To measure the Number of Cubic Feet of Water conveyed by a River in each Second.
In traversing regions watered by rivers and running streams, it not unfrequently becomes important to ascertain the speed at which they flow in their downward course towards the sea, and the following directions given by Captain George, R.N., are so perfectly clear and practical that both time and trouble will be saved by the traveller who follows them out in conducting his investigations. The data required are—the area of the river, section, and the average velocity of the whole current. All that a traveller is likely to obtain without special equipment is the area of the river, section, and the average velocity of the “surface” of the current which differs from that of its entire body, owing to fractional retardation at the bottom.
To make the necessary measurements, choose a piece where the river runs steadily in a straight and deep channel and where a boat can be had. Prepare half a dozen floats of dry bushes, with paper flags, and be assured they will act. Post an assistant on the river bank at a measured distance (of about 100 yards), down stream, in face of a well-marked object; row across stream, in a straight line, keeping two objects on a line in order to maintain your course. Sound at regular intervals from shore to shore, fixing your position on each occasion by a sextant angle between your starting place and your assistant’s station, and throw the floats overboard, signalling to your assistant when you do so, that he may note the interval that elapses before they severally arrive opposite him. Take an angle from the opposite shore to give the breadth of the river. To make the calculation approximately, protract the section of the river on a paper, ruled to scale in square feet, and count the number of squares in the area of the section. Multiply this by the number of feet between you and the assistant, and divide by the number of seconds that the floats occupied on an average in reaching him.
Important rivers should always be measured above and below their confluence, for it settles the question of their relative sizes, and throws great light on the rainfall over their respective basins. The sectional area at the time of the highest water, as shown by marks on the banks and the slope of the bed, ought also to be ascertained.
On obtaining Geographical Information from Natives or Frontier Colonists.
Many highly-accomplished travellers fail to obtain much reliable information beyond the actual limit of their own observation, because they do not sufficiently allow for the great difference in the manner of expressing a geographical idea between an educated European observer and an untutored savage; and yet it would not be too much to say that the latter has often enough a thoroughly practical idea of the district he actually knows.
The man who wants information must not talk latitude and longitude to a native or to an uneducated European, nor must he expect them to shape their answers to the form in which he expects to receive them; for if he does he may be told that “rivers run from the sea to the mountains,” and other absurdities, which are related as proofs of native stupidity, when they are in reality no more than discrepancies between the form of question and that of the answer. At the same time he must estimate the mental calibre of his informant, and avoid wearying him too much; for sometimes the native mind, over burdened with a succession of ideas, becomes confused, and not unfrequently suspicious, and in this last case actual falsehoods will be told, in order to gain time to find out the intention of the questioner, before the truth is revealed.
In all dealings with natives the European must remember that they have no idea of the value we place upon time; there is no use in saying, “Let us come to the point at once.” It is far better, indeed it is absolutely necessary, to delay judiciously, as there is always an implied contest between visitors; and the man who is in a hurry to speak loses dignity. Do not disturb your informant’s train of thought, but try to accommodate your own to it. Let him tell as minutely and tediously as he pleases how he has travelled; how long he walked with the rising sun on his right or left; how much he turned either way; where he halted for rest or refreshment; whether he crossed rivers on foot or in canoes; induce him, if possible, to trace a map upon the ground, in doing which he will most probably begin by making the direction of all his lines coincide with the actual bearing of the country; for natives, though they may be brought to comprehend a map when its north point coincides with the real north, cannot believe that it is also right when it is placed in any other position. We have frequently tested Hottentots with regard to the direction of places a thousand miles distant, and have found them point as correctly as we could take the bearing with a pocket compass.
Sometimes it will be found that the same individual will give a river a dozen different names; and this is often because, in speaking of the different parts of it, he gives to each the name of the chief who has his village there, and who “drinks water” at the place which is called after him; therefore, endeavour to ascertain whether the river has a real name, and do not apply to it the first and, perhaps, the most inappropriate name that is given.
Europeans who have settled in the colonies, and have become traders or hunters, frequently push very far into the interior, and such men have generally very clear ideas of direction and locality, but are often very modest and diffident when asked to furnish information to be laid down on paper. In 1849, while staying at the Vaal River, we persuaded our friend Macabe, with some difficulty, to give us the length in “hours” and the direction of the various stages of his journey on the river Limpopo. These, with the rivers, mountains, villages, and other features of the country, we laid down, on a scale of one inch to a mile, on several sheets of cartridge paper, and tested the correctness of our work by laying it on the floor, with its north coinciding with the real north, and requesting our Dutch visitors to stand as if they were about commencing the same journey, and indicate how much they turned to the right or left as they proceeded.
The following facts relating to time should be impressed on the memory of every traveller:—The earth is divided in its circumference into 360°; the day is divided into twenty-four hours. It therefore follows that 15° of longitude will represent one hour of time; consequently, as you travel towards the east, when you have journeyed over 15°, you will have gained one hour on the sun, which will rise just one hour earlier than it did at the starting point.
If natives accompany you on a journey, ask them to point in the direction of places at different times, and particularly to tell you when you are exactly abreast of them, as well as before, and after you have passed, and thus, by a kind of rough triangulation, you will gain their approximate position.
If cattle stray to great distances, ask the men who go after them the reason of their having taken any particular direction, and you will probably gain some information respecting the form of valleys or mountains, and perhaps of watering places.
In North Australia we were led by the tracks of horses, which had been lost about a fortnight, to a considerable stream.
CHAPTER XXI.
HINTS TO EXPLORERS ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING
OBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY.
By the courtesy of Mr. H. W. Bates, F.R.C.S. and Asst. Sec. R.G.S., we are enabled to furnish our readers with the following valuable and practical information regarding the gathering together and preserving such objects of natural history as he may be fortunate enough to discover:—
Travellers (says Mr. Bates) who intend devoting themselves especially to natural history will generally possess all the requisite information beforehand. It is to those whose objects or duties are of another nature, or who, whilst on a purely geographical land expedition, wish to know the readiest means of collecting, preserving, and safely transmitting specimens they collect, that the following hints are addressed.
Outfit.
Double barrel guns with spare nipples, and a few common guns to lend to native hunters, especially if going to the interior of tropical America. Fine powder in canisters, and fine shot (Nos. 8 and 11), must be taken from England; coarse powder and shot can be had in any part; a good supply of the best caps. Arsenical soap, a few pounds in tin cases; brushes of different sizes; two or three scalpels; scissors (including a pair of short bladed ones); forceps of different sizes for inserting cotton into the necks of birds’ skins; needles and thread. A few small traps with which to capture small (mostly nocturnal) animals; strong landing net for water mollusks, &c.; two stout insect sweeping nets; cylindrical tin box, with shoulder strap, for collecting plants; a few dozen of small and strong broad-mouthed bottles, and a couple of corked pocket boxes; insect pins, a few ounces each of Nos. 5, 14, and 11; stone jars, for reptiles and fishes in spirit, to fit four in a box, with wooden partitions. If animals in spirit are to be collected largely, a supply of sheet tin, or zinc, with a pair of soldering irons, and a supply of soft solder, must be taken instead of stone jars: cylindrical cases can be then made of any size required. By means of the soldering apparatus also empty powder canisters or other tin vessels can be easily converted into receptacles for specimens; a ream or two of botanical drying paper, with boards of same size as the sheet, and leather straps; a few gross of chip pill boxes in nests; a dozen corked store boxes (about 14in. by 11in. and 2½in. deep) fitted perpendicularly in a tin chest; a few yards of indiarubber waterproof sheeting, as temporary covering to collections in wet weather, or in crossing rivers; a set of carpenter’s tools.
An outfit may be much lightened by having all the provisions and other consumable articles packed in square tin cases, and in boxes and jars of such forms as may render them available for containing specimens. If the traveller is going to the humid regions of the Indian Archipelago, South-Eastern Asia, or tropical America, where excessive moisture, mildew, and ants are great enemies to the naturalist, he should add to his outfit two drying cages, for everything that is not put at once into spirits is liable to be destroyed before it is dry enough to be stowed away in boxes. They may be made of light wood, so arranged as to take to pieces and put together again readily; one for birds should be about 2ft. 6in. long by 1ft. 6in. high, and 1ft. broad; the other for insects and other small specimens may be about one-third less. They should have folding doors in front, having panels of perforated zinc, and the backs wholly of the latter material; the sides fitted with racks to hold six or eight plain shelves, which in the smaller cage should be covered with cork or any soft wood that may be obtained in tropical countries. A strong fixed ring, fastened in the top of the cage, with a cord having a hook attached to the end, by which to hang it in an airy place; it will keep the contained specimens out of harm’s way until they are quite dry, when they may be stowed away in close fitting boxes. If this plan be not adopted, it will be almost impossible to preserve specimens in these countries.
The countries which are now the least known with regard to their natural history are New Guinea and the large islands to the east of it, Northern Australia, the island of Borneo, Tibet, and other parts of Central Asia, Equatorial Africa, and the eastern side of the Andes, from the east of Bogota to the south of Bolivia.
Collecting.
In most of the better-known countries botany has been better investigated than zoology; and in most countries there still remains much to be done in ascertaining the exact station and the range both vertical and horizontal of known species. This leads us to one point which cannot be too strongly insisted on, namely, that some means should be adopted by the traveller to record the exact locality of the specimens he collects. In the larger-dried animals this may be done by written tickets attached to the specimens; in pinned insects a letter or number may be fixed on the pins of all specimens taken at one place and time, the mark to refer to a note book. The initial letter, or first two or three letters of the locality, is perhaps the readiest plan; and when all the specimens taken at one place can be put into a separate box, one memorandum upon the box itself will be sufficient. Reptiles and fishes can have small parchment tickets attached to them before placing them in spirits. A traveller may be puzzled in the midst of the profusion of animal and vegetable forms which he sees around him, to know what to secure and what to leave. Books can be of very little service to him on a journey, and he had better at once abandon all ideas of encumbering himself with them. A few days’ study at the principal museums before he starts on his voyage may teach him a great deal, and the cultivation of a habit of close observation and minute comparison of the specimens he obtains will teach him a great deal more. As a general rule, all species which he may meet with for the first time far in the interior should be preferred to those common near the civilised parts. He should strive to obtain as much variety as possible, and not fill his boxes and jars with quantities of specimens of one or a few species. But as some of the rarest and most interesting species have great resemblance to others which may be more common, he should avail himself of every opportunity of comparing the objects side by side. In most tropical countries the species found in open and semi-cultivated places are much less interesting than those inhabiting the interior of the forests; and it generally happens that the few handsome kinds which attract the attention of the natives are species well known in European museums.
In botany, a traveller, if obliged to restrict his collecting, might confine himself to those plants which are remarkable for their economical uses, always taking care to identify the flowers of the tree or shrub whose root, bark, leaves, wood, &c., are used by the natives, and preserving a few specimens of them. But, if he is the first to ascend any high mountain, he should make as general a collection of the flowering plants as possible at the higher elevations. The same may be said of insects found on mountains, where they occur in very great diversity; on the shady and cold sides rather than on the sunny slopes; under stones and about the roots of herbage, especially near springs; on shrubs and low trees, and so forth; for upon a knowledge of the plants and insects of mountain ranges depend many curious questions in the geographical distribution of forms over the earth.
In reptiles, the smaller Batrachia (frogs, salamanders, &c.) should not be neglected, especially the extremely numerous family of tree frogs. Lizards may be caught generally with the insect-sweeping net; the arboreal species, seen out of reach, may be brought down with a charge of dust shot. Snakes should be taken without injuring the head, which is the most important part of the body. A cleft stick may be used in securing them by the neck, and on reaching camp they may be dropped into the jars of spirits. As large a collection as possible should be made of the smaller fishes of inland lakes and unexplored rivers. Dr. Günther, of the British Museum, has authorised me to say that a traveller cannot fail to make a large number of interesting discoveries if he collects a few specimens of the species he meets with in the lakes and rivers of the interior of any country. It can scarcely be expected that specimens of the larger animals can be brought away by a geographical expedition, although some species are still desiderata in the large museums of Europe. Additional specimens of all genera, of which there are numerous closely-allied species (e.g., rhinoceros, antelopes, equus, &c.), would be very welcome for the better discrimination of the species. If only portions can be obtained, skulls are to be preferred. In humid tropical regions, entire skins cannot be dried in time to prevent decay, and it is necessary to place them, rolled up in a small compass, in spirits. The smaller mammals, of which there remain many to reward the explorer in almost all extra-European countries, may be skinned, dried, and packed in boxes in the same manner as birds. The smaller birds shot on an excursion should be carried to camp in the game bag, folded in paper, the wounds, mouth, and anus being first plugged with cotton. Powdered calcined gypsum will here be found very useful in absorbing blood from feathers, on account of the facility with which it can be afterwards cleared from the specimens. All plants, when gathered, are placed in the tin box which the traveller carries with him. Land and fresh water shells may be carried home in a bag. All hard-bodied insects, such as beetles, ants, and so forth should be placed, in collecting, in small bottles, each bottle having a piece of slightly-moistened rag placed within it, to prevent the insects from crowding and injuring each other. The hint previously given, with regard to numbers of specimens, must be repeated here. Take as great a variety of species as possible, the sweeping-net should be freely used (except in very wet weather) in sweeping and beating the herbage and lower trees. In collecting ants, it is necessary to open nests and secure the winged individuals of each species, which must be afterwards kept together with the wingless ones to secure the identification of the species. Bees and wasps may be caught in the net and then placed, by means of small forceps, in the collecting bottle, and afterwards killed in the same way as beetles and other hard-bodied insects. All soft-bodied insects should be killed on capture (by a slight pressure of the chest underneath the wings by thumb and finger), and then pinned in the pocket collecting box. If the traveller has leisure and inclination for the pursuit, he may readily make a large and varied collection of these, and will do good service to science if he notes carefully the exact localities of his captures, altitude above the sea, nature of country, the sexes of the species, if detected, and information on habits. The delicate species should be handled very carefully and put away into the drying cage immediately on return from an excursion. Spiders may be collected in bottles, and afterwards killed and pinned in the same way as other insects. Crustacea (shrimps, crawfish, &c.) in rivers and pools may be collected with the landing net, and afterwards well dried and pinned like hard-bodied insects, except when they are large in size, when their bodies must be opened, and emptied of their contents.
Preserving and packing.
Previous to skinning a small mammal or bird make a note of the colour of its eyes and soft parts, and, if time admits, of the dimensions of its trunk and limbs. It facilitates skinning of birds to break, before commencing, the first bone of the wings a short distance above the joint, which causes the members to lie open when the specimen is laid on its back on the skinning board. The animal should be laid with its tail towards the right hand of the operator, and the incision made from the breast bone nearly to the anus. A blunt wooden style is useful in commencing the operation of separating the skin from the flesh. When the leg is reached, cut through the knee joint, and then clear the flesh from the shank as far as can be done, afterwards washing the bone slightly with arsenical soap, winding a thin slip of cotton round it, and returning it to the skin. Repeat the process with the other leg, and then sever with the broad-bladed scissors the spine above the root of the tail. By carefully cutting into the flesh from above the spine is finally severed without injuring the skin of the back, and it is then easy to continue the skinning up to the wings, when the bones are cut through at the place where they had previously been broken, and the body finished as far as the commencement of the skull. A small piece of the skull is now cut away, together with the neck and body, and the brains and eyes are scooped out, the inside washed with soap, and clean cotton filled in, the eyes especially being made plump. In large headed parrots, woodpeckers, and some other birds, the head cannot thus be cleansed; an incision has therefore to be made either on one side or on the back of the neck, through which the back of the skull can be thrust a little way and then cleansed, the incision being afterwards closed by two or three stitches. The bones then remaining in each wing must be cleansed, but so as not to loosen the quill feathers. It is much better to take out the flesh by making an incision on the outside of the skin along the flesh on the inner side of the wing. The inside of the skin must now be washed with the soap, and a neck of cotton (not too thick) inserted by means of long narrow forceps, taking care to fix the end well inside the skull, and withdrawing the empty forceps without stretching the skin of the neck and thus distorting the shape of the bird. Skins need not be filled up with cotton or any other material, but laid with the feathers smoothed down on the boards of the drying cage until they are ready to be packed in boxes. In very humid climates like that of Tropical America, oxide of arsenic in powder is preferable to arsenical soap, on account of the skins drying quicker, but it cannot be recommended to the general traveller, owing to the danger attending its use.
In mammals the tail offers some difficulty to a beginner. To skin it, the root (after severing it from the spine) should be secured by a piece of strong twine, which should then be attached to a nail or beam. With two pieces of flat wood (one placed on each side of the naked root) held firmly by the hand and pulled downwards, the skin is made rapidly to give way generally to the tip. The tails of some animals, however, can be skinned only by incisions made down the middle from the outside. The larger mammal skins may be inverted, and, after washing with soap, dried in the sun; and, as before remarked, it is often necessary to roll them up and preserve in spirits. The skins of small mammals and birds, after they are quite dry, may be packed in boxes, which must be previously well washed inside with arsenical soap, lined with paper, and again covered with a coating of the soap, and well dried in the sun. This is the very best means of securing the specimens from the attacks of noxious insects, which so often, to the great disgust of the traveller, destroy what he has taken so much pains to secure. Where wood is scarce, as in the interior of Africa, boxes may be made of the skins of antelopes, or other large animals, by stretching them when newly stripped from the animal over a square framework of sticks, and sewing up the edges after being dried in the sun; they make excellent packing-cases. With regard to reptiles and fishes, I cannot do better than quote the following remarks sent to me by Mr. Osbert Salvin, who collected these animals most successfully in Guatemala:—"Almost any spirit will answer for this purpose, its fitness consisting in the amount of alcohol contained in it. In all cases it is best to procure the strongest, being less bulky, and the water can always be obtained to reduce the strength to the requisite amount. When the spirit sold retail by natives is not sufficiently strong, by visiting the distillery the traveller can often obtain the first runnings (the strongest) of the still, which will be stronger than he requires undiluted. The spirit used should be reduced to about proof, and the traveller should always be provided with an alcoholometer. If this is not at hand, a little practice will enable him to ascertain the strength of the spirit from the rapidity with which the bubbles break when rising to the surface of a small quantity shaken in a bottle. When the spirit has been used, this test is of no value. When animals or fish are first immersed, it will be found that the spirit becomes rapidly weaker. Large specimens absorb the alcohol very speedily. The rapidity with which this absorption takes place should be carefully watched, and in warm climates the liquid tested at least every twelve hours, and fresh spirit added to restore it to its original strength. In colder climates it is not requisite to watch so closely, but practice will show what attention is necessary. It will be found that absorption of alcohol will be about proportionate to the rate of decomposition. Spirit should not be used too strong, as its effect is to contract the outer surface, and thus closing the pores prevent the alcohol from penetrating through to the inner parts of the specimen. The principal point, then, is to watch that the strength of the spirit does not get below a certain point while the specimen is absorbing alcohol when first put in. It will be found that after two or three days the spirit retains its strength; when this is the case, the specimen will be perfectly preserved. Spirit should not be thrown away, no matter how often used, so long as the traveller has a reserve sufficient to bring it back to its requisite strength. In selecting specimens for immersion, regard must be had to the means at the traveller’s disposal. Fish up to 9in. long may be placed in spirit with simply a slit cut to allow the spirit to enter to the entrails. With larger specimens it is better to pass a long knife outside the ribs, so as to separate the muscles on each side of the vertebra. It is also as well to remove as much food from the entrails as possible, taking care to leave all these in. The larger specimens can be skinned, leaving, however, the intestines in, and simply removing the flesh; very large specimens preserved in this way absorb very little spirit. All half-digested food should be removed from snakes and animals. In spite of these precautions specimens will often appear to be decomposing, but by more constant attention to re-strengthening the spirit they will in most cases be preserved. A case (copper is best) with a top that can be unscrewed and refixed easily, should always be carried as a receptacle; the opening should be large enough to allow the hand to be inserted. This is to hold freshly caught specimens. When they have become preserved they can all be removed and soldered up in tin or zinc boxes; zinc is best, as it does not corrode so easily. The traveller will find it very convenient to take lessons in soldering, and so make his own boxes. (For directions for soldering, see [p. 210] of this work.) If he takes them ready made they had best be arranged so as to fit one into another before they are filled. When moving about, all specimens should be wrapped in calico, linen, or other rags, to prevent their rubbing one against the other. This should also be done to the specimens in the copper case when a move is necessary, as well as to those finally packed for transportation to Europe. These last should have all their interstices between the specimens filled in with cotton wool or rags. If a leak should occur in a case, specimens thus packed will still be maintained moist, and will keep some time without much injury. Proof spirit should be used when the specimens are finally packed, but it is not necessary that it should be fresh. Land and fresh-water shells, on reaching camp, should be placed in a basin of cold water to entice the animals out, and then, after draining off, killed by pouring boiling water over them. They may be cleansed of flesh by means of a strong pin or penknife. The operculum or mouthpiece of all shells which possess it should be preserved and placed inside the empty shell. Each shell when dry should be wrapped in a piece of paper and the collection packed in a box well padded with cotton or other dry and elastic material.
“The insects collected on an excursion should be attended to immediately on arrival in camp. When leisure and space are limited all the hard-bodied ones may be put in bottles of spirit, and each bottle when nearly full should be filled up to the cork with a piece of rag, to prevent injury from shaking. Many species, however, become stained by spirit, and it is far better in dry countries, such as Africa, Australia, and Central Asia, to preserve all the hard bodied ones in a dry state in pill boxes. They are killed whilst in the collecting bottles by plunging for a few minutes the bottom half of the bottles in hot water. An hour afterwards the contents are shaken out over blotting paper and put into pill boxes, the bottoms of the boxes being padded with cotton, over which is placed a circular piece of blotting paper. The open pill boxes should then be placed in the drying cage for a day or two, and then filled up with more cotton, the layer of insects being first covered with a circular piece of paper.[C] The soft bodied specimens which are brought home pinned, should be stuck in the drying cage until they are dry, and then pinned very close together in the store boxes. The store boxes both bottom and sides should each have inside a coating of arsenical soap before they are corked, and as they become filled one by one should be washed outside with the soap and pasted all over with paper. Camphor and other preservatives are of little or no use in tropical climates. In some countries where the traveller may wish to make a collection of the butterfly fauna, the best way is to preserve all the specimens in little paper envelopes. He should be careful not to press the insects too flat, simply killing them by pressure underneath the breast, folding their wings carefully backwards and slipping them each into its envelope. In very humid tropical countries, such as the river valleys of tropical America and the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the plan of stowing away even hard-bodied insects in pill boxes does not answer on account of the mould with which they soon become covered. There are, then, only two methods that can be adopted; one, preserving them at once in spirits, the other, pinning all those over a quarter of an inch long (running the pin through the right wing case, so as to come out beneath between the second and third pair of legs), and gumming those of smaller size on small sheets of card, cut of uniform size, so as to fit perpendicularly in racked boxes like those used to contain microscopical slides but larger. The cards may be a few inches square, and each may hold several scores of specimens very lightly gummed down a short distance apart. After the cards are filled they should be well dried, and the box containing them washed outside with arsenical soap, and pasted over with paper. All the pinned specimens should be placed to dry for a few days in the drying cage, and afterwards pinned very close together in the cork store boxes.
“Plants are dried by pressure, by means of the boards and straps, between sheets of botanical drying paper, the paper requiring to be changed three or four times. When dry the specimens may be placed between sheets of old newspapers, together with notes the traveller may have made upon them, each placed upon the object to which it refers. Bundles of papers containing plants are not of difficult carriage, but they require to be guarded against wet, especially in fording rivers and in rainy weather, and should be wrapped in skins or India rubber sheeting until they can be safely packed in wooden boxes and despatched to Europe.
“Seeds may be collected when quite ripe, and preserved in small packets of botanical paper with numbers written on them, referring to preserved specimens of the flowers.
“Dry fruits and capsules should be collected when in countries not previously explored by botanists, if the traveller has means of identifying the species to which they belong.
“The collection of fossils and minerals, except in the case of the discovery of new localities for valuable metals, is not to be recommended to the traveller if he is not a geologist. Fossils from an unexplored country are of little use unless the nature and order of superposition of the strata in which they are found can be at the same time investigated. In the cases, however, of recent alluvial strata on the supposed beds of ancient lakes, or deposits in caves, or raised sea beaches containing shells or bones of vertebrate animals, the traveller will do well to bring away specimens if a good opportunity offers. If the plan of the expedition includes the collection of fossil remains, the traveller will of course provide himself with a proper geological outfit and obtain the necessary instructions before leaving Europe.”
Whilst engaged in collecting the beautifully formed and delicate shells found adhering to the minute asperities formed by the process of disintegration on the roofs of the crypts formed by the ancient Tauro-Scythian tribes, we proceeded as follows: After the discovery of an almost crystalline specimen we prepared a soft bed for its reception by arranging in nest form a very soft silk handkerchief in our well worn forage cap, the gold band of which served as a sort of hoop of support. Thus arranged, the nest was held exactly under the fossil shell, which was in most cases freed from its attachments by a single sharp and well directed blow from our pick head on the heel of a sharp well-tempered steel chisel (old files make the best). As the specimens were one by one taken from the cap-nest they were arranged carefully layer after layer in old preserved meat tins, bran being liberally sprinkled in over each distinct layer of shells. On the tin being nearly filled, more bran was added until the packing was firm and complete, the round tin cover was then forced in until about a quarter of an inch from the upper rim of the tin. A few cuts here and there in the tin with a pair of cutting nippers admitted of the turning in of a number of clip pieces by bending the cut tin in elbow form over the cover. These tins when duly numbered and noted were packed in a sixty-gallon barrel with fine soft hay made from steppe grass. The collections thus packed reached England in a perfect state of preservation.
In situations where old preserved meat tins cannot be obtained, large joints of bamboo, or the thin earthen pots used by natives, might be made available for depositing very fragile specimens in. Fine sawdust will answer nearly as well as bran for packing powder; rotten wood from an old decaying log may be rubbed between the hands into fine dust, and made use of for the same purpose. “All collections made in tropical countries should be sent to Europe with the least possible delay, as they soon become deteriorated or spoilt, unless great care is bestowed on them. Dry skins of animals and birds may be packed in wooden cases, simply with sheets of paper to separate the skins. Shells and skulls should be provided with abundance of elastic padding, such as cotton. The boxes containing insects and crustacea should be placed in the middle of large boxes, surrounded by an ample bed of hay, or other light, dry, elastic material; if this last point be not carefully attended to, it will be doubtful whether such collections will sustain a voyage without much injury. Travellers have excellent opportunities of observing the habits of animals in a state of nature, and these hints would be very deficient were not a few words said upon this subject. To know what to observe in the economy of animals is in itself an accomplishment, which it would be unreasonable to expect the general traveller to possess, and without this he may bring home only insignificant details, contributing but little to our stock of knowledge. One general rule, however, may be kept always present to the mind, and this is that anything concerning animals which bears upon the relations of species to their conditions of life is well worth obtaining and recording. Thus, it is important to note the various enemies which each species has to contend with, not only at one epoch in its life, but at every stage from birth to death, and at different seasons and in different localities; the way in which the existence of enemies limits the range of a species should be also noticed. The inorganic influences which inimically affect species, especially intermittently (such as the occurrence of disastrous seasons), and which are likely to operate in limiting their ranges, are also important subjects of inquiry. The migrations of animals, and especially any parts where the irruption of species into districts previously uninhabited by them, are well worth recording. The food of each species should be noticed; and if any change of customary food is observed, owing to the failure of the supply, it should be carefully recorded. The use in nature of any peculiar physical conformation of animals, the object of ornamentation, and so forth, should be also investigated wherever opportunity occurs. Any facts relating to the interbreeding in a state of nature of allied varieties or the converse—that is, the antipathy to intermingling of allied varieties—would be extremely interesting. In short, the traveller should bear in mind that facts having a philosophical bearing are much more important than mere anecdotes about animals. To observe the actions of the larger animals a telescope or opera-glass will be necessary, and the traveller should bear in mind, if a microscope is needed in his journey, that, by reversing the tubes of the telescope, in which all the small glasses are contained, a compound microscope of considerable power is produced.”
Skins, and their treatment.
The hunter of the fur-clad denizens of the forest and the field, who, for the love of sport and the obtainment of trophies of the chase, penetrates to little-known regions; and the hardy and keen trapper—who, with pack, traps, kit, and rifle, steers his own course to the most remote and untrodden solitudes—each require a somewhat different mode by which to fit their spoils when gathered for transport to either the cities of Europe or the trading port of the professional peltry dealers. It would be a hopeless task to attempt giving all the processes had recourse to by both classes of hunters, as many of them are kept scrupulously secret by their discoverers. Indians, too, profess to know more of skin-dressing than they care to divulge. We will, therefore, content ourselves by communicating to the reader such modes of skin-dressing as we have either practised ourselves, picked up from experienced and travelled comrades, or gleaned from the reports and experiences of practical explorers and slayers of large and small game in wild countries.
The character of the climate in which the hunter may be pursuing his vocation will determine the necessity for the immediate removal of the skins of the animals killed from the carcases, or the postponement of the operation until camp is reached and every assistance at hand. In dealing with the larger carnivora of tropical climates, too much expedition cannot be used in the performance of skinning operations. On no account, when by any possibility it can be avoided, should a dead and unskinned animal be exposed to the action of either wet or the sun’s rays. Immediately on being found to be perfectly dead the animal should be conveyed to a cool shady situation, and the hide at once removed. The purpose for which the skin is ultimately intended will influence the method to be observed in removing it from the body. If to be preserved for stuffing, much greater care is required than is usually bestowed on hides merely intended for camp use, or sale to purchasers of roughly dried skins.
Great alertness and firmness are also required on the part of the European hunter who is engaged in tiger shooting in India to prevent the native hunters and camp followers from burning off the whiskers of the slain beast, and stealing the claws. The whisker singeing ceremony arises from superstition, and the greatest anxiety exists to possess tiger claws in order that they may be made use of as amulets. Keep, therefore, a very close watch on your tiger skins. When about to commence skinning a tiger, lion, leopard, or other of the large Felidæ, choose a level spot of ground, lay the animal on the flat of its back, with all four legs in the air. Prepare four stout sharp pointed stakes and drive them into the ground at about six feet from the animal, placing a stake opposite each leg in a parallelogram. Now, with some pieces of spare rope, grass cord, raw hide thongs, or twisted creepers, fasten each paw to the head of a stake, and stretch the legs well out. With your skinning knife—which should be short in the blade, half round-pointed, and very long handled—commence your cut between the two centre lower teeth and carry it directly backwards along the centre of the belly to the vent, taking great care not to penetrate the abdominal cavity. A line down each leg from the paw joint to the centre line should now be cut; the hind legs should be first skinned by peeling off the hide completely round beneath the paw joints, which should be divided and the stumps thus formed fastened to the stake ropes; the skin can now be stripped and turned down over the thighs; a cut along the under side of the tail will enable the operator to skin that cleanly out, when it can be cut off at the root; the two fore legs may now be treated in the same manner as the hind, making the bare stumps fast and skinning down to the shoulder joints, and up the front of the neck and throat. The animal may now be turned on its belly and each leg stump hauled tightly out to the bottom of each stake; the skin is now turned up over the back, and stripped up as far as the attachment of the ears; great care must now be exercised in separating their roots from the head without cutting the skin; divide carefully round the eyes, lips, and corners of the mouth, and the skin will be free.
There are two ways of stretching out skins for the purpose of first freeing them from every particle of fat and adhering matter. One is to lay them on the ground fur side downward, and then secure them by driving a number of sharp wooden pegs round the margins; the other is to cut one or two straight tough poles, lash their ends together, and make a hoop large enough to take in the skin, and allow of sufficient space to admit of its being tightly stretched out by being attached to the interior of the hoop by a rough system of lacing, as shown in the annexed illustration. A skin well secured in this way becomes as tense as a tambourine. The hoop can be set on its edge or inclined to facilitate the operation of fat trimming, which must be most strictly carried out, without cutting through the skin. A pair of strong broad pointed forceps much facilitate the operation. The point and edge of the skinning knife should be constantly touched up and renewed on a butcher’s steel or bit of Norway stone. On no account allow your native followers to attempt the treatment of your stretched skins, as they will most certainly ruin them by the caustic nature of the ingredients they employ. Many mixtures of substances suitable for skin preservation are recommended, and we possess a considerable number of them. The following, communicated to the Field by a correspondent signing himself “I. F.,” is a thoroughly good one, and easy of preparation in any part of India. After trimming off all fatty matter, &c., apply the following mixture: powdered alum, one part; powdered turmeric (the huldee of the natives), four parts; powdered kadukai nuts, eight parts; to be well mixed, and diluted with water until just fluid. The kadukai nuts are the fruit of a tree (Terminalia chebula) common all over India. Its vernacular names are, in Hindostanee “hurra;” in Tamil, “kadukai marum;” in Teloogoo, “karkai.” The dried nuts are commonly sold in the native bazaars. When no preparation for skin dressing is at hand, firewood ashes may with advantage be sprinkled over the skins. The American trappers make use of no preparation whatever, but merely expose the perfectly cleaned and trimmed skin to the action of the air. Traps, when set for animals, should be visited frequently, in order that the game taken may be perfectly fresh; tainted skins lose their hair, and become valueless for fur purposes. The smaller fur-bearing animals taken by the professional fur hunters of America, such as the fisher fox, raccoon, &c., are not skinned by being opened from end to end, but are treated in the following manner: incisions are made close to the hind paws; these are carried down to the borders of the vent; this is circled or cut round, and the tail opened and skinned out. An orifice will now exist large enough to admit of the skin being stripped from the animal, by turning it inside out, as the operation of skinning proceeds. Three modes are adopted for stretching skins so prepared: one is by what is called a board stretcher; this consists of three pieces of light tough wood, of the shape shown in the centre figure of the annexed illustration.
The two flat side pieces are first placed in the pouch or pocket, formed by reversing the surfaces of the skin; the centre stick is then passed down between the two sides, which are nicely rounded off at the edges and point by scraping with glass or a sharp knife. When properly fitted to the stretcher like a glove on a wooden cleaning hand, a tack or two or a few cuts in the edges of the board will serve to hold the skin fast until dry enough to pack away. A strong flexible rod may be made use of as a skin stretcher, as shown in the annexed cut.
The skins should be turned inside out before the bent twig is inserted; its own spring keeps the skin distended until dry, when it is removed and the skin packed; or a long lancet-shaped board, with a hole in it, may be used for stretching the skins of marmots, musk rats, &c. One of these is represented in the illustration representing stretching boards, and has a hole in it to be used for suspending the skins whilst drying. Stretching boards must be made of sizes proportioned to the skins they are intended for. Never dry skins either by the fire or in the sun.
A variety of methods are had recourse to for preparing the skins of animals useful to the traveller and explorer, by whom they can be employed either in a raw state, simply dried, or as leather. Raw hide, as it is called, is one of the most valuable and useful materials at the command of the traveller or hunter. It is to him a substitute for metal, rope, and twine, and with it breakages of the most extensive and apparently hopeless character can be effectually repaired. Lashings of raw hide for immediate use can be cut from the skin of an animal just killed. This, when tightly and evenly adjusted over a fractured object, contracts as it dries, and binds all firmly together. The hair may be removed from hides by soaking them in lime-water or placing them in the earth for a few days. Many of the African tribes prepare hides for use as garments, &c., by first pegging them out on the ground, trimming them clean, allowing them to dry slowly, and then braying their surfaces with a soft sand brick. Skins thus prepared wear well, so long as no water is allowed to reach them.
Skins may be “tawed,” as it is called, by placing them to steep in a strong solution of alum and common salt. Hides collected in large numbers for transmission to the home market are usually salted or pickled. Settlers and colonists may find this mode of preserving skins of value, so we give Mr. Danna’s account of the process, which will be found thoroughly practical, and can be relied on. Speaking of the treatment of hides brought to the sea side for shipment, he says: “The first thing is to put the hides to soak. This is done by carrying them down at low tide, and making them fast in small piles by ropes, and letting the tide come up and cover them. Every day we put twenty-five in soak for each man, which, with us, makes 150. There they lie forty-eight hours, when they are taken out and rolled up in wheelbarrows, and thrown into vats. These vats contain brine, made very strong, being sea-water with great quantities of salt thrown in. This pickles the hides, and in this they lie forty-eight hours; the use of the sea-water into which they are first put being merely to soften and clean them. From these vats they are taken to lie on a platform twenty-four hours, and are then spread upon the ground and carefully stretched and staked out, so that they may dry smooth. After they were staked, and while yet wet and soft, we used to go upon them with our knives and carefully cut off all the bad parts, the pieces of meat and fat which would otherwise corrupt and affect the whole if stowed away in a vessel for months, the large flippers, the ears, and all other parts that prevent close stowage. This was the most difficult part of our duty, as it required much skill to take off everything necessary, and not to cut nor injure the hides. It was also a long process, as six of us had to clean 150, most of which required a great deal to be done to them, as the Spaniards are very careless in skinning their cattle; then, too, as we cleaned them while they were staked out, we were obliged to kneel down upon them, which always gives beginners the back ache. The first day I was so slow and awkward that I only cleaned eight; at the end of a few days I doubled my number, and in a fortnight or three weeks could keep up with the others, and clean my proportion—twenty-five.” Skins of animals may be fitted for transport from the hunting grounds to a camp or depôt situated at a distance of several days’ journey, by pegging them tightly out; and then, when thoroughly freed from adhering fat, giving them a thorough sprinkling with wood ashes. Small quantities of leather may be made by sinking large native jars in the earth, partly filling them with tan, which is yielded by an almost endless number of trees and shrubs. Water, when added, extracts the tanning principle, and allows of its soaking freely into the pores of the skin under treatment. It is a good plan to make use of several jars arranged in a row; these should all contain strong bark or tan water, and as the skin becomes partly tanned in jar No. 1 it should, after being well squeezed and pressed, be passed to No. 2, and so on through the set.
Thus writes Sir Samuel Baker on the subject of skin dressing: “My antelope skins are just completed, and are thoroughly tanned, each skin required a double handful of the ‘garra’ or fruit of the Acacia arabica. The process is simple. The skin being thoroughly wetted, the garra is pounded into a paste; this is rubbed into the hide with a rough piece of sandstone until it becomes perfectly clean and free from impurities; it is then wrapped up with a quantity of the paste, and is deposited in a trough, and kept in the shade twenty-four hours—it should undergo a similar rubbing daily, and be kept in the trough to soak in the garra for four or five days. After this process it should be well rubbed with fat, if required to keep soft and pliable when wetted. If soaked with milk after tanning, the leather will become waterproof. The large tanned ox hides used by the Arabs as coverlets are perfectly waterproof, and are simply prepared with milk. These are made in Abyssinia, and can be purchased from ten piastres to a dollar each. The Arabs thoroughly appreciate the value of leather, as they are entirely dependant upon such material for coverlets, water sacks, travelling bags, &c. The sac de voyage is a simple skin of either goat or sheep, drawn off the animal as a stocking is drawn from the leg. This is very neatly ornamented and arranged with loops which close the mouth, which is secured by a padlock. Very large sacks, capable of containing three hundred pounds of corn, are made in the same manner by drawing entire the skins of the larger antelopes; that of the tetel is considered the most valuable for this purpose. The hide of the wild ass is the finest of all leather, and is so close in the grain, that, before tanning, when dry and hardened in the sun, it resembles horn in transparency. I have made excellent mocassins with this skin, which are admirable if kept wetted.” Most of the water sacks we used in Central India were prepared by withdrawing all the body of the animal—antelope or goat—piecemeal through the orifice left by cutting off the head. The legs were then removed to the hoof joint, and the tubes so formed so fitted with thongs, that they could be tied fast or left open at the will of the owner; burying the skin in the earth for a day or two caused the hair to become loose enough to rub off in water. A charge of pounded pomegranate rind mixed with water was then introduced to the interior of the skin sack, and well shaken about several times during the day. This process was continued until the substance of the skin became converted into leather, and was perfectly free from the slightest tendency to taint. The neck orifice was then either sewn up with a thong, or left with a string round it, to be closed or left open as might be most convenient. Skins thus prepared we have found useful for an almost endless number of purposes.
The following directions for the manufacture of gazelle skin girbas, or water sacks, as practised by the Arabs, given by Sir Samuel Baker, will not fail to prove of interest and value to the reader: “The flaying process for this purpose is a delicate operation, as the knife must be so dexterously used that no false cut should injure the hide. The animal is hung up by the hind legs, an incision is then made along the inside of both thighs to the tail, and with some trouble the skin is drawn off the body towards the head, precisely as a stocking might be drawn from the leg; by this operation the skin forms a seamless bag, open at both ends. To form a girba, the skin must be buried in the earth for about twenty-four hours; it is then washed in water, and the hair is easily detached. Thus rendered clean, it is tanned by soaking for several days in a mixture of the bark of the mimosa and water, from this it is daily withdrawn and stretched out with pegs, upon the ground; it is then well scrubbed with a rough stone, and fresh mimosa bark, well bruised, with water is rubbed in by friction. About four days are sufficient to tan the skin of a gazelle, which is much valued for its toughness and durability. The aperture at the hind quarters is sewn together, and the opening of the neck is closed when required by tying. A good water-skin should be porous, to allow the water to exude sufficiently to moisten the exterior; thus the action of the air upon the exposed surface causes evaporation and imparts to the water within the skin a delicious coolness. The Arabs usually prepare their tanned skins with an empyreumatical oil, made from a variety of substances, the best of which is that from the sesame grain. This has a powerful smell and renders the water so disagreeable that few Europeans could drink it. This oil is black and much resembles tar in appearance, it has the effect of preserving the leather and of rendering it perfectly water tight. In desert travelling, each person should have his own private water skin slung upon his dromedary; for this purpose none is so good as a small sized gazelle skin that will contain about two gallons.”
Snake skins can be converted into very useful and highly ornamental leather by tanning them. The Indians of North-west America add greatly to the value and durability of their prepared skins by subjecting them to the smoking process. This is conducted by forming a miniature skin tent over a narrow deep hole dug in the earth; this, when filled with damp slow burning fuel, gives forth, when lighted, dense volumes of smoke, which, acting on the inner or flesh sides of the spread skins, imparts to them considerable power to resist damp and other deteriorating influences. Hides that are under the operation of dressing should never be allowed to become dry, as it is very difficult to restore perfect flexibility to them by the aid of water. Wet cow dung is the best material we know for preserving the moisture of the skins on which it is spread. Milk curds are made use of for the same purpose by the Tartar tribes. We have also seen ground oil seeds, converted into a paste with milk, used by some Indian hill tribes.
Parchment and catgut.
Parchment is a material which will be found useful for many purposes, such as labelling the species collected, &c.; almost any moderate-sized skin can be converted into this substance. The first step is to remove the hair from its follicles. This may be done by burying the skin in moist earth for two or three days; it should, when found seasoned, be spread, hair side out, on a barrel or round log, and well scraped, until quite clean. Four long tough peeled rods or wands should now be passed through a train of small slits, like button-holes, in the edges of the skin, all four borders of the trimmed skin being furnished with its spreading wand. The ends of the wands are now to be cut off flush with the border of the skin. A pole hoop like that figured at page 776 should now be prepared, and the stretched skin laced to its centre by cords or thongs passed inside the wand until it is as tight as a tambourine. Every particle of adhering membrane should be carefully cut away, and the skin rubbed down to the required substance with a flat-surfaced sandstone; pumice-stone, when it can be obtained, is excellent for the purpose. When the parchment has undergone preparation, and is removed from the pole hoop, it may be fitted for writing on by first thoroughly rubbing its surface with a perfectly smooth water-worn pebble, and then touching its surface lightly over with ox-gall. Catgut can be made from the intestines of almost any animal as follows: After carefully removing all impurities from the surfaces of the gut, place it in a pot of water for twenty-four hours; the outer sheath, or covering membrane, will more freely come away. Now double back a few inches of the end border of your gut tube, just as you would turn down the top border of a stocking, catching the bag thus formed between the finger and thumb; dip water up with it until the double fold is nearly full. The weight of this fluid will instantly cause the gut to become inverted, and bring its inner surface to the outside. This can now be easily freed from any adhering matter; and if the gut is intended for twisting, set up two stiff stout stakes in the earth, a little wider apart than the length of the gut under treatment. Cut a saw cut in the head of each stake. Now firmly lash each end of your gut to the notched ends of two narrow flat pieces of wood, fashioned like stout knife blades, and thin enough to enter the saw cuts in the stake heads. By alternately twisting these and fixing them in the saw cuts, to prevent their running back, the gut may be evenly and neatly twisted after the manner of a single strand cord. The twisted material thus formed becomes, when dry and after it has been rubbed smooth with a woollen rag and a little grease, excellent catgut, fit for drill bows, bowstrings, lathe bands, thread for sewing strong leather work, &c. Bladders should always be saved. They only require inflation with air and drying to preserve them.
Holes in hides, water-bags, or bladders, may be repaired by gathering up the lips of the orifice, pushing a sharp splinter or thorn through both lips, and then tying a string tightly behind the cross piece thus formed. The holes in large skins can be repaired by placing pebbles or stones, just too large to pass through, inside them. A few turns with a strip of raw hide behind the stone makes all secure and perfectly water-tight. A spherical bullet may be made use of in this manner to repair a thorn prick in a water-bag. A reference to the above illustration will serve to show how these repairs are effected. The horns of cattle can be made use of for a number of useful purposes. Soaking in boiling water softens them sufficiently to enable the ingenious operator to fashion them into almost any shape. Bones should never be heedlessly cast away; sawn up they make excellent rings for dog harness or the head-lines of fishing-nets; stilets for splicing cord, meshes for netting, &c. Tendons of animals make excellent glue, and can be easily split up into sewing thread. The swimming bladders of fish, when dried, form excellent isinglas. Sole, shark, and dogfish skins, dried and mounted on handles, make very efficient rasps and files for woodwork. Eel-skins make most durable harness ties, and, twisted or plaited together, form very serviceable whips. Hides or skins can be cut into long strips for trail rope or lasso making by cutting them spirally with a sharp knife, just as a cobbler cuts out a leather boot-lace from a circular scrap of shoe leather. Hides and objects composed of either prepared hide or leather should be frequently treated with clean, well-softened grease, in order that they may retain their flexibility and toughness of texture. Hides used in covering the frames of “bull boats,” as they are called by the traders and trappers of the north-west, who often use them, require to be frequently beached, dried in the sun, and then greased, to render them sufficiently durable to encounter the deteriorating influences brought to bear on them during a long river or lake voyage.
Fat, to treat.
Soap, to prepare.
In cutting up and trimming the carcases of large animals, considerable quantities of fat will be accumulated, provided that care is taken to prevent native fellows from appropriating it. Fat is useful for an immense number of purposes. Its value as fuel has already been explained in that portion of our work devoted to a consideration of lamps. The bones of nearly all large animals may be made to yield a considerable quantity of fatty matter by crushing them to fragments between two heavy stones; boiling the mass thus obtained in any suitable vessel, and then skinning off the eyes of grease as they appear on the surface with a large shell fastened to the end of a stick, or an ox horn fashioned into a scoop. When fat is to be stored up for use it should be first melted, and, after all fragments of membrane, &c., have been separated by a rough system of straining, poured into hide bags to cool. All blubber-bearing cetaceans yield large quantities of oil, which is to be obtained by a process known amongst whalers as “trying out.” Convenient sized pieces of the blubber are thrown into large cauldrons, which are mainly heated by the waste chip or used-up material left as a residue when the oil runs forth. The livers of sharks and other large fish also yield oil freely by treatment in the kettle. Besides being useful for wheel lubricating, leather-dressing, candle-making, and a variety of other useful purposes, fat can, by proper treatment, be made available as the principal ingredient in the manufacture of soap. Soap, to prepare. Some care and management, however, are required to manufacture a really good and useful article. Sir Samuel Baker thus writes of his experiences in the matter: “Soap-boiling is not so easy as may be imagined. It requires not only much attention, but the quality is dependent upon the proper mixture of the alkalies. Sixty parts of potash and forty of lime are, I believe, the proportions for common soap. I had neither lime nor potash, but I shortly procured both. The Hegleck tree (Balanites egyptiaca) was extremely rich in potash; therefore I burned a large quantity, and made a strong ley with the ashes. This I concentrated by boiling. There was no limestone; but the river produced a plentiful supply of large oyster-shells, that, if burned, would yield excellent lime; accordingly, I constructed a kiln with the assistance of the white ants. The country was infested by these creatures, which erected their dwellings in all directions. There were cones from six to ten feet high, formed of clay, so thoroughly cemented by a glutinous preparation of the insects that it was harder than sun-baked brick. I selected an egg-shaped hill, and cut off the top exactly as we take off the slice from an egg. My Tookrooris then worked hard, and with a hoe and their lances they hollowed it out to the base, in spite of the attacks of the ants, which punished the legs of the intruders considerably. I made a draught hole from the outside base at right angles with the bottom of the hollow cone. My kiln was perfect. I loaded it with wood, upon which I piled about six bushels of oyster-shells, which I then covered with fuel, and kept it burning for twenty-four hours. This produced excellent lime, and I commenced my soap-boiling. We possessed an immense copper pot, of Egyptian manufacture, in addition to a large and deep copper basin, called a ‘teshti.’ These would contain about ten gallons. The ley having been boiled down to great strength, I added a quantity of lime and the necessary fat. It required ten hours’ boiling, combined with careful management of the fire, as it would frequently ascend like foam, and overflow the edge of the utensils; however, at length having been constantly stirred, it turned to soap; before it became cold I formed it into cakes and balls with my hands, and the result of this manufacture was a weight of about forty pounds of most excellent soap of a very sporting description. We thus washed with rhinoceros soap; our lamp was trimmed with the oil of lions; our butter for cooking purposes was the fat of hippopotami, while our pomade was made from the marrow of buffaloes and antelopes, scented with the blossoms of mimosas. We were entirely independent, as our whole party had subsisted upon the produce of the rod and rifle.”
Sleeping-bags.
If the traveller contemplates the prosecution of explorations in cold and inhospitable regions, it will be well for him to preserve a number of sheep or goats’ skins, with the hair or wool on, which should be prepared for conversion into coverlets, sleeping-bags, mats, overcoats, &c. A variety of forms of sleeping-bags are in use in various parts of the world; some, as in the case of those used by the frontier guard between France and Spain, are so constructed as to be doubled up, strapped together, and converted into a sort of knapsack. The down of waterfowl, especially that of the eider duck, when stitched between any suitable fabric and quilted, forms a most powerful non-conductor of heat. A very useful and cheap form of sleeping-bag can be made by pasting a number of old newspapers together, giving them a coat of boiled linseed oil, and then stitching them between two sheets of any tough durable fabric. The person about to be measured for a sleeping bag should have the extreme breadth of the shoulders, width across hips, and height taken, adding eighteen inches to the head of the bag to form a flap. Cut out your two main bag pieces, or top and bottom, to the shape of two large sleeve boards such as tailors use, now cut out two long narrow slips, about twenty inches wide, and long enough to go the whole length of both sides and round the tapered rounded bottom of the bag, and up to the end-borders of the mouth, these strips are sewn in exactly as the leather is attached to the upper and lower boards of a pair of common bellows. Sleeping-bags should be made very strong, in order that they may be used to carry a variety of odd articles in.
Ruck sacks.
Whilst on the subject of bags, it will be well to mention a most convenient description of sack used by the Tyrolese chamois hunters for carrying food, dead game, ammunition, &c. It is best made of light tanned canvas or flax cloth. A square bag of the required size is made from either of these materials, the mouth of the bag is made to draw in the usual way and tie, but to the loop of the neck string are attached two leather shoulder straps, to the ends of which wooden toggles and stout line loops have been sewn. Each lower corner of the bag should have a wooden or cork ball the size of a billiard ball, securely stitched into it. When the bag is placed on the back with its burden in it, the shoulder straps are passed over the shoulders, under the arms, and down to the ball-furnished corners, over which the slip-knots and loops of the toggle strings are now secured. The above illustration will serve to explain the nature of the arrangement, anything can be conveniently carried in this contrivance, from a single partridge to a full grown chamois or roebuck. A sack of this kind carefully fitted and made, is very superior to an ordinary knapsack.
CHAPTER XXII.
ROPES AND TWINE.
Ropes and twine of different sizes and lengths should always form part of the equipment of the traveller or explorer. These may be either home-made or manufactured from such suitable materials as may be obtainable in the regions travelled through. A great number of productions, vegetable and animal, are available for cord-making purposes; and not unfrequently it will be found in tropical regions that nature has herself formed the rope ready to the hand of him who will take the trouble to gather it. The rattan, which is a species of palm, although commonly and incorrectly called a cane, is a noteworthy example; it possesses extraordinary flexibility and toughness, is light, porous, covered with a waterproof glaze, and grows to a considerable length, often to the extent of 300ft. Rattans, when simply laid together, can be at once converted into ropes of almost any length and strength. Numbers of native suspension-bridges are supported by cables formed entirely from rattan. Warping ropes, used by the raftsmen of the Malay coast, are formed from this material; these curious ropes are not unfrequently the eighth of a mile in length, and possess immense strength. The “lianas,” “monkey ropes,” or parasitical creepers, too, which grow in such profusion in the tropical jungles, need little preparation to suit them for use as cordage. Willows and other tough flexible sticks or twigs are readily converted into rope by simply twisting them together; they should, however, be well soaked in water before twisting. An almost endless number of trees, shrubs, and plants yield fibre well calculated for cord or rope-making purposes. The bark of some of the mimosas is as tough as the finest hemp, and can be stripped from the trees in any quantity. Bast, or matting fibre, as it is called, is yielded by a number of trees, amongst which may be mentioned the linden or lime of our own country.
For some purposes bast strips may be used without twisting by merely soaking them in water, and then dividing them into ribbons of the required strength. The inner bark of the elm, when well soaked, becomes extremely tough, and twists well. The long flag-like leaves of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand hemp, can be used as ties or lashings without any treatment or preparation; separated from the juices and leaf-pulp by maceration and scraping with a muscle-shell, the fibre is found to be beautifully fine, and adapted for either spinning or weaving.
When gathering bark for rope or twine making purposes it is always well to bear in mind that the outer or true bark, yielding little useful fibre, is, however, applicable to a variety of useful purposes, as the above illustration, representing a number of articles formed from outside bark, will show. The method by which large sheets of bark are stripped from forest trees is shown in the annexed illustration.
The so-called Manilla hemp is not the product of the hemp plant, but is produced by a vegetable so closely resembling a Banana tree that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other.
Straw-ropes, to spin.
It is to be regretted that the names given by early travellers and others to productions of this kind, should be only calculated to mislead, instead of being guides to their origin; the so-called China grass is not a grass, but is obtained from a plant closely resembling a nettle (Urtica tenacissima). The common stinging nettle of this country contains a fibre out of which very good twine can be made; straw, hay, rushes, and swamp grass, make good tough bands, which are useful for many purposes. The Esparto grass, as it is called, is a dry ground rush, and was used in very early ages for the manufacture of ropes, but is now extensively applied to paper-making purposes. Cocoa-nut husks, and the leaves of all the agave tribe, the yuccas, and most of the aloe-shaped plants, yield an abundance of fibre, as does the pine apple plant by soaking or maceration in water. Cotton, wild or cultivated, makes excellent cord. Smoked sea weed is used for lines by the British Columbian Indians. No one possessed of even ordinary powers of observation will fail in discovering a host of other fibre sources in travelling through tropical, or even temperate regions. A number of animal substances will also be found, which by the aid of ingenuity may be converted into thread and cordage. Fine strips of tendon scraped round and pointed make excellent sewing thread. Strips of raw hide, soaked, twisted or plaited, and greased, form ropes or cords of immense strength and considerable durability: to form long strands for these, see the directions given at page 784. The hair or wool of animals, and the web spun by the wild silkworms are also available for twisting or working up into cord. Many methods more or less simple are had recourse to in different parts of the world, for so combining and intertwining fibres and other materials that, united, they may resist breaking, strains, and deteriorating influences. The untutored savage, as he is called, proceeds to gather his fibre, prepare it, and by the aid of his open palm and naked thigh only (as shown at page 599), twists it into an even, compact, and beautifully wrought line of any length, free from knots or irregularities, a task which the highly educated white man, unless tutored by savages, would vainly attempt to perform. “Laying up” as it is called, is another simple method by which a two or three strand cord or rope can be made. Each separate strand, when equally divided and secured at one end, is taken by the finger and thumb, or the hand, according to the size of the work, twisted on itself and passed over to the off side of the operator; the near side strand is now treated in the same way, and so on, fibre being carefully joined in with the fag end of each strand as it becomes too short for twisting: (vide pages 598, 599.) No two strands should be suffered to remain the same length, in order that no two unions of fresh fibres should take place at the same spot. A common three-plait is an expeditious mode by which three strips of sheeting, or other fabric, may be converted into a rope. Four strand round plait is formed by making each pair of strands cross each other from right to left alternately, until the whole length required is completed; this form of plait is useful for whip thongs, and will run through the sheeve hole of a block. A single strand cord or twine may be twisted from loose fibre, by bending a winch handle in one end of a thick iron wire, and a hook in the other.
Set up a stiff stake, waist high, in the earth, bore or burn a hole through it large enough to allow your wire to revolve freely in it, now split your post down to the hole, enter your wire and allow the cleft stake to retain the wire in the hole by its own spring; station some person to turn your winch handle, whilst you, with a goodly supply of fibre round your body, first hook on enough to form twine of the required size to the book of the wire, and then walk backwards as the thread increases in length; a forked stick set up here and there serves to support the sag or belly of the twine as it is formed. A little thin glue or size rubbed on with a rag prevents the strands from opening too freely. Threads thus made may be either laid up by hand or spun into cordage by the regular ropemaker’s wheel, a makeshift form of which may be easily extemporised by fitting a light flat hoop with a hub, a set of spokes, a wire handle, and a set of hook-axled cotton reels. With such a contrivance as this ropes and cords of small size may be twisted; but, for the manufacture of ropes of large dimensions, such an arrangement as that represented in the illustration (p. 791) must be made use of. An examination of it will show that an implement, called a top, is made use of in order to keep the strands in their proper relative positions. This top is merely a conical block of wood, with a set of deep grooves, according to the number of strands to be twisted, cut in it longitudinally. Tops may be made of almost any size, to suit the character of cord in the course of production. Straw-ropes, to spin. Grass or straw ropes may be conveniently and expeditiously spun to almost any length by the aid of an apparatus made as follows: Take four narrow flat pieces of board, say four inches wide, an inch thick, and three feet long, make two equal-sided crosses of them by nailing them together; take care, however, that no nails are used in the true centres of the crosses, as a two-inch augur hole will have to be bored in each. At one foot from the end of each arm of the crosses bore an inch hole, and into these fit a rounded stick, four feet long, in such a way, that when pinned fast in the holes the whole arrangement may resemble a large-sized fishing reel without a handle. Now fashion a straight, smooth, one inch and a half stick in such a way as to leave a head like that of a large nail at one end and a point at the other. The pointed end must project about a foot beyond the hole in the inner cross when the stick is thrust through the centre hole in the crosses, and the head is brought in contact with the surface of the outer. To use this apparatus, bore a hole in a tree, insert the pointed end of the reel axle, or stick; the reel formed by the crosses and bars will now, if properly made, revolve freely if struck with the hand. Gather up a long lock of grass, hay, or straw, and attach it to one of the cross-arms. Throw the arrangement round by giving a circular swing to your straw, keep up the revolving motion, and keep adding fresh material to the end of your rope until it becomes too long to be easily managed; wind the surplus length round the bars of the reel, or drum, and twist on until you have made as much rope as you require. Short hay or straw bands are made by catching a loop of the material over the turned-up thumb in such a way that it may form a loop; keep turning the hand, and gathering fresh material from below until the band is completed. “Thumb bands” is the name usually given to short grass ropes thus made.
Hard rove ropes, to treat.
Large ropes are very liable when new to give considerable trouble by their disposition to kink. It is therefore often necessary to take the extra twist out of them by fastening one end high up in a conveniently grown tree, and suspending a spare waggon wheel from the other, as shown in the illustration (p. 791). The use of tar in the manufacture of rope tends to impair its strength, but adds to its power to resist deteriorating influences.
Weight of rope, to estimate.
It often becomes requisite, when loading waggons, packing animals, or loading boats, sledges, canoes or rafts, to be enabled to form some estimate of the weight about to be placed in them, and there are few aids to travel more difficult to weigh than rope, on account of its bulk and peculiar form of construction. It is well therefore to have recourse to a rough and ready system of calculation to arrive at the required information. The strength of ropes should also be approximately known before applying them.
Robinson gives the following simple rules for calculating the strength of ropes of the ordinary form of construction, and also their weights. Multiply the circumference of the rope in inches by itself, and the fifth part of the product will express the number of tons the rope will carry. For example, if the rope be six inches in circumference, 6 × 6 = 36, the fifth of which is 7-1/5, the number of tons which such a rope will sustain. To find the weight of shroud or hawser laid rope, multiply the circumference in inches by itself; then multiply the product by the length of the rope in fathoms, and divide by 420, the product will be the weight in cwts. Example—to find the weight of a six-inch hawser laid rope 120 fathoms long; 6 × 6 = 36 × 120 = 4320, which, divided by 420, gives the weight of the rope 10cwt. 1 qr. 4lb. To find the weight of cable-laid cordage, multiply its circumference in inches by itself, and divide by 4; the product will be the weight in cwts. of a cable 120 fathoms long, from which the weight of any other length may be readily reduced. Example—required the weight of a twelve-inch cable 120 fathoms long; 12 × 12 = 144, divide by 4, and the product, 36, is the weight in cwts.
To render ropes and cords available for the variety of purposes to which they are applied by the traveller, knots, hitches, splices, &c., must be had recourse to. These are so numerous in form and mode of construction, that to describe half that are known to practical riggers and sailors would require a goodly volume. We shall, therefore, content ourselves by describing some of the most useful and generally available. It is impossible to teach the art of knot-tying by written directions; we therefore give a sketch of each mentioned. It will be well for the student who wishes to acquire a knowledge of the manner in which they are formed to provide himself with a moderately stout piece of cord, and, by following out the lines of turn, twist, and direction, given in the diagrams, and repeating the operation, he will soon acquire proficiency. A, in the accompanying full-page illustration, represents a pair of hitches, which can be caused to run firmly and freely home by hauling on the standing end, or converted into a useful loop by passing a few turns of stopping round both ends. B is a fisherman’s bend, useful for an almost endless number of purposes. When the two knots in the short ends are pulled home, they run together by pulling the two main or free ends. C is a reef knot, used for knotting the reef points of sails or uniting the ends of ropes or cordage. D shows a mode by which the end of a rope may be quickly fastened to a ring. E and F are lark knots, used for fastening the painters of boats or canoes; it is only necessary, in case of sudden attack or alarm, to pull out the stop stick to instantly free the painter without untying. G is a bowline knot, which is applicable to any purpose where it is requisite to have a loop which will not run home. H is a hawser bend, which can be expeditiously made use of for joining the ends of large ropes. I is a knot commonly made use of for securing a hawser to a mooring post. J is an arrangement known as a toggle and loops, useful for a great number of purposes; the toggle, acting as a button, can be secured or released with great facility. K is a Carrick bend, useful for uniting tow ropes or large hawsers to each other. The “seizing ” or stopping, represented as securing the short ends in some of these knots, may be composed of rope, yarn, or stout twine. A. sheathing, or “parcelling,” composed of old canvas, or some other stout material, should always be placed round ropes which are subjected to friction against quay walls or rocks, in order to protect them from chafe. The annexed illustration also represents a number of useful knots, and modes of applying ropes and cords.
Fig. 1 represents a timber hitch, which will be found most useful for taking a firm hold by cord on a round spar or pole. Fig. 2 is another method by which a rope can be secured round an upright post. Fig. 3 shows a sling, useful for raising or lowering packs, bales, or boxes. Fig. 4 is known as a harness loop; several of these can be tied in a drag rope, in order that men may make use of them as shoulder collars to draw by. Fig. 5 is a twisted or tail timber hitch, adapted for securing a log or piece of round timber for lowering or raising. Fig. 6 shows how to make a loop in the end of a pack or box lashing; the knot, running home, secures the loop, and prevents its drawing close. Fig. 7 is a sheepshank, used for shortening a long rope, and thus rendering cutting unnecessary. Fig. 8 is a loop-slip, used for uniting two looped ends securely. Fig. 9 is a weaver’s or netter’s knot, much used by those who repair or make nets for fishing. Fig. 10 is a Tom Fool’s knot, very useful for forming handles to jars and pots; the mouth of the vessel is placed in the centre of the knot, the two free ends tied fast, and the two loops left for the hand to grasp. Fig. 11 is a brooch knot, used for forming the loop in rope for casting horses. (Vide “[Veterinary Surgery].”)
Netting.
The art of netting with the needle and mesh is so generally understood that it is not our intention to deal with the subject here further than to advise all those who may chance to be ignorant of the manner in which net making operations are conducted, to take a few lessons before quitting home to explore wild regions. The aborigines of every part of the known world can make nets, but it is well that the European traveller should be capable of manufacturing his own. Almost any piece of dry, tough wood, can, by the exercise of a little ingenuity, be fashioned into a needle and mesh, and twine, tendons, strips of hide, and a variety of other material, can be wrought into network, for hunting, fowling, fishing, &c.
Splicing.
Splicing is effected by opening the strands of the two ropes to be united, for some little distance down the cord. The two sets of diverging strands are then thrust between each other, so that they may be evenly reversed. A sharp bone, metal, or hard wood stilet or pricker is now used to raise the strands one by one for the passage of the corresponding strand, until both sets have been worked far enough down the rope to render the union complete. A loop is spliced by opening the strands of the end, forming a loop in the rope of sufficient capacity, and then raising the strands, in the manner before described, one by one at the required point of union.
CHAPTER XXIII.
BUSH VETERINARY SURGERY AND MEDICINE.
Before starting on an expedition in which, the services of horses, mules, bullocks, and other animals are required it is well to be provided with such a store of veterinary requisites as are given at page 84 of this work; the nature of the work and the country in which it is intended to operate will mainly determine the necessity or otherwise for a portable forge and regular set of shoeing smith’s appliances. When these are requisite it will be well to secure the services of one or more working farriers to take charge of and use them. A loose shoe, or even a set ready fitted, can be pretty successfully applied by an ingenious and handy amateur; but few, save those practically acquainted with the smith’s art, could undertake the regular shoeing and fitting of an expedition train. Still we strongly recommend all those about to cast their fortunes in wild lands to attend frequently, before quitting England, at some good forge, in order that as many hints as possible may be gathered and stored up for future use. Horse shoeing like horse riding, cannot be taught by books. Every traveller should know how to take off and put on a shoe, and also how to use the drawing knife and searcher. In some countries horses are not shoed at all; in others, the fore feet only have shoes attached to them. And here we would offer a word of advice to travellers. Never attempt to alter the pattern of the shoe in which the horses of the country visited are in the habit of working, or disappointment and vexation are pretty sure to be the result. On our first visit to Turkey we regarded the round plates of iron with holes in their centres and hobnailed borders, called in that country by courtesy horse shoes, in the light of perfect abominations, and had our newly purchased animals shod in the English style. At the end of a week, however, we gladly gathered the cast off native shoes together and had them replaced by a native smith in order to avoid a broken neck. Should a horse or any other animal of burden, not excepting even an elephant, fall lame from any cause not absolutely patent and well known, look first to the foot of the affected limb and be sure that no stray nail, piece of broken iron, thorn, or other sharp substance, has found a lodgment. It is not our intention to enter on a consideration of the various diseases and ailments to which the animals of the traveller or settler are subject in different countries, as our space will not permit of our doing so. We must therefore content ourselves by giving such general hints and directions as may prove useful in the absence of a qualified veterinary surgeon. Many diseases to which pack and draught animals are subject are of such a character as to render it requisite that they should be either destroyed or left by the way in the hands of some responsible person for treatment.
It is never advisable to travel an animal suffering from lingering sickness. The first loss is generally the least in such cases. Severe cases of sore back should never occur in a well-regulated expedition; as pads or chambering should be had recourse to the very instant the slightest tendency to gall is perceived, and it is well, in many cases, to compel the rider of the animal to walk until the back is sound. Galls on the withers and poll of the head are more to be feared than any other injury of like kind, as matter is extremely liable to burrow in such situations, and lead to the formation of fistulous cavities and excessively troublesome wounds. Hot bathing and poultices formed from bran, or ground oil seeds and warm water, should be first used, with a view to the palliation of the mischief; but when once matter is formed, freely opening the pouch formed from top to bottom is the only course. To make a horse-poultice bag sew two pieces of soft tough material together in the form of a common shot-bag, closing both ends and sides; fasten a wide soft string to each corner, cut a straight slit in one face of the bag, and through it thrust the mixed poultice material until it is nearly full, when it can be secured over the seat of injury. Animals obtained from natives not unfrequently suffer from a peculiar description of gall, known as a “sitfast.” Examination shows an irregular piece of dry, hard, dead skin, surrounded by a border or channel of sore. The only way to effectually treat such a case as this is to first secure the animal, and then, with a sharp-pointed knife, cut the island of dead cuticle clean from the wound, which, if kept clean and properly treated with any simple dressing, will soon heal. A mixture, consisting of common nitre, 1oz., to a pint of cold water, we have found very useful in such cases.
Makeshift casting ropes.
The frightful wounds on the backs of camels, too often caused by the carelessness of native camel-drivers, are particularly liable to take on an almost putrid condition. In the treatment of these we have found leather burned to a black, crisp mass, and then reduced to a fine powder, a most valuable preparation. Simply strewed over and into the wound, it quickly causes healthy action to be set up. Any sproutings of new flesh which mount above the surface of the skin are known as “proud flesh,” and should be reduced to the proper level by the use of nitrate of silver, blue stone (sulphate of copper), nitric acid, or even the red-hot iron. In order to perform many of the operations for the treatment of diseased or injured animals, it will be requisite to cast and properly secure them. The horse is best thrown by the aid of hobbles, a set of which, as adjusted for use, are represented in the above illustration. The leather strap attached from the fore to the hind-leg is put on after the animal has been thrown down by hauling on the rope-ended chain, shown at the front of the fore-foot. When the legs are drawn sufficiently close together, a spring clip is passed through a link of the chain; when the horse is to be released, a small screw-pin is drawn, which causes all the four hobbles to be set free, they then fall off as the animal rises. Makeshift casting ropes. In the absence of regular hobbles, a very good substitute may be formed by doubling a very long pliant rope, knotting it securely far enough down the doubled end to form a collar for the head and neck of the animal to pass through (see Fig. 11, [p. 796][p. 796]); the two free ends are now carried between the fore legs, under the body, inside the two hind legs, above the hocks; the ends are then brought forward on each side, and passed from within outwards, through the collar rope. When all is adjusted, the hind-leg rope loops may be evenly and gently shaken down until they rest in the hollows of the fetlock joints. On the free ends being hauled on the horse will be thrown, when the ends of the rope are secured by half-hitches.
The annexed illustration will serve to explain the nature of this contrivance. A soft spot should be chosen to cast on; a halter should always be securely placed on the head, and in cases of great timidity a folded rug as a blind over the eyes. The head of a cast horse should be firmly held down by a man told off for the purpose, until the animal is freed from the ropes and about to rise. An ox is cast by catching his hind-leg, or both if possible, in a noose in the end of a reim held by means of a vangstock, or “catching stick;” another noose is thrown about his horns, one or two fellows catch his tail and pull against those who have the legs, while very likely, if he has tolerably large horns, another uses them as levers to throw him off his balance, and the spare hands assist by pushing with all their might at his broadside, when, as a matter of course, he must go down.
Hints on camp medicine making.
Large open gashes from horns, weapons, or tusks can be sewn up by separate stitches of either flexible wire or fine, smoothly-cut strips of raw hide. A very useful dressing for wounds of this character is made as follows: Common aloes, ½lb.; gum myrrh, ¼lb.; spirits of almost any kind, 2 quarts; water, 1 quart; place the vessel containing this mixture in moderate sun heat for from twelve to fourteen days; strain and bottle for use; apply on lint, tow, or the plume of a large feather; myrrh can be obtained in the East from one of the Mimosa tribe, and aloes from the plant of that name.
In South Africa aloes juice is thus collected by the Hottentots: a hole is made in the earth, and a sheepskin forced into it. The leaves of the aloe are all cut off except two pairs of the youngest left in the form of a cross in the centre; the leaves are then ranged with their cut ends over the hollow in the sheepskin, and left to drain. If wind arises, however, it stops the drainage by coagulating the gum on the surface, and the labour is lost; the juice is thickened by boiling, and sold for exportation to England. The farmers use the fresh juice as a varnish for wood-work, to which it gives a good polish and a brown colour; it is said, also, to be an effectual vermifuge.
Wherever the aloe plant grows, the above rough and ready mode of obtaining its juices may be had recourse to. A very useful purgative for mules and horses is made by breaking a pound of aloes into rough pieces; throw these into seven pints of rain water, and then add a pint of spirit of some kind. The dose will vary with the size and condition of the animal from 4oz. to 6oz. Liquids are best given to animals from a small thin horn from which a long tapering slice has been cut, so as to form a sort of scoop.
The water and grain of some districts cause severe attacks of colic or gripes; these need immediate attention. A dose consisting of linseed oil, 1 pint; tincture of opium, 1oz.; nitric spirit of ether, 1oz.; mixed, should be given, and repeated in half an hour, if the pain is not subdued. Warm soapy water enemas should be frequently thrown up. An enema apparatus is easily extemporised from a large bladder or leather bag and hollow stick with its extreme end or mouth cut perfectly round and even. Soap suds are best formed by rubbing a piece of soap on a rough brush in a pail of warm water.
Opium is a most valuable pain-killer, either in its solid or liquid form. To prepare makeshift laudanum: Take of rough bazaar opium 3oz.; powder it roughly between two stones; throw the powder into an earthen pot, and add a quart of good clear sound spirit; cover with a flat stone, and place in the shade for twelve days; strain through a double cotton cloth, and bottle for general use of man or beast.
Animals much fed on barley or other heating grain are very liable to become affected with mange. Separate all the diseased from the healthy, as the disease is exceedingly contagious. Dress all your diseased cases with the following mixture, which may be rubbed in with a brush or piece of hide with the hair on: Common oil of tar, 1 quart; common spirits of turpentine, 1 quart; fish oil of any kind, or, in the absence of that, native seed oil, 1 quart; powdered brimstone, ½lb.; mix thoroughly in a convenient vessel with a stick. Rub in the mixture every other day for three complete dressings, and on the day after the last, wash well with warm water and plenty of rough soap. 1oz. of gunpowder and ¼oz. of brimstone, rubbed into an ointment with 6oz. of fat, is a good makeshift remedy.
To prevent attacks of mange and other skin diseases in animals kept much on grain, it is well to give occasional doses of the following powder in the food: Common bazaar antimony (the kohl of the dealers) ½lb.; brimstone in powder, 1lb.; nitre, ½lb.; mix: dose ½oz. Strains or severe injuries to joints or tendons, are often benefited in their second stage, that is, after all the benefit arising from fomentations, poultices, &c., has been taken advantage of, by the action of counter-irritation, in the form of a blister. Cantharides, or Spanish flies are commonly used for blistering purposes, but the spotted fly of India (Mylabris cichorii) answers every purpose. Blistering oil, which is useful for sprains or to rub into sore throats, is made as follows: Dried flies, roughly crushed, 1oz.; good clear vegetable oil, 1 pint; spirits of turpentine, 4oz.; mix; place the whole in an earthen chatty pot or jar; put the vessel in warm camp fire ashes for three hours, and then strain for use. Blistering ointment is made by reducing the dry fly to powder, taking care to cover the nostrils during the operation, and mixing 1oz. of the dust to 6oz. of clear fat; stand the pot containing the mixture in the hot ashes for eight hours, and then strain whilst warm through a coarse cloth doubled. Horses when blistered should have cane joint necklaces, or cradles as they are called, fitted on their necks, in order to prevent them from biting the blistered surface. It is generally best to remove the hair before applying the blister. When the skin has been well acted on, the blister may be washed off with warm water and soap, and fat or palm-oil applied in order to allay irritation.
Fly-infested animals, to treat.
Mule leeches, to destroy.
The flies of tropical countries are much to be dreaded when the wounds of animals are under treatment; ova deposited by them arrive at maturity in an incredibly short space of time, when they burrow into the tissues, and cause much trouble to the attendant as well as pain to the animal. The “sheaths” of even healthy horses and mules not unfrequently become charged with a living mass of these carnivorous larvæ, which cause such irritation as to make the suffering animal kick violently up under its belly, and manifest other symptoms of uneasiness; a sharp watch should be kept for these symptoms, and when observed the animal should be at once cast, and the intruders routed out by manual manipulation; warm water and soap will cleanse the part, and a good dressing of oil will allay the irritation. Fly-infested wounds are best dressed with the following ointment: Common verdigris, ground to a very fine powder and sifted, 1oz.; common resin, 1oz.; fat or lard, 10oz.; first melt the fat in an earthen pot, and then stir in the powder; warm for one hour in the ashes, and stir till cold with a stick. There is an oil prepared from a species of Indian gum resin called “diccimaulieh,” which is a valuable addition to the above ointment, as flies appear to entertain a rooted antipathy to it. Flies are not the only pests one has to guard against. Mule leeches, to destroy. Mules, especially those purchased in Spain, are not unfrequently found to have the insides of their mouths, as far back as the roots of their tongues, festooned with huge, bloated, black and green leeches. A number of our Andalusian mules were, on our voyage from Spain to the East, found by our chief muleteer to be so infested. We therefore brought the mules, one by one, to a stout post or stanchion, placed rope hobbles on their feet, and rope halters on their heads; when the head was well secured, a stout rope loop at the end of a stick was used to keep the mouth open, whilst a tow-ended stick, dipped in a strong solution of common salt in sea-water was used to thoroughly wash out the whole cavity of the mouth. The result was most satisfactory; the leeches tumbled helplessly out into the bucket of pickle held for their reception, and ultimately found their way into the sea. Our mules commenced to thrive from the day of our successful pickle hunt, and we never discovered another mule-leech during the expedition.
Teeth, and their irregularities.
Cautions regarding glanders.
Both horses and mules will at times be found to “quid” their food as it is called, that is, to form during the process of mastication irregularly formed balls of partially crushed hay, straw, or grass. The discovery of these pellets should always be followed by an examination of the molar teeth, even should it be found necessary to cast the animal before the examination can be made, as loss of condition too frequently follows quidding. It will generally be found that irregularity of the edges of either the upper or lower rows of teeth have caused the infliction of wounds on the inside surfaces of the cheeks. In other cases, it will be found that from the decay of one or more teeth, those which should meet friction and consequent wear have, in the absence of it, grown to an inordinate and inconvenient length. These irregularities are best corrected by the aid of the tooth rasp, which is readily made by welding a worn out flat rasp to an iron rod about two feet in length. Bend your rasp, when united to the rod and still hot, into the form of a shallow gouge, and shorten it to about six inches; reset the teeth with a sharp punch, retemper, and insert in a common wooden handle for use. When about to purchase either horses or mules, see that the upper row of incisor teeth do not overhang the lower, constituting what is called parrot mouth. Animals so malformed rarely thrive well, from inability to crop their food. Cautions regarding glanders. Always regard with extreme suspicion any animal suffering from a thin, glue-like discharge from either one or both nostrils: look well up the nose, and be perfectly certain that there are no ulcers on the membrane, or perchance you may introduce a glandered subject, which will endanger the lives of both men and animals. Should such appearances as those just described present themselves in an animal after purchase, order it to be instantly destroyed, together with all the woollen or leather equipment belonging to it. The metal can be rendered free from the glander poison by thoroughly heating it in the camp fire, and then throwing it whilst fizzing hot into water. Never attempt to treat a case of even suspected glanders whilst travelling: shooting is the only safe method of relieving the animal from its sufferings. Horses or mules can be readily shot dead with either ball or small shot. To do this instantly, stand on the off-side of the animal, about six feet from and in a line behind the shoulder; aim well below the ear, in a direction from behind forwards, and from below upwards. A charge thus delivered from a gun, rifle, or large heavy pistol—not an insignificant popgun revolver—will strike the creature dead on the spot, and thus save it unnecessary torture.
Hints on horse and mule purchase.
Before quitting the subject of “Veterinary Surgery,” it may be well to caution the intending purchaser against laying out his money in animals affected by cataract. In order to discover whether this defect exists, place the animal with its head just in a line with the two posts of a stable or shed doorway; screen the eye under examination from the direct rays of the sun with your cap or felt hat, look steadily and keenly down into the interior of the eye, and if a cataract is there it will be perceived in a pearl-tinted spot or patch on the crystalline lens of the eye, just as though the bull’s-eye of a miniature lantern had received a mark from French chalk. Clouds on the outer surface of the ball of the eye or cornea are in no way to be confounded with cataract; clouds such as these are caused in a variety of ways—strokes from flexible branches, whip lashes, &c., and generally yield to treatment with as much calomel as will fill an ordinary percussion cap, rubbed up with a half-teaspoonful of honey. Place a piece as large as a No. 4 shot in the affected eye every other day, until the opacity passes away. Cataract, on the other hand, is beyond treatment, and greatly detracts from the value of the animal suffering from it. Bony excrescences round the coronets, constituting ring bone, and slits in the wall of the hoof, called sand-cracks, also detract much from either a horse’s or mule’s value for travelling, and should be carefully looked for. Do not, as a rule, purchase very young horses or mules, as they are far more likely to give trouble and fall sick than those of more matured age; those of from six to ten, or even eleven years old, if sound and in good condition, will do good service.