venient plan of making a store out of sea-birds' eggs, or even of those of ostriches. "Butter is preserved by boiling it in a large vessel till the scum rises. A person stands watching, to skim this off as fast as it appears on the surface, until the butter remains quite clear like oil, when it is cooled and left for use. It always retains its liquid state. This mode of clarifying butter is adopted throughout Sennaar, Kordofan, &c., and even in Egypt, and is very useful, as the butter thus preserved may be kept for any length of time, and its flavour is but slightly inferior to fresh butter." (Parkyns' "Abyssinia.") To keep milk, bottle it, cork it very tight, and put it in a pot of water, over a slow fire, till the water boils. Milk with one's tea is a great luxury, and worth taking some pains about. A traveller is generally glutted with milk when near native encampments, and at other times has none at all. § 4. Bush cookery.-The most portable and useful condiments for a traveller to take with him are, salt, red pepper, Harvey sauce, lime juice, dried onions, and curry powder. Bacon must be carried, in hot climates, in bran, and be uncooked, or the fat will melt away. Meat biscuit, which is used in American ships, is stated to be a thick soup, evaporated down to a syrup, kneaded with flour, and made into biscuits, these are pricked with holes, dried and baked. They can be eaten just as they are, or made into a porridge, with from 20 to 30 times their weight of water. A few bush dishes should be mentioned : Baking meat.-Where game has to be cooked for a large party, and there are not vessels sufficient to boil it in, it is convenient to sew up as much of the animal as is wanted in its own skin, and to bake it. An entire sheep can be baked. The way is to dig a hole in the ground, wall it with stones, and make a stone roof to it, all excepting one or two apertures. Then having made a roaring fire in and around the oven, till the stones are quite hot, sweep out the ashes, strew with grass, leaves, or bark of any kind that is not bitter, and put the meat in, and over it more grass, &c.; now shut up the aperture, and continue the fire above the oven for some hours. For steaming vegetables, the same process is used, except that boiling water is from time to time poured, through holes on the roof, down on the vegetables. A small piece of meat, enough for four or five people, can be baked with much less preparation, simply by scraping a hole pretty deep under the bivouac fire, putting the meat in, rolled up in the piece of skin to which it remains attached, and covering it with earth and fire. In all cases it is a slow process, requiring many hours, but the meat when done is very soft and juicy, and the skin gelatinous and excellent. Where old white-ant hills are met with, the natives commonly dig holes in their sides, and use them as ovens. Kabobs, &c.-For a hurried dinner, broil the rib-bones, or skewer your iron ramrod through a dozen small lumps of meat, and roast them. In all cases, if your meat is of a tough sort, hammer it from time to time, when half done, to break up its fibre, and then continue the cooking. Soup. In order to make soup, if you have no vessel that will stand the fire, you must heat stones and drop them into the water; but sandstones, especially, are apt to shiver and make grit. The Dacota Indians, and very probably other tribes also, used to boil animals in their own hide. The description runs thus: "They stuck four stakes in the ground, and tied the four corners of the hide up to them, leaving a hollow in the middle; three or four gallons of water, and the meat cut up very fine, were then put in; three or four hot stones, each the size of a 61b. cannon-shot, cooked the whole into a good soup." "It is Haggis. The dish called beatee is handy to make. a kind of haggis made with blood, a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs, cut or torn into small shivers, all of which is put into the stomach and roasted by being suspended before the fire with a string. Care must be taken that it does not get too much heat at first, or it will burst. It is a most delicious morsel, even without pepper, salt, or any seasoning." (Hearne.) Lunch.-When travelling on mornings and afternoons, tea makes an excellent mid-day meal, with enough bread, or whatever you have, to stay the appetite till the evening supper; it dispels fatigue better than anything else, and it is less heating than coffee. A wooden bowl is the best thing to drink it out of, if you have means of frequently washing it; tin mugs burn the lips too much. A large wooden spoon is also very convenient. Tea. Where there are no cups nor teapot, put the leaves in the pot or kettle, and drink through a reed with a wisp of grass in it, as they do in Paraguay; if there are cups and no teapot, the leaves may be put into the pot, previously enclosed in a loose gauze or muslin bag to prevent their floating about. This plan, which is commonly used in England for making tea on a large scale, is well worth being borne in mind by a traveller in civilised countries, who carries an Etna with him. § 5. Plates and cooking utensils.—I have travelled much, with plates, knives, forks, &c., for three persons, carried in a sabretasch which hung from the cook's saddle, and I found it very convenient. It was simply a square piece of leather, with a large pocket for the plates, and other smaller ones for the rest of the things; it had a flap to tie over it, which was kept down with a button. Each of the men on a riding expedition should carry own tin mug, either tied to his waist or to his saddle. Take plenty of butcher's knives, and a whetstone. Cooking apparatus, of any degree of complexity, and of very portable shapes, can be bought at all military outfitters; but for the bush, and travelling roughly, nothing is better than a light roomy iron pot and a large strong tin kettle. It is very disagreeable to make tea in the same pot that meat is boiled in; besides, if you have only one vessel, it takes a longer time to prepare meals. If possible, take a second small tin kettle, both as a reserve against accidents and for the convenience of the thing. An iron pot, whose lid is the size of the crown of a hat, cooks amply enough for three persons at a time, and can, without much inconvenience, be made to do double duty, and therefore the above articles would do for six men. An iron pot should have very short legs, or some blow will break one of them off and leave a hole. (A hole in the side of a pot can be so botched up as not to leave it altogether useless.) Iron kettles far outwear tin ones, but the comparative difficulty of making them boil, and their great weight, are very objectionable. A good tin kettle, carefully cherished (and it is the interest of the whole party to watch over its safety), lasts many months in the bush. Copper is dangerous, but the receipt is given further on for tinning copper vessels when they require it. Have the handle of the kettle notched or bored, so as to give a holding by which the lid may be tied close down; then if stuff a you wisp of grass into the spout, the kettle will carry water for a journey. Graters are wanted to grate jerked meat. A piece of tin, punched through with holes, then bent a little, and so nailed on to a piece of wood, makes a good one. Sieves. Stretch parchment (which see) on a wooden hoop, exactly as on a drum-head, let it dry, and punch it full of small holes. MATTERS OF DISCIPLINE. § 1. Even Temper. § 2. Organising a Party. § 4. Bush Laws. § 5. Carrying the Wounded. § 6. Securing Prisoners. § 1. Even temper.-An exploring expedition is daily exposed to a succession of accidents, any one of which would be fatal to its further progress. The cattle may at any time stray, die, or be stolen; one or more of the men may become seriously ill, and cannot be abandoned; water may not be reached, and the party be worn out, and the cattle. perish; or a hostile attack may happen. Hence the success of the expedition generally depends on a chain of minor successes, each link of which must be perfect; for where one fails, there must be an end of further advance. It is therefore well, especially at the outset. of a long journey, not to go hurriedly to work and push forwards too thoughtlessly; but at leisure. Let the men and cattle be acclimatised, make the bush your home, and avoid unnecessary hardships. Interest yourself, as was remarked before, chiefly in the progress of your journey, and do not look forward to its end with eagerness. It is better to think of a return to civilisation, not as an end to hardship and a haven from ill, but as a thing rather to be regretted, and as a close to an adventurous and pleasant life. In this way, risking less, you will insensibly creep on, making connections, and learning the capabilities of the country as you advance, which will be found invaluable in case of a hurried or a disas |