Shifts and expedients of camp life, travel & exploration

by William Barry Lord; Thomas Baines

Steaming log.

Hard wood.

Hardening wood.

The elegant curve given to many of the bows found among the Northern Indians is given by first heating them in the camp fire, and then, after bending them carefully to the desired shape, keeping the curves in position by the aid of thongs. We have one of these bows now, which was even charred in the course of making, but has never lost its contour or elasticity. The bending of ships’ planks is effected by a process very similar in principle. In the absence of a properly constructed steaming chamber, the planks of a makeshift vessel may be efficiently steamed in the following manner. A long hollow log should be set horizontally on trestles of convenient height, one end must be stopped with a plug, and the other have a tight wooden stopper and cross-bar fitted to it. When the required number of planks are thrust down the log, steam is admitted through a bamboo, or hollow tube of wood, from a large covered cauldron placed on a fire beneath the log. All the joints of the bamboo should be luted fast with clay, and kept tight until the planks are sufficiently steamed for bending, when they are dragged out with wooden tongs, and put in place on the vessel. The full page [illustration] shows the mode of using a steaming log. Hardening wood. Wood, which does not require straightening, is rendered much more hard and durable than it would otherwise be by the action of carefully applied fire-heat. The clubs and grubbing sticks of natives are generally fortified in this way. Spear, arrow, and blow-pipe darts have their points so hardened by the action of heat, that they more closely resemble the texture of bone than aught else, and perforate almost as readily as sharpened iron. We have seen the tough, dense scales of a large fish penetrated with the greatest facility by a spear prepared in this way. Flat strips or laths of bamboo cut to a fine edge, and fire-hardened, are used by many of the inhabitants of the islands of the Eastern seas as substitutes for knives; some of these truly makeshift blades are as keen as surgical instruments, and are at times used in the performance of minor operations of surgery. Many of the trees of tropical countries will be found to possess heart wood of great strength and density, whilst the outside or “sap” is light coloured, weak, and next to useless. Hard wood. In such cases, all the outside layer of timber should be cut away with the axe or adze, and the central core alone made use of. In selecting poles or sticks for purposes where toughness and durability are matters of importance always, when practicable, take young seedling trees. Next in quality to these are the shoots which spring up from the underground roots of large trees. When either of these kinds are intended to be put aside to season, they should be pulled up by the roots rather than cut; the earth may be beaten out from among the fibres by striking the roots of the sticks together; they can then be hung in an airy place to dry: late in the autumn or in the winter are the best seasons for rooting up saplings.

Larch trees.

In countries where the larch fir grows abundantly, a number of tall young trees will be found from some cause to have died as they stand, to have withered and become perfectly dry. These will be found extremely tough and well seasoned.

Bamboos.

Bamboos must be selected according to the purpose they are intended for. The female bamboo, as it is called, is remarkable for the largeness of the cavities placed between the internodes; this quality renders it buoyant, light, and well adapted for splitting up into planks. We have seen a very large bamboo slit from end to end by making one long cut in the side. The cane is heated and carefully opened. The knots are then all smoothed off, when the hollow shell is laid between boards on which heavy stones are placed, until it is pressed perfectly flat, and becomes a bamboo board. The knots of large female bamboos make excellent pails or water vessels.

A joint of bamboo cut longitudinally in half, and supported on feet formed from another joint of the same cane, after the manner of a pen tray, makes a most convenient receptacle for pins, steel pens, pencils, sail needles, and a host of other matters which are required to lay parallel to each other.