Black for Inscriptions is made by mixing lamp-black (which see) with some
kind of size, grease, wax, or tar. Dr. Kane, having no other material at
hand, once burnt a large K with gunpowder on the side of a rock. It
proved to be a durable and efficient mark. When letters are chiselled in
a rock, they should be filled with black to make them more conspicuous.
Blood leaves a mark of a dingy hue, that remains long upon a
light-coloured, absorbent surface, as upon the face of sandy rocks.
ON FINDING THE WAY.
Recollection of a Path.--It is difficult to estimate, by recollection
only, the true distances between different points in a road that has been
once travelled over. There are many circumstances which may mislead, such
as the accidental tedium of one part, or the pleasure of another; but
besides these, there is always the fact, that, in a long day's journey, a
man's faculties of observation are more fresh and active on starting than
later in the day, when from the effect of weariness, even peculiar
objects will fail to arrest his attention. Now, as a man's recollection
of an interval of time is, as we all know, mainly derived from the number
of impressions that his memory has received while it was passing, it
follows that, so far as this cause alone is concerned, the earlier part
of his day's journey will always seem to have been disproportionately
long compared to the latter.
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