India-rubber boots, to mend.
We have before spoken of india-rubber wading boots, which, to be of value, should be of first-class quality and finish. It will sometimes happen that, notwithstanding all the precautions you may take to guard them from injury, that sharp-pointed sticks, thorns, &c., will make holes in them large enough to admit water. In order to enable you to repair these injuries when they occur, it will be well to purchase from the maker of the boots a good supply of sheet india-rubber. Get also from a chemist a bottle of coal-tar naphtha fitted with a glass stopper. When about to mend your boots, take a sharp knife or pair of scissors, and snip or cut up about 2oz. of the india-rubber sheet. The cut pieces should not be larger than good-sized buck-shot. Put these into a wide-mouthed bottle, such as is used for gum; now pour in enough naphtha to cover the rubber; put in the cork, and let the mixture stand for a few hours to soak; then shake the bottle, turn it upside down, and rattle it from side to side; repeat this process from time to time until the rubber is thoroughly dissolved in the naphtha, which it will be in about three days. Should it become sticky and thick, pour in a little more naphtha and shake it about until of a convenient consistency for use. Now cut a patch from the sheet rubber, large enough to extend well beyond the margin of the hole; give both the patch and the surface to which it is to be applied a good coating of the rubber varnish; lay on the patch; press it well home; place a flat board in the boot under the patch, and another board on the outside over it, so as to nip both patch and boot between them; lay a heavy stone or other weight on the outside board, and let the whole arrangement remain until the varnish is dry and the union between the parts complete. If the hole is in the leg of your boot, turn it inside out until the injured spot is reached and the patch is seen through the hole. Proceed now with the inside exactly as you did with the outside, when the mend will be complete. If the hole is in the foot of the boot, use only the single patch attached to the outside.
Sore feet.
When the sole of a shoe has once been soaked with salt water, it always retains dampness, and cannot again be worn with comfort or pleasure. India-rubber shoes cannot be worn in warm countries either alone or over the ordinary shoes, unless they are cut low and open, and even then the lengthened use of them is inconvenient and painful. It not unfrequently happens that the feet of those not thoroughly accustomed to hard tramping will become blistered. When the eggs of either poultry or wild birds are to be obtained, it is a good plan to break one or two, according to their size, into each shoe before starting in the morning; or, if you have any spirit, put a little in a cup or dish, place a lump of tallow on a flat stick, and hold a hot brand over it until the fat melts and runs into the spirit. The ointment thus prepared may now be taken from the spirit and applied thickly to the sore surfaces and bottoms of the stockings. When large bladders form, take one of your needles and draw a piece of soft worsted or woollen thread, obtained by unravelling a bit of old shirt, directly through the bladders. This acts as a seton, and causes the fluid to freely discharge itself.
CHAPTER IX.
WAGGONS AND OTHER WHEELED VEHICLES.
The wheeled carriages made use of in different parts of the world are even more various in their design and construction than the sledges before described; and, as a general rule, it will be found, when the test of actual use is brought to bear, that the description of contrivance (or at least a modification of it) in use among the civilised and semi-civilised inhabitants of a country or colony will be best adapted for such work as may have to be performed in it by the traveller or explorer. It is, however, difficult to overcome home prejudices, and, as an almost invariable rule, the British emigrant, on his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope or Australia, commences by denouncing the colonial waggon as clumsy, unworkmanlike, and inefficient, and usually threatens to effect immense improvements, and just as invariably, if he has to make a journey of any distance into the interior, he adopts, if he be a sensible man, the vehicle which, by the experience of many, has been found the best for the work it has to do. On the well-made roads near Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, or on the broad plains of the Orange River Free State, imported carriages from England, or vehicles upon their model by colonial builders, may be used with safety and advantage; and even some of those wondrous combinations of strength and lightness imported from America, under the names of spider or skeleton carriages, are found to do good service; but when really hard work comes on, and densely wooded kloofs or rugged mountain passes, with rough stretches of road over hill-side or valley, with fords in which stones of several hundred weight seem to lose their gravitation and become the mere playthings of the torrent, the ponderous Cape waggon will be at once appreciated, as all its parts are so strongly put together that the strain of twelve or twenty oxen cannot draw them asunder, and yet fitted so loosely that they will give and bend to every inequality of the road. The Cape waggon is found to hold its position against all rivals as the vehicle best adapted to the wants of a travelling or exploring party, and the exigencies of the transport service and general carrying trade of the country.
We have already, at [pp. 60] and [61], given an example of a Cape waggon with side tents; at [pp. 129-132], we have shown how the tent frame or other material of a waggon might be converted into a boat; at [pp. 140-144], we have indicated the manner in which the waggon chests might be made available as a raft; at [pp. 215-219] will be found diagrams and instructions for repairing axles, fore tongs, dissel-booms, strengthening wheels when the spokes are shaken loose, tightening up the tires by driving wedges between them and the felloes, or making and putting in new spokes without taking the wheel to pieces; at pp. 195-197 are remarks on tiring of wheels and prolonging the efficiency of strained bolts by shifting them so as to freshen the nip; at pp. 297 and 298 waggon camps are described; and the method of building wheels is given at [pp. 366-372].