course of 16 days of heavy and almost continual rain, I would recommend to every one in a similar situation the method we practised, which is to dip their clothes in the salt water and wring them out as often as they become filled with rain: it was the only resource we had, and I believe was of the greatest service to us, for it felt more like a change of dry clothes than could well be imagined. We had occasion to do this

so often, that at length our clothes were wrung to pieces; for except the few days we passed on the coast of New Holland, we were continually wet, either with rain or sea."

To dry clothes at a smouldering fire, it is very convenient to make a dome-shaped framework of twigs, by bending each twig or wand into a half circle, and planting both ends of it in the ground, one on each side of the fire. Then laying the wet clothes on this framework, they receive the full benefit of the heat, and the steam passes readily upward.

§ 1. Bad and poisonous diet.—In reading the accounts of travellers who have suffered severely for want of food, a striking fact is common to all, i. e. that carrion and garbage of every kind can be eaten, under those circumstances, without the stomach rejecting it. And life can certainly be supported on a diet which would give severe illness to a man not driven to it by the pangs of hunger. There is, however, a great difference in the power that different people have of eating rank food without being made ill by it. It appears that no flesh, excepting that of some fish, is poisonous to man; but with vegetables it is very different. No certain rule can be given to distinguish wholesome plants from poisonous ones, but it has been observed that much the same things suit the digestion of a bird that suit those of a man, and therefore that a traveller, who otherwise would make trials at hap-hazard, ought to examine the contents of those birds' crops that he may catch or shoot, to give a clue to his experiments. The rule has notable exceptions, but in the absence of any other guide, it is a very useful one.

When rank birds are shot, they should be skinned, not plucked, for much of the rankness lies in their skin. The

breast and wings are the least objectionable parts in them, and if there be abundance of food, these should alone be cooked.

If any meat that you may get, or if the water of any pool at which you encamp, is under suspicion of being poisoned, let one of your dogs drink before you do, and wait an hour to watch the effects of it upon him.

§ 2. Food from various sources.-There are two nutritious plants, nettle and fern, that are found wild in very many countries; and therefore the following extract from Messrs. Huc and Gabet's travels in Thibet may be of service:

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When the young stems of ferns are gathered, quite tender, before they are covered with down, and while the first leaves are bent and rolled up in themselves, you have only to boil them in pure water to realise a dish of delicious asparagus. We would also recommend the nettle, which, in our opinion, might be made an advantageous substitute for spinach; indeed, more than once we proved this by our own experience. The nettle should be gathered quite young, when the leaves are perfectly tender. The plant should be pulled up whole, with a portion of the root. In order to preserve your hands from the sharp biting liquid which issues from the points, you should wrap them in linen of close texture. When once the nettle is boiled, it is perfectly innocuous, and this vegetable, so rough in its exterior, becomes a very delicate dish. We were able to enjoy this delightful variety of esculents for more than a month. Then the little tubercles of the fern became hollow and horny, and the stems themselves grew as hard as wood, while the nettle, armed with a long white beard, presented only a menacing and awful aspect."

Bones contain a great deal of nourishment, which is got at

by boiling them, pounding their ends between two stones, and sucking them. There is a revolting account in French history, of a besieged garrison of Sancerre, in the time of Charles IX., and again subsequently at Paris, and it may be elsewhere, digging up the graveyards for bones as sustenance.

Honey, to find, when there are bees about.- Catch a bee, tie a feather or a straw to his leg, which can easily be done (natives thrust it up into his body), throw him into the air, and follow him as he flies slowly to his hive. The instinct of the honeybird is well known, which induces him to lead men to hives that he may share in the plunder. The stories that are told of the malice of the bird, in sometimes tricking a man and leading him to sleeping wild animals instead of the bee's nest, are well authenticated.

All old hides or skins of any kind, that are not tanned, are fit and good for food; they improve all soup, by being mixed with it, or they may be toasted and hammered. Long boiling would make jelly of them. Many a hungry person has cooked and eaten his sandals or skin clothing.

Most kinds of creeping things are eatable, and used by the Chinese. Locusts and grasshoppers are not at all bad. To prepare them, pull off the legs and wings, and roast them with a little grease in an iron dish, like coffee. Rank seabirds, if caught, put in a coop, and fed with corn, were found by Captain Bligh to become fat and well-tasted.

§ 3. Preserving meat, fish, butter, milk, &c.-When meat has to be carried in store, or left en cáche, it should be made into pemmican-that is to say, into dried and pounded meat, which is better than that which is jerked, or simply dried. Mr. Ballantyne, who was in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, gives the following account of the preparation of both of these. "Having shot a buffalo, the

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hunters cut lumps of his flesh, and slitting it up into flakes or layers, hang it up in the sun, or before a slow fire, to dry and the fat can be dried as well as the lean. In this state, it is often made into packs, and sent about the country, to be consumed as dried meat; but when pemmican is wanted, it has to go through another process. When dry, the meat is pounded between two stones till it is broken into small pieces; these are put into a bag made of the animal's hide, with the hair on the outside, and well mixed with melted grease; the top of the bag is then sewn up, and the pemmican allowed to cool. In this state it may be eaten uncooked; but the men who subsist on it when travelling, mix it with a little flour and water, and then boil it, in which state it is known throughout the country by the elegant name of robbiboo. Pemmican is good wholesome food, will keep fresh for a great length of time, and were it not for its unprepossessing appearance, and a good many buffalo hairs mixed with it, through the carelessness of the hunters, would be very palatable. After a time, however, one becomes accustomed to these little peculiarities." "Four expert men slice up a full-grown buffalo in four hours and a half." (Leichardt.)

Caviare is another kind of portable food. It is made out of fish roe, but the recherché sort only from that of the sturgeon. Long narrow bags of strong linen, and a strong brine, are prepared. The bags are half filled with the roe, and then quite filled with the brine, which is allowed to ooze through slowly. This being done, the men wring the bags strongly with their hands, and the roe is allowed to dry. Roe broth is a good dish. Fish may be pounded entire, just as they come from the river, dried in the sun in large lumps, and kept. The negroes about the Niger do this. Eggs, also, may be dried at a gentle heat, pounded and preserved. This is a con