--Shreds and Fibres.--The live spark has
to be received and partly enclosed, in a loose heap or nest of
finely-shredded fuel. The substances for making such a nest, are one or
other of the following list:--
Dry grass of the finest kinds: leaves: moss: lichen, and wild cotton;
stalks or bark, broken up and rubbed small between the fingers; peat or
cattle-dung pulverised; paper that has been doubled up in many folds and
then cut with a sharp knife into the finest possible shavings; tow, or
what is the same thing, oakum, made by unravelling rope or string; and
scrapings and fine shavings from a log of wood. The shreds that are
intended to touch the live spark should be reduced to the finest fibre;
the outside of the nest may be of coarser, but still of somewhat delicate
material.
Cook should collect them.--It is the duty of a cook, when the time of
encamping draws near, to get down from his horse, and to pick up, as he
walks along, a sufficiency of dry grass, little bits of wood, and the
like, to start a fire; which he should begin to make as soon as ever the
caravan stops. The fire ought to be burning, and the kettle standing by
its side, by the time that the animals are caught and are ready to be
off-packed.
Small Sticks.--There should be abundance of small sticks, and if neither
these nor any equivalent for them are to be picked up, the traveller
should split up his larger firewood with his knife, in order to make
them.
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