceding one, then carefully blacken the edges, and, when you unwind the tape, mark every twelfth inch with figures to denote feet, and every sixth with an extra line.
A square is made by taking a sheet of paper, folding the corner down so that the edge of the end coincides with the edge of the side, and then cutting off the superfluous length, each corner of the square is an angle of 90°, i. e., a right angle or a quarter of the compass, say from north to east. The diagonal fold makes at each corner an angle of 45°, or four points of the compass, say from north to north-east; fold this again, and it will give 22½°, or two points of the compass, from north to north-north-east, and this may again be subdivided if needful.
We have often tried the breadth of rivers by firing a rifle ball at some well-defined mark on the other side, with the sight adjusted to 100yds. or more, according to the estimated distance, and noticing whether the ball reached beyond or fell short of the mark. The habit of doing this very greatly corrects and assists the eye in forming estimates of distance. A good stone thrower ought to know the range he can make with pebbles of different sizes. If a native is near buy one of his least valued arrows or spears, and get him to throw it across, and then ask him to throw a similar one on ground where you can recover it and measure the distance, but never ask a savage to throw away weapons of the chase for nothing. In calm weather, we have fired a rifle ball, with its utmost range, on the surface of a lake, and have counted seconds from the time we saw the splash till we heard the sound of its fall. Sound travels 1142ft. in a second, or about a statute mile in 4¾ seconds, or a geographical mile—or rather one minute of latitude, or of longitude on the equator—in 5¾ seconds.
To find, without Instruments, the Height of a Tree or other Object, whose Base is accessible.
Fig. 1. Fold down a square of paper from corner to corner, and you will obtain a triangle, of which two of the sides form a right angle, and the third, or diagonal, forms an angle of 45° with each of them (see next page). Make a mark upon the tree 5ft., or the height of your eye, from the ground, and retire from the tree till, holding the paper steadily with one short side horizontal and the other vertical, you can take sight along its lower edge at the mark, and along the diagonal side at the topmost branches; then pace or measure the distance from the tree, add 5ft. for the height of the eye, and you will have the height of the tree; because, if the two angles of the diagonal be 45°, the base and the perpendicular must be equal. A piece of thin board, with pins set in at each angle to serve as sights, would be better than the paper, but is not so readily extemporised. If you split the end of a wand so as to hold the paper or board quite up to the height of your eye, it will give additional steadiness. The observer in our illustration is unavoidably represented a little too near his work, but he is probably taking the height of the first bifurcation, which is often more important than the height of the tree.
FINDING THE HEIGHT OF A TREE BY RIFLE OR FOLDED PAPER.
Fig. 2. Or, sticking a branch into the ground, select one of its forks, or lash on a cross piece which shall pass through the trigger guard behind the trigger, so that the gun may be about the height of your eye when you aim horizontally at the mark on the tree, the trigger finger grasping the stick for greater steadiness. Take another stick, with a fork or cross rest of equal height with the first, and connect them by a smaller stick of any length, say 18in. or 2ft., and at exactly the same height above the lower rest lash another on the second stick, so that, the base and perpendicular being equal, the gun, when its muzzle is laid on the higher rest, shall form exactly an angle of 45° with its line when previously laid upon the lower one. Now retire until from the lower rest you can sight the mark upon the tree, and from the upper its highest branches; then the distance from your pivot stick, plus 5ft., will be the height of the tree. Our illustration purposely shows this operation in the simplest possible form; but the frame might be steadied by lashing on other cross bars (X fashion), and a friend to help in moving it to a greater or less distance from the tree would greatly assist the observer. It would be inconvenient to make this observation kneeling. A telescope, a long straight reed, a roll of paper, or a straight tube of any material, will answer almost as well as the rifle.
Even a clasp knife (Fig. 3), with a bit of reed stuck into the handle where the point should reach, and resting on the point of the half-opened blade, is better than nothing.
If the ground is perfectly level, and you have a looking-glass, lay it down and level it by setting on it a basin full of water; retire till you see the top of the tree reflected in it, then if your distance from the mirror equals the height of your eye, the distance from the mirror to the tree will be equal to its height. In perfectly calm weather the basin of water will do without the mirror, or a shallow pool or river will give an approximation; but, as the ground is always depressed where water settles, there will be some uncertainty about the height of the eye, which will more or less vitiate the observation, and this will also be the case if thirsty animals rush in to disturb it, as in our sketch. Or if the sun or moon is shining, set up a stick, and watch till its shadow is equal to its height, or note when your own shadow equals your height, and the height of the tree and the length of its shadow will also be equal. But, as it may not be always convenient to wait for this moment, the height of the tree may be found by proportion. If the stick is 5ft. and its shadow 7ft., then if the shadow of the tree be 70ft., its height will be 50ft.; or if in looking at its reflection in the mirror, the height of your eye be 5ft., and the distance 8ft., then if the distance from the mirror to the tree be 80ft., its height is 50ft. In either of the first two methods the same rule must be observed; the paper may be folded to a greater angle if you cannot get far enough from the tree, or a smaller one if you must go farther, and the same with the elevation of the rifle. In these cases, carefully measure the base and perpendicular of your smaller angle, and say, “as the base of the small angle is to its perpendicular, so is the distance from the tree to its height.”
Thus, as in Fig. 4 on next page, if the distance between the two rests is 2ft. and the elevation of the rifle 1ft., the distance from the tree must be equal to double its height.
All these observations will apply to any object of which the highest point is perpendicular to the accessible base, such as a precipice, the wall of a fort, or the gable end of a house, but not to the peak of a mountain, two or three miles beyond its base, nor to the pitched roof of a house seen sideways, nor to the spire of a church, or flagstaff on the central tower of a castle, unless the doors of these buildings be opened so that you can continue to measure your base to a point exactly beneath that which you have taken the angular height. Still, if the base be not accessible, it is not impossible to measure the height, for the distance of the object may be taken by any of the plans for ascertaining the breadth of a river, or any of the above methods may be performed twice over, as in Fig. 5;
first, at any convenient distance, b, and secondly, at a measured distance, c, nearer to or farther from the object; and the easiest way of obtaining the result is to lay down on paper the obtained angles, d, e, f, and g, h, i, in due proportion to the measured distance, b, c, between them; then from them to protract the angle, d, g, a, and continuing the base line, find on it the point j, from which a perpendicular would meet the top of the object, a. The distance, b, c, being known, that of the base, b, j, and the height of the tree, j, a, will be best found by measurement of equal parts, but bear in mind that the result can only be an approximation to truth, for every additional operation involves an increase of possible error.
CORDWAY AND ONE-TREE BRIDGE.
One-tree bridge, to make.
In passing extensive marsh tracks, few expedients surpass the so-called American cordway, the subject of the illustration on [p. 325]. It is constructed as follows from the description of material usually abounding in marsh tracks: Trees and poles of almost any description will be found to answer. Cut as many as is thought requisite. Divide them into three classes—ground poles, cross poles, and stringers. The ground poles should be the largest and heaviest. The cross poles are comparatively short lengths, and lay across the ground poles with their ends projecting some distance beyond. They are laid closely together, and then secured and bound down by the stringers which lay on them. A treenail driven in here and there serves to keep all in place by nipping the cross poles tightly. The ends of the ground poles and stringers may be either scarfed and treenailed, or laid side by side and tied with withies or strips of suitable bark. It will be seen, on examining the illustration, that where the roadway ends a bridge begins. This is of the description known as a one-tree bridge, and is made as follows: Select a tree of sufficient length to reach, when felled, across the stream, and of fair average girth, say 9ft.; fell it with the axe in the manner before directed, and then walk out on the trunk and cut away all the branches from the upper surface; then log it up into lengths of about 10ft. a sufficient number of transverse pieces to reach, when placed side by side, from one end of the bridge log to the other. Then in the centre of each of these make a shallow notch by delivering right and left cuts with the axe. Next with your auger bore two holes as wide apart as the diameter of the bridge log will admit of. Lay your transverse piece on the main log, so that it shall rest in the form of a true cross, with the notch in the centre resting on the main log; then, whilst keeping the cross piece steady with one foot, bore down the auger holes about a foot into the solid timber. Treenails (see “[Treenails, to make]”) are then to be placed in the holes and driven home with a mallet or the head of the axe.
TREE-NAILED SWAMP BRIDGE.
Swamp bridge, to make.
Treenails, to make.
Another form of tree-nailed bridge, calculated for very wet or dangerously swampy ground, is formed by laying down two lines of stouter ground logs than those used to form the “cordway” just described, scarfing and tree-nailing the ends together as they are laid down. The transverse bars for the footway have a right and left chip taken out each end from the surface which is to lay next the ground log. They are then bored with the auger, one hole at each end being sufficient. They are then placed closely side by side. One man completes the hole which passes down into the log, whilst another drives home the treenails, as shown in the annexed illustration. Earth or sand thrown with a shovel between the cross pieces increases the stability of the arrangement. Treenails, to make. Treenails have been, and will be, frequently mentioned in the course of this work; it will, therefore, be well here to give directions for making and using them. To the shipwright they are invaluable, as by their aid he unites the various planks and timbers made use of in the carrying out of his art. In England they are usually made from straight-grained oak, which, after being sawn into proper lengths, is split up into the rough form of the required treenail. This, after being faced and hewn with the adze, is passed through a double-handed cutting instrument known as a treenail tool. A skilfully-handled axe, a spokeshave, or a drawing knife, will, although less expeditiously, produce with ease well rounded and serviceable treenails. In wild countries any tough straight-grained wood may be selected for treenail making. For bridge and roadway work pine wood will answer the purpose very fairly. A dead log is best when it can be obtained for making these wooden holdfasts. Cut it up into pieces the length of the proposed treenail, chop off the bark, and split them into either three or four (as directed at [p. 272]), according to the size of the log; then, with the froe or axe, split them into rough squares the length of the required treenail, round off the curves and corners, chop off the edges at the end, so that it may enter the auger hole freely, and the treenail is ready for use.
GABION BRIDGE.
Gabion bridge, to make.
Tartar bridges, to make.
Rivers which are too wide to be crossed by the one-tree bridge, and yet of inconsiderable breadth, may be crossed by the use of the gabion bridge, which is thus constructed: First, prepare as many strong wicker gabions as the width of the stream will render necessary. About 14ft. apart will be found a convenient distance to place them. Their height will depend on the depth of the water. Three feet at least should be allowed between the surface of the stream and the upper edge of the gabion. Where suitable poles and sticks for gabion making cannot be obtained trees should be felled and split up, as for rails (see [p. 273]). The bars thus obtained should be cut up into proper lengths, and, by the use of the axe and auger, converted into large deep crates, such as are used for packing earthenware. These are made by boring rows of auger holes in strong wooden bars, and then driving the sharpened ends of the lesser bars into them until the crate is finished, no nails or metal fastenings being required. Whether the crate or gabion is used, the principle of construction observed in making the bridge is the same. The first gabion, after being secured to the end of a stout rope, is launched from the bank, and then guided, end upward, by the aid of forked setting poles, to its proper position. Stones, pebbles, or pieces of broken rock, are now cast pell-mell by hand into the open mouth of the gabion, which is held down by the setting pole until fixed in its position by the weight of the mass within it. When quite full two or three stout poles are laid side by side for a man to walk over. He takes up his station on the gabion, and aids in arranging the ends of two side logs which are pushed out to him from the shore, and placed wide enough apart to give sufficient width to the intended bridge. Transverse bars formed of split logs are now rapidly treenailed on, as shown in the accompanying illustration. The second gabion is now launched from the first, the stone collectors with bags and baskets walk out, cast their loads, and return for more, proceeding in the same manner until the bridge is finished. Tartar bridges, to make. When travelling among the Tartars we had on more than one occasion to pass our mules and horses over rather insecure-looking bridges formed by the natives. They were alike in construction, and were made by laying three long strong poles, or rather small tree trunks, side by side from bank to bank. Across these alternately (butt-end and top), as shown in the engraving on next page, was laid a close row of tightly-bound bundles or faggots of small brushwood. On these bundles of twigs large flat slabs of turf, grass side upward, were placed and stamped compactly down, forming serviceable and really good bridge ways. A small river can be easily crossed by men on foot by simply felling a tree of sufficient girth and length across it. Should there be a number of packs or loads to pass across, it will be well, if the party is a large one, to so station men along the tree trunk that they can pass the bundles or articles from hand to hand, just as firemen hand buckets of water, thus saving unnecessary labour. A rope stretched across greatly aids the men in keeping their balance.
Extempore jetty, to build.
TARTAR POLE AND FAGGOT BRIDGE.
We, on one occasion, when encamped on the banks of a large Indian river, were called on to provide for the immediate transport of a battery of field guns, waggons, horses, &c., to the opposite side. Some large native boats were procured, but they, even when empty, drew so much water, that they could not be made to approach within some distance of the shore. We therefore felled two trees, which fortunately stood side by side, letting their crowns fall from the bank, well out into the stream. We soon foraged out three large dug-out canoes, which were concealed among the reeds hard by. These, with our own axe, and those of two stalwart-limber gunners, we split into lengths of uneven plank. Whilst we were doing this, a party had been at work forcing down large heavy branches between the two tree trunks, and on these compactly-bound faggots of brushwood (which a number of natives attached to the expedition prepared close at hand) were rammed and stamped down. Tho boards procured by cutting up the canoes were arranged side by side on this bed, their ends being secured by burden ropes knotted together and hitched over them, as shown at [Fig. 1, p. 292]. We now employed the natives in throwing buckets and bags of earth and sand thickly over and between the planks. Over this extempore jetty—which reached out to the boats, on some of which platforms had been erected—all our battery, consisting of two 12-pounder howitzers, and four 6-pounder guns, with all their equipment, passed in perfect safety. The work was not commenced until late in the afternoon, and all had crossed long before morning.
Extempore baggage derrick.
It not unfrequently happens that there is greater difficulty in transporting the baggage of an expedition across a river than in getting over the men and animals. This was the case in the following instance. We were exploring the Victoria River, in North Australia, when we came to a branch of one of its tributaries (Jasper Creek) so much swollen that it was unsafe to attempt crossing it with loaded horses. We found, however, a passage to an island, on which stood a couple of tall overhanging gum trees. We had with us several fathoms of Manilla line, about ½in. in diameter, this was passed over a fork of one of the highest and most projecting branches. Mr. Gregory swung himself across, we followed; and while our head stockman, with a fatigue party of five horses, brought the packs to the island, one man lifted the pack that had been bent on to the line as high as possible; another gave an extra pull upon the other part to lift it as clear of the water as possible during its passage, letting go by the run as it swung to the other shore, where one of the party stood ready to catch the pack, while we, making a sharp run with a small line, helped it across, and checked any tendency to swing back again. In this manner we brought over a ton and a half of provisions and stores in between two and three hours; the unloaded horses found a practicable ford a little higher up.
Tree footways.
Sometimes the interlacing of overhanging branches answered our purpose; or we found it possible to fell a tree so that its head might fall on the other shore, or into the water pointing up stream, so that it would drift and jam against the opposite bank.
On another occasion, coming to the Lua, a tributary of the Zambesi, rushing through a narrow place, we went to the edge of the forest, and with a small tomahawk cut down the best tree we could find, and, assisted by three or four Makololo, carried it to the brink, raised it, and let it fall across.
Chain bridges, to construct.
In many of the colonial streams it is necessary to provide the means of passage, for the fords may be inconveniently far apart. In such cases the general expedient is to purchase the chain cables of some wrecked ship, and stretch them across, securing the ends either to stout posts or bars wedged into clefts in the rocks, or to tolerably broad surfaces of timber buried 6ft. or 8ft. in the earth. Of course strong purchases are required to stretch the chains, especially if the distance between the river banks is great; but the buyer would most likely take care also to provide himself, when he obtained the chains, with a pair of large double blocks with iron-hooked straps, and twenty or thirty fathoms of stout rope; so that, when such a tackle is hooked on, and the fall made fast to the trek gear of a span of well-trained oxen, the chain must come or something give way.
Two parts of the chain must be stretched so as to assume perfectly parallel curves, and on these the planks for the roadway are laid, the lashings passing conveniently through the links and preventing any possibility of slipping; other chains or ropes are stretched as hand-rails, and for the supports of these it is a good plan to cut young trees, say 12ft. long, sling them about 4ft. from the top, and fasten them to the chain, so that the upper part will support the rope, while the 8ft. of butt hanging below serves as a counterpoise to keep it upright. This, however, must depend on the height of the bridge; for if the water catches any part of it during the rainy season, there is great danger of the whole being swept away; and it is therefore advisable to make all the fittings as light as is consistent with the safety of passengers, so that in case of extraordinary floods they may be swept off before they communicate strain enough to break the chain—just as the masts of a vessel ought to be of such strength as to be carried away before they capsize the ship. We have seen a bridge built of planks and trestles, very slightly fastened together, but every part was moored by a long line to one or other of the banks. The whole affair would go to pieces when the floods came, and when they subsided the pieces were hauled in, and the bridge reconstructed.
Fly bridges and ferries.
In broader rivers the chain is carried across, and a barge is built with a winch at either end, round the barrels of which a turn of the chain is taken; the waggon about to cross is drawn upon the platform by two or more of its own oxen, the winches are hove round, and the oxen draw the waggon up the other shore, without even having been unyoked during the passage.
FLYING FERRIES.
In strong rapid streams an anchor and cable is laid high up the stream, and the lower end terminates in a bridle. The boat is alike at either end, and when about to leave the shore the end of the bridle which happens to be forward is gathered in, while the after one is somewhat slackened. The boat shoots over to the other shore, and is kept there by the force of the stream, so long as the bridle nearest the bank keeps her head more up than the farther one allows her stem to be. To bring her back again, haul in that which is farthest from the shore; slack off the other, and she will recross the river as if of her own volition.
The same may be effected by means of the rudder. Have a short mast, to which the cable is attached just high enough to clear the heads of passengers, &c., and about one-fourth or one-third from the bows. Then, if the boat be lying on the right bank of the river, her port side will be to the shore; and as long as the helm is to starboard, or away from the shore, the rudder will incline the boat’s head inward, and the force of the stream will keep her there. But put the helm aport, her head will fall off, she will shoot over to the left bank, and remain there. In fact, this flying bridge, or ferry—for it partakes of the nature of both—acts in the water on the very same principle that a kite does in the air. The line being made fast, not to the stem of the boat, but to a point about one-third aft, would allow her to ride straight on end with the stream only so long as by careful steering her head was kept exactly to it; but the moment an inclination is made, by putting the helm, say “aport,” the boat’s head inclines to starboard; she receives the stream upon her port side, which should make an angle of about 22° with the line of the current, and she at once sheers to starboard or to the left bank—remembering always that, in speaking of a river, the observer is supposed to face down stream, and the banks are named as they are on his right or left hand. A wire rope ferry of this kind is stretched across the united rivers “Moola Moola” and “Moola Moota,” near Poona. We have crossed by it often, and found it to answer admirably.
WIRE ROPE FERRY.
Sometimes it may be of importance to bridge a ravine, which, though not impassable for an active man, is difficult for average passengers. The first requisite is to get a line across. If the nearest bank is a precipice a man may be lowered down with a rope, and he may then climb the opposite cliff, taking the rope with him; but if the farthest bank is precipitous also the case is more difficult, as the rope will not help him to ascend. Perhaps by walking up or down the bed of the gorge while his friends above follow him with the rope, he may find a practicable route; or another party may be sent many miles up or down to find a crossing, and, by lowering another rope, haul him up with the first still fast.
Line slings and lobsticks.
If neither of these plans is possible, a stone or leaden weight may be slung over with a small line, much as sailors heave the lead. We usually employ for this purpose a contrivance known among hunters as a “squailer,” or “lobstick.”
LOBSTICKS.
There are several ways of making a lobstick; the best, perhaps, being those represented by Figs. 2 and 3 in the engraving below. An oval ball of lead, with a hole through the centre, and about 6oz. in weight, is prepared. A strong, tough, and slightly flexible stick is now fitted to the hole in the lead, in which it is held by a wedge driven into its cleft end. A long light line, either twine or fishing line, is now coiled evenly down on the bank, one end is firmly knotted to the extremity of the handle of the lobstick, and the other to a peg driven into the ground. The end of the stick where the twine is made fast is now held lightly in the hand with the ball downwards; two or three rapid and powerful turns round the head are now taken in such a way as to cause the stick to bend. It is then hurled, at a good elevation, across the stream or gorge, where a man who has previously crossed is waiting for it. The string once across, a rope attached to it follows. No one unacquainted with the use of these implements would believe that they could be thrown to the incredible distances which they at times reach. Fig. 1 is an extempore lobstick, made by splitting the handle, inserting a pebble or suitable stone, and then lashing the divided stick fast with twine. A line may be sent over by an arrow or rocket, taking care that the attachment is made with wire or raw hide, so that it may not be burned through. Or, if the ravine be wide, it may be carried over by a kite, and if materials are at hand this kite may be made large enough to carry a man also. There is no fear of the kite line breaking. If there is rope enough to make a bridge, there must be enough to fly a kite strong enough to carry a man.
Makeshift fastenings.
POLE CHAINS.
The communication being effected by any of these means, the next thing is to haul ropes of increasing weight and power across till they are strong enough to haul over the actual cables, and these may be made of various indigenous materials: the bark of the mimosa, of the baobab, and other trees; the fibre of yucca or aloe leaves, or, still better, of those of the Phormium tenax; bush vines, bind weed, or creeping plants; rattans, grass, or strips of palm leaf, may be twisted into ropes; or poles of any straight wood, of nearly even thickness, may be cut and used as links of a chain, by being strongly, yet somewhat loosely, attached to each other by shorter links of rope. Sometimes, if a hole be cut in the butt of one tree, the young branches of the other will be found pliant enough to pass through it, and weave around the stem and the few forks that may be left on it for that purpose.
CABLE AND TWIG BRIDGE.
Bamboo maybe partially cut away nearly up to a joint, leaving long strips on either side, which being doubled back on themselves form excellent links; or they may be split up and spliced together like the strands of a rope; and, from the great number of very small, long, and pliant branches growing from every joint, bamboo offers great facility for the attachment of other fastenings at every foot of its own length.
Cane and twig roadways.
The cables having been stretched across and securely fastened, the next requisite is the construction of the roadway. If bamboo is the material, the large stems may be cut into lengths of about 5ft., and split into four, giving pieces of, perhaps, from 4in. in width.; these should be laid with the convex side upwards, projecting about 1ft. beyond the cables on each side, and securely lashed to them—the small shoots already mentioned will very materially assist this process. If smaller bamboo is about to be used, it can be split into three or four parts, or put in place without splitting. Small ropes should be provided as hand rails or safety lines, and these must be confined to the sides of the bridge by upright stancheons about 3ft. or 4ft. high, and placed tolerably close together. Twig ropes stretch very unequally in use.
Rattans and creepers are often of very great length, and pieces 100yds. long, and not above 1½in. in thickness, may be disentangled in the forest. These can be utilised in a variety of ways. Sometimes a roadway is made of short pieces of wood suspended at either end from the cables, but in this case the amount of small line required is greater; and, what is of more importance, the safety of the traveller depends at every step on the fastening of the piece he treads on, while in the former case, even if the fastening were insecure, the cable would support his weight. Besides this, in order that they may not swing apart, every piece must be lashed to its neighbour; and it seems more safe and economical to build the roadway on the cables, and stretch lighter ones above them for safety lines.
Bridge shears, to construct.
If the ravine is not very broad, a tree, such as the stem of a tall palm, which will often be 60ft. high, and 1ft. in thickness; or a bamboo, which will be sometimes 80ft. or 90ft., may be raised, and secured by stays and guys in a vertical position; or, still better, two may be lashed together as shear legs and then raised. If the ground is good this need not be done at the very edge of the cliff, for when once the shears are nearly upright, smooth planks may be put under the butts of the spars, and they may be pushed or hauled in any direction.
If men can find a passage to the other side, and carry over some of the stays and guys there, the work will be much facilitated. If not, make another pair of shears exactly like the first, and lay them horizontally on the ground, with their butts resting against and fastened to those of the upright ones; let the stays come to the head of these, slack them a little till the uprights incline forward 20° or 30° over the gulf, then keep all fast, and allow the horizontal shears to rise as the others are lowered, keeping a check upon them all the while, until the first are laid fairly across.
If the gulf is wide, this operation might be carried on from both sides till the shears meet, and could be secured together in the middle, as in our illustration; and the roadway could then be constructed between them.
BRIDGE SHEARS.
Guano stages at Ichaboe
When vessels first went to the island of Ichaboe for guano, it was customary to require every new comer to bring two or three stout spars for the purpose of extending the landing jetty; and as each had the benefit of the spars left by former vessels, so each was expected to leave her own for the use of those who followed.
Owing to the irregularity of the rocky bottom, thickly covered with seaweed, the depth of water, and the distance from shore at which the surf began to break, all the ordinary methods of constructing a jetty were impracticable, especially when the object of each captain was to load his vessel as quickly and easily as possible, and to get away without expending the labour of his crew on works more than sufficient for his own service. Besides this, even had holes been bored, piles driven, and a staging laid down upon them, the platform, if permanently spiked down, would inevitably have been torn up by the surf in even a moderate gale; or, if loosely laid, would have been liable to such constant derangement as to be practically useless. It was necessary, therefore, that the base, while strong. enough to support the traffic, should present little or no surface for the waves to act upon, and that the roadway should be so elevated that breakers could not touch it. Even under these conditions, it was found that the first structures were washed away, and other forms had to be adopted; these could only be built on the north and east sides of the island; they were not less than 200ft. or 300ft. in length, and seldom or never in a straight line.
A heavy bower anchor, sometimes weighted by several lengths of chain frapped round it, was laid down well outside the surf, with one or two fifteen fathom lengths of chain, and to the end of this a stout hawser was bent on and carried to the shore, passing over and lashed to the intersection of a pair of stout poles set up as shears, and with its shore end leading to another anchor or secure fastening, to which, when the structure was completed, it could be tightly set up by means of tackles.
The first pair of shears having been erected, it was comparatively easy to erect others, and often as many as a dozen or sixteen pairs were fixed, the hawser passing over and serving as a ridge rope to them all. At about 12ft. above high water smaller spars were lashed fore and aft, so as to connect all the shear legs on either side through the whole length of the jetty, and others were laid across and well secured by cleats and lashings between each pair of legs, with some at shorter intervals, on which the roadway was constructed of planks and spars, sometimes nailed, but more generally securely lashed. At the end of this staging was a small platform, slung by tackles to the outermost pair of shears, and capable of being raised or lowered, so that boats might lie alongside it either at high or low water.
GUANO STAGE AND FLYING RAILWAY AT ICHABOE.
The flying railway.
Other vessels, not so well provided with spars as to entitle them to share in the accommodation of these stages, adopted a kind of flying railway, such as is used on the rocky coast of the Cape Verdes for the shipment of salt. A stout spar, 40ft. or 50ft. long, or sometimes, if the vessel was totally unprovided, her own mainboom was taken ashore. Smaller spars were set up as shears, and by these the large one was erected, and stayed in a perpendicular position as a derrick. The heaviest bower anchor, with several fathoms of chain, was laid outside the surf, in thirty or forty fathoms of water. A stout hawser was bent on to the end of the chain, carried to the derrick head, and hitched round it or otherwise secured; and the shore end was extended inland toward another anchor, to which it was hauled taut by a powerful tackle. Another tackle served to raise the guano bags to the derrick head, and on the hawser travelled a large snatch or natch block (so called because one of its sides is notched to admit any part of a line, the end of which cannot conveniently be reeved through). A man, seated on a kind of cross-tree, would pass the hook of the travelling block into the slings of the bags when they were hoisted, and would detach the hook of the tackle, and the bags were eased down to the boat lying out, where the hawser nearly reached the sea by a stout line passing through a single block at the derrick head. Generally, the travelling block alone had to be brought back; but if provisions or other stores were to be landed, they were hooked on before it returned. Passengers would be landed or embarked in the same manner; sometimes in a stout basket, or in a cask cut into the fashion of an arm-chair; but more generally, in disdain of such luxuries, in the loops of a double bowline—the bolder spirits glorying in being let go by the run, and gliding down the hawser just as the Russians do in their sledges on artificial ice hills.
It will often happen that in the erection of some makeshift contrivance, or the laying out of a ground plan for future operations, some rough and ready mode of levelling will be needed.
Levelling.
The Dutch African farmers use a very simple and effective level in laying out water furrows for the irrigation of their farms, and, when it is understood that even on very favourable ground these furrows are often two miles long, it will be seen that some little engineering is required. They take a table, the longer the better, and having tested its surface by the eye, and by lines stretched across, they place on each end a large basin filled to the brim with water. When these are perfectly full without overflowing, the sight is taken over them at a staff set up upon the next station, and the height of the mark on this, less the height of the table and basin, gives the difference of level.
SOUTH-AFRICAN LEVELLING TABLE.
We had a tube of tin 4ft. long and 1in. diameter, with two pieces of glass tube bent upward, passing through corks in either end, so that, by using water coloured with charcoal or mud, we could at once observe the true level. A long bamboo or reed closed at the ends, but open in all its intermediate length, will do just as well, and there is no necessity that it should be straight. Smaller pieces of reed, 3in. or 4in. long, should be set up in each end, and the bore of these must be large enough to allow the water to flow freely to its natural level. The top of these may be notched for sights like those of a rifle, or sliding sights may be fitted on the side of them. This instrument may be used for taking vertical angles by fixing the eyesight upon a pivot, marking the place of the foresight on the staff, when the level has been taken; then pouring away the water, sighting the top of the object, marking the elevation upon the staff, and then either drawing the obtained angle on paper, or taking the difference between the base and perpendicular, and then working out the result by the rule of three.
Deodar bridges.
DEODAR BEAM BRIDGE.
One of the bridges over the Sutlej is formed of lengthy deodar cedar beams, supported at either end by piers formed of very strong timbers wedged for half their length in the solid rock, the next timbers overlapping those on which they rest by 2ft. or 3ft., these in turn being overlapped by others, till the space between is so much diminished, that it can be spanned by the long deodar beams.
INDIAN ROPE BRIDGE.
Rope bridges.
The Jhula, or rope bridge, has a kind of seat slung to it, capable of being hauled to and fro by lines to either bank, and the live stock, as well as the baggage of passengers, is secured to this and sent across. Other bridges are made of ropes of birch twigs, two of which are stretched across from rude piers upon the banks, and from these, hang cradle like, a continuous hurdle of the same frail material serving as a footway, and attached to the ropes by a sort of open basket work, a couple of smaller ropes stretched beneath helping to support the roadway. This, apparently, by its own weight and the unequal stretching of its parts, soon gets out of order, and the passage is a somewhat hazardous feat (see illustration, [p. 335]).
Deris, to make.
Sometimes the rivers are crossed on deris, or skins of bullocks, which are thus prepared: One cut is made along one hind leg, the skin is then turned forward and stripped off uncut, except at the hocks and knees; it is buried a few days to facilitate the removal of the hair; it is then again turned inside out, and the openings of the eyes, mouth, &c., sewn up; it is then turned back again, and the incision stitched together with thongs of raw hide; the open ends of the limbs are tied, except one, which is left as a tube to inflate the skin; the thin tar of the deodar, or other pines, is poured in and shaken about till the flesh side is well charged with it, and the outside is tanned with an infusion of pomegranate husks.
A double cord is fastened round the inflated skin, across which the waterman lies on his chest, holding the string with his left hand and working a short paddle with the right, assisting himself also with his feet. The passenger, with as much baggage as he can carry, sits astride on the ferryman’s back, with his knees on the skin. When heavy goods are to be carried, two skins are brought together, each man laying hold of a projecting leg of the other skin, and a frame—often of a “charpai,” or Indian bedstead—is laid upon their backs to receive the load. Horses or mules are made to swim, the ferryman leading them by the halter. The appearance of the inflated skin, when carried by the waterman, is most ludicrous (see [p. 333]); but when the air is let out it packs very conveniently. It is exceedingly serviceable, costs about 3s., and weighs about 16lb.
Rafter, plank, and slab bridges.
PLANK ARCH.
Very neat and effective bridges may be made on the rafter principle, which our engraving at [p. 303] will sufficiently illustrate. The roadway, either horizontal, as in Fig. 1, or with more or less rise in the centre, as in Fig. 3, being supported by the king-posts, a tolerably broad river may be spanned by a bridge supported on latticed-worked sides, like a number of X’s set up without intervening spaces; but this would require skilled workmanship and secure fastening. Arches of great strength may be made of thin planks laid one upon another; a dozen inch planks would thus give an arched beam 1ft. in thickness, and when properly clamped, or bound together, exceedingly strong. This beam may be easily lengthened, no joining or scarping of the individual planks is required, their ends may simply butt against each other; but care must be taken that no two joints come even nearly together, or much of the strength will be thrown away.
CHINESE SLAB AND TRESTLE BRIDGE.
Many Chinese bridges are constructed with slabs of stone, set up much in the manner of those at Stonehenge. A number of bridges of this description, formed entirely of granite, are to be seen on the Cornish moors.
An Indian army was once sent to act against an enemy accustomed to a colder clime. A broad river checked the advance of the Indians, who had to remain day after day shivering from cold which their enemies bore with impunity; but their leader observed that ice was forming on the river, and, though the strong current kept the centre clear, he found a place some miles below the hostile camp where it had nearly united. By pushing forward poles and faggots into the water he made a nucleus on which fresh ice was formed, and before morning he had sufficiently bridged the river to allow of the passage of a few men who held their position till the rest could cross.
Hints on fording rivers.
In fording deep and rapid streams, the tendency of the body to float greatly diminishes the power to resist the force of the current. We have seen a short and compactly built man, struggling against this difficulty, when a couple of tall aborigines came to his assistance, and with mistaken zeal put their hands under his arms to hold him up, till he explained that he wanted them rather to press upon his shoulders and keep him down. A detachment of our troops found themselves before a ford where the stream was deep and strong, and while they hesitated, the tall guide picked up a heavy stone, placed it on his head, and walked safely through. It is to be remembered, however, that the ford which is safe for the first man is not always so for the last. An ancient general attempted the passage of a river, but the trampling of the men and horses loosened the sand, the stream swept it away, reinforcements were unable to come up, the advance was beaten, and in attempting to recross the river, numbers were drowned, owing to the increase in the depth of water.
In most countries native paths will lead to the practicable fords, and very frequently villages will be established near them, so that information and guides may generally be obtained. In the Cape colony, people who live near the drifts or fords of large rivers frequently keep spans or teams of powerful oxen for the sole purpose of drawing the waggons of travellers across, and these are generally led by some stout young fellow on a horse that is also well accustomed to the locality. It will often happen in the course of exploration that the traveller will have to find the shallow places for himself. Reefs, or edges of strata, running across the river are, of course, obvious enough, but to find moderate shallows in a river of more even depth is not quite so easy; the best way, therefore, is to follow the windings, bearing in mind generally it is better to seek up the river than down where fresh tributaries increase it. In all the hollows where the stream impinges strongly upon the banks they are generally very steep, with considerable depth of water, while the points will be found to slope downward with shoals extending from them, and there is generally an eddy or return current on the upper side; therefore, if a point can be found, with another somewhat below it on the other side, a ford may reasonably be looked for, especially if the width between the points seems greater than usual. A ford seldom leads straight across a river, and there is little use in looking for one in a hollow or under a steep bank.
PORTABLE INCLINES USED IN ABYSSINIA.
Abyssinian mule platforms.
Mr. Percival, who has travelled much in Abyssinia, tells us that he used what he calls portable inclines to facilitate the passage of his long and heavily-laden mule trains over difficult places, especially such as the perpendicular edges of stratified rock 2ft. or 3ft. in thickness, which to laden mules would be as impassable as precipices of a thousand times the height. To obviate this difficulty, he employed one or more mules in carrying roughly-made platforms of stout poles about 10ft. long, with others lashed across them, ladder fashion, so as to present a surface of about 10ft. by 2ft. It would be the duty of the drivers of these mules to have, at least, one of them well to the front in anticipation of any difficulty; the platform would then be laid down, the train would walk over it and pass on, leaving it in the rear to be loaded up again and brought on, while one of the other platform mules would pass to the front in order to be ready for the next difficulty.
The length of these would depend on the height of ledge of rock to be mounted. Suppose the strata were 3ft. in thickness, then a platform of 4ft. 6in. would present a surface lying at an angle of 45°, while one of 7ft. 6in. would lie at 22°; this, for short distances, would not be at all a difficult incline either to descend or to climb, and platforms of 10ft. would give plenty of spare end to rest on the supporting edges, and would not be very inconvenient in carriage. Mr. Percival says he has made them of wattled or hurdle work from 12ft. or 15ft. up to 24ft. in length, and yet so light that one mule has carried two of them; and in following what are called the torrent roads, at the bottom of deep ravines, these would come into requisition at every few hundred yards.
It was in such ravines as these that most disastrous events were anticipated by travellers who knew the difficulties of the country, without being at the same time aware of the skill and resources of our military engineers.
In native warfare an army might be watched into a place from which escape is hopeless, and in the dry season the grass would be then fired at the entrance and the exit; or in the rains, some small river might be partially dammed up so as to accumulate a quantity of water, which being let loose at the proper moment by the dragging out of a pole that serves as a trigger to let go the rest of the impediments, would sweep down upon and overwhelm the helpless enemy.
Natural bridges.
Leaping poles.
Makeshift ladders.
MINERS’ SWING AND LADDER.
INDIAN ESCAPE POLE.
INDIAN SCALING LADDER.
ROPE AND CHAIN LADDERS.
Besides the modes of crossing rivers or ravines before described, there are various methods of passing over comparatively narrow impediments to the onward journey. A chance tree, storm felled across the stream or gully, not unfrequently affords the requisite footway without the expenditure of labour. There are, however, localities in which old hollow logs, cast in this manner across water, are to be looked on with some degree of suspicion, as the following incident of travel will serve to show: An old friend of ours chanced one day to arrive much fatigued at the brink of a tropical stream, which had one of these natural bridges thrown by some storm across it. Before passing over, he lit his fire, cooked his food, and indulged in a quiet smoke; happening to cast his eye along the fallen tree trunk, he perceived something of rather sinister appearance, in slow motion, on its surface. On looking more closely, he saw a huge python, half in and half out of a hole in the log, apparently enjoying the rays of the mid-day sun. The bark of the tree near to the bank, on which our friend was sitting, was worn quite smooth by the passage of numerous animals, and there is no doubt that this formidable toll collector had long enjoyed the monopoly of his tree bridge. Our friend selected another crossing place less carefully guarded. Small streams, or the narrow channels of swamps, may be easily and expeditiously crossed by the aid of the leaping pole. Leaping poles. Tall bamboos or tough, straight, well-grown poles are suitable for the purpose.
MINERS’ SWING AND LADDER. In soft fen ground, it is a good plan to shoe the bottom of the pole with a piece of flat, strong wood, formed somewhat after the manner of a half ball, with a hole in the middle for the reception of the end of the pole. In exploring the cliffs at the edges of ravines, the metal seeker not unfrequently swings himself from ledge to ledge by the aid of a rope attached above, as shown in the accompanying engraving. The cliff climbers, who search for the eggs of sea-fowl, roam about at times in much the same manner. In descending from points of danger, where a leap for life affords the only hope of escape, advantage may be taken of the contrivance which was used by the rebels at Kotah, in India, during the mutiny.
INDIAN ESCAPE POLE. They, on being pushed hard by our troops, who had gained possession to the approaches to their fortified works within the town, bolted like rabbits in a warren, and made for an embrasure, or rather casemate, in one of the bastions of the outer wall; from this they thrust out a strong, but flexible bamboo pole, from the end of which a rope depended. The inner end of the bamboo was secured by heavy weights being placed on it. The fugitives worked their way out by clinging under the pole, until they in turn reached the rope at the end, when they slid down to the end, and then dropped off into the dry ditch. Judging from the immense height of the bastion, and the rocky nature of the ground, we should have had but faint hopes of escape with life; but there is little doubt that many who braved the peril of the fall escaped more or less injured. Makeshift ladders. We had no means at hand of measuring the bamboo, but should judge it roughly at 40ft.
INDIAN SCALING LADDER.The illustration on p. 347 will serve to show the manner in which it was made use of. Not far from the bastion just referred to, we found a number of Indian scaling ladders. They were much in appearance like large bamboo hurdles. The canes composing them were bound at their intersections with strips of twisted cane. They were, for their size, remarkably light; and the nature of the material of which they were constructed, and the way in which they were put together, made them immensely strong. A number of men abreast might have ascended them easily. There are many forms of makeshift ladders, amongst which, perhaps, the following are the most noteworthy.
ROPE AND CHAIN LADDERS. The ordinary rope ladder is too well known to need more than a passing comment. The rope and batten ladder is perhaps not quite so well known, but is far more easy to mount and dismount; its form is shown at A in the accompanying illustration. Two strong chains, and a set of suitable sized bars, form a very useful kind of ladder, much in use among miners; its mode of arrangement is shown at B in the annexed illustration. In South America and some other countries, the notched log ladder is much used both in mining and surface operations. It is, as its name implies, a log notched deeply to receive the feet and hands of the climbers. Another form of log ladder is made by boring a row of auger holes at equal distances, say 2ft. apart, and then driving long stout treenails through them, so that each end of the treenail may project beyond the side of the log, for a hand and foot hold. Long forked branches may have their lateral shoots cut off at convenient distances apart, so as to form a footway of short prongs. A row of spikes or treenails may be driven into the side of a cliff, a wall, or the trunk of a tree to climb up by. The natives of many wild countries adopt this method, about which we shall have more to say when the subject of tree-climbing is under consideration.
Landing derrick.
PEG, BRANCH, AND LOG LADDERS.
LANDING BY SWINGING DERRICK.
In some parts of the world, the operation of landing from a boat, or embarking from the quays or jetties built out into the sea, is rendered both difficult and dangerous by the great range imparted to the boat by the roll of the swell, which in the Eastern seas is at times very great. In such situations, it is a good plan to have a stout post set in the masonry, or in a hole made in the rock, and to the top of this post a swivel crutch, which holds the trunnions of a long projecting arm, like that of an Egyptian well lever, to the small end of which a rope and cross-bar are securely fastened. To the short, heavy end, several more ropes are attached, by which when the person to be landed has either grasped the cross-bar, or seated himself on it, the contrivance is at once raised aloft, and turned steadily but rapidly inward, when by easing off, the man is allowed to drop easily to his feet on solid ground. There used to be such a contrivance as this at St. Helena, by the aid of which we have often landed. The illustration on [p. 349] will serve to show how the apparatus is managed and constructed.
A barrel, stoutly lashed with rope, fitted with a seat, and cut away at the side, so as to admit of the traveller sitting in it, as in a chair, is used for ladies or invalids, who are slung in it at the end of the arm, and hauled in as above described.
Bridges of boats.
Sometimes it is necessary to construct bridges of boats; and these are often works of great magnitude, requiring a considerable amount of material, especially when an army with artillery and baggage waggons has to cross. Whether large or small, the method of proceeding must be nearly the same. First, a number of stout beams must be collected, sufficient to make a double line across the river, with their ends overlapping each other by more than the breadth of the boats that are to support them. The boats should be brought to the shore and moored a little above the site of the intended bridge. If anchors are procurable, they should be laid at regular intervals across the river; a buoy should be attached to the end of each cable, and a small line should lead from the farthest to each nearer one in succession, till they are all connected with the shore. A substantial frame of beams should be constructed at the edge of the bank, and a boat brought alongside it riding by the first cable, and secured by a temporary mooring to the shore. Two beams must be launched across her near the head and stern, and firmly lashed to the thwarts and stringers.
The boat must now be swung out to the full extent of the beams; the second cable must be laid hold of, and the first cast off and hauled to shore for the next boat, which is dropped down stream under the shore end of the beams, which are laid upon her gunwales and made fast there; while two others are pushed from the shore and fastened to her as the first pair were to the first boat. Intermediate beams, if requisite, can be laid, and planking lashed or pinned upon them so as to complete that part of the platform. Then other beams and planking, sufficient for a similar platform, should be brought on board, for the purpose of finishing the bridge when this pair of boats reaches the other shore. The outermost boat should now pick up the third cable, and pass the second to the inner one; while the first cable should be taken by a third boat, which will drop down between the others and the shore, to receive her portion of the platform; and so on in succession until the bridge, completed as it goes on, extends so nearly to the other shore that the loose material carried by the first pair of boats serves to complete the connection.
EXPEDIENTS FOR BOAT BRIDGES.
Anchors may be extemporised from forked branches of trees—the harder and heavier the better. These should have stones or iron lashed to them, in order to give weight. Several forks should be left on the main stem, and pointed to insure their holding. If charred in the fire, so much the better, as their durability and strength are much increased by the process. If there is but one fork, care must be taken so to balance the anchor with the stone below and the cable above, or a stock lashed across, that this fork or arm shall be sure to take the ground. The bridge may be also shored against the stream by branches, with their forks taking the beams, while their lower ends, weighted by stones, rest against the bed of the river. Stones are of no use as anchors, as they lose so much of their specific gravity when immersed; but if a heavy stone can be dropped beyond a cleft in the rock, as in our sketch, it will hold well.
If no anchors or substitutes can be had, the cables may be made fast to a stout tree as far up the stream as possible; and being brought in upon the inner bow of each boat, she will take the stream upon that side and be forced outward. The rudder, if she has one, will assist in this, but it is not material, as she can be kept at the proper angle by making the foremost beam a little longer than the after one.
If the bridge is constructed so low down the river as to be within the ebb and flow of the tide, anchors are indispensable, and each boat must be moored head and stern, as shown in one of the examples in our illustration; or, if there be but one cable to hold her against the ebb, shores may be set so as to counteract the influence of the flood, unless a great rise and fall, or violent rush at the turn of the tide, should render it unsafe to use them. If boats cannot be had, two or three large casks, placed end to end and firmly lashed to poles laid parallel to their length, may be used at each junction of the beams; or if a number of small ones can be obtained, they may be collected within a triangular frame of poles; but in any case each float must be sufficiently buoyant to keep the bridge at least 3ft. clear of the water, if there is any current; if there is none, the platform may even touch the water, and be partially sustained by it. In our sketch we have omitted all but a small portion of the planking, in order to show more clearly the manner of connecting the framework.
BAMBOO CARRYING FRAME AND PARBUCKLING LOG.
Carrying, rolling, and parbuckling heavy spars.
In some parts of India and China very heavy weights are carried by an ingenious framework of bamboo. A stout pole is crossed at its ends by two lighter ones, and each of these again by two others, each of which is again crossed by smaller ones 2in. or 3in. in diameter and 6ft. or 8ft. long; the sixteen ends of these are raised on the shoulders of as many men; the weight is slung to the centre of the larger beam, and borne with ease and comfort on the elastic frame. In our illustration (p. 352), two gangs of coolies are represented carrying a tree, but more could be employed if requisite. For rolling, the tree should be cleared of projecting stumps as much as possible; long skids should be placed under it, and if the ends from which the tree is to be rolled can be elevated by wedges or otherwise, so as to make an inclined plane for it to roll down so much the better; at all events, get the thick end under the tree and let the thin end be in the direction that you wish to roll it. Parbuckling is effected by making fast the end of a line to a stump or other holdfast in the required direction, then bringing the end of the line under the log, and taking one or more clear turns, bringing the end back over it and hauling on. A few hands judiciously using handspikes or levers will greatly assist this operation.
Ladders.
There are times when the principle of the common step-ladder might be advantageously remembered; and a traveller who expected to have much climbing might have one of those in which a groove is run in the inside of each standard, and the rungs, working on pivots, are shut up into it, the whole forming a light and compact pole, which a man might easily carry on his shoulder. It would, however, be cheaper and better to purchase this at home than to make it abroad. A rope and batten ladder is more easily made. The rope is doubled, an eye is turned in to the bight, holes are bored in the ends of the steps or rungs, the ends of the rope are passed through, and double knots turned on to keep each step in place. A light ladder, either of this kind or that previously described, with a coil of rope to fling over the lower branches, would enable a botanist or collector of birds or insects to climb many trees otherwise inaccessible.
Fire-escapes.
In case of fire in a town, if anything—say the end of a sofa or part of a bed frame—could be projected only 1ft. or 2ft. from a window, and weighted by a chest of drawers on its inner end, it would form what persons unskilled in climbing so much require—a clear point of departure; and the blankets, sheets, and coverlets torn into strips of not less than 4in. or 6in. wide, and twisted into a two-stranded rope, could be fastened to this and used—first, to lower the more helpless persons into the street, and, finally, for the active to glide down by. It would be too much to expect, as has been proposed, that every house should have a coil of rope, but it is well to remember that if there be only a ball of string it may serve to haul up stronger lines, brought by volunteers from without. If infants are to be lowered, it is better to put them in a bag than to tie a rope round their bodies; a couple of pillow cases would be strong enough, and there would be no fear of suffocation during the minute or two of their descent. A man may tie a child on his back or descend with it in his arms, but it is much safer to lower it separately. If flames are bursting from the windows beneath, perhaps the rope may be taken to the next lower story of the opposite house so as to avoid the danger of burning the rope or scorching those who descend. Of regular fire-escapes we need say nothing, as where they are provided competent persons, very frequently seamen, are appointed to work them; but it is well to bear in mind that, as the property of flame and heated air is to ascend, a man creeping close to the floor may often traverse in safety a chamber the upper part of which is impracticable. A towel or piece of sheeting dipped in water and tied round the mouth and nose will prevent heated smoke and particles of burning matter from entering the air passages, and thus enable a person to struggle for life in situations where suffocation would be inevitable without some such expedient for its preservation.
CHAPTER VI.
TIMBER AND ITS UTILISATION.
Extraction of sap.
We have before stated that timber should never, except in cases of emergency, be felled with the sap in it; still, during the vicissitudes of rough travel, it will frequently happen that, in order to execute repairs imperatively needed, the trees must be cut down, hewn into form, and made use of at once. When this is done, the object will be to get rid of the sap which fills all the minute pores and tubes of the wood as quickly as possible. To do this, a trench, proportioned in length and depth to the quantity and size of the timber to be treated, must be dug in the earth. Lay in the logs, after denuding them of their lateral branches, fill the trench with water, and let them soak in it whilst you build a strong hard wood fire. When this is thoroughly ignited throw a number of large heavy stones into it, and as they become red hot withdraw them with twisted sticks, and throw them into the trench until the water boils actively. Continue to do this until there are a number of heated stones in the already boiling sludge; throw then a thick layer of clay, turf, and earth, over the whole mass, and leave it to steam and stew for the night. A large log, intended for the axle of a waggon or other heavy work, may be, with advantage, subjected to a second application of the same process, when it will be found much more tough and durable than if converted with the raw sap in it.
Seasoning wood.
Before proceeding to fell a growing tree for immediate use, it is well to search carefully about for a dead storm-cast trunk of the kind required, which will, as a rule, be found in tolerable condition. When a depôt is formed, or a point selected as a rendezvous, it is advisable to fell a few trees, and let them lay in store, so to speak, until they are wanted. Cutting a deep notch round the whole circumference of a tree, and letting it stand until required for use, much improves the quality of the wood. When practicable, and time will allow, it is well to leave logs of timber intended for seasoning to soak in rivers, lakes, or arms of the sea; but it is wise, at the same time, to ascertain, by the examination of pieces of wood which have fallen accidentally into the water, whether any of the creatures addicted to timber boring are found in the locality. The rivers flowing into the Black Sea abound with the Teredo navalis, or ship worm, to such an extent that floating logs very shortly become so perforated as to be perfectly useless except for firewood. Much of the timber we obtained in that part of the world was defective on account of the depredations of this pest, whose range, unfortunately, is a pretty wide one; and his works, and those of other borers, are therefore to be jealously looked for in the neighbourhood of a proposed salt or brackish water timber pond. In countries where hot springs are met with, they may be utilised for timber seasoning and other purposes. Sticks or poles intended for bending into ox bows, or other curved forms, should be placed either in boiling water or the hot embers of the camp fire until thoroughly heated through. They may then, after being properly shaped, be tied in the required form with cords, and hung in the air to dry. Several long crooked sticks may be straightened at once by forcing them side by side into the hollow of a large bamboo cane from which all the knots, except that at one end, have been removed. When a sufficient number of sticks are arranged in the cane, place it mouth upwards, and fill it to the brim with boiling water. When the first charge is cold add a second, and so on until the sticks have been about an hour in their hot bath. They can now be forced separately into smaller bamboos without water, or lashed between battens of stiff wood until cold, when such small irregularities and curves as remain may be removed by heating the part requiring treatment over the fire and carefully straightening it over the knee. Nearly all the spear handles, whether of cane or forest wood, found among wild tribes are straightened and rendered fit for use by the agency of fire. Strong and perfectly straight tubes for blow-pipes, &c., are formed by inserting a small cane into the hollow of a larger one and turning it round till any deviation from the straight line in one counteracts that of the other.
Steaming log.
Hard wood.
Hardening wood.
The elegant curve given to many of the bows found among the Northern Indians is given by first heating them in the camp fire, and then, after bending them carefully to the desired shape, keeping the curves in position by the aid of thongs. We have one of these bows now, which was even charred in the course of making, but has never lost its contour or elasticity. The bending of ships’ planks is effected by a process very similar in principle. In the absence of a properly constructed steaming chamber, the planks of a makeshift vessel may be efficiently steamed in the following manner. A long hollow log should be set horizontally on trestles of convenient height, one end must be stopped with a plug, and the other have a tight wooden stopper and cross-bar fitted to it. When the required number of planks are thrust down the log, steam is admitted through a bamboo, or hollow tube of wood, from a large covered cauldron placed on a fire beneath the log. All the joints of the bamboo should be luted fast with clay, and kept tight until the planks are sufficiently steamed for bending, when they are dragged out with wooden tongs, and put in place on the vessel. The full page [illustration] shows the mode of using a steaming log. Hardening wood. Wood, which does not require straightening, is rendered much more hard and durable than it would otherwise be by the action of carefully applied fire-heat. The clubs and grubbing sticks of natives are generally fortified in this way. Spear, arrow, and blow-pipe darts have their points so hardened by the action of heat, that they more closely resemble the texture of bone than aught else, and perforate almost as readily as sharpened iron. We have seen the tough, dense scales of a large fish penetrated with the greatest facility by a spear prepared in this way. Flat strips or laths of bamboo cut to a fine edge, and fire-hardened, are used by many of the inhabitants of the islands of the Eastern seas as substitutes for knives; some of these truly makeshift blades are as keen as surgical instruments, and are at times used in the performance of minor operations of surgery. Many of the trees of tropical countries will be found to possess heart wood of great strength and density, whilst the outside or “sap” is light coloured, weak, and next to useless. Hard wood. In such cases, all the outside layer of timber should be cut away with the axe or adze, and the central core alone made use of. In selecting poles or sticks for purposes where toughness and durability are matters of importance always, when practicable, take young seedling trees. Next in quality to these are the shoots which spring up from the underground roots of large trees. When either of these kinds are intended to be put aside to season, they should be pulled up by the roots rather than cut; the earth may be beaten out from among the fibres by striking the roots of the sticks together; they can then be hung in an airy place to dry: late in the autumn or in the winter are the best seasons for rooting up saplings.
Larch trees.
In countries where the larch fir grows abundantly, a number of tall young trees will be found from some cause to have died as they stand, to have withered and become perfectly dry. These will be found extremely tough and well seasoned.
Bamboos.
Bamboos must be selected according to the purpose they are intended for. The female bamboo, as it is called, is remarkable for the largeness of the cavities placed between the internodes; this quality renders it buoyant, light, and well adapted for splitting up into planks. We have seen a very large bamboo slit from end to end by making one long cut in the side. The cane is heated and carefully opened. The knots are then all smoothed off, when the hollow shell is laid between boards on which heavy stones are placed, until it is pressed perfectly flat, and becomes a bamboo board. The knots of large female bamboos make excellent pails or water vessels.
A joint of bamboo cut longitudinally in half, and supported on feet formed from another joint of the same cane, after the manner of a pen tray, makes a most convenient receptacle for pins, steel pens, pencils, sail needles, and a host of other matters which are required to lay parallel to each other.
BAMBOO PIPES, BUCKETS, ETC.
Cocoa-nut palm.
Water pipes, for irrigation, can be made from a train of canes with their ends thrust into each other, and secured by transverse pegs, as at Fig. 1, on opposite page. All long bamboos, intended for pipes or tubes, must have their internodes removed. This we used to do as follows: We prepared some short pieces of round bar iron of a size just to fit the bore of the canes easily. We then pointed one end of the iron chunk and sloped the upper end, by hammering on the anvil, to a wedge form. Through the centre of the upper edge we punched a hole, through which we passed a wire long enough to reach the entire length of the cane to be treated. The chunk was then heated red hot in the fire and dropped down, like a bucket in a well, on the first knot, through which it would rapidly burn. It was then lowered away until it reached the second knot, and so on until all were entirely removed. When the chunk became cooled by contact with the wood, it was reheated and entered again. Fig. 2 shows the form of the knot chunk, &c. Excellent tar buckets (Fig. 3) or water pails (Fig. 4) are to be made from the ends of large cane joints. Boxes for wheel grease (Fig. 5), drinking cups, boxes, and a whole host of other receptacles for various matters, solid and fluid, are made from the same material. The mode of cutting and bending bamboos is shown by Figs. from 6 to 13. In Eastern countries one occasionally meets with specimens of the female bamboo of such gigantic proportions and huge growth that no little wonder is excited as to the mode of cultivation had recourse to in their production. We were for a long time quite at a loss for a solution of the mystery, but at length discovered that among the stools or root clumps of the canes one of promising appearance was by the natives selected for treatment. This was dug up and carefully replanted in a favourable locality. All the shoots which sprout up save one are cut away. This is allowed to grow up until it has reached a fair average size. It is then cut off to within about 6in. of the ground, leaving a hollow projecting stump. Into the bore of the cane thus left, a mixture of sulphur and stable litter is tightly rammed, just as you would charge a hole for blasting or would load a gun. For a period of three years every shoot which shows above the ground is cut away. The best shoot of the fourth year is allowed to grow to its full altitude and bulk, which at times is truly prodigious, leading to the false conclusion that some cane of peculiar species was the subject of wonder and investigation. From the lesser members of the bamboo family water-wheels, bows, arrows, spear heads, paper, bow strings, pens, baskets, brooms, brushes, shoulder poles, buckets, masts, spars for boats, &c., are made. The male bamboo differs from the female in having scarcely any cavity running through it. Canes of this description are peculiarly well adapted for the handles of hog spears, waggon whip handles, and a multitude of other purposes where great strength and elasticity are required. Cocoa-nut palm. The cocoa-nut palm is a tree which, on the score of usefulness, is perhaps second to none. On the uses of its fruit, leaves, gum, fibre, and sap we shall have more to say further on in our work. The wood is extensively used for canoe building. It is hewn into form by the small sharp adzes of the islanders. Clamps are left on the inside and bored through. Dowels of hard wood are inserted in the edges, and the planks are sewn together with rattan or fibre of the cocoa-nut husk, while the timbers are bound to the clamps by lashings of the same material, as shown in the full page illustration. Much of the coir, or cocoa fibre, used in the manufacture of this and other descriptions of twine, and for caulking seams and crevices in the canoes when finished, is obtained by the natives of the islands which dot the Eastern seas and Pacific Ocean from the underground burrows of the great cocoa-nut-eating crab (Birgus latro), whose subterraneous workings are at certain seasons abundantly stored with this useful material, which is sometimes hooked out with long flexible sticks armed with a species of barb, and at others procured by digging out the crab, nest and all. Canoe paddles and clubs are often made from the stalk of the cocoa palm.
WOODEN SWIVELS.
Wooden swivels.
A great number of useful and almost indispensable articles called into daily use by the traveller and explorer can be made from wood. Swivels of one kind or another are in constant demand, as the ropes used for tethering animals would without their aid soon become masses of hopeless entanglement. A very neat and useful form is shown in Fig. 1; it consists of two bars of flexible wood, bent by steaming or otherwise into the requisite curve. The parts which form the neck of a are thinned off, but the ends are left of their full thickness; the neck of b is also left thick, and in each of its parts a groove is cut, forming a hollow through which a passes; b is then closed by a lashing, and the swivel is ready for use. Fig. 2 is very effective, and easily made. A bit of wood has three holes bored in it; a short piece of rope is passed through the end holes, and double knots turned upon its ends. This forms a “bridle;” and, if it is requisite to attach a longer line, this should not be looped through so that one cord may saw upon the other, as at c, but properly hitched, as shown at d. The other line is passed through the central hole; and it will work more easily and wear out less quickly if a small ring or washer (f) of hard wood or sole leather is put on before the knot is turned upon its end. Fig. 3 is a plain form of swivel, and easily made, but is apt to chafe the rope. Fig. 4 is a very neat and useful form. A longitudinal hole is bored in a block of wood, two larger ones are bored across it, and with a knife or chisel these are cut into one large opening; the ends of the lines are passed in towards the centre, washers are put on, the knots are made, and the swivel is complete. Fig. 5 is a useful pattern. The swivel is made of the joint of a fir tree, and any number of lines may be hooked on to it. The collar is made of two parts, lashed together and suspended from each end; the washer is also in two parts, like the collar. Fig. 6 is easily made with two pieces of wire. Fig. 7 would form either a crutch for a rowing or sculling oar, or a swivel rest for a gun or telescope, &c. Fig. 8 is a rod of flexible wood, with the two ends passed through the collar and fore-locked, leaving the loop to turn freely. Fig. 9 is simply a broad-headed nail passed through a piece of wood, and with its point bent into a hook: a washer of iron saves wear and tear. This is very similar to the swivels used by rope-makers.
FLAIL SWIVELS.
The common flail swivel is excellent for many purposes. Sometimes it is made with two pieces of stout hide or sole leather, shaped like Fig. 1. One of these is turned so that the narrow part in the middle forms a loop; while the broad ends are nailed, tightly stitched, or lashed to the thick or swinging arm of the flail (Fig. 3); the other piece, being linked through this loop, is also bent till the broad ends meet; and their edges are then securely stitched together so as to form a collar, which works freely on the handle (Fig. 2), at the end of which is a knob to prevent the collar slipping off.
Occasionally two flexible rods (withies) are bent for this purpose: one is firmly fastened by a leather band nailed or lashed to the extremity of the swinging arm (Fig. 5); the other has small knobs left on its ends to prevent the leather collar slipping off, and this works freely on the handle (Fig. 4). Either of these arrangements may be thrown out of gear by taking hold of the knob and drawing the thin end of the handle out of the collar. A slice of bullock’s horn, shaped as Fig. 1, after softening it in hot water, makes an excellent collar.
Extemporary measurements.
Every traveller ought to carry with him the means of measuring feet and inches, and as instruments for that purpose are so cheap and portable there is hardly any excuse for being without something of the kind. We have a little waistcoat-pocket ivory rule, folding into lengths of 3in., and occupying no more room than a small penknife, and with this, even if an elephant were killed, we could mark off 5ft. or more upon a stem of grass, and use it as a measuring rod, with the little rule ready for the fractional parts. We had at one time half-a-dozen rules (sold at a penny each), 3ft. in length, and folding on pivot joints into lengths of 6in., and they were quite correct enough for common carpentry. Tape lines for 6ft. or 12ft. may be had in cases not larger than a Geneva watch. Chesterman’s patent, shutting with a spring, is a good form. And even if a traveller should (as he may often be obliged to do) disburden himself of every incumbrance, he ought to have inches marked upon something he is sure to carry with him, say upon the ramrod of his gun, or perhaps on the rib of the gun itself; but let this be done neatly by a skilled workman before leaving home, for we should esteem the companion of the chase too highly to let it be recklessly disfigured. The inside of the waist-belt may be marked also in inches. It is at all times well to know the length of the different joints of the limbs. Suppose the nail-joint of the forefinger be 1in., the next joint will be 1¼in., the next 2in., and from the knuckle to the wrist 4in.; in this case the finger is bent, so that each joint may be measured separately, though when held straight the distance from the tip of the forefinger to the wrist would be only 7in. The span with thumb and forefinger would be 8in., and with the thumb and any of the other three 9in., or equal to the length of the foot; from the wrist to the elbow would be 10in., and from elbow to forefinger 17in., and from collar-bone to forefinger 2ft. 8in., height to the middle of the kneecap 18in. From the elbow to the forefinger is usually called a cubit, but it is seldom strictly so, a cubit being 18in. In like manner the full stretch of the extended arms is called a fathom, but it is generally somewhat less, a fathom being 6ft.; and in paying Africans with calico, we found it best to let every man measure off his own fathom, even though he protruded his chest and threw back his arms to the utmost, he generally took a trifle less, and was much better pleased than if we had measured it strictly with a rule. If a man stands with his back to a flat wall, and extends his arms, his fathom will be nearly equal to his own height; but if he tries to measure the girth of a tree by placing his breast against it, and as it were embracing it, he will find his fathom many inches short, and on an average perhaps not more than 5ft. The Dutch farmers at the Cape clench both fists, making the extended thumbs meet, and they call the whole 1ft., when it is sometimes nearer 15in.; and an elephant measured in this manner would be reported unduly small were it not that they also measure from the edge of the foot round the curve of the shoulder to the wither instead of taking a straight line, so that one error nearly balances the other. This is a very useful measure, but every man should grasp a foot rule, as in our sketch, and ascertain for himself how much his thumbs overlap in doing so.
FIST MEASURE AND PACING STICK.
The step is commonly supposed to be 3ft., and the pace 5ft., but this is a most uncertain mode of measurement; a man may step 3ft., measuring from the heel of one foot to the toe of the other, but even if he does so two steps must be less than 6ft. by the length of his own foot, and very few men can take with any correctness a hundred consecutive steps or paces. Besides which so many travellers confound the terms step and pace that it is impossible to tell which they mean; it is much better, therefore, to use the word yards and to measure them by a military pace stick; this may be two light sticks like a walking-cane sawed down the middle and riveted at the head like a pair of compasses; then if, at 1ft. from the joint, a stick of 1ft. in length be fastened across the opened legs they will form an equilateral triangle, and the points will be 3ft. apart; with these, used like a pair of compasses, a man may measure off 100yds. almost as fast as he could walk it, and would be certain of his distance. A forked branch cut on the spot and trimmed, so that the ends are 3ft. apart, answers the same purpose.
HITCHES ON MEASURING LINE.
For measuring a base for rough triangulation, a fishing line of 100ft. is easily carried; three measurements will give 100yds., and six will give as many fathoms. 120 fathoms is a cable’s length, a common and useful unit in maritime surveying. To measure successive lengths let your line have a little stray end beyond the marks, and as the hanks are usually sold in lengths of 120ft., an overhand knot may be turned, 10ft. from each end, to mark the 100ft. Stick a perfectly smooth peg in the ground, without projecting head or catch of any kind, make a loop in the end of your line, and put it over the peg, carry out the 100ft. and put in another peg, then jerk the line upward, and you will cause a wave to run along it which will lift it off the end of the first peg (Fig. 1); but, as a permanent loop might catch thorns or projecting branches, it is well to make it with a hitch (Fig. 2), so that it may shake out as it comes off the peg, and leave only a free end to be hauled in. Several hitches, or a sheepshank (Fig. 3), might be used for this purpose, but probably none would answer better than the signal halyard hitch (Fig. 4), and with this the end may be made fast to any convenient tree or bush that stands fairly in the line you wish to measure. Pass the end twice round the branch or peg, then taking the end and a small bight of the measuring part, hitch them as if you were going to tie a reef knot, pull the first hitch tight, but do not complete the knot by making the second hitch; this will hold quite fast enough, and a slight jerk will be sufficient to set it free when you wish to haul in the end. Hitch it to another branch, and so in succession you may measure any number of lengths you wish, taking care always to keep the several pegs or points of fastening in a straight line.
A measuring line should merely be straight upon the ground, and never be subjected to any tension, still less should it be lifted up and then stretched to a straight line in the air; slopsellers know this when they ask sailors to hold up a length of serge while it is being measured, but any experienced hand meets this by insisting that his cloth be laid fairly on the deck and measured there.
To make or build wheels.
The first step in diminishing the labour of dragging a heavy body along the ground is to put rollers underneath it, and the use of these is exemplified in the earliest Assyrian monuments; but these are left behind as the mass moves onward, and have to be constantly carried forward and replaced beneath. The next step is to connect them with the mass, or with the carriage supporting it, by axles, forming either integral parts of the rollers and turning with them, or by fixed axles, on which the rollers or wheels revolve. It is probable that many of the ancient vehicles were supported on axles revolving with the wheels; but we now only retain this form in that of the wheelbarrow, and the simplest way of making this, where timber is cheap and plentiful, is to cut a log of sufficient length, then to saw or chop down the ends so as to leave a disc of sufficient size and thickness in the centre, with two arms projecting from it to form its axle, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The barrow itself may upon occasion be made of a forked tree, of which the single part is thick enough to have a space cut in it to receive the wheel, while the two branches serve as the handles, and minor ones from them perhaps answer the purpose of legs; otherwise a rough frame, as shown in our sketch, may be built, and pegged or treenailed together.
SOLID LOG WHEELS.
In Mexico, Chili, Tartary and elsewhere, rough discs of timber (Fig. 1) are sawed or chopped off from large trees. A hole is made in the centre to receive the axle. These wheels answer well enough for countries where time is of no value, mercy to draught oxen unthought of, and where the inhabitants would rather hear a dry wheel grate on its axletree than take the trouble to grease it. “Evil spirits dread a creaking wheel,” say they, and so the primitive contrivance is allowed to revolve noisily. A wheel of this kind might be made much more efficient by leaving a nave or boss in the centre, sheathed with hard wood or raw hide, and by binding it with the latter material let into a groove cut round the circumference in place of a tire; an endless band cut out of the hide of a rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant, or giraffe, put on wet, and allowed to shrink and dry before it was much used, would be almost everlasting.
WHEEL BUILT IN SEGMENTS.
A very neat and serviceable barrow wheel may be thus built: Take a piece of deal 4in. wide, 3in. thick, and 14in. long; set a pair of compasses to a radius of 8in.; and, fixing the centre leg 4in. from the block, describe on it the segment of a circle; draw this on both sides, and cut the block truly to the outline; then saw it down into six thicknesses of somewhat less than ½in.; lay three of these together, so that their chords form an equilateral triangle, each angle being 60°, and their segments will complete the circumference of a true circle. Then take the other three, and lay them on so that the centre of each shall cover the ends of each pair of the lower series; then bore holes and screw or nail them together (inch copper boat nails, with rooves for clenching them, are the best for this purpose), and you will have a wheel ¾in. thick, and 16in. diameter. Take a 1in. bar of wood 3in. broad, half check it into the opposite triangles where there is but one thickness of wood, strengthen it by bars from the other angles, bore a hole in the centre, and insert an axle of hard wood or iron. If you have a piece of iron hoop, reduce it, and rivet the ends together, so that it forms a tire that will just not go on; punch half a dozen holes in at intervals, heat it, put it on quickly, hammer it into place, and cool it with water; then put nails or screws through the holes, to keep it from working off, or tire it as before with an endless band of raw hide; or bore holes through it 1in. or 2in. apart all round, at about 1in. from the edge, and lace thongs of raw hide through these and round the edge, so as to preserve it from splitting, or being worn by contact with the ground.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF A WAGGON WHEEL.
To build a waggon wheel, clear a smooth place upon a floor, levelled with ant-hill clay, or preferably smooth planked. Take a ½in. straight-edged batten of rather more than 5ft. in length, and 3in. or 4in. in width; clench or screw a cross piece on this, so as to form a boss in the centre, as in the figure on next page; and through this, at the edge of the batten, bore a hole with a bradawl, which being also bored into the floor forms a pivot for it to work on. At 1in. from the centre, bore a hole, through which a pencil or a pointed scoring iron can be passed, to draw the first circle for the bore of the nave. At 4½in. bore another, to mark the circumference of the nave. If a front wheel is required, bore two holes at 15in. and 18in. for the inner and outer circumference of the felloes, or make them at 2ft. 2½in. and 2ft. 6in. for a hind wheel. Having drawn these circles, decide upon the number of spokes you intend to use, which will most likely be eight or ten for a fore wheel and twelve or fourteen for a hinder, such as is shown in our example (Fig. 1). Divide 360, the number of degrees in a circle, by the number of spokes, thus—360° divided by 8 is 45°; in like manner, 10 spokes would form angles of 36°, 12 of 30°, and 16 of 22½°. To obtain these angles, strike a circle on a good-sized sheet of writing or cartridge paper; fold it across the centre, exactly in half, open it and fold it in half the other way, taking care that the two parts of the previous fold perfectly coincide with each other; you will thus have angles of 90°, which may be called north, south, east, and west. Fold it again between every two of these, and you will obtain angles of 45°; these again divided will give angles of 22½°; and the next subdivision would give the thirty-two points of the compass, equal to 11¼° each. To obtain angles of 10°, divide each angle of 90° into three parts, and subdivide each of them into three. The strong lines in our next figure indicate angles of 22½° for a sixteen-spoke wheel, and the faint lines angles of 10°. Our diagram of the wheel was drawn with a bit of card cut to the exact size shown in our figure, pivoted on one pin, while the point of an HH pencil was passed through other pin-holes to draw the circumference. If two of these lines should come very close together, it will be seen that the pin-holes are not pierced in the same radial line, or they would break one into the other; but by placing them a little on either side concentric circles can be drawn as closely as requisite.
Now, cut a piece of thin board or stiff paper to the angle at which the spokes are to be set—in this instance 22½°—and with the aid of your straight-edge draw a line across, through the centre, to both sides of the circumference of your wheel; draw another across this at right angles, and test the lines by trying whether each quarter will contain four times the mould you have cut to the angle of 22½°; then draw two other lines of 45°, and subdivide each space into the required angles of 22½°.
Suppose your spokes are to be 1in. thick, withdraw the bradawl that has served you as a pivot, and bore two holes, each ½in. from the central line, and, pivoting the batten on each of these in succession, you will be able to draw the lines showing the thickness of your spokes, a, the original line still indicating the direction of their centre. Then divide the circumference of your felloe into eight segments of 45°, and draw short lines across it as at d ([p. 368]), to indicate the length of the felloe pieces, each of which must contain one pair of spokes, while its ends come fairly in the centre of the space between two others. Take a thin piece of board and cut a mould for the felloe pieces, marking on it the lines for the dowel holes, d, and those for the insertion of the spokes, c. Then in like manner cut a board with a circumference of 9in. as a mould for the nave, and on it draw the lines which mark the mortices for the insertion of the spokes, b. The nave should be turned of some good solid even-grained wood, not too hard; elm is well calculated for the purpose. It is generally 9in. or 10in. long, and it should have a hole 1in. in diameter through its centre. A narrow pit, 3ft. in depth, is dug, and two stout beams, 9in. apart, laid along its edges; a 1in. rod of iron is passed through the hole in the nave, which, with its iron bands already driven on, is placed between the beams, supported by the ends of the rod which rest upon them (stout trestles, 3ft. high, are sometimes used instead of the pit). In one of the beams at the back of the nave is a stout upright, with a line marked upon it as a guide in boring the holes truly.
Naves, to turn.
To turn a nave to the proper form without the assistance of a turning lathe, the following makeshift contrivance will be found useful and efficient. Fit up four strong planks, or a strong stool, of form shown in the accompanying illustration. Cut out two upright cheeks, which must be fitted by mortices to the upper surface of the stool. Then make a Ｔ rest, and fit it in the centre of the stool, in one of a train of square holes cut behind the line of the cheeks. The block of wood intended to form the nave must have an ordinary auger hole bored through its true centre, and in this must be firmly wedged an iron bar, with a crank or handle bent at one end; this bar rests on bearings prepared for it in the cheeks, one bearing is formed by boring a hole just large enough to let the plain end of the bar through, and the other by sawing out a deep notch for the handle end to drop into, when it is prevented from becoming displaced by a pin passed in above it. The man about to officiate as turner sits astride on the stool, presses a long-handled gouge or chisel by the action of his shoulder firmly down on the rest, with its cutting edge against the nave log, which is turned steadily round by an assistant who has charge of the handle; the whole operation being conducted much on the principle of tool grinding, only that the motion of the log is always towards the man who manages the chisel. The rest is advanced as the log decreases in diameter.
Wheels, to build.
If the wheel is to have what is called a dish, cut a small piece of wood ([Fig. 3, p. 368]) to the angle at which the spokes are to project forward; and, having marked off all the mortices, which will be ¾in. wide by 1½in. long, take a brace and ¾in. bit, or a ¾in. screw auger, and bore two holes in the space marked for each mortice, as in Fig. 2, taking care to centre most accurately the spot at which the point of your bit or auger is inserted, and to keep its true direction by the aid of the upright line and the small angled board. The mortices will then be finished with a ¾in. mortice chisel and mallet. The holes in the felloe (Fig. 4) will be bored at the same angle with a 1in. auger; for, as the spoke will be 1½in. from back to front, there will be shoulder enough in those directions without weakening it by cutting a shoulder on the sides. Of course, the shoulders, both at the felloe and at the nave, will be cut to the same angle at which the holes are bored. The tenon should be less than 3in. in length, so that it may allow of the subsequent boring of a 3in. hole in the nave to receive the bush or iron sheathing in which the axle turns; and in like manner the ends inserted in the felloes should be less than 3in. long, so that they may not receive any pressure from the tire. Fig. 5 shows the centreing of the felloe ends to bore the dowel holes. Now, resting the nave on its iron rod upon the beams of the pit or trestles, drive in the first spoke, testing it by the upright line and by your angled board. Then, boring a hole in your upright, drive in a peg and cut it off at such a length that the first spoke may just touch it in passing. Drive in all the other spokes so that they also touch the end of the peg, and then in the end of each spoke make a cut 1in. deep, with a fine tenon saw, to receive a wedge of hard wood when the wheel is built. Then in one end of each felloe drive a dowel (d) rather stiffly, but so that it does not bottom in the hole; leave half its length projecting. Take a screw clamp and compress two of the spokes together till their ends will enter the holes in one felloe piece; drive it about ¾ in. on, and slack off the clamp. If you have not a clamp, pass three or four turns of rope or thong round the two spokes, and twist them tightly with a hammer handle or other lever. Do the same with the next pair, and fit on the next felloe piece, taking care that it receives fairly the dowel of the first. Proceed in this manner all round, then look carefully to the fair insertion of all the spoke ends and dowels, and, being satisfied of this, keep the wheel turning slowly, and strike the felloe pieces homeward by smart blows of a mallet as each spoke passes you. When they are all fairly home, drive in the wedges to the spoke ends, trim off the felloe as neatly as you wish, insert the bush in the nave, and have the wheel tired in the manner described at pp. 195, 196.
To make a steering wheel.
A ship’s wheel differs from that of a waggon in being, not a roller moving freely on its axle and supporting the carriage and its load, but rather a series of levers arranged as spokes, connected and supported by the felloe for the purpose of turning the axle and gathering in or slacking off on either side the ropes or chains by which the tiller is moved; the spokes, therefore, project 6 in. or 8 in. beyond the circumference of the felloe, and are smoothed and rounded off so as to be easily and conveniently grasped by the steersman’s hand. The diameter of the felloe should not be less than 30 in., or it will not give sufficient leverage; nor more than 4 ft., or a man cannot command it easily. Neither the nave nor the felloe are made solid, but are built up in the following manner: The lines of circumference are traced, and the angles of the spokes set off in the manner already described. A disc of hard wood 9 in. in circumference, about 2 in. thick, and with a hole 3 in. square in its centre, is laid upon the floor. The spokes are arranged on this, and screwed or clenched firmly to it; the interstices are then filled up, and another disc of similar size is screwed or clenched over all to form the front. The bush, or axle box, which of course is square, is fitted in, and an ornamental boss, generally covered with brass, is screwed over to conceal it. The felloe pieces are 3in. or 4in. broad, and 1in. thick: the back pieces are laid so that their centres come upon the spokes and their ends between; the next set, exactly as thick as the spokes, are laid in the intervals; and the front pieces are laid so that their ends meet upon the spokes, where they are generally confined by an ornamental lozenge, a cross, or an oval of brass, screwed down upon them. The axle is supported in a true fore and aft line by a couple of stancheons, with bushes for it to work in; and on some part of it, behind the wheel, is fixed the drum, over which the tiller chains or hide ropes are passed with two or three turns, so that as one is gathered in by a turn of the wheel, the other may be slacked off.
SPANISH WINDLASS.
Windlass.
A windlass may be of any size, from that of the old crossbow, to one fitted to weigh the anchor of a vessel, although in large ships the capstan is thought to afford the best and steadiest means of applying the continuous exertions of the men. A windlass may be roughly formed by setting up a couple of forked logs, or still better, if possible, choosing two forked trees firmly rooted in the proper place, and laying across them another log, thinned off as much as possible where it rests in the forks, to reduce the friction without too much impairing the strength. The central part ought to have paul notches cut in it, and a heavy paul log may be hinged or pivoted to a stout staple, nearly level with the ground, so that its end, acting as a “paul,” catches the paul notches and prevents the windlass giving way to the strain of the cable while the men are shifting their handspikes. The barrel of the windlass ought to be chopped or adzed down to an octagonal form (expressively though erroneously called 8-square), and holes should be morticed right through in each face so that each man, without change of position, should have eight opportunities of inserting his handspike. A Spanish windlass may be extemporised with the boat’s oars. Two of them are lashed together as sheers with legs of unequal length, the longer leg being in the direction of the strain. A pair are set up in each side of the boat and lashed to the thwarts, care being taken to put some piece of wood or other dunnage under the ends, so that they may not hurt the planking. Another oar is now laid across, with its loom resting in the forks; a grummet strop or a short piece of rope is made fast to the middle of each of the boat’s stretchers; if the end is frayed out, so much the better. The end is applied to the loom of the oar that represents the windlass, and the stretcher is turned round and round it until the rope tightens so much as to make it an efficient handspike. It should then be “stopped” in position with a bit of yarn. If there is a davit in the boat, the buoy rope is carried over the sheave, three or four turns are passed over the “windlass oar” and the end is carried forward and held by one of the boat’s crew, who gathers in all he can and loses none as the men heave round. When the boat’s stern is hove down as low in the water as is prudent, all the men go in the bow, and sometimes jump there, to jerk the anchor from the ground.
GUNNER’S CAPSTAN.
The gunner’s capstan is made by sinking one end of a waggon or gun axle in the ground, placing a wheel on it upside down, and lashing handspikes to the spokes to act as capstan bars. The rope to be hove on is passed round the nave of the wheel below the line of the spokes, as shown in the annexed illustration.
Anchors.
MAKESHIFT ANCHORS.
In many countries where navigation is not very far advanced, wooden anchors are commonly used. We have seen and sketched these on the coast of Java, and elsewhere. In tropical countries the hard heavy wood that sinks of its own weight is peculiarly suited for this. A forked tree of suitable size is chosen, and sometimes, but not always, the fork or fluke of the anchor is strengthened by a cross lashing to the shank. A heavy stone, as long as possible in proportion to its thickness, is lashed across underneath the shank, serving the purpose of a stock. A loop for the attachment of the cable is made above it, so that the anchor, when cleared for letting go, may hang in the position shown in Fig. 1, and may take the ground fluke downward. A many-forked tree of heavy wood, with stones lashed on (Fig. 2) for additional weight, is more certain to hold, but does not stow so snugly when not in use. This, in a lighter form, may be used as a creeper for dragging over the bottom to recover a lost cable, &c. Canoes, in shallow, sluggish waters, are often moored by one or more of their poles stuck into the mud. A stone lashed to one of these and a guy carried aft, as in Fig. 3, will give additional security; or a couple of poles may be put over the sides and crossed under the bottom, the lower ends being guyed in the same manner, but this would be dangerous in a strong tide-way. If the boat is dropping down with the tide, a pole over the stern, about a foot longer than her draught of water, will take the ground and either prevent her running ashore or at least give warning before she does so. Where heavy wood cannot be obtained, a couple of holes may be bored in a slab of sandstone (Fig. 4), the ends of a forked branch thrust through and forelocked, another stone being jammed into the fork at right angles with the first. We have often seen anchors of this description in use among Indians.
BORING WITH SLINGER STICKS.
Working in timber.
A pump, or nave auger, may be advantageously worked with what are called “slinger sticks.” Set the log upright, either in a hole in the ground by shoring it, or by a combination of both methods. Above it rig a stage, on the forks of trees, with a firm socket for the stock or shaft of your auger to work in. Then fit a waggon wheel on the top of it, lash an upright pin to one of the felloes (do not spoil a good wheel by boring holes in it). The sticks have broad, flat ends, with holes to work upon the pivot, and crutch handles for the men to take hold of. In some parts of the Indian Archipelago even gun barrels are bored out in nearly similar fashion, only two boys walk slowly round with a kind of capstan bar, the drill being weighted with a basket of stones.
THE TREATMENT OF TIMBER BY STEAM AND SAW.
Saws and drills.
STOCKS AND DRILLS.
We have seen Africans, in Portuguese service, working a common handsaw very efficiently by fixing a cross handle to the end of the blade; then two men would sit opposite each other, and holding the log between the soles of their feet, as shown in the full page illustration, would work the saw between them. For rough work this serves well enough. In such case let them have a saw with teeth widely set, and pretty much their own way; but if you want anything well done do it yourself. Saws for natives need not have much temper, and the teeth should be set very wide, so as to do a great deal of what carpenters call “sawing wood.” The Germans are very fond of using frame saws, like that shown in the same illustration—a long, narrow strip of soft steel, stretched tightly in a heavy rectangular frame of wood. Such a saw could be extemporised with a few feet of iron hooping, with teeth filed on it. It would do for soft wood, but on hard wood would wear out quickly; nevertheless, it might last long enough to do the required work. We had three small web-saws, assorted sizes; they are very handy to carry, frames (like that in our full page illustration—“[Boat building at Logier Hill]”) are easily made when wanted, and they should not be neglected if weight or bulk in carriage is objectionable. Stock and bow drills may be easily made, as in Fig. 1. The arm of a tree will afford a socket above, and the wood or iron to be bored must be firmly fixed below; a good sized disc of heavy wood, the sheave say of an old block, or a piece sawed off a hard tree, acts as a fly wheel. For smaller work a cotton reel (Fig. 2) does well for the bow strings to work on; in this case the stock ought to be of iron, purchased at home. The Bowditch islanders lash their drill on alongside the stock (Fig. 3), but we can hardly sanction this plan, though it might exceptionally prove useful. If weight and not rapid motion is desired, make the drill stock of a heavy log (Fig. 4), with the pivot going up through the upper socket, and fit a crank on it.
HOOPING AND BUCKETING OF CASKS.
Coopers’ work.
We have had at times not actually to make casks ab initio, but what comes to very nearly the same thing, to pick out the materials of old ones “shaken out,” when we abandoned a camp, to tie them in bundles, and carry them as best we could till they were again required. Sometimes it is impossible to gather all the individual parts of one cask, and heads and staves must be taken as they come. In this case, pick out two heads of the same size, or pieces which will make two. Measure their diameter, and as the circumference is, for practical purposes, three times as much, measure across the ends of the staves on the inside of the chine groove, until their united widths fully equal three times the diameter. If you have another cask a little larger, set up the staves inside it; or if you have one somewhat smaller, arrange them outside, and put on temporarily a larger hoop, or lash them with a turn or two of rope. Then take the hoops which you have selected for the cask, and get the larger ones over the end, drive them down tolerably tight, nearly to the centre. Then, taking one of the heads, bore a couple of gimlets into it to hold it by, or screw on it a clamp, across the grain, so as to hold all its pieces fair and level. Let this down edgewise into the belly of the cask, then, drawing it up, enter one edge of it into the chine groove, and, slacking the hoops if necessary, lift it till it fits in all round. If you find any difficulty in this, take a knife blade, or thin piece of hoop iron, pass it through one of the interstices of the staves under the head, and lift it till it enters the groove. If this is done at the four quarters, it will be impossible for the head to fall down inside. Drive the lower hoops down, and when the staves begin to close up, take out the knife or hoop iron and tighten the hoops with the hammer and driver. Then turn up the cask, and if you wish to close it at once, do the same with the other end, if not, drive the hoops on leaving it open, and slack them up when you want to put the head in. Put knives or thin iron between the staves, as before, to keep the head from slipping down, and withdraw them before you tighten up. If you have not another cask to set up the staves in or upon, take one of the hoops and support it as a horizontal ring by tying it to small trees or posts, or set up the head itself on a pole, breast high, for the staves to lean against, or dig a circular trench a few inches deep in the ground to set the staves in. Remember that if iron hoops are worn or rusted or bent much, and have to be straightened out, they are very easily broken or burst by driving too tightly. Of course they can be mended by punching holes and riveting a piece in; but they require good punches and a matrix, for which a piece of hardened wood may be substituted, and some skill and patience. Always heat both the iron and rivets, and do not punch holes or clench rivets cold. Wooden hoops are generally withies or saplings, split down the middle, and left with one flat side and one round. The ends are thinned a little, and notches cut on the upper edge of one and the lower of the other. These are made to catch each other, either with a short overlap, as in Fig. 1, in which case the two parts lie parallel with each other, or with a long joint (Fig. 2), in which each takes a half turn round the other, between the notches. The joint is then served either with slips of osier or split rattan, or other substitute for cord.
If it is necessary to make a cask, the pieces forming the discs used for the heads should be dowelled together, with a bit of pith of reed, or other caulking material between them, and the circumference must be thinned off to an obtuse edge. The staves, to look neat, ought to be nicely rounded as segments of a circle, and the ends should be narrower than the centre if belly is to be given to the cask; but if it is not essential that the cask should be perfectly round, the staves may be of flat plank. It is, however, indispensable that their edges should be cut to the proper angle, or they will not fit closely nor support each other when hooped up; the diagram we give will facilitate this. If there are to be 20 staves in a cask their edges must be cut at an angle of 18°, thus 360 divided by 20 is 18, and the angle of any other number may be found by dividing 360 by the number of staves. The chine groove may be cut with a saw, and it is better that the staves should be always a little narrower at the ends than in the middle, so that the hoops may tighten in being driven on.
Water casks, to embark.
To becket a cask, slacken off one or more of the hoops, take a strip of raw hide, slip one end under, twist the middle a little, then turn it, slip the other end under, nick them that they may not draw out, and tighten up the hoop. A kind-hearted American, captain of the “Mechanic,” of Boston, who filled our water casks when we were on scant allowance, off the coast of Australia, taught us this expedient. In towing a number of casks from shore to the vessel becket them in this manner at both ends, and on two sides; then put them end to end, and pass a rope on each side through all the beckets. If there are two boats let one tow ahead of the other, so as to leave but one wake; let the bung-hole be downward, for if the cask leak, the salt water being heaviest, will not run up into the fresh, nor will the fresh run down into the salt; whereas, if the bung is up, the fresh water may splash out and the water of the sea run in and spoil the remaining contents.
Bent wood.
Hoops may be made by taking thin strips of any flexible wood, three or four times as long as the circumference of the required hoop, coiling them as it were, and then binding or clenching them together. These are very strong and flexible (Fig. 3). Jib stay hanks (Figs. 1 and 2) are made of any tough wood, in bars 14in. or 16in. long, 1in. wide, and a little more than ½in. thick at one edge, and somewhat less at the other. These are notched about 2in. from the ends, so that when they are bent the ends may cross each other and afford a hold for the lashing that attaches them to the leach of the sail. They are not fastened as the sailor opens them to put them on the stay, and the lashing to the leach rope fastens them sufficiently. Hanks may be made of the fork of a branch (Figs. 4, 6 and 7), and if a double hank is required, a branch with two forks (Fig. 5) will serve the purpose.
In South America stirrups are very neatly made by taking a bar of tough wood (Fig. 1), 1ft. or 14in. long, notching it so as to leave in the centre a piece of the full thickness 4in. long, and leaving the ends of the full thickness, thinning down from them to the notch on each side till the wood can be safely turned up so that the ends meet and form the bow of the stirrup (Fig. 2). The ends are cut to the proper bevel, and fastened by a thong in a hole bored through them. A couple of horizontal bars, 2in. long, fastened above, form a slip for the stirrup leather to pass through. This is a very neat arrangement, but its only fault is its extreme lightness, as, when the horse is in rapid motion, the foot cannot readily find the stirrup if it should be lost for a moment. In this respect, the block of wood, sometimes richly carved and ornamented, used by the Chilians (Fig. 3), is, notwithstanding its clumsy appearance, far superior. Three bars, so lashed as to form an equilateral triangle of at least 5in. inner measurement, will make a good stirrup. The fork of a branch, with a cross piece lashed on it, or suspended so that one of its arms forms the tread or bottom piece, a thong of hide making the other side of the triangle, will answer if sufficiently heavy. The hide of the hippopotamus, rhinoceros, or giraffe, when sufficiently dried, may be cut into stirrups, and left to harden. Sometimes the block which forms the stirrup is cut with a projecting spike to form a spur; but the Mexican wooden spurs, consisting of two sticks a little thicker than a pencil, 4in. long, armed with small iron points, and provided with straps as in Fig. 4, are about the neatest and most easily extemporised form we know.
Makeshift axes or adzes.
Among the native tribes of South Africa, where iron, owing to the small scale on which they smelt it, is very scarce and valuable, considerable ingenuity is shown in the mounting of an axe blade. This is generally a triangular piece of iron, with one of its sides thinned down and ground to a rounded edge, and the other two tapered to a spike. It is well known that weight is an essential quality in all chopping instruments, and the deficiency of iron has therefore to be made up with wood. A stout branch, with another projecting from it at an angle of from 70° to 80°, is so cut as to leave a block of the larger limb attached like a mallet head to the smaller one, as in the uppermost figure of our illustration (p. 382). The spike of the axe head is made red hot, a hole is bored through the knob in the direction of the grain, and the axe is ready for use, and has besides the advantage of being convertible into an adze by simply taking out the iron and inserting it again athwart the hole instead of keeping it parallel with the handle; the two lower figures will give a sufficiently good idea of this. We have seen these tools very efficiently wielded by honey hunters and by native woodsmen and carpenters, who, when tired of work, convert the axe handle into a pipe by taking out the iron, partially stopping the middle of the hole with a few green leaves, putting the tobacco into one end, and applying their broad lips to the other.
MAKESHIFT AXES OR ADZES
The other two figures represent the manner in which a broad chisel may be converted into a serviceable axe or adze, by smoothing off and channelling the front of the knob, and firmly lashing the chisel to it with raw hide either fore and aft or athwartships as required. A plane iron ([p. 140]) is often made to answer the same purpose. The hoes used by the women in Africa are made in nearly the same manner as the axes, but larger; sometimes they are flat, thin, and oval; sometimes chisel or adze shaped; and sometimes a gouge like form is given to the blade, but in all cases a spike is left at the top for insertion into the heavy knob of the handle. At times this knob is cut where two branches project from it, so as to form a double-handled hoe, an example of which is shown in our engraving of a Bechuana hut on p. 281.
Hurdle or wattle work.
It may not be amiss here to give an example of the manner of making a piece of wattled work for a door, a window shutter, a table, a bedstead, or any other purpose. As many stakes as are required are planted firmly in the ground, either in a trench or, which is better, in holes separately made with a “grauwing” stick for the purpose. Rattans, osiers, twigs, reeds, or grass, are then wattled in in the manner shown in the sketch, their ends being either cut off, if they are not flexible enough to bend well, or returned round the outermost stake, and wattled in again if they are. In doing this, care must be taken not to draw the outermost stakes unduly together; and to prevent this it is a good plan to cut a strong stick, with a fork at one end and a notch like gaff jaws in the other, and set it between the stakes to keep them apart, removing it when it is necessary to put fresh wattles over the top, and replacing it when they are to be forced down. Baskets, crates, or gabions of any size, may be made by setting up squares or circles of stakes, and removing them when wattled; or houses may be built by fixing them more permanently and using them as the walls.
WATTLED WORK.
We have often admired the simplicity of the equipment of a Javanese ship carpenter; the ponderous maul or heavy axe and adze of our workman is unknown to him; all his tools, axe, adze, maul, hammer, and augers, are made so as to fit successively on one handle about 2ft. in length (see [p. 44]), and are carried in a canvas haversack slung upon his shoulder. We have seen, perhaps, a hundred Javanese workmen squatting about the decks and sides of our little schooner busy as bees, and tapping away like so many woodpeckers, where one-fourth the number of English carpenters could not have worked without injuring each other.
Blocks or pulleys.
The attention of the traveller is too seldom directed to blocks and tackle. These useful and unpretending economisers of labour are thought to belong to a ship, and therefore to be out of place on an inland journey. Nevertheless, we have found that the possession of eight or ten blocks of different sizes, and two or three coils of rope to suit them, has often done us most essential service; and as a traveller may unexpectedly find them necessary, where perhaps nothing but rope of hide or native vegetable fibre can be obtained, we subjoin directions for making the simplest forms, which we believe will meet most of the probable requirements:
SINGLE AND COMPOUND BLOCKS.
To make a single block, take a piece of good sound wood of medium density, and of a kind that will not easily split. Elm is much used at home: oak will do very well; so will also the stinkwood of Africa, and others of like quality in other countries. Let it be, for instance, 7in. long, 4in. wide, and 3in. thick; suppose it is to carry a rope of 1in. in diameter, properly called a 3in. rope, all ropes being measured by their circumference. Gauge along each of the narrow sides two parallel lines 1in. apart and 1in. from each edge, and draw lines across at 1in. from each end; then, taking a brace and an inch centre-bit, insert the centre so that its cutter shall just come within the cross-line at either end; bore the holes half through, and between them bore two other holes with the same bit, thus taking out nearly all the wood between the lines: reverse the block, and bore in like manner from the other side; take a chisel and mallet and clean away all the intermediate parts, and you will have a sheave hole 5in. long and 1in. wide. Clean it up with a file or rasp. Then, drawing a longitudinal line along the centre of each of the broader sides, mark it at 3in. from one end and 4in. from the other on each side, and, placing the centre of the bit on these marks, bore through each side for the pin-hole.
Then for the sheave select a log of the hardest wood conveniently obtainable; lignum vitæ is generally used, but many kinds of acacia would answer very well. See that it is large enough to cut away all the sap wood, and leave a heart 4in. in diameter; trim this to a circular form, saw off a disc 1in. thick, fix it in a lathe, and with a gouge or half round rasp or file sink a hollow all round the edge. If you have not a lathe, saw the disc not quite off, and, while it is still attached to the log, make the hollow on the edge and saw it off when finished; bore an inch hole in the centre, place it in the shell, drive a pivot of hard wood right through, and you will find that at one end of the block the sheave very nearly fills the hole, while at the other a vacancy of about an inch is left to reeve the rope through.
Then, with a gouge or half round rasp, sink hollows in the outside of the shell along the centre line toward each end, and across the ends, to receive the strop; round off the corners and edges as neatly as you wish, and you will have a serviceable block like Fig. 1 ([p. 384]). Sometimes iron pivots are used, but these are a trifle smaller than the wooden ones; ¾in. iron would do, but then an iron socket ought to be let into the sheave as in Fig. 2. Some sheaves have small iron rollers let into them to run round on the pivot, and so diminish the friction; but a traveller need not work to such a nicety as this.
The snatch-block.
The snatch-block has already been two or three times mentioned, and perhaps this is a good opportunity to show its form, which is given in Fig. 3. The shell is longer and stouter than that of a common block, and in one side of it is cut the “natch” from which it takes its name; it is iron bound, but part of the strop is fashioned into a hasp, which is opened when the bight of a rope is to be passed into the natch and shut down upon its staple and forelocked to keep the rope from coming out should the strain be suddenly released.
Signal block.
Fig. 4 is a very useful kind of block for signalling; it has ten or more sheaves side by side, and as many lines running over them; in fact it ought to have as many sheaves as there are flags. It is kept in the signal locker with the halyards always rove, and each flag bent on to its own line. When required for use one end of the peak down-haul is bent on to the cleat in the centre, as shown in the figure, and it is hoisted to the peak end; the flags required are then sent up, care being taken to hoist each to such a height that they may read properly one under the other in the required order. These being done with are hauled down and others sent up, and much confusion and loss of time is saved by thus avoiding the necessity of bending on and unbending the several flags from one pair of halyards.
Double block.
We give also figures of two useful forms of double block. No. 5, on which the sheaves are side by side, is called a sister block. No. 6, in which they are one above the other, is a fiddle block. Notice that in this form the lowermost sheave is the smallest, and thus the rope passing over it is not jammed by the one that passes over the upper.
MAKESHIFT LATHES.
Makeshift lathes
In the manufacture of a number of wooden articles, such as the sheaves of blocks, bowls, round balls, &c., the aid of a makeshift lathe will be required. There are several forms of lathe made use of in different countries. No. 1 in the annexed illustration is the best we know of for the use of the traveller or explorer. To make a contrivance of this kind proceed as follows: Prepare three squared posts, bore an auger hole through the top of each at about 5in. from its head; to these holes fit a spindle made of some hard tough wood, in such a way that it will just easily play round in the holes without shaking about; cut a slice from a log about 7in. in diameter; trim it until it is quite round; cut a tolerably deep groove round the edge, and bore a hole in the centre for the spindle to come through. Now, from a piece of pointed iron rod or bar make a pivot pin, as shown passing through the head of the post which stands alone; fit this in the hole so tightly that the driving of a single wedge prevents it from sliding forward or back. All the posts must be firmly fixed in the ground at an even depth, and at the relative distances shown in the engraving. In the end of the spindle opposite the pivot pin three sharp iron spikes, made from nail points, must be driven; these hold the work in its place when revolving. This it is made to do by the action of the spring overhead, which is usually made from a tough elastic pole or bamboo cane. The end of the spring is fitted with a long strip of hide or a rope, which, passing once round the grooved slice of log, is attached to the end of the treadle. This is made from a naturally-forked branch, with a bit of plank lashed fast to it for a foot board. The chisel rest is made by driving a post into the ground in front of the work, making a saw-cut in its head, and then driving a bit of thin board or a piece of broad hoop iron into it, in the form of the letter T. The spindle is prevented from moving too far back by having pins driven through it before and behind the tail-post.
The lathe represented at Fig. 2 is common throughout the East. It is by the use of this contrivance that we have seen the long and beautifully straight pipe tubes, for which Stamboul is so justly celebrated, made. We have also seen the turners of Poona, in India, making their wonderful nests of almost air-tight boxes by the aid of the bow-lathe (Fig. 2). It is erected much on the principle of Fig. 1; but is usually placed so close to the ground that no one but an Asiatic could work conveniently at it.
Grinding stones, to mount.
GRINDING STONES.
Few border stores will be found without a Newcastle grinding stone, and very few expeditions of any magnitude omit including one or more in their list of useful matters. There are several modes had recourse to for setting up a grinding stone, but we usually adopt one of the plans shown in the accompanying illustration. Fig. 1 represents a natural fork set up in a slanting direction, and then treenailed against the trunk of a tree. To mount the stone, a straight bar of wood or iron, squared in the centre, must be wedged tightly in the square hole of the stone. If the axle is of wood, the two ends must be rounded, in order that they may revolve freely in the notches cut for their reception in the support. A wooden winch handle must then be fitted to one of them. If the axle is to be of iron, it should be first heated in the fire to a red heat; the form of the handle bent in it by hammering; the centre squared, and roughened at the edges by the use of a cold chisel; and the two bearing or revolving surfaces made round by the use of the hammer and file. Wooden pins or iron staples will serve to keep the axles from rising out of the notches and becoming displaced. A suspended bullock’s horn, with a hole in the small end, through which a wisp of tow or moss is loosely pulled, makes a very good water drip, to prevent the tools from losing their temper when being ground. Some prefer putting a wooden trough, to contain water, under the stone. This is a mere matter of taste.
PACK-SADDLE CROOKS.
The use of forked sticks.
A vast deal of trouble may be saved when various useful articles are being made from wood, by a judicious selection of such branches as nature has already fashioned to the hand of the bush carpenter. The above illustration will serve to give an example of this; it represents a set of pack-saddle crooks. To make these, it is only necessary to cut with the axe four stout hooks and two straight bars; bore or burn a hole through the upper end of each hook, lash them together in pairs with strips of raw hide or rope, and lash on the side bars as shown in the engraving. The hooks are then ready to be placed on the pack saddle, to which they are secured by a girth, which is attached at each end to the side bars of the hooks. We have found these contrivances most useful for carrying dead game, packs, or bundles of poles.
Hand-barrow.
A very useful description of makeshift hand-barrow can be made from four forked branches arranged as shown in the following illustration, and lashed together with strips of raw hide. We first saw these contrivances in use on the borders of the Mena country, where the natives used them for the purpose of carrying a peculiar description of clay, which was collected among the ravines between the hills, and used for the manufacture of pottery. These barrows, from their lightness, elasticity, and great strength, answer admirably.
MAKESHIFT HAND-BARROW.
Camp furniture.
CAMP TABLE AND STOOL.
Excellent camp tables and stools can be made by selecting such branches or tree trunks as have grown in either three or four prong form, as shown in the engraving (Figs. 1 and 2 represent a table and stool). The tops are made from slices cut from convenient-sized logs. The table top is supported and strengthened by having natural grown knee pieces treenailed to the sides of the main upright or pillar. A small stool is best made by cutting away the top of the pillar until it is made to fit, a large auger hole bored in the centre of the seat, when driven in, the pillar head is split with a chisel, and then wedged tight. Should a larger table leaf be required than an ordinary log slice will afford, one may be built up by boring holes in the edges of boards, and treenailing them together, as shown in Fig. 3 ([p. 389]).
Gate latches.
Latches for gates and doors can be made entirely of wood, as represented in the illustration A, in which Fig. 1 shows the latch in use, and Figs. 2 to 7 the form to which each part must be cut before being put together. The illustration B represents another form of wooden door latch well adapted for cupboard fastenings, and three makeshift modes of forming box hinges. Fig. 1 is the swivel hinge; Fig. 2 the salt-box hinge; and Fig. 3 the claw hinge. Their mode of construction will be at once understood on reference to the illustration B.
NATIVE PLOUGH.
The knee-like bends and forks so often found to exist in the branches of trees are often taken advantage of in the manufacture of makeshift ploughs. The preceding and following illustration represent a native and settler’s makeshift plough.
SETTLER’S PLOUGH.
Agricultural implements, &c.
Many useful agricultural and other implements can be made by the use of forked sticks, some of which are shown in the above illustrations.
A strong fork, with treenails driven through holes bored in its ends, makes a very convenient yoke for carrying pails of water or other heavy weights, as shown in the accompanying illustration.
It not unfrequently happens that pigs, when the settler is fortunate enough to have any, are apt to cause much mischief among the young canes or maize plants. To prevent them from doing so, prepare a good number of “hogs’ cravats” from stout forked sticks, as shown in the annexed illustration, put them on, and a fence of very moderate strength will keep the pilferers out effectually.
Many descriptions of trees will be found on which the branches grow in a species of crown at each joint of the trunk. The holly and some kinds of pines are familiar examples, and are commonly found in this country. From a piece of the main stem of a young tree of a suitable size, a contrivance called a “supple jack” can be made by cutting off the radiating branches to a convenient length, removing all the bark, and then pointing each projecting spine like a skewer. When the jack is hung up by its small end it forms a most convenient contrivance from which to suspend dead game, fish, or odds and ends. To hang a bird to the jack pass one of the pointed hooks up through the angular space between the lower mandible, and bring it out at the beak. A fish is best suspended by entering the hook at one of the gill covers, and bringing it out of the mouth; hares or rabbits by passing one hind leg through a space formed by cutting a slit behind the back tendon of the other. The legs thus form a loop to slip over one of the hooks of the jack. The foregoing illustration shows the jack in use. Saddle rests, wall and tent pole hooks, &c., can be made from knee, elbow, or hooked branches of trees. They can be attached to any fixed point either by the use of treenails or lashing, as shown in the preceding illustration.
The maple and some other kinds of trees are not unfrequently found with large projecting excrescences growing on their trunks; these, when carefully chopped off with the axe, will be found to have a hard, dense crust or shell next the bark, whilst the main body of the wood is soft and easily scooped out. From these abnormal growths excellent bowls may be made. Some of them are sufficiently large to admit of vessels capable of containing from eight to ten gallons being made from them. Very excellent platters or shallow trays can be obtained from the same source.
CHAPTER VII.
SLEDGES AND SLEDGE TRAVELLING.
The use of the sledge in some of its various forms is general throughout the greater portion of the known world. The northern regions may, however, be fairly considered the great field for the performance of sledging operations. Men, animals of various kinds, and the wind are all at times made available as means of applying either traction power or propulsion to the sledge; and as the build and rig of ships and boats are found to vary according to the seas they are sailed over, and the requirements of those who sail in them, so will sledges differ in form, size, capacity, weight, and the material from which they are constructed according to the nature of the climate and country they are used in. The far north, and in regions where long and rigid winters lock the earth, the rivers, lakes, and even at times the sea itself, in ice, and covers the whole with a thick mantle of snow, such travelling would be next to impossible, without the aid of the sledge, which, although apparently simple in design, requires much care and judgment to construct successfully.
Dimensions of sledges.
Dr. Kane, the Arctic explorer, thus writes on this subject:—
“The dimensions and structure of the sledge are of vital importance, almost imperceptible differences cause an increase of friction equal to the draught of another man or dog. The curvature of the runners must be determined experimentally. The ‘Faith’ was even preferable to the excellent model of Captain McClintock; the dimensions of both are as under:
| McClintock’s. | Ft. | In. | ‘The Faith.’ | Ft. | In. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Length of runners | 13 | 0 | Length of runners | 13 | 0 |
| Height of ditto | 0 | 11½ | Height of ditto | 0 | 8 |
| Horizontal width of all parts | 0 | 2¾ | Horizontal width of rail | 0 | 2¼ |
| Base of runners | 0 | 3¼ | |||
| Other parts | 0 | 2 | |||
| Thickness of all parts | 0 | 1¼ | Thickness of all parts | 0 | 1¼ |
| Length resting on a plane surface | 5 | 0 | Length resting on a plane surface | 6 | 0 |
| Cross-bars, six in number, making a width of | 3 | 0 | Cross-bars, five in number, making a width of | 6 | 8 |
“The shoeing of large English sledges was burnished ⅛in. iron, ours were annealed 3⁄16in. steel, as light as possible to admit slightly countersunk rivets. Sealskin lashings, applied wet, were used for the cross-bars, the wood was hickory and oak, not the Canada elm used by the Lancaster Sound parties. A sledge like this, with a canvas cover on which to place and confine the cargo, would load from 150lb. to 200lb. per man. The ‘Faith’ has carried 1600lb.”
Sledges, to draw.
When manual labour is brought to bear on the sledge it is usually applied through the medium of traction, propulsion, or the two combined. The men who propel a sledge simply push behind, whilst those who draw do so by the aid of track ropes and shoulder bands, which latter contrivances are called “rue ruddies,” and are used as shown in the illustration.
The track lines are best made from twisted horsehair, but in the absence of that material Manilla rope is the next best. Each man of the tracking party should be provided with his own track line and rue ruddy, for which he should be held responsible. The sledge to be drawn is fitted at its front end with a species of bridle loop, to which all the lines are attached by rings, in such a way that as the sway or motion of the sledge inclines to either side, the rings travel forward or back on the bridle.
It is well, however, to attach one line on each side without a ring to the sledge runner outside the attachment of the bridle, in order that when the sledge has to be turned, or its line of direction suddenly changed, the power of one man on each side may be brought directly to bear. The sliding lines must be so adjusted with regard to length that the whole party of trackers may use their full powers without coming in contact with each other. The longest lines may be from 16ft. to 20ft. from ring to end.
The rue ruddy.
The rue ruddy is a broad band of double canvas or skin with the edges sewn in, and the bearing joints padded and stuffed with hair. A loop is formed at the point at which the track rope is attached, through this the toggle of the line is passed. When an extra man is attached to a line, a spare toggle is attached to it by a timber hitch, as shown in the illustration here given. A short mast and small square sail can be used with great advantage when the wind is fair. Kites would also facilitate the passage of sledges over comparatively smooth ice.
Dog sledge and harness.
The dog sledge is a most valuable and important accessory to northern travel, and without its assistance the Esquimaux hunter and Arctic explorer would be at times almost helpless. The form of the dog sledge, and the manner of harnessing the dogs, varies according to the customs of the countries in which it is used and the period of the year when its aid is required. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a description of such as are most likely to be of value to the European traveller, leaving him to select the form of harness best suited to his particular tastes. Dog harness is usually made from strips of sealskin sewn together with threads formed from sinew. Some drivers make use of one trace, others prefer two. The most common plan is to lead two traces, so to speak, into one, as shown in the above illustration. Many drivers of great experience work their dogs abreast when the single trace arrangement is adopted. Others use a leader, harnessed ahead of the other dogs.
Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, thus writes regarding his dogs: “We harness them each with a single trace, and these traces are of a length to suit the fancy of the driver, the longer the better, for they are then not so easily tangled. The draught of the outside dogs is more direct, and if the team comes on thin ice and breaks through, your chances of escape from immersion are in proportion to their distance from you. The traces are all of the same length, and hence the dogs run side by side, and, when properly harnessed, their heads are in a line. My traces are so measured that the shoulders of the dogs are just 20ft. from the foremost part of the runners.”
HELPING THE DOGS.
Speed and the whip.
With a twelve-dog team, harnessed in this manner, a high rate of speed may be gained. Six measured miles have been run over a tolerably good surface in twenty-eight minutes. The direction and speed of the team are regulated partly by the voice, but mainly by the whip; and, as this instrument is so important and difficult to handle, we cannot resist giving the reader the benefit of the experience of Dr. Kane, than whom few have had greater experience in dog-sledge management. He thus describes the whip he used for his teams. “The whip is 6yds. long, and the handle but 16in., a short lever by which to throw out such a length of seal hide. Learn to do it, however, with a masterly sweep, or else make up your mind to forego driving a sledge, for the dogs are guided solely by the lash; and you must be able, not only to hit any particular dog out of the team of twelve, but to accompany the feat also with a resounding crack. After this, you find that to get your lash back involves another difficulty, for it is apt to entangle itself among the dogs and lines, or to fasten itself cunningly round bits of ice so as to drag you head over heels into the snow. The secret by which this complicated set of requirements is fulfilled consists in properly describing an arc from the shoulder, with a stiff elbow, giving the jerk to the whip handle from the hand and wrist alone. The lash trails behind as you travel, and when thrown forward is allowed to extend itself, without an effort to bring it back. You wait patiently after giving the projectile impulse until it unwinds its slow length, reaches the end of its tether, and cracks to tell you that it is at its journey’s end. Such a crack on the ear or forefoot of an unfortunate dog is signalised by a howl quite unmistakable in its import. The mere labour of using this whip is such that the Esquimaux travel in couples, one sledge after the other. The hinder dogs follow mechanically and thus require no whip, and the drivers change about so as to rest each other.
SMOOTHING ROUGH RUNNERS.
Esquimaux sledges and expedients.
Many of the Esquimaux sledges are most ingeniously constructed—some being formed of light slabs of bone, lashed together with sinew and shod with runners composed of highly-polished walrus ivory. Should the surface of the runners become roughened from any cause, the Esquimaux fills his mouth with water, and then, by contracting his cheeks as in the act of blowing a trumpet, forces the water in a strong jet over the face of the runner. A coat of thin ice instantly forms, and becomes frozen firmly to the bone, producing a coating like that of glass. The above illustration will serve to show how this operation is conducted.
Sledge log, to make.
To estimate the speed at which a sledge is travelling, a log must be used. This is constructed as follows: A wooden reel and spindle, such as shown in the annexed engraving, must be made; round this the log line is coiled, leaving a free end for the log or weight, which may consist of a piece of scrap iron or a stone, to be attached to. About 20yds. from the log a bit of red rag should be knotted to the line; then at every 50ft. knot in a bit of seal hide. When about to use the log line, cast the weight well clear of the sledge, let the reel give off the line freely until the red rag is free. Directly that is off the coil, turn your half-minute glass up, and let the sand run, and when it is all down, stop the reel. It will be then seen, by the following calculation, what the speed has been. As 120 times half a minute make one hour, and 120 times 50ft. make very nearly a geographical mile, so many bits of hide will run clear of the revolving reel as the sledge travels miles in the hour.
Sledge equipment.
When fitting up your sledge equipment procure some large-sized marrow bones, and saw them up into a number of tolerably stout rings; then, from other bones of solid texture, make toggles to accompany the rings. These contrivances, shown in the above illustration, are invaluable for attaching leather straps to each other. A simple slit in the end of each strap admits of the toggle being passed through them, when its notched form prevents it from coming out again. Knots in dog harness tend to endless hitches and entanglements; and buckles, from being composed of metal, would be stolen to a certainty. Three modes of attaching strips of hide to each other are shown above. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate how the bone rings before described can be made use of. Fig. 3 shows two loops twisted over each other. A good-sized bladder, or skin bag, forms a convenient receptacle for both rings and toggles, of which make plenty.
Camping.
The habits of sledge dogs.
Food for the dogs.
When about to pitch camp, or whilst resting, drive the spears into the ice to secure the dogs to by short neck ropes. Most sledge dogs are trained to lie down when the whip handle is passed lightly along their backs. Never heedlessly quit your sledge whilst on the march, unless you have fast hold of the upstanders, or without first bringing it to an anchor. This can be done by thrusting a seal spear or lance down into the snow between the first two transverse bars of the sledge bottom. Should you neglect these precautions, you stand a good chance of seeing your runaway team go rattling off in the far distance, leaving you to follow as you best may. To check the speed of your sledge when you are on it, plant your heels on the snow and sit fast. The habits of sledge dogs. It will be generally found that in every team there will be one master dog, who, by the use of a sharp set of teeth and a strong will, contrives to keep all the rest in subjection, and not unfrequently quells disorders among the quarrelsome pack by dashing in among them at the height of their constant skirmishes, and sending them head over heels to the right and left, thereby aiding his master in maintaining due discipline. Food for the dogs. Frozen or dried fish, and the offal of such animals as may be captured in the chase, are used as dog food. The Esquimaux usually feed their dogs but once in two days; it is better, however, to feed every day, but not until the work is finished, the journey ended, and the camp pitched. No dog works well on a full stomach. Great care should be exercised in the feeding of your dogs in order that all may share alike, as some are so desperately artful and cunning, that they do all in their power to delude their master into a belief that, instead of having had their full allowance, it is yet to come.
No northern traveller ever willingly allows his dogs to eat any portion of the liver of the polar bear, as it is pronounced by all the Esquimaux to be most unwholesome and injurious to dogs; they, therefore, either bury the bear’s liver under the ice, or, if practicable, cast it into the sea. No sledge or portion of the sledge equipment in the construction or repair of which, thongs or tendons have been used should be left in reach of the dogs during the night, or they will be pretty sure to reduce the whole to a wreck before morning. With such makeshift sledges as have their runners made from rolls of frozen hide this precaution is especially necessary.
Hints on sledges.
The following hints on the subject of sledges, given by Dr. Kane, are most valuable, being the result of no ordinary experience. To encounter broken ice in the midst of darkness, and at a temperature destructive to life, everything depends upon your sledge; should it break down, you might as well break your own leg—there is no hope for you. Our sledge, then, is made of well-tired oak, dovetailed into a runner shod with iron; no metal is used besides except the screws and rivets which confine the sledge to its runners. In this intense cold, iron snaps like glass, and no immovable or rigidly fastened wood-work would stand for a moment the fierce concussions of a drive. Everything is put together with lashings of sealskin, and the whole fabric is the skeleton framework of a sledge as flexible as a lady’s work-basket, and weighing only 40lb. On this we fasten a sacking bottom of canvas, tightly stretched, like its namesake of the four-post bedstead, around the margin. We call this ticking the apron and cover; the apron being a flap of 16in. high surrounding the cover, and either hanging loose at its sides, like a valance, or laced up down the middle. Into this apron and cover you pack your cargo—the less the better—and then lace and lash the whole securely together.
Rules for the march.
The following rules to be observed on the march or during a halt are valuable and practical to a degree. “Keep the blood in motion without loitering on the march; and for the halt raise a snow house, or, if the snow lie scant or impracticable, ensconce yourself in a burrow, or under the hospitable lee of an inclined hammack-slab. The outside fat of your walrus sustains your little moss fire; its frozen slices give you bread; its frozen blubber gives you butter; its scrag ends make the soup. The snow supplies you with water, and when you are ambitious of coffee there is a bagful stowed away in your boot. Spread out your bear bag, your only heavy movable, and stuff your reindeer bag inside, hang your boots up outside, take a blade of bone and scrape off all the ice from your furs. Now crawl in, the whole party of you, feet foremost, draw the top of your dormitory close, heading to leeward.”
SLEDGING OVER ROUGH ICE.
Useful odds and ends.
Dogs’ boots.
When about to start on a sledge journey, a certain number of useful matters will be required in addition to those already mentioned. A few green or blue gauze or tarlatan veils, to protect the eyes from the glare of the snow, will be found of the greatest value. In the absence of these, sledge men not uncommonly collect a quantity of the deposit of black found in the sconces of the lamps. This they mix with grease, and with it black the eyelids and upper part of the face. This expedient, although not equal to a veil, is far better than nothing. We have made use of green glass spectacles, but found them next to useless, as the glasses soon became coated with ice, formed from the condensed vapour given off with the breath. Never travel without a small pocket mirror; by its aid you can discover at once whether your nose or ears are becoming frost bitten, and can act accordingly. Directions for the treatment of frost bite will be given further on in our work. Never go without your possible sack, which should contain lots of hide strips, of all lengths and sizes, awls, needles, cord, leather, knife, whetstone, and any number of bone rings and toggles. A large fine-toothed rasp is of great service in fashioning bone; take one, or more; one handle will serve for all, and the sharp, tang ends serve to bore holes with. Few men have managed to reduce their sledge equipment to more simple elements than the doctor. He says, “My plans for sledging, simple as I once thought them, and simple, certainly, as compared with those of the English parties, have completely changed. Give me an 8lb. reindeer fur bag to sleep in, an Esquimaux lamp, with a lump of moss, a sheet-iron snow melter, or a copper soup pot, with a tin cylinder to slip over and defend it from the wind, a good pièce de résistance of raw walrus beef, and I want nothing more for a long journey if the thermometer will keep itself as high as minus 30°. Dogs’ boots.Give me a bearskin bag, and coffee to boot, and with the clothes on my back I am ready for minus 60°, but no wind.”
During long journeys over rough and uneven ice the paws of the dogs are liable to become worn and sore. It is well, therefore, before encountering such hindrances to travel, to protect them with mocassins. These are made by rounding a piece of soft hide, with the hair side in, and then cutting all round its edge a number of small slits; through these a strip of hide is passed. The dog’s paw is placed in the centre of the round. On the string being drawn home, the foot will be fitted as shown in the annexed illustration. Tolerably well-fed dogs will rarely eat these protections off, as they seem to know perfectly well what they are put on for. Mocassins are especially needed when there is a thin sharp crust of ice on the surface, and the pace rapid.
The tobogun sledge.
When the snow is soft, the form of sledge known as a “tobogun” is very useful, not only as a dog sledge, but as a convenient means of carrying packs, traps, or dead game; when used for these purposes, the hunter, who usually travels on snow shoes, draws it after him by a track line. The tobogun is made by either bending up the end of a tough plank by steam, or cutting the desired form of wood out of the solid with the axe.
Ice boards.
There is another kind of sledge somewhat on the tobogun principle, known as an ice board. This is made from exceedingly tough, elastic wood. It is turned up at the bow end like the toe of a skate, and usually measures about 1ft. wide by 8ft. long. It is made thus in order that it may freely pass along the narrow Indian trails across the lakes. This board, although tough and flexible enough to pass over the inequalities of the uneven way without breaking, is stiffened at the upturned prow by a piece of wood, which, being fastened inside the curve, preserves its bent form. Several cross bars, disposed at intervals in the line of the sledge, serve to add to its strength. The bridle or drawing point of the sledge is formed of hide, and is secured to the beak or stiffener. The team of dogs used in drawing this kind of conveyance is harnessed to two stiff tough poles, which project to the front. The load is so packed as to admit of its being divided equally throughout the entire length of the board to which it is secured, by passing two hide ropes along its sides from end to end. These side cords are attached by lashings to the cross bars, and form a series of points of attachment for the lashings which pass forward and back, and from side to side over the load. After being hauled up as tight as possible, there should be rope enough for two tail pieces to trail behind; these are useful to seize on when going down a slope, if the sledge requires turning, or in event of the dogs taking it into their head to bolt on a steep incline, the sledge, load and all, is turned on its side, and allowed to drag to the bottom, where it is set right, and proceeds as before.
Common dog sledge.
The travail sledge.
The common runner dog sledge is better adapted for travelling over tolerably hard snow, and the mode of harnessing the dogs is shown in the annexed engraving. The bearing points, chest band, and collar piece of the harness, should be made of thin soft hide, sewn double like an old fashioned shot belt, and then stuffed with hair-wool, pounded bark, fibre, or moss. A seal should be always drawn head first, as it travels thus with less than one-half the traction power. The travail sledge. When the ground is hard, or in the absence of snow, dogs are frequently used to draw a contrivance known as a “travail”; this is made by attaching two long tough sticks, slightly turned up at the hind ends, to the neck collar of the dog. The small ends of the sticks should rest nearest the head of the dog; by some dog drivers these are made to just cross each other over the dog’s neck, where they are bound to each other by a lashing of hide; others prefer attaching each stick in a line with the body of the dog, as in the above illustration. The travail sticks are padded at their points of contact, and kept asunder before and behind the load by cross bars of different lengths, the shortest being next the dog’s hind legs. Horses are frequently equipped precisely in the same manner, as will be seen on reference to the engraving representing Indian lodges. A horse of fair average power will carry a travail load of about 212lb. twenty-five miles per day, and a good dog will draw 75lb. in the same way over prairie land.
Dog packs.
Such dogs as are not employed in pulling very often carry packs on their backs, as shown in the annexed illustration; these should be at all times very light, and the girths and breast strap wide enough to prevent undue pressure. We have seen the Tartars pack their dogs by placing a broad band of sheepskin with the wool inside round the dog, fasten it with loops and toggles, fit on a breast strap of the same material in the same way, and then secure the load to the girth by passing thongs through a set of bone rings sewn in for the purpose. The thongs pass across the load, and go through the rings on the opposite side, and thus secure the pack without compressing the dog, as shown in the accompanying illustration.
Horse sledges.
Field artillery sledges.
When horses are used for sledge drawing it is no uncommon practice to attach them to a conveyance formed by mounting a common carriage body on runners. We have seen the Russians use a most convenient and durable sledge body; it was formed of strong wicker work, strengthened by stringers of light wood, bound with lashings of raw hide. The runners were faced with steel, and the horses, three in number, worked abreast; that in the centre having a sort of arch or hoop over his neck. Bells should be used on all sledge teams, as the sledge glides along so noiselessly that collisions would be frequent without the cheerful warning note of the bells, which can be heard at a great distance in the clear frosty air. It is not our intention here to enter on the subject of sledges, as used by the sledge clubs for amusement or display, as they are not within our province. Field artillery sledges. Field artillery can be easily worked on the surface of frozen lakes and rivers, by attaching runners instead of wheels to the guns and waggons. The recoil of guns, when fired from sledge runners, is often considerable, and many modes are adopted to govern it. The best makeshift plan we know is to prepare two long thick straw mats for each gun sledge, and before laying the gun, raise the breech ends of the runners by handspike power, to a sufficient height to admit of the mats being drawn well under them, when the handspike may be withdrawn, and the runners allowed to rest on the mats. A species of rough basket work formed from pine branches will answer the same purpose.
The reindeer sledge.
The reindeer is a most valuable animal for sledge drawing, and, from the immense number of animals of this description kept in a state of partial domestication in the north (it has been roughly computed that in Lapland alone there are 100,000), extensive use is made of them as beasts of burden, some being used as pack animals, and others worked on the snow in the form of sledge (represented in the opposite illustration) known as the kerres.
THE REINDEER SLEDGE OR “KERRES.”
The mode of harnessing the deer is peculiar, the bridle loop, formed of tendons, being under the front of the sledge; this arrangement gives lifting power. Then a single trace, attached to this bridle, passes between the deer’s hind legs, and is attached to the collar (which is well padded with hair), after passing through a loop in the back band, where it meets under the chest. The guiding rein is single near the sledge, where the driver holds it, but double near its termination; one part is fastened to the collar, whilst the other is secured to the deer’s head. This rein is used much as our ploughmen use a plough rein; it is composed of strips of plaited hide, and, by a dexterous turn of the wrist and elbow, can be made to do the duty of a whip, and, although little control can be exercised over a wayward animal, a tractable one will perform journeys of surpassing length in a wonderfully short space of time; from seven to eight miles an hour over tolerably good ground may be considered average travelling. It is recorded, however, that an officer charged with important dispatches once travelled from Umea, which is situated in the Gulf of Bothnia, to the city of Stockholm in forty-eight hours with one deer (the distance is little short of 500 miles); but the life of the deer was sacrificed in the performance of the journey. The weight of a deer’s load will depend much on the nature of the work he is engaged on; when employed in bringing in dead game, produce, &c., at a slow pace, he can easily draw 3 cwt., but when equipped for a rapid journey the weight drawn should not amount to more than from 230lb. to 245lb. English. Sledge deer not unfrequently perform some curious and inconvenient freaks with their drivers. Should they from any cause think themselves unfairly dealt with or harshly used, they immediately turn back on the conductor, who, to save himself, at once turns over the sledge and gets under it. The deer now tries to make use of his horns, but finds them of little avail against the mummy-like clothing of his skin-clad master, who usually settles the matter by the production of a lump of salt, which, when licked by the eager tongue of the irritated and cantankerous deer, acts like a charm in restoring order and a good understanding, when on he goes again as fresh and willingly as ever. In some parts of Siberia reindeer are regularly ridden, just as horses are in England and bullocks in Africa and the East.
Summer sledges.
Summer sledges of various forms are common to the whole world. We shall only deal with the most noteworthy and valuable to the settler or explorer. The most common of these, known as a wishing bone sledge, is made from a curved and forked branch cut off to the required length, a deep notch is cut at the point of the angle at the union of the fork to fasten the horses to, transverse pieces are treenailed across the prongs, the tail ends are slightly rounded up like the runners of a sledge, and the head is also curved in an upward direction with the axe, as seen in the above illustration. Sledges of this kind are very useful for the conveyance of rough heavy substances, such as building stone or mineral ores, packed in skin bags. Another useful form of farmer’s or emigrant’s sledge is also shown in the annexed illustration. Auger holes are bored through the ends of the runners, through which a strong wooden bar is passed, to this the traces are fastened.
Snow shoes.
The description of snow shoe used by the natives of different countries and localities vary just as much as the sledges. We can, therefore, only deal with the general principles of their construction and use. The “racquet” or snow shoe of the Canadians varies in length with the degree of supporting power of the snow. The form of the snow shoe is shown in the accompanying illustration. The frame or outside rim of the shoe is made from tough, light wood; ash is much used for the purpose. The network is often made from strips of moose skin, deer skin, or some other untanned hide. There are two modes by which the network is secured to the frame. One is to bore a train of gimlet holes at proper distances apart all round the frame, and with thin strips of hide or tendon passed alternately backward and forward through them, the side loops of the racquet work are taken up and tied fast to the frame. The other method consists in winding a long thin thong round the frame, and so binding the interlacing to it. The annexed illustration shows some other forms of the snow shoe.
The snow shoe is not strapped to the foot like the skate, but is fastened in two ways. First, there is an arrangement of strap through which the foot is thrust without the aid of the hands; the length and attachment of the thong being proportioned to the foot of the wearer; then there is an orifice left in the middle of the network in the centre line of the shoe, but nearer to the toe than the heel; into this hole the front part of the foot is thrust, much as one would put on an old heelless slipper.
In the adjustment of the shoe fastenings, the ball of the great toe is made to rest on what the Indians call the “bimikibison,” or walking strap. This is secured by its ends to the frame of the shoe, and by its sides by means of short straps to the front cross bar. In addition to these, a small loop is attached to the walking strap of just sufficient length to allow the toes to pass through, but narrow enough to keep back the ball of the foot, which acts as a sort of stopper, and by its pressure lifts and pushes the shoe upwards and forwards. In order to prevent the foot from working its way backwards, a strap or sling, the “adiman,” passes round the back of the heel. With this arrangement the foot works, so to speak, like a scale beam, the bearing part being the ball joint of the great toe, and as either end of the beam tilts up or down, so the shoe is dragged on or becomes a resting spot until its fellow passes skimmingly forward, leaving a well-marked pair of grooves behind the traveller.
Makeshift snow shoes are often made in the forest from light, tough boards. These are hewn into the rough form of a fish—broad before and narrow behind. The toe hole, or “eye” of the shoe, is cut as in the more perfect shoe, and an indentation is hewn out of the solid to admit of the foot always dropping into its proper position. These are generally used over very soft snow or swampy unsafe ground. The curved snow shoes shown in the illustration on p. 409 are at times over 6ft. long, and are used on open ground; the shorter kinds being better adapted for walking the forest, where roots and other impediments to travel abound.
Snow-shoe boots.
Such boots as are worn for ordinary travelling, are utterly useless to the snow-shoe runner, who could not perform his work in them. Here, again, customs vary with countries. The Esquimaux, after covering his feet well with birds’ skins, encases them in coverings of sealskin, chewed pliant and soft by his loving spouse; over these he draws a pair of fur boots, made from the skins of bears’ legs, with the feet left on. The mocassin is the form of foot gear best adapted for the use of the European traveller, and to put it on properly requires some little practice and management. The following directions will at any rate show the form and nature of the materials best calculated to insure comfort in walking and prevent frost bite. First make a pair of thick flannel cap socks, as shown in Fig. 1. These are merely flannel soles or socks with a toe cap sewn to them. These are put on just as you would put on slippers, over the crossed ends of the long flannel bandages which fold evenly under the toes on each side, and lap over each other. The long ends are now brought round the foot, over the sole, round the heel, and are wound evenly and spirally over and under each other until brought well up under the calf of the leg. Here they are fastened off by passing the free ends two or three times under the coil. The mocassin may now be fastened on over this arrangement, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, when a good thick pair of blanket leggings makes all complete for a tramp.
Norwegian skidor.
Unlike the snow shoes, the skidor of Lapland and Norway have no racquet work, but are merely long, narrow, upturned runners, to which the feet of the skid löpare or traveller are strapped. A peculiar staff, with a projecting rim round it, is carried to aid in propelling, guiding, &c., when ascending or descending uneven surfaces. The annexed illustration will serve to give some idea of the way in which the skidor are used, but an immense deal of practice is required to make even a tolerably good skid löpare.
Skates and their substitutes.
In some localities the shin bones of animals are used as aids in passing over frozen surfaces. One is securely strapped under the sole of each boot and made to act somewhat after the manner of a small sledge runner. On the use of skates we shall have little to say, as the art of plain, straightforward skating is too general to need more than a passing remark. We show in the accompanying illustration the mode of fastening which we have found most reliable for use on rough ice, and for hard work. We were many years ago advised to use it by a Dutchman who was celebrated for his feats in pace and distance; we adopted his plan and adhered to it.
CHAPTER VIII.
BOOTS, SHOES, AND SANDALS.
We have already advised the traveller to include in his outfit a good store of English made boots and shoes—suited to the work he is likely to engage in—in warm countries such as Africa or India. We prefer shoes, and like them as light as is consistent with durability; but, for wear in the jungle or by the river side, we have never found any foot gear to equal moderately stout, but flexible, laced shooting boots and saumber-skin gaiters. The chief defects of a shoe is, that if it is too low, or ill made, so as to open at the sides, it may admit dirt or small stones, and that it does not protect the ankle or shin in walking through sharp grasses, such as the spear grass of India (the seeds of which are like the heads of Liliputian arrows), the Triodia spinifex of Australia, or the low “haak doorns” of Africa.
Medical and military writers recommend shoes either without or with only very low heels, and say that the so-called military heels give 2in. of additional height at the expense of all other good qualities; and this will at once be evident if we consider that the proper use of the foot in springing, walking, or running, depends upon its being able to move from a perfectly horizontal position, till the line of the sole from toe to heel forms an angle of 45° or 50° with the ground. If then, by the interposition of a block of leather, we prevent the heel coming within 15° or 20° of the horizontal line, we diminish the power of the foot just as much as we should the power of a bow, when, knowing that the archer could draw at 36in. we were to insist that the bow should be made with a curve of 18in., instead of being, as it ought, very nearly straight.
African boots.
The so-called support to the ankle is not only unnecessary but positively injurious. Opera dancers do not usually perform in boots, but shoes as light as possible. The Zouaves simply wear gaiters to keep dirt out of the shoe, and they detest the tight leggings, and on a march pitch them away, and let the knickerbockers lower down upon the leg. Men, in the constant habit of wearing tight or heavy boots, are not likely to have good legs, and none march better than Highlanders in their kilts and shoes; or natives of wild countries, who only put on sandals when the expected march is so long, that the hard skin of the foot would wear through faster than the natural growth could replace it. We suppose that it will be sufficiently definite to consider boots as having the upper leathers sufficiently high to cover the ankle, or as much of the leg or thigh as may be requisite. Shoes, as covering a part, or the whole of the foot up to, but not above, the ankle, and sandals as being merely soles fastened on by laces or thongs, but not covering or inclosing the foot.
The form we have found most useful is that called the oxonian (Fig. 1), coming just high enough to cover the whole instep without interfering with the action of the joint, and fitting closely round beneath the ankle. Fig. 2 represents the Irish brogue, a good serviceable foot covering. Elastic sides do not stand hard wear in tropical heat, and therefore we use a front lacing. We object to bluchers, because after some wear the flaps of the quarters become loose, and bits of rotten stick or stiff grasses frequently are forced in in walking. African boots. Most countries have some form of shoe easily made from materials obtainable upon the spot, and in Africa the “velschoen” of untanned leather is the general wear.
Sometimes these are very clumsily made, the naked foot is planted on the piece of leather intended for the sole, and the outline is marked out with the point of a knife, the blade being held so far clear as to obviate all danger of cutting the foot, a plan which certainly has the merit of making the shoe sufficiently roomy. The thinner hide intended for the front is then laid on over the instep, and the edges, being brought down, are cut even with those of the sole; and, both being bored with an awl, are stitched through and through with leather thongs, the quarters are then fitted on in the same manner, and the only reason that the stitches do not wear out is that the sole is so much wider than the foot, that no weight comes upon the part in which the seam is made. A couple of holes in the front of the quarters receive another thong which serves as a tie, and this, being the only part that is in anyway tight, must considerably gall the instep.
The hides of the giraffe, the eland, or the buffalo are used for soles, and a piece large enough for a pair may generally be purchased for eighteenpence. These are simply dried, and a native must be hired to beat and soften them, working grease into them as he does so till they become so soft and supple that, though they are not waterproof in the sense of absolutely repelling the liquid, they may be wetted through and dried again without becoming hard. Sometimes a native will do this for a knife (value ninepence or a shilling) and the grease; but a sharp look-out must be kept upon the latter, or he will rub it into his own skin instead of that which he is employed to soften. An African can no more be trusted with fat than many of our own countrymen with ardent spirits.
For the upper leather the hide of many of the larger antelopes will do, but that of the “koodoo” is most universally esteemed, being somewhat thicker than stout calf, and very soft and durable; that of the wildebeeste is too hard and stout, and those of the springbok and smaller antelopes too thin. This skin is also subjected to a long preliminary rubbing and working in the hands of the natives, grease being occasionally smeared on.
The preparation of a good-sized skin—such as that of a koodoo, or of an ox, if it is to be softened so as to be fit for purposes where lightness and pliability are required—is performed as follows. If the hair is to be removed, the skin is wrapped up with the hair inward, fresh cattle dung having been previously spread over it to keep it moist, and if the party be not on a journey, it is buried for a day or two, to “sweat” the hair off; but if the hair is to be retained, this preliminary process is dispensed with. If the thickness of the hide is to be reduced, it is then pegged out tightly upon the ground, with the hair side downward, and the flesh, and as much of the inner side of the skin as requisite, removed by scraping with the small, broad-edged, soft iron blades set like adzes, across the handle, and used very much in the manner of the scrapers, which so much disgust passengers on long voyages when used upon the deck above their berths. The hide having been still kept damp and soft by being covered with cattle dung, or moist clay, is next taken in hand by half a dozen or more natives, who, sitting around it and grasping each their handful of the edge, compress and rub it in every possible direction, ever and anon driving all their hands together towards the centre, and then simultaneously falling back, stretching the skin to the utmost. Grease has to be applied occasionally, and the skin, when put away for the night, must be carefully rolled up and kept under moist earth till morning.
Most of the native tribes also have some species of mimosa, generally a small variety, the bark and young roots of which they pound as fine as possible in their wooden mortars, and, by rubbing in the powder during the dressing of the skin, they partially tan it, and impart to it a reddish brown colour.
Shoemakers’ wax.
Before proceeding to make or repair boots or shoes, shoemakers’ wax will be required. It is a good plan to take a hornfull out from England. The wax horn may be made from the horn of a common cow; fill it with softened wax until nearly full, put in a wooden bottom, secure it in its place by driving in three or four wire pins, and all is made secure. When the wax is required for use, saw off the small end of the horn far enough down to reach the contents. Apply heat to the exterior until the wax runs out in sufficient quantity on a greased stone; take up as much as is needed for use, work it into a ball, and put it to swim in a little water. If you have to make your own wax proceed as follows: Take 4oz. of resin, grind it to a fine powder between two stones, ¼oz. of beeswax chopped up small, and 2oz. of common pitch; mix these substances with the resin, and place the whole in a small native chatty pot. Then put the pot in a bed of hot wood ashes, and with a long flat-pointed stick work and stir the mass about until thoroughly melted; then add ¾oz. of good clean fat, and keep the whole in a state of solution for about a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes. Grease the bottom of a calabash or bowl, half fill it with cold water; take your pot off the fire with a twisted stick, and pour the molten materials into the water. When cold enough to handle, grease your hands, and work the wax about; pull it out into long strips, double these back on themselves, and so proceed until all the materials are well amalgamated; then work it out into a long stick or rod, take a greased knife, and divide it up into pieces large enough to make convenient-sized balls for use. These are best kept floating in water until wanted.
Lasts.
In making a pair of shoes the mode usually adopted is that previously described, and, by dint of patience and careful fitting, some persons will make them very neatly and effectively in this manner; but, after all, there is always an uncertainty as to their fitting properly, and we found it much better to take the trouble in the first instance of making a pair of lasts. For this purpose it is best to take the length of the foot, its extreme breadth and height at the instep, and cut two logs of tolerably hard even-grained wood (we used the sweet gum), rather larger, and square them up to these dimensions—say, length 10in., breadth 3in., and height 4in., more or less. Then, placing the foot upon a piece of soft ground, trace its outline, and then, holding a board vertically against the inner side, trace off on this the profile, and removing the foot trace also the outline of the print it has made upon the ground. The inner side and the bottom of each block ought to be nicely and truly squared up, even though, from scantiness of wood or other causes, the other sides should not be so. Take all the measurements for breadth from the straight line made by the edge of the board upon the ground, and measure them from the inside edge, right and left, upon the bottom of the blocks; draw the outline, and inside it draw also the actual tread of the foot, measured in the same manner from the impression on the ground. Then, measuring from the bottom of the board, transfer the profile of the foot to the inside surface of each block, and with axe or saw cut them to the outline of the heel and instep, taking care not to attempt to round them till you have also cut them to the outline of the breadth; then, having ascertained that all your measurements are true, and that both lasts are of similar size and form, begin to round them as nearly as possible to the natural form of the foot, lowering them more on the outer side toward the small toes than on the inner, where the line of the instep extends from the ankle to the great toe; then, having ascertained the arch of the foot, commence rounding away the edges of the sole from the inner line, observing that in the waist of the foot the tread runs very nearly along the outer edge, leaving nearly all the hollow to be cut away on the inner side. Let the sole rise from the ground a little also under the toes, as their pressure downward will make the shoe fit better, and it will be less liable to catch small impediments in walking.
Bear in mind that in the natural foot the great toe is as nearly as possible parallel to the straight line drawn along the inside of the foot, and if it is forced from this position by ill-cut shoes, such as some years ago were inappropriately called “straights,” or by the wearing of high heels, not only is the beauty of the foot sacrificed, but its elasticity, its strength, and usefulness are materially diminished. In Figs. 1, 2, and 3 we have represented the natural form of the foot, distinguishing by the flat shadow the part that actually touches the ground, and by a lighter outline along the hollow, that which may be considered as the average limit of the sole. These are one-fourth the natural size, and, by using inches for the quarter inches in our drawings, the enlarged outlines will be a sufficient guide in cutting the lasts, the average proportions of feet being very nearly the same, though of course dimensions will vary. In Fig. 1 of the next illustration we give the forms of sole that may be used. If the ground is bad, and it is necessary to defend the foot against thorns, sharp stones, &c., the outer lines may be adopted; but on tolerably fair ground, it is only the actual tread that requires protection from the sole. However, as the foot is constant in its size, the smaller the sole is the larger must be the upper leather. Of this last we have represented two forms. They are both shown, folded and stitched, so as to be ready for lasting; but the smaller figures within show the form of each part before it is folded.
In Fig. 2 the whole upper is cut out from one piece, folded in the centre of the front, and stitched at the heel. The edges should not be cut off too close to the seam (otherwise neatness will be gained at the expense of strength), and they should always be outside; for, if they be turned in, it would be very difficult to flatten them so perfectly as not to gall the heel. Tho front is split 2½in. or 3in. down the instep, and a piece of stout leather, with its edges thinned down, is stitched on and pierced with holes to receive the lacing. It is split not quite through, but about ½in. is left to strengthen the front of the shoe, and prevent the thinner leather tearing. The edges in which the holes are pierced are, of course, left the full thickness. A tongue of soft leather ought to be stitched in, that the lacing may not gall the instep, but the edges of this must be carefully thinned down, and no knots or ends of thread should be left inside. The ends may be fastened off very neatly without knots by merely taking one or two stitches backward along the already finished seam, and even if the fastening should show outside, it will still be better than that after a long march the instep should be found chafed and bleeding, and a sore established which will be very difficult to heal.
In Fig. 3 the front is in one piece and the quarter in another, and this is a convenient arrangement when, though you may have plenty of leather, it is not of sufficient size to cut the upper in a single piece. Generally, the edge of the quarter is laid over that of the front, and stitched, leaving the upper part loose as a flap or ear to receive the tie or lacing. In this case, the centre of the front is left long enough to come up as a tongue to defend the instep, but this method has the disadvantage of leaving a space on either side the foot, opening forward as in the case of bluchers, and liable to receive in walking broken sticks, reeds, or grass stems, which are often forced in with considerable violence. We, therefore, prefer to stitch the front edge over that of the quarter, inserting a tongue as neatly as possible, and stitching on, as before, edgings of stiff leather to receive the lacing, taking care, also, that all edges inside the shoe are trimmed off to nothing, and that no fastenings off are made inside.
All these should be sewn with “saddlers’ seams”—that is, the two parts should be laid together, and holes being pierced with a fine straight awl, the two threads should be passed through from right and left simultaneously, and drawn tight with an equally firm pull on either hand. The seam will thus show no difference on either of the sides; but, if a section were made, it would present the appearance of a chain, as in Fig. 5 of the engraving on p. 421, each link inclosing the thickness of leather left between the holes. Although the threads should be tightened with a firm hand, they should not be hauled upon so as unduly to contract the leather, and so make the seam grip the foot like a cord when the shoe is finished.
The dorsal sinews of the springbok, or the domestic goat, separated into fibre of the proper size, will answer very well for this purpose, the points being cut sharp, wetted, and twisted a little, will be quite rigid enough to pass through the holes previously bored; but while we have a stock of good whity-grey thread, we prefer to use it doubled and well waxed, in a couple of stout tailor’s needles, always, however, boring the holes with a fine awl to insure regularity.
Clamps.
A pair of clamps are necessary to hold the work, as both hands are employed in sewing. They may be made of two staves of a powder barrel, or an American flour cask, or any other light elastic boards that can be made to curve inward, and grip with a fair edge with tolerable firmness. These are held between the knees, so that the work may be in a convenient position for eye and hand. If barrel staves cannot be had, two small bits of plank, with fair edges, may be fitted in the smith’s vice. A young sapling, 2in. or 3in. thick, may be cut off about 30in. from its root, and the stump slit down with a sharp axe, the edges being trimmed off thin and fair; or the boat nippers described at [p. 129] may be pressed into service.
Thread.
The orthodox material for sewing on the sole is, of course, the waxed thread, made by taking from three to six or eight thicknesses of the flax sold in balls for that purpose, twisting them loosely together, and waxing them with the mixture before described. The ends of the threads are thinned to a fine point, and, a bristle being split part of its length, the fine end of the thread is laid between the parts, and then rolled several times round both of them; and the fastening is made by opening the strands of the thread, and passing the perfect end of the bristle through them. It is much more easy to do this than to describe it, and in five minutes’ practice almost anyone ought to be able to learn it. We prefer, however, fine “reimpjies,” or thongs, rather less than ⅛in. broad, cut from the skin of a steinbok, and nicely rubbed up, stretched, and smoothed. The points of these cut sharp, wetted a little, twisted, and allowed to dry, will be quite fine and hard enough to be passed through the awl holes; but we have upon occasion taken a bit of fine brass rabbit wire, and passing it through a hole in the end of the thong, as far as the middle have doubled the two ends together, and twisted them into one, to obtain a more rigid point.
Stitching.
Of the several methods of stitching, the simplest, as has been mentioned, is to lay the edges of the sole and upper leather together, and stitch them through and through (Fig. 1). In this case, however, either the thread appears outside, and is exposed to be chafed upon the ground, or the sole itself must be cut so as to let the stitches in, and sometimes a cut is made in the edge of the sole, as in Fig. 2, but this has by no means a neat and finished appearance. Some of the Dutch farmers use what is called the “binnen naaid,” or inside seam. This is made by turning the edge of the upper leather (Fig. 4) in upon the sole (Fig. 3), and sewing it with a kind of backstitch, which will be better understood by reference to the figure than by description. It must be begun in the waist of the foot and worked round the front to the other side. The heel is finished last of all, as, when the shoe is once closed, the fore parts of it could not be reached. This seam is very neat, but a last cannot be used in making it. The plan we adopted is that used by shoemakers for pumps or single soled shoes, and we believe this to be the easiest, the neatest, and, at the same time, the most durable. The sole (Fig. 1) is cut with the heel toward the thickest part (if there be any difference) of the leather, and if greater thickness is required, another piece (Fig. 2) should be cut to the shape of the heel and thinned away to nothing in front, as it must be placed on the inside of the true sole, and a thick edge would of course give pain to the foot. A small groove or channel (Fig. 3), just deep enough to bury the stitches, should be cut about ½in. from the edge upon the upper surface, and a similar one (Fig. 3a) in the edge of the true sole; then, the holes being pierced with a curved awl, the two parts should be firmly sewn together. Fig. 4 represents the channel cut all round the sole and heel for stitching on the upper leather, and Fig. 5 the bevelled edge against which the upper leather is laid. B is a sectional view, with all the parts similarly numbered, the upper leather being stitched on; and C another with the upper stitched and turned into its proper position when the shoe is finished. The sole, with its inside uppermost, must then be laid upon its proper last, and tacked to it with nails or pegs that will easily draw out when no longer required, and care must be taken that the waist fits well down into the hollow of the last. The edge must then be bevelled off, at an angle of 45° all round, reducing its apparent thickness by about one-half. In very fine work the edge is thinned down almost to nothing in the waist, but is left nearly of its full thickness in the heel. The object of this, however, is to present an inclined surface for the upper leather to rest against and be stitched to.
The upper is then turned inside out, and placed upon the last; its height at the heel, at the sides, and on the instep, is measured, and these points are first secured by small tacks, driven about half in, so that they can be withdrawn when no longer wanted. The edges are then drawn tightly over the edges of the sole, and tacked to it, beginning at the toe and proceeding equally along the sides as far as the beginning of the heel. The last is then taken, with the sole upward, between the knees, where it may be confined by a strap long enough to pass round the feet; holes are pierced with a sharp curved awl, through the upper leather, and the bevelled edge of the sole, to the channel previously cut. The thread or thong of steinbok hide, being pointed at both ends, is drawn as far as its middle through the first hole, the two ends are passed simultaneously from right and left through each successive one, and the seam, commencing from the fore part of the heel on one side, goes forward round the toe, until it comes as far back on the other side. In commencing the sewing of the heel, if an inner thickening piece has been put on, care must be taken that in front, where it is yet thin, the stitches take up also a portion of the thickness of the true sole, and do not depend only on the inner heel, until they have passed the end of the seam that connects the two thicknesses together. If the stitches of the connecting seam have been set far enough into the substance of the leather, there will be no danger of cutting them in boring the holes for sewing on the upper.
In fastening off, take two stitches back upon the seam, and a hole may be bored through one part of the thong to pass the end of the other through, but no knots must be made; inside they would gall the feet, and outside they would look clumsy and unworkmanlike. Our sketch will sufficiently illustrate the foregoing description. Fig. 1A is the sole; Fig. 4, the channel and stitching; Fig. 4a, the stitching seen through the upper leather, and D the last; B shows the relative position of the parts when the shoe is taken off the last, and turned ready for use. No inner sole or lining is needed, for the leather itself is softened sufficiently in the native processes. We generally preferred to turn the outer side, or that from which the hair had been stripped, inward, as it was smoother to the foot; and besides this, if left outside, would soon have looked shabby from contact with grass or thorns, whereas the inner or fleshy side would suffer no change of appearance by casual abrasion.
The shoe first finished should be kept in a cool moist place, and not suffered to dry till both are done, when they should be taken off the lasts, turned right side outward, and each put upon the last on which the other was made, and allowed to dry, a very little fat being rubbed upon them, that it may be absorbed as the water dries out, to prevent their becoming hard.
In one pair of shoes thus made, with soles of buffalo hide and koodoo uppers, we have performed three journeys of eighty miles each, with quite enough intermediate walking to make up the 300.
It may be thought that we have insisted too much on the lightness and pliability of foot gear, but it must be remembered that we now speak of what, under particular conditions, we have found useful. A change of circumstances might render large and heavy boots an absolute necessity. The American Indian wears the lightest possible mocassin; the South African, when he comes near his game, takes off his sandals, that he may step as noiselessly as a cat. The European hunter will do well to follow their example as closely as he can, and whatever the form of the foot gear he adopts may be, let it be light and flexible enough to walk, jump, climb, or run with facility.
Mocassins.
The principle of the mocassin appears to be that in almost universal use among all the Esquimaux and North American Indians, the leading difference in form of construction being that the former usually carry the upper leather up over the leg to form a species of boot, whilst the latter covers the foot only with the mocassin. Unlike the shoes we have described, the Indian mocassin has far more sole than upper leather, as the so-called sole extends up over the sides, front, and heel, to be united with the border leather and front flap by a gathering seam. When about to undertake a journey over very hard or rough ground, a sort of supplementary sole of green hide, with the hair left on the outside, is not unfrequently put on. The leather used in the manufacture of the best and softest description of mocassins requires an immense deal of rubbing, dressing, and manipulation; that used by the Esquimaux tribes is chewed by the women until beautifully supple and pliant. Different tribes of Indians adopt different styles or fashions in the cut and finish of their foot gear, as shown in the illustration on p. 424, which represents the mocassins of distinct tribes; thus it is by no means difficult to detect attempted imposition by closely investigating the foot coverings of a spy or secret enemy.
Makeshift foot coverings.
Various makeshift foot coverings are used by different nations. Some of the bushmen and half-civilised Hottentots, when they have killed an animal of suitable size, such as a buffalo, quagga, or any of the larger antelopes, will cut the skin all round above and below the hough, and, having stripped it off, will draw it upon their own foot, so that the heel comes where the hough of the animal used to be; the toe is then closed with a few stitches, a slit for a small tie or lacing is made on the instep, and, by walking in it before it dries or hardens, it is trodden into the shape of the foot. We have chosen the quagga skin for our illustration because the stripes help to identify the parts used for the hough-skin shoe; but it is, perhaps, the least eligible for the purpose, as it dries so hard and rigid that it must be very unpleasant wear. The North American Indians use the hough-skin of the moose in the same manner.
The peasantry and brigands of Calabria and many other portions of the South of Europe, wear a very simple and useful kind of makeshift shoe. A piece of soft hide is cut to several sizes larger than the foot, a number of points or corners are allowed to remain along the edges, the foot, after being well swathed in bandages, is placed on the piece of hide, which is then gathered up round the foot by looping and knotting a long strip of cotton cloth or tape forward and back to the corners of the hide until all is secure and compact, as shown in the illustration on next page (Fig. 2).
The old Highland caterans shod themselves in much the same manner. We have seen the Crim-Tartars make excellent winter foot coverings from sheepskin, with the wool inwards (Fig. 1). This was cut much after the Calabrian plan, but the corners, after having slits made in them, were looped to short flat leather straps, which, when crossed forward and back over the front, were laced together with a long narrow thong of sheepskin, which served to hold a wider piece of wool-covered skin in place, as a sort of gaiter. They also make a summer shoe from soft tanned hide, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
Most of the African tribes find the skin of their sole sufficiently hard for their ordinary and daily walks, but when they expect to make long marches they invariably use some sort of artificial protection; and there is no surer sign on the frontier of the Cape Colony that the Kafirs intend to make war than to see among them a general preparation of velschoens or sandals; and often the cattle farmers on the frontier have been thus forewarned, while the Government authorities, deceived by plausible excuses, have imagined there was every prospect of a continued peace.
Various forms of sandal are in use among different tribes, but those used by the Bechuana (Fig. 1, next page) may be taken as a sufficiently useful type. The leather is sometimes rendered slightly pliable by being pounded and beaten, but very often not. The foot is planted on it, and the outline drawn, the sole being cut somewhat larger than this.
Two slits are made, one on each side the hollow of the foot, and the two ends of a piece of hide are passed up through them, as shown in Fig. 2; and in each end of this are cut two slits, as seen in Figs. 1, 2, 3, for the two parts of a thong of dressed hide to pass through.
The ends of this are passed through another piece which goes down between the great toe and the next, then passes through the sole, and is fastened sometimes by being returned through two other holes, and the divided ends passed through a hole bored “in their own parts,” as in Fig. 4, and sometimes by being simply returned only once in the manner shown in Fig. 3, which represents the very simple arrangement for tightening the side straps; in fact, a thong of hide, with several holes bored in it for its own end to pass through, may be lengthened or shortened up as conveniently as a strap and buckle, the sandal being put on or off simply by drawing the loop of the thong over the heel in the same manner as a low shoe.
The Damaras wear sandals with the toe and heel pointed, and elongated 2in. or 3in. beyond the foot, like a small snow shoe; this saves the toes from contact with small thorns, and they often strap on greaves of stiff hide to protect the shins.
In Timor, we purchased two or three pairs of palm-leaf sandals, very nicely woven; these last very well for a few hours’ walking, and, being very cheap, may be renewed as often as requisite. On some of the pilgrim roads in India, the poorer travellers seldom provide sandals for themselves, but pick up those that are thrown away half worn by the more luxurious.
Small rope, not more than ½in. in diameter, makes a good sole, and by thinning one end, and beginning by bending this just before the hollow of the foot, then coiling it six or seven times round, and finishing off on the inside of the foot, so as to leave the front two turns wider than the heel, a very fairly shaped sole may be made; this may be fitted either with thongs as a sandal, or as a slipper with a canvas upper. The Malays wear a wooden sole, the heel and tread of which are about 2in. thick; it is held to the foot simply by a peg, with a knob or button on the top, which is taken between the great toe and the next, and thus held on or dropped off at pleasure; this is, in fact, much the same that is worn by the Turks, Japanese, and Persians, only that they use a leather strap instead of a button.
Sabots and socks.
Sabots are, at times, extremely useful; they can be made from any light soft wood, such as withy, willow, poplar, or cotton wood (Populus tremuloides). Cut two blocks from a log with the axe, fashion them roughly into the form of a high shoe, and then, with a mallet and sharp gouge, proceed to hollow them out to the requisite capacity and thinness, when the outsides may be finished off with the spokeshave. Socks formed of sheepskin, with the wool on, add much to the comfort of the wearer. The Russian soldiers, before Sebastopol, made excellent socks or false soles from plaited straw; these were worn inside their long boots, and served to preserve the feet from damp; no stockings were worn with them. An excellent description of sabot was forwarded to us during the Crimean war for use in camp; the sole was of light wood, the upper leather was like that of a high shoe, and the lining of thick felt. The leather and wood were connected round the edges by the use of a row of small flat headed tacks, much like those used in making a pair of bellows. No description of foot gear we have ever seen equals these felt-lined sabots for use during tent life. In Chinese Tartary a sort of boot composed of thick felt is worn over both stocking and shoe. When camping in or travelling through tropical countries, never omit turning your boots or shoes upside down, and rapping the soles sharply before venturing to put them on, as scorpions, centipedes, and other unwelcome intruders, are particularly fond of taking shelter in such convenient retreats. We have found it an excellent plan, when boots or shoes of native leather get thoroughly water soaked, to fill them tightly with any kind of grain; the moisture is absorbed rapidly by it, and the leather is prevented from shrinking by the expansion of the seed.
Dubbin, to make.
It is well to keep a good-sized pot or canister of dubbin for your English boots and shoes. This is best made as follows:—Take of oil, obtained by boiling ox feet, half a pint; beeswax, 1oz.; spirits of turpentine, 1oz.; Burgundy pitch, ½oz.; resin, ½oz. Mix all the ingredients, except the spirits of turpentine, together in a chatty, and melt them over the embers of the camp fire until thoroughly dissolved; then remove the pot from the fire, pour in the spirits of turpentine, and stir the whole with a piece of lath until cold. To apply the dubbin properly, the boot or shoe must be held to the fire until warm, when every part of it, sole, heel, and upper, may receive a thorough dressing over, and subsequent rubbing. This not only preserves the leather from the effects of hot sun and wet ground, but prevents the white ants, cockroaches, and other devouring insects from eating it.
One of our naval friends, who was an ardent naturalist, had a pair of French wooden shoes, which he found a great protection while wading among sharp rocks in search of specimens, where india-rubber boots would have been cut and become leaky. A perfectly waterproof boot or garment of any kind is an excellent thing, but an imperfect one is worse than useless; and for wading after specimens or working in the water, if it is not convenient to be naked, a pair of wooden clogs, with a flannel shirt and drawers, and a straw hat or Tam o’ Shanter bonnet, is as good an equipment as any.
India-rubber boots, to mend.
We have before spoken of india-rubber wading boots, which, to be of value, should be of first-class quality and finish. It will sometimes happen that, notwithstanding all the precautions you may take to guard them from injury, that sharp-pointed sticks, thorns, &c., will make holes in them large enough to admit water. In order to enable you to repair these injuries when they occur, it will be well to purchase from the maker of the boots a good supply of sheet india-rubber. Get also from a chemist a bottle of coal-tar naphtha fitted with a glass stopper. When about to mend your boots, take a sharp knife or pair of scissors, and snip or cut up about 2oz. of the india-rubber sheet. The cut pieces should not be larger than good-sized buck-shot. Put these into a wide-mouthed bottle, such as is used for gum; now pour in enough naphtha to cover the rubber; put in the cork, and let the mixture stand for a few hours to soak; then shake the bottle, turn it upside down, and rattle it from side to side; repeat this process from time to time until the rubber is thoroughly dissolved in the naphtha, which it will be in about three days. Should it become sticky and thick, pour in a little more naphtha and shake it about until of a convenient consistency for use. Now cut a patch from the sheet rubber, large enough to extend well beyond the margin of the hole; give both the patch and the surface to which it is to be applied a good coating of the rubber varnish; lay on the patch; press it well home; place a flat board in the boot under the patch, and another board on the outside over it, so as to nip both patch and boot between them; lay a heavy stone or other weight on the outside board, and let the whole arrangement remain until the varnish is dry and the union between the parts complete. If the hole is in the leg of your boot, turn it inside out until the injured spot is reached and the patch is seen through the hole. Proceed now with the inside exactly as you did with the outside, when the mend will be complete. If the hole is in the foot of the boot, use only the single patch attached to the outside.
Sore feet.
When the sole of a shoe has once been soaked with salt water, it always retains dampness, and cannot again be worn with comfort or pleasure. India-rubber shoes cannot be worn in warm countries either alone or over the ordinary shoes, unless they are cut low and open, and even then the lengthened use of them is inconvenient and painful. It not unfrequently happens that the feet of those not thoroughly accustomed to hard tramping will become blistered. When the eggs of either poultry or wild birds are to be obtained, it is a good plan to break one or two, according to their size, into each shoe before starting in the morning; or, if you have any spirit, put a little in a cup or dish, place a lump of tallow on a flat stick, and hold a hot brand over it until the fat melts and runs into the spirit. The ointment thus prepared may now be taken from the spirit and applied thickly to the sore surfaces and bottoms of the stockings. When large bladders form, take one of your needles and draw a piece of soft worsted or woollen thread, obtained by unravelling a bit of old shirt, directly through the bladders. This acts as a seton, and causes the fluid to freely discharge itself.
CHAPTER IX.
WAGGONS AND OTHER WHEELED VEHICLES.
The wheeled carriages made use of in different parts of the world are even more various in their design and construction than the sledges before described; and, as a general rule, it will be found, when the test of actual use is brought to bear, that the description of contrivance (or at least a modification of it) in use among the civilised and semi-civilised inhabitants of a country or colony will be best adapted for such work as may have to be performed in it by the traveller or explorer. It is, however, difficult to overcome home prejudices, and, as an almost invariable rule, the British emigrant, on his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope or Australia, commences by denouncing the colonial waggon as clumsy, unworkmanlike, and inefficient, and usually threatens to effect immense improvements, and just as invariably, if he has to make a journey of any distance into the interior, he adopts, if he be a sensible man, the vehicle which, by the experience of many, has been found the best for the work it has to do. On the well-made roads near Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, or on the broad plains of the Orange River Free State, imported carriages from England, or vehicles upon their model by colonial builders, may be used with safety and advantage; and even some of those wondrous combinations of strength and lightness imported from America, under the names of spider or skeleton carriages, are found to do good service; but when really hard work comes on, and densely wooded kloofs or rugged mountain passes, with rough stretches of road over hill-side or valley, with fords in which stones of several hundred weight seem to lose their gravitation and become the mere playthings of the torrent, the ponderous Cape waggon will be at once appreciated, as all its parts are so strongly put together that the strain of twelve or twenty oxen cannot draw them asunder, and yet fitted so loosely that they will give and bend to every inequality of the road. The Cape waggon is found to hold its position against all rivals as the vehicle best adapted to the wants of a travelling or exploring party, and the exigencies of the transport service and general carrying trade of the country.
We have already, at [pp. 60] and [61], given an example of a Cape waggon with side tents; at [pp. 129-132], we have shown how the tent frame or other material of a waggon might be converted into a boat; at [pp. 140-144], we have indicated the manner in which the waggon chests might be made available as a raft; at [pp. 215-219] will be found diagrams and instructions for repairing axles, fore tongs, dissel-booms, strengthening wheels when the spokes are shaken loose, tightening up the tires by driving wedges between them and the felloes, or making and putting in new spokes without taking the wheel to pieces; at pp. 195-197 are remarks on tiring of wheels and prolonging the efficiency of strained bolts by shifting them so as to freshen the nip; at pp. 297 and 298 waggon camps are described; and the method of building wheels is given at [pp. 366-372].
CAPE WAGGON (WITH DIAGRAMS).
Cape waggon.
It is, therefore, now only necessary to give a general view of a full-sized “kap-tented” travelling waggon, with diagrams of such parts as have not hitherto come under notice. Such a waggon is represented in Fig. 1, and the buik plank, or floor (a), will sometimes be 17ft. or more in length, though in moderate-sized vehicles it does not exceed 13ft., or thereabouts. The sides are generally of yellow wood (⅜in. plank), b, secured to a substantial ladder-like frame, the longer pieces of which (c) are called “leer boomen,” or ladder trees. The sides and bottom are not fastened together, nor are they fastened to the understell or carriage, but the bottom plank is simply laid upon the schammels (d) and secured from moving by cleats (e), which grip the after one. The fore and hinder axles are connected by a stout beam, called the “lang wagen” (f), working freely on a pivot passing through the aftermost jaws of the fore tong (g), and strengthened by a bar of iron (h), called the iron “lang wagen.” The dissel-boom works like a carriage pole in the foremost jaws of the “fore tong.” In this tong, also, immediately behind the axle, is a stout ring-bolt (i), to which are attached the drag chains, and they, with the reim schoen and the tar bucket, are looped up to hooks, fixed at the attachment of the after tongs (j) with the lang wagen. To the back of the after axle is suspended a kind of framework, called the “trap” (k), for the reception of pots, kettles, and general lumber. Into the ends of the schammels are set rungs, or stancheons (l), which confine and support the waggon sides. Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of the carriage, clear of the wheels and top hamper. All the parts are distinguished by the same letters. Fig. 3 shows how the buik plank (a) is laid upon the after schammel (d), and kept from shifting by the clamps (e); it will be seen that there is room enough between it and the rungs (l) for the sides (b), and these are kept apart at the after part by the after bar (m), as well as by the after chest (n), and in front by the fore chest only, leaving, in the present instance, a space available for stowage of rather more than 11ft. long, 3ft. wide, and 3ft. in height; though frequently the cargo is piled much higher. The kadel, or bed, an oblong frame (o, p. 216), with a netting of raw hide thongs, is then either slung above the cargo to the stancheons of the tent, or laid upon spars placed across the waggon, with their ends resting on the top rail or leer boom (c). The tent frame should be first covered with reed matting, similar to a cheese mat, and often obtainable from the Hottentots. Above this should be the under sail, which is very often painted to render it waterproof, though for durability we prefer to have it of stout unpainted No. 1 canvas, and above this is drawn on the upper sail. In the case of a kap-tent, this is sometimes in three or more pieces; first, the roof; then the sides, which are tacked on under a neat border at its edges; and, lastly, the fore and after klaps or curtains. Sometimes, however, the whole of these parts are made in one. The central breadths of canvas are left 5ft. or 6ft. longer at each end, so as to serve for the fore and after curtains, and the sides are stitched to the roof, so that the whole may be put on or taken off in one piece. The edges are then either buttoned to brass studs along the leer boom, or tied down with thongs of koodoo hide, stitched on for the purpose. A couple of bamboos or forked sticks are lashed to the foremost and aftermost stancheons of the tent frame, to serve as “nicks” in which to lay the waggon whip, which is a well-selected straight-grown “vaderlandsche” (male bamboo), from 10ft. to 15ft. in length, with a lash of about 20ft., as thick in the middle as the little finger, and with a “voorslag,” or lash of koodoo hide, about 4ft. or 5ft. more. This, in the hands of a practised driver, is a most formidable weapon. Any particular ox in the long team of twelve or fourteen may be gently filliped in any part, or have the whip cracked next to his ear as a reminder, or if he show stubbornness or obstinacy, a cloud of hair may be cut from his sides from hip to shoulder, or each successive stroke of the long voorslag may be made to draw blood, until he goes to his duty.
The side chests are supported on stout bars (o), which cross beneath the bottom of the waggon, projecting 1ft. or 16in. beyond its sides, and these, besides being bolted to the bottom planks, are generally lashed tightly to the top rail by reims of raw hide (p), which serve to keep the bottom from bending too much with the weight of the cargo, and help still further to bind the waggon together. On open colonial roads, the side chests are generally rectangular, but we have seen them on the waggons of elephant hunters, brought to a sharp point forward, because, in passing through a thickly-wooded country, trees or stumps would knock off in passing the corners of a rectangular chest. We think, for economy of room, a long chest, tapered at both ends, as shown in our sketch, might be adopted; and if there were a probability of the waggon chests being required for a boat, as described at pp. 140-144, this might be made in two lengths, as we have shown it, so that the ends would serve for the respective ends of the boat or raft. They would be secured either by bolts and nuts, or by lashings of hide to the cross-bars and to the stancheons of the waggon sides. Padlocks and hasps are generally used, but a very stout branch may tear them off. Rim locks would be better, were it not that the same cause might disarrange the set of the lid, and prevent its fitting properly. A couple of stout knees and chocks should be screwed or bolted on to the after part of the floor for the water cask to rest in, and this should be securely lashed, and never allowed to stand or travel without at least a day’s water in it, both to keep it from shrinking and leakage, and also as a prevention against any unexpected emergency or failure of supply.
Fig. 4 is a plan of as much as is necessary to show of the “under stell,” or carriage. The same letters are attached to the parts. The junction of the two bars (j) of the after tong with the “lang wagen” is shown more distinctly. p is the head of the schammel bolt or perch bolt, which passes down through the schammel and axle, allowing the latter to turn freely. The top of the schammel is seen partly hiding the arms of the axle, underneath it; in its ends are the mortices for the rungs. q is the lifter, composed of two parts—the “legter voet,” or upright, with two mortices, corresponding to the height of the fore and after axles—and the “legter hout,” or lever, which is passed through the required mortice and forelocked by an iron pin. The shorter end is generally armed with one or more iron studs, to keep it from slipping; the longer end is tapered and rounded just so as to be easily grasped. Sometimes, when iron reim shoes are not to be had, or are worn out, a log of wood is roughly shaped and slightly hollowed (r) to receive the tire of the wheel, and, instead of chain, is attached to the fore tong by a stout hide rope. A short end is also left near the reim schoen, to hook round the felloe of the wheel.
For rough work, such as carrying stones or packages of unhandy form or dimensions, a “buik waggon” is very convenient. In this the regular lang wagen is released from the fore tong, and either replaced by a rough beam of any required length, or the beam is simply lashed under the original lang wagen, and its end is trimmed down so as to be inserted into the jaws of the fore tong; but as the bolt might probably split and draw out from the unprotected wood, the drag chains should be led aft from the ring-bolt, and hooked on as tightly as possible to the after axle, a turn or two being taken, if they are too long, round both the lang wagen and the pole by which it is lengthened. They may be set up tight by using reims of raw hide as lanyards.
The sides consist of a couple of stout planks set on edge—a couple of 21ft. deals for instance. Cross-bars are lashed under these at intervals, to keep the bottom from sagging.
Extemporary waggon.
A durable and convenient form of waggon can be extemporised in any wild country where wood and raw hides are procurable by proceeding as follows: First from dead, but sound, trees, or seasoned wood (see “Wood, to season”), fashion the pieces for your waggon bed frame, as shown in the illustration below. Both the fore and hind axle trees are composed of two pieces of wood matched so as to lay evenly on each other. On the surface of contact of each piece-half holes are cut for the admission of the pole (A), prong piece (B), and cross prong ends (C). The perch bolt (D) should be an iron pin, but may be a hard wood treenail. Either lashings of raw hide or treenails may be used for securing the upper and lower axle pieces to each other. The lower piece of wood, or axle bar, should be composed of some hard dense, yet tough, wood, as the axles have to be formed from it. The butt end of the prong piece (E) is so adjusted as to travel forward and backward on the pole, thus lengthening or shortening the body of the waggon. There are two methods by which the regulation of the prong piece is effected. One is to have a train of holes in the pole and one hole in the butt end of the prong piece for a pin to pass through, which being driven down through one of the holes in the pole holds it at that length. We, however, prefer hollowing out the lower surface of the prong-piece butt with a gouge until it fits on the pole after the manner of a hollow slide or rider. This we lash fast to the pole with a long strip of raw hide, taking several turns both before and behind the joint. The prong piece must be cut from a natural fork of suitable size and length. The butt end should be left at least 18in. long, in order that sufficient bearing surface may be left to rest on the pole under the hide lashing. By adopting this mode of regulating the movements of the prong, a pole of moderate and convenient size may be used without fear of breakage. A very stout pole is required for the pin plan, as the auger holes bored through it tend greatly to decrease its strength. The four upright posts (F, F, F, F) are fitted into four square holes chiselled out in the upper axle piece for the purpose of receiving them; and they serve to secure the planks, hurdles, wattle work, or poles forming the sides of the waggon.
Directions for building and fitting wheels have been given in a former portion of our work; and we need therefore only repeat that slices cut from suitable-sized log ends form very fair makeshift wheels (see p. 366); but care should be taken, if native carts are used in the region where the makeshift waggon is building, to ascertain the gauge at which their wheels are set and regulate yours accordingly, or the wheel tracks on these trails will not match with yours, and so cause strains and breakages. The adjustment of the contrivance just described will entirely depend on the purpose for which it is from time to time required. For the conveyance of the packs and baggage of a large party it may be drawn out to its full length, as shown in the illustration (p. [440]), leaving only pole enough for the attachment of draught animals. By bringing the prong piece farther back a short four-wheeled waggon can be formed, and by slipping the fore axle and prong over the end of the pole you leave the perch and hinder axle to be used as a two-wheeled cart, whilst an extra pole fitted to the first axle and prong makes a second pair-wheeled cart just as handy as the other. Should there be but two available draught animals for the two carts, shafts can be used instead of poles. These are easily made by lashing on poles with raw hide, or cutting wide prong-shaped branches which spread out wide at the butt, which must be left long enough to fit into the pole hole of the axle piece, when, if cut with a good curve, these shafts will somewhat resemble those of a Hansom cab. Acting somewhat on this principle, the Californian teamsters make use at times of a sort of train waggon, which, with a powerful mule team, is, over favourable ground, worked entire; but when the vicissitudes of travel require it, they work each separate compartment of the waggon just as we should an ordinary cart.
Cape wine waggon.
About the year 1842, we were accustomed to see the primitive wine waggon of the Cape Colony toiling over the dreary waste of shifting sands known as the Cape Flats. Its wheels were large and broad, the hinder ones being often 7ft. in diameter. The fore and after carriages were connected by a long fir pole, and the sides and bottom were formed of six or eight trees of the same kind, so arranged as to form a convenient bed for two or three beakers of wine. At the hinder end would be a tent and sides of wattled work, or perhaps the sides of an ordinary waggon, with the tent attached, would be fitted temporarily on, so as to form a place of shelter for the owner and his family. It was generally drawn by twenty or twenty-two oxen.
The illustration on [p. 440] represents one of these wine waggons; and, as it may so happen that the lot of the settler may be cast in regions resembling the district we have just spoken of, it may be well that he should know how to construct a conveyance of this kind, as the fore part of the waggon affords ample space for stowing away barrels or bales. As will be seen, on reference to the illustration, the length of the waggon can, like that before described, be regulated according to the requirements of the owner.
Indian gharrie.
The illustration below represents a vehicle in which we performed some very rough travelling through Central India. Its cover, or tent, was composed of painted cotton cloth stretched over bamboo hoops and nailed to the framework. On the bottom, or bed, of our conveyance we placed a stout matress stuffed with cotton. Our rifles, guns, water barrel, and revolvers hung in pouches against the inside of the waggon tent. The door was at the rear. The windows had curtains fitted to them. The bullock teams varied in strength from one pair to three, according to the character of the country travelled through. Conveyances much like this in construction, and of admirable quality, are manufactured at Ahmednugger, in the Bombay Presidency. When travelling in this vehicle our heavy baggage followed in two hackeries, or country carts, each drawn by two pairs of bullocks. These hackeries, like the arobas of the Tartars, merely consist of an axle, a pair of rough strong wheels, a pole, and number of odd poles, sticks, and pieces of board bound together with hide. Our men were much puzzled in Crim-Tartary when we overtook, on the only road leading from passes perfectly impracticable for wheeled carriages, several of the bullock arobas of the country laden with bales of skins and bags of grain. The Tartars had simply taken their arobas to pieces by casting off the hide lashings, packed the bullocks, themselves, and their wolfish-looking dogs, with the divided loads and waggon gear, marched over the passes, and then put the whole affair in travelling trim again. With our horses and packed mules we had no such difficulty to contend against. Much like these in construction is the single-ox cart of Red River. In this the ox is harnessed very much as a horse would be, working between a pair of ordinary shafts. Each driver conducts his own train, which may consist of a dozen carts. The oxen are driven with a long-handled, heavy-thonged whip, which is a sort of compromise between the whip of a Cape waggoner and that of an Australian stock-man. Each of these primitive carts is capable of transporting about 9cwt. of buffalo flesh and hides from the hunting grounds to the depôt of the hunters.
Horse and mule waggons.
Horse and mule waggons and carts vary so much in construction according to the nature of the country they are used in, and to the purpose for which they are intended, that it would be impossible to describe one-tenth of their number. The mode of harnessing, too, differs in almost every country. Whilst we, in England, usually content ourselves with a team harnessed in pairs, the Russians not unfrequently work three and four a-breast. The Spanish and Portuguese race, in their devious wanderings about the world, have taken the enormously high wheel of the Peninsula with them, and delight to see a big-booted postilion, black or white, acting as pilot to the lumbering old-world conveyance they journey in. Scarcely any two artillery services in the world correspond in their draught arrangement—some making use of the pole, whilst others, England amongst the number, use the shafts. Our province being to deal more particularly with vehicles calculated to bear the rough usage and vicissitudes of travel, we naturally turn to vastly extensive countries—where long journeys over hill, plain, and valley are commonly performed—for the best form of waggon to do it with. Experience in these matters is always the best guide. The constant demand almost invariably brings about the required supply. We have no long waggon journeys in England; and, as neither the artillery or military train waggon of this country, nor the “equipage militaire” of France, is in accordance with our notions of what travellers’ mule waggons should be, we go a little farther a-field, and select the Wilson waggon of the United States of America, the subject of the full-page [illustration]. The American mode of harnessing is also shown. All these waggons have wheel friction breaks fitted to them, as had all the Sardinian waggons used during the Crimean war.
THE WILSON MULE WAGGON (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA).
Wheel drags.
In travelling over rough passes and steep acclivities great attention should be paid to the application of proper break power to the wheels. The use of the skid and common drag-chain are too well known to need comment here, only that it may not be amiss to remark, en passant, that, conducting your waggon down the edge of a steep hollow, or ravine, you must have your shoe placed on the wheel away from the drop side. Never use your drag-chain when you can safely do without it, as, by confining the wheel in one position during the descent of steep pitches, the portion of the tire in contact with the ground will be seriously ground and cut up. All comparatively light carts and waggons should have the lever friction breaks before mentioned attached to them. These contrivances are simple in construction, powerful in action, and, by allowing a certain amount of retarded action to the wheel, many advantages are gained. The detail of the break arrangement varies greatly in the different countries in which it is used; but the illustration on [p. 443] will serve to show the principle on which it is constructed. The roller (A) has two stout pieces of hide rope wound round it. These are attached to the break-bar (B), which slides forward and back under the staples (C). By depressing the end of the lever (D) and hooking down its end, the friction blocks (E) are drawn against the surfaces of the wheel tires and retained there with just as much force as is thought requisite. The movements of a waggon train furnished with these contrivances are not retarded and rendered irregular by the constant and harassing stoppages consequent on the leading waggoners skidding and unskidding. On the crest of a steep descent being reached, all the teamster has to do is to heave down his lever to the required pitch, and hook on without stopping his team. On getting near the bottom he unhooks, and is prepared to move smartly up on the rise before him, all the other waggons following his example. In this way there is no check. In going down dangerously-steep inclines it is a good plan to attach a short bushy tree of good weight, root end forwards, by a strong rope or chain to the hind axle.
Makeshift break.
A very effective makeshift break can be made by cutting a tough, stout pole, long enough to extend some distance beyond the diameter of the wheel to be dragged. Lash the ends of the pole to the framework of the waggon, so as to nip the wheel, as shown in the accompanying illustration. Almost any amount of nipping power may be gained by tightening the lashings. A large exploring party, or troops on the march, can also, when requisite, make use of drag ropes, by which to ease a load down a difficult place. When it is desirable to completely lock a pair of wheels, cut down a young tree of suitable size, trim off the branches, and cut it to a length sufficient to pass directly across the bottom of the waggon, through the spokes of each of the wheels to be locked, and extend a couple of feet or so beyond the nave of each wheel a few turns of rope round both the tree and the felloe of the wheel prevents the arrangement from slipping.
This is a very good plan to adopt when a waggon has to be stopped for any time in the middle of a very steep incline. The two wheels on one side of a short-bodied carriage may be locked by applying a rope or chain, as shown in the annexed illustration. By treating both sides alike all four wheels would be locked, as when waggons are drawn up to resist attacking Indians, only that chain must be used in order to prevent the locking from being cut free, and the waggon being started out of its place.
Substitute for wheels.
If one wheel of a four-wheeled carriage gets broken on a journey, or when some distance out of camp, and there is no spare wheel to replace it, make the two fore wheels good, leaving the deficiency with the hind axle; then cut down a tree about 8in. or 9in. in diameter, cut a deep notch in its large end, lay this on the axle directly inside the fore wheel on the side towards the absent hind wheel; measure the length of the tree, and see that it is long enough to trail on the ground sledge, runner fashion, behind the carriage, round up the ground end, like the toe of a skate, with your axe; cut another notch on its upper surface for the end of the axle from which the broken wheel came to rest in. Now lash both the front and hind axles in their places firmly, as shown in the annexed illustration, and you will be at least able to get to a convenient place to effect a perfect repair; and here we would advise the reader never to despair of making a successful mend in almost any case of breakages among wheeled carriages, provided wood, a few tools, and raw hide can be obtained. A raw hide band, properly fitted on wet, and allowed to dry gradually, is little less reliable than good wrought iron, and far more so than bad.
Waggon equipment.
Every wheeled carriage used in exploring or travelling long journeys should have its own grease box secured in a convenient situation; just above and before the near fore wheel is a good place. The form of the common Indian bamboo grease box is shown at [p. 359], illustration No. 3. A good-sized ox-horn makes a convenient grease box. A mixture of Stockholm tar, 6lb., and fat, 1lb., makes a good grease. If a little common plumbago can be got to put into it, so much the better. In countries where native vegetable oils are abundant, they may be used, instead of the fat, to mix with the tar. Bear in mind that keeping the wheels well greased is a duty of no common importance. In hot countries it is an excellent plan to work the naves of the wheels over with strong twine, just as boys work balls in some parts of England. The twine-work affords a holdfast for a thick layer of wet cowdung, or clay, which should be renewed whenever the waggons are stationary for the day or night. We never omit this custom when it can be by any possibility adhered to. By keeping the nave moist the spokes of the wheel remain tight. It is a good plan to well water the ground under each wheel when encamping on very dry ground. The treatment of injured wheels will be found at pp. [219], 220. When any of the ironwork of your waggon becomes bent from an upset, or other accident, never attempt to straighten it cold. Light a fire, heat it to a red heat, hammer it back to its proper form, and then let it cool gradually before putting it in its place. Plunging it suddenly in cold water is apt to render the metal brittle. In the purchase of all iron fittings for either waggon work or horse equipment, about which we shall have more to say as our work proceeds, insist on seeing it, without paint or varnish, bare from the forge, as you can then see that there are no hollows, cracks, or defects in it. It is wonderful what a number of shortcomings a good thick coat of coal-tar will cover when laid on over the hot metal. Avoid malleable cast iron as you would a broken limb. It cannot be bent without the danger of nipping off short. When broken, it cannot be welded or faggoted up. It is not reliable in any way, and is a mere delusion and snare to the unwary; and yet, incredible as it may appear, not only the greater portion of the cheap horse equipment iron sent to the colonies is made from it, but we have ourselves seen more than one attempt made by unscrupulous contractors to introduce it in Government work, where wrought metal had been specially insisted on and agreed for. An experienced man will generally detect the nature of the material at once, but the inexperienced requires some rough and ready way of judging of the quality of that which he is about to purchase. Buckles, D’s, rings, hooks, &c., will not unfrequently show the mark of the mould in which they were cast. If there is no such mark, take one of the suspected objects in the tongs, put it on an anvil, and with a light hammer knock it about a little to see if it breaks up; as a further test put it in the forge fire, heat it to a bright red heat, cut and open out the object to its full length, and then proceed, with your hammer, to draw out the end, as if you were going to make a long sharp nail from it. If the suspected metal is wrought iron it readily takes the spike form, but if malleable it will give under the hammer and break up. Too much care cannot be exercised in the selection of all matters of iron intended to meet the vicissitudes of rough travel. The iron of Sweden, Russia, and India is excellent when it is obtained of native manufacture. Its admirable purity and toughness partly depend on the quality of the ore from which it is obtained, but mainly from the absence of sulphur in its composition. This arises from charcoal being used as a fuel for smelting instead of the coal made use of in this country, which, from its containing considerable quantities of sulphuret of iron (the mundic of the miners), is but ill-adapted for the production of iron of high quality. Thoroughly good iron is convertible and reconvertible into an endless number of objects of usefulness. Thus, the links of an old chain make excellent staples; these, when broken, can be worked up into nails, and pieces of these, when filed up, are used to make goad points and many other things. Every waggon should have its “odd and end” box for small matters in iron, such as linch pins, S hooks, D’s, spikes, union links, &c., &c. All these are worth their weight in gold in a wild country, and must, therefore, be kept carefully out of the reach of natives.
Field artillery.
The settler in the vicinity of a frontier beyond which native tribes, who may become hostile at any time, reside will not unfrequently find it useful to know how field artillery and the waggons belonging to it are handled in cases of breakage. Well-organised labour will perform more in a few minutes than would double the amount of force in hours expended in ill-directed efforts. Works exclusively on artillery matters rarely reach the hands of any save officers in that branch of the service. We, therefore, give the following directions for the management of disabled field artillery, furnished by General Lefroy, R.A., F.R.S., in his handbook of “Field Artillery Service.”