Pistols.
The most efficient and powerful pistol we have used is the holster revolver of Colonel Colt, but its weight (4lb. 2oz.) is far too great to admit of its being generally carried except on horseback. There are not so many objections to the use of breech-loading revolvers and pistols as there are to guns and rifles made on that plan. In the first place, they are less liable to breakage or derangement; and in the next, from the very limited number of cartridges which would be actually fired, a sufficient number may be very easily taken to last through a long campaign or expedition. It is an immense advantage being able to instantly load or unload the chamber without discharging it. It is customary with many travellers, ourselves amongst the number, to fire the revolver off every Saturday to clean, re-load, and re-cap them, thereby sacrificing six charges, six caps, and some little labour. Notwithstanding all the ingenuity which has of late been devoted to the production of breech-loading revolvers, we have not seen one which we can recommend without reservation—the great fault in every case being smallness of bore. Long range is, as a rule, not required in a pistol, but that which is required is the power of inflicting a severe shock to the system at comparatively close quarters. Numerous cases might be cited when, after lodging two or even three of the tiny pellets fired from small revolvers in the body of an enemy, the enemy has had decidedly the best of it, and coolly finished off the owner of the mechanical popgun with some old-world weapon of greater power. Until a large-bored and handy breech-loading revolver is produced, we recommend for use on horseback, either double-barelled smooth-bore Lefaucheux-pattern pistols with 7½in. barrels and 14 bore, or muzzle-loaders of the same size and gauge, with bar side locks and swivel ramrods. The over and under double pistol is an excellent weapon, and is carried by many soldiers and travellers of great experience; but for our part, we prefer the barrels mounted side by side, precisely as they are in a double gun. To carry in the belt for use on foot, the Tranter breech-loader is perhaps as good as any, although as a rule the trigger pull is too heavy; but this is an evil which admits of correction.
Powder flasks, barrel rods, &c.
Take three Sykes powder-flasks, one to hold a pound and the others of medium size; have them of tinned copper stitched over with saddle pig-skin. We prefer for carrying shot a double shot-belt with patent side springs to any of the lever cut-off contrivances; it is a very old-fashioned plan we know, but a very effective and useful one for all that. Two sizes of shot can be carried in it; it can be worn much more comfortably than a pouch, which is always getting in the way, and there is no loss of shot from chance blows on the lever: a still greater advantage lays in your being able to see that which goes into your gun. If only one size shot can be taken, select No. 6 for general use; but No. 8, No. 4, and Bristol B. should be added if practicable. Gunpowder of excellent quality is now to be obtained of all the first-class makers. For percussion caps, thick felt gun-wads, and ordinary mercurial ditto, go to either Joyce or Ely. The wire cartridges of the latter maker are invaluable if they can be carried: we have done wonders with them. When having your shooting gear put in order, have two well-seasoned deal rods made, so that they may fit tightly into the barrels of the gun when covered with two layers of flannel, which must be firmly stitched on; the sticks are cut exactly the length of the barrels, and connected at the muzzle ends by a short piece of strong tape; this serves to draw them out by. Before placing the sticks in the barrels for final packing up, rub them over with mercurial ointment, as should be done to both the outsides of the barrels and the gun furniture; there is little fear of rust attacking your firearms when treated in this way.
A brass mould for casting buck shot will be found very useful. One we have found of infinite service is thus made: Two long narrow cheeks of brass are fitted at one end with a hinge, each cheek has the halves of fifteen shot sockets at each edge, making, when the two halves are closed, thirty perfect spherical moulds for shot. A groove and row of inlets run along each edge, and two movable steel plates cut off the necks of the shot when cool. There are two handles, and the whole affair is not unlike a long narrow pair of nutcrackers. The shot thus cast are about the size of garden peas, and an ounce of them, with 3½drs. of powder behind it from a No. 11 gun, forms a charge which will be found most formidable if used at moderately close quarters. When defending a camp or waggon fort against the attacks of savages nothing is equal to it.
Stationery and Artist’s Materials.
It is to be supposed that most persons visiting little-known regions will at least keep a diary for private gratification, if not for public use; and now that drawing from nature is so essential a branch of education, they will most likely also wish to sketch such objects or scenes as may be most interesting. Some who aspire to more exactitude of detail than an artist can hope for in a hasty sketch may wish to practise photography; and in this beautiful art the greatest possible facilities are offered to those who practise it. We have lately seen in London many most beautiful pictures taken by Dr. Kirk on the Zambesi with a small and inexpensive camera, carried as a mere supplement to his private equipment; but unless the traveller possesses, as Kirk did, chemical knowledge enough to enable him to contend successfully against the various contingencies of changing climate, impurity or scarcity of water, and innumerable other new and unexpected difficulties, we are inclined to think that the pencil, guided with what artistic skill the individual may be able to command, will afford, if not the best, at least the most certainly available results; and, without undervaluing photography, we may in this preliminary chapter notice principally the appliances which will enable a man to keep his journal and illustrate it with sketches of interesting scenes or objects.
The journal.
First, then, as to the journal. Of course, for purposes of correspondence, a traveller will take care to supply himself with some one of the substantial and economical portable desks in which pens, ink, note-paper, and envelopes are always at hand to enable him to write a creditable letter from almost any part of the world. But the journal or diary is another matter; its value consists chiefly in its being what its name indicates—a diary or diurnal record. It must be written while the events described are fresh on the memory, or there is neither life nor spirit in it. If the journal of to-day is put off, the events of to-morrow will confuse and dim the impressions that ought in all their pristine vigour to have been committed to paper; procrastination is the thief of time, and we may well say that it will rob the journal of the traveller of all that freshness and vivacity which alone can make it interesting.
