In this list I have only allowed enough bacon for men who know how to hunt in a country where game is to be had for the hunting. Of course if game is scarce, more supplies might be needed, whilst equally of course, if the country is very difficult and the temptation sufficient, keen men should be able to get along with half a pound of flour and four rashers of bacon per diem, and even this with tea, blankets, rifles, cartridges, &c., will be found quite enough to carry in a mountain country with no one to help you.
I have suggested cocoa as an alternative for tea, for I find that the latter, as it is generally brewed in camp, is intensely indigestible, and is apt to keep even a tired man awake at night. Cocoa, on the other hand, is refreshing, it is almost as effectual a ‘pick-me-up’ as a whisky and soda, and does very well in its place. For men who do not stop to lunch, cakes of chocolate or raisins are recommended, as being very portable and nutritious.
My second list of necessaries consists of kitchen gear, and although it may easily be reduced to a ‘billy,’ a frying-pan, and your fingers if needs must, it is as it stands about as small as is compatible with comfort. Cups, plates, &c., should all be made of what is known as ‘granite iron,’ as this material is very strong, will not crush like tin, and retains heat a long time, an important point when your meals are taken in the open air of an October evening in the mountains.
Provisions and other requisites for five men for two months
| lbs. | ||
| Flour | 6 sacks = | 300 |
| Yeast-powder | 18 tins | |
| Bacon | = | 100 |
| Dried apples | = | 50 |
| Sugar | = | 50 |
| Beans | = | 50 |
| Coffee | = | 12 |
| Tea | = | 8 |
| (or Cocoa | = | 12) |
| Pepper | = | 1 |
| Salt | = | 30 |
| Onions | = | 60 |
| Worcester sauce | ||
| Matches | ||
| Candles (three dozen composite) | ||
| Soap | ||
| Tobacco | ||
| A small can of oil for rifles | ||
| Spare rope | ||
| Two dozen horse-shoes, nails, and a shoeing hammer | ||
| A few yards of linen for dish cloths | ||
| Ten pounds of powdered alum for curing skins | ||
| Two spare deer-skins for patching moccasins; some waxedthread, which must serve your turn until you can get somesinews, to sew your moccasins with | ||
| A cobbler’s awl and needle | ||
| File | ||
| A housewife containing buttons, thread, needles, darning needle, wool, &c. | ||
| A little ingenuity and abundance of good temper | ||
Kitchen gear
- One nine-inch iron pot with a ‘nest’ of three smaller pots inside; these should all be ‘tinned’ or enamelled inside
- Two tin milk-pans for kneading dough in
- Two coffee-cans or ‘billies’
- Two frying-pans to make dampers and fry bacon. Have these made with folding handles
- Five soup-plates, five tea-cups (both plates and cups to be made of enamelled iron)
- Five knives, five forks, five soup-spoons, five tea-spoons, one meat-knife, a big cooking fork, one small meat saw
- Two axes and two spare axe-handles