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by a rope at one end. It is very easily seen, and exposes so little surface to the wind and water that it is not easily washed away. A pole the thickness of a walking-stick is much used in Sweden. Such a buoy costs only a rope, a stick, and a stone; a tuft of the small branches may be left on the top.

$5. Fords and bridges.-In fording a swift stream, carry heavy stones in your hand, for you require weight to resist its carrying you away; indeed, the deeper you wade the more weight you require, though you have so much the less at command, on account of the water buoying you up.

Fords should be tried for where the river is broad rather than where it is narrow, and especially at those places where there are bends in its course. In these, the line of shallow water does not run straight across, but follows the direction of a line connecting a promontory on one side to the nearest promontory on the other, as in the drawing; that is to say, from A to B, or from B to C, and not right across from B to D. Along hollow curves, as at D, the stream runs deep, and usually beneath overhanging banks;

[graphic]

whilst in front of promontories, as at A, B, and C, the water is invariably shoal, unless it be a jutting rock that makes the promontory. Therefore, by entering the stream at one promontory, with the intention of leaving it at another, you ensure that at all events the beginning and end of your

course shall be in shallow water, which you cannot do by attempting any other line of passage.

Swamps. To take a waggon across a deep miry and reedy swamp, outspan and let the cattle feed. Then cut faggots of reeds, and strew them thickly over the line of intended passage. When plenty are laid down, drive the cattle backwards and forwards over, and they will trample them in. Repeat the process two or three times, till the causeway is firm enough to bear the weight of the waggon. Or, in default of reeds, cut long poles and several short cross-bars, say of two feet long; join these as best you can, so as to make a couple of ladder-shaped frames. Place these across the mud, one under the intended track of each wheel. Faggots strewn between each round of the ladder will make the causeway more sound. A succession of logs put crosswise with faggots between them will also do, but not so well.

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Bridges. If you are at the side of a narrow but deep and rapid river, on the banks of which trees grow long enough to reach across, one or more should be felled, confining the trunk to its own bank, and letting the current force the head round to the opposite side, but if "the river be too wide to be spanned by one tree, and that two or three men can in any manner be got across, let a large tree be felled into the water on each side and placed close to the banks opposite to each other, with their heads lying up streamwards. Fasten a rope to the head of each tree, confine the trunks, shove the heads off to receive the force of the current, and ease off the ropes, so that the branches may meet in the middle of the river, at an angle pointing upwards. The branches of the trees will be jammed together by the force of the current, and so be sufficiently united as to form a tolerable communication, especially when a

few of the upper branches have been cleared away.

If

insufficient, towards the middle of the river, to bear the weight of men crossing, a few stakes, with forks left near their heads, may be thrust down through the branches of the trees to support them." (Sir H. Douglas.)

Weak ice. Water that is slightly frozen is made to bear a heavy waggon by cutting reeds, strewing them thickly on the ice, and pouring water upon them; when the whole is frozen into a firm mass, the process must be repeated.

LINE OF ROAD ACROSS COUNTRY.

§ 1. Roads, to mark and find.

§ 2. Accidents by the way.

§ 3. Points of the Compass.
§ 4. Climbing.

These blazes are

§ 1. Roads, to mark and find.—What is termed in bush language a "blaze" is nothing more than notches or slices cut off the bark of trees to mark the line of road. of much use as finger-posts on a dark night. They are best made by two persons; one chipping the trees on his right, and the other those on his left. If the axes are quite sharp they only need to be dropped against the tree in order to make the chip. Doing so hardly retards a person in his walking.

The earth of an old and well-trodden road has a perceptible smell, from the dung, &c., of animals passing over it. It is usual at night, when a guide doubts whether or no he is in the track, to take up handfuls of dirt and smell it. It is notorious that cattle can smell out a road.

Where the track is well marked, showers of sparks, struck with a flint and steel, are sufficient to show it, without taking the pains of making a flame.

If you arrive at the steep edge of a ridge, and have to take your caravan down into the plain, and there appears a likelihood of difficulty in finding a road, descend first yourself as well as you can, and seek about for a good road as you climb back again. It is far more easy to succeed in doing this as you ascend than as you descend, for the reason, that when at the

bottom of a hill, its bold bluffs and precipices face you, and you can at once see and avoid them; but when at the top of the hill, these are precisely the parts that you overlook and do

not see.

Signals. To attract the notice of a division of your party five, ten, or more miles off, glitter a bit of looking-glass in the sun towards where you expect them to be. It is quite astonishing at how great a distance this signal will catch the sharp eyes of a bushman who has learnt to know what it is. It is now a common signal in the North American prairies.

§ 2. Accidents by the way.-If you fairly lose your way in the dark, do not go on blundering hither and thither till you are exhausted, but make a comfortable bivouac, and start at daybreak fresh on your search.

The banks of a watercourse, which is the best of clues, afford the worst of paths, and are quite unfit to be followed at night. The ground is always more broken in the neighbourhood of a river than far away from it, and the vegetation is more tangled. An exploring party travels easier by keeping far away from the banks of streams; they have fewer broad tributaries and deep ravines to cross.

If in the daytime you find that you have quite lost your way, set systematically to work to find it. I mean that you should from that moment keep a careful log, by observing and writing down the directions in which you ride, and the time and estimated distances; else you may wander away from all help. The object, if you cannot follow back your tracks, is to ride in a circle, until the path of the caravan is crossed. First calculate coolly how far, at the utmost, you can be from your party-you have been so many hours riding, and at such and such paces, since you left them. Then make this

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