Table necessaries.
Do not on any account be induced to encumber yourself with what is called a “canteen,” a contrivance which is in our opinion much like the many-bladed knife we have before referred to. A few months since, when the expedition in search of Dr. Livingstone was about being sent to Lake Nyassa, two contrivances for cooking were brought to the Royal Geographical Society for approval, and of these, were they to be used by a man who would take proper care of them, we could only speak in terms of unqualified praise. But they were declined simply because it would be impossible to teach a native cook how to use them, and it would be easier to give him a fathom of calico to buy half-a-dozen earthen pots, and to buy more when these were broken. It is, no doubt, vastly ingenious to make a pepper dredge fit into a tea-canister which belongs in the teapot, which in turn should go into the saucepan, only unfortunately the class of persons to whom utensils of this kind are usually entrusted in wild countries are slow to appreciate mechanical puzzles, and usually throw the whole lot into the first bag they can get, when the spout of the teapot gets knocked off, and the pepper becomes hopelessly amalgamated with the tea, to the decided detriment of both. Table necessaries. Rather provide yourself with a few plain useful articles for table use. In giving a list of these, we will suppose that one person has to be catered for: a well-made strong quart tin pot, with both hook and handle, is better for making tea in than the conventional teapot; it is also useful for an endless number of other cooking purposes. A knife, fork, and spoon, should be packed in a leather hold-all, like that filled with small tools, which we have already represented on [page 43]. The knife and fork should have the steel of their blades carried through the handles in a flat plate, to which the cheeks of the haft are riveted; those made with tangs are always shifting round or coming out from being washed in hot water or placed in the sun; the spoon should be of iron, tablespoon size. We have, on more than one occasion, had to melt lead in ours for bullet making, which could not be done if it had been made of any other metal. Get two small wooden bowls, such as bankers keep gold in, take them to a tin-plate worker’s, and have narrow copper hoops let into the wood just below the edges, this prevents splitting. Nothing is equal to these for drinking hot tea out of; metal cups of all sorts scald the lips if the tea is moderately heated, and earthenware vessels are too liable to be broken. A half-pint horn cup will be found very useful, and is next to indestructible. We have one which we extemporised from an old Russian powder horn we picked up in the Redan. This has travelled many thousands of miles with us since its conversion, and is just as capable of containing good liquor as ever. Pots and pans. A frying-pan is worth anything to a campaigner; fish, flesh, or fowl are all equally well cooked in it. Coffee can be roasted, pancakes made, stews prepared, and a whole host of useful offices performed. Do not forget your frying-pan. It is a good plan to have a “parasol joint,” as it is called, made in the handle close to the pan, this will, by bending the handle a little, admit of its being folded across the pan, and thus more easily stowed away. It may be well to observe, perhaps, that the “parasol joint” is formed by cutting two slots in the divided ends, fitting in a short plate, running two rivet-pins through them, and then sliding a ferrule over the joint, which keeps it stiff. Take two dinner plates of enamelled iron; these are best kept with the hold-all, in a flat leather pouch with partitions. A leather loop, or D, at each corner enables you to attach the plate pouch to either your own or the pack saddle. Have a tin canister made; it should be of cylindrical form, and should have a division in the middle, a cover at each end, and be capable of holding 2oz. of ground pepper and 4oz. of fine salt.
The most useful kind of cooking pot we know is the common cast-iron crock of Meg Merrilies pattern. Use it with moderate care, and it will last a lifetime. A wooden cover is easily fitted to it in event of the iron pot lid being lost; and should by any misfortune one of the legs get broken off, and a hole made in the bottom of the crock, a good thick pledget of cotton cloth drawn through it will stop the leak, and remain unconsumed during the boiling process. Bread, meat, birds, fish, vegetables, or fruit can be baked readily in or under the crock, as will be seen when bush cookery is treated on. It is also useful for a variety of other purposes, as will be seen as the work proceeds—take a crock, therefore, by all means. An all-blaze pan is another most useful utensil. It is thus made: Have two deep copper bowls made of a size sufficient to hold about three pints each. These should each have two lugs or handles riveted to them, and a flange raised round the edges should admit of the mouths of the two bowls fitting closely into each other like a box and its cover. The insides must be tinned in the usual manner, and the handles so adjusted that when the two bowls are joined they are opposite to each other and near enough together to be lashed fast with twine. The formula for preparing food by the use of these pans will be given under the head “[Camp Cookery].”
Leather buckets.
Other odds and ends.
A leather bucket, such as firemen use, will also be found of great service for an endless number of purposes. We invariably carried, when in Central India, a miniature bucket composed of leather, attached to the pack saddle; it held a quart, and by the use of twenty yards of ordinary sea-fishing line, which was always coiled away in it, we have often been enabled to obtain water from deep native wells when other travellers not so provided have been destitute of this priceless treasure. In some portions of the East, the wells are very deep and narrow, so that, without some such contrivance as the above, it is impossible to reach their contents. When collecting specimens of natural history in Turkey, we were on one occasion in much distress for want of water, and after a long search discovered one of these tantalising excavations. There lay the longed-for fluid, glittering like silver down below, but far too deep to reach without some shift or expedient, so we betook ourselves to the sea beach, which was not far off, to see what good fortune would cast in our way. An empty univalve shell, not unlike that of an overgrown whelk, soon rewarded our search; we fixed a stick across its mouth, dragged forth the trailing vines and creepers from a neighbouring thicket, knotted them together, fastened on our shell in company with a goodly stone to give it weight, lowered away briskly, drew up cautiously, and thus treated the parched palate and dry tongue to that which they so much needed. Again and again did our good sea shell travel up and down until, having satisfied the cravings of nature, we resumed our journey; and to the sea shell and vine are we indebted for the design of our miniature bucket and cord which now invariably accompany us on our wanderings. We advise, therefore, that one common fire bucket of leather, and one to contain a quart be provided. Guttapercha buckets are very neat and pleasant to look at, but the sun of the tropics has an awkward habit of causing their bottoms to fall out; we, on one occasion, saw six rendered perfectly unserviceable in one day from this cause. Get a good stock of leather straps and buckles of different sizes from a saddler, these are useful for a variety of purposes. It will be well also to provide a goodly number of padlocks, of two sizes; let the largest be “iron rim,” say three inches in diameter, and the smaller size of brass, such as are sold at one shilling each—sixpenny ones are useless; keep one key for each size attached to your watch guard, and carefully lock away all the rest. A butcher’s steel, of good quality, is well worth taking. A selection of fishing gear, too, is of the greatest value, of this subject we shall treat at length under the head “[Fishing].” A corkscrew should be provided, the best pattern we know is that in which the worm fits by a screw into a hollow tube. Other odds and ends. When required for use, the tube is passed through a flat ring in the end of the shank, and forms a cross handle; screws of this kind are conveniently carried in the waistcoat pocket. Tin boxes of wax vesta matches are exceedingly useful; take a good number of these; get also a tube and cap “strike-a-light” with a chain, striker, bit of agate, and spare cotton cord slow match.
Medicine and Dressings for Wounds.
Medical stores.
On one of Nelson’s boat expeditions up a tropical river, the medical chest was unanimously voted a piece of lumber; but, before the arduous voyage had been completed, the only regret was that sufficient medicine had not been taken. An unmanly fear of fever, or other sickness, would probably aid in bringing it on, but reasonable precaution ought never to be neglected.
Many countries have an unenviable notoriety for the prevalence of peculiar and local diseases: some are perfect hotbeds of fever in various forms; and wounds from gunshot, sharp-edged tools or weapons, bruised and fractured bones, are casualties that may befall the traveller in any country, and therefore a few articles for the dressing of these should certainly find a place among his stores.