It is well to treat your bit of skin as
though parchment (which see) were to be made of it, burying the skin and
scraping off the hair, before sewing it on, that it may make no eyesore.
Tendons, or stout fish-skin such as shagreen, may also be used on the
same principle. An axle-tree, cracked lengthwise, can easily be mended
with raw hide; even a broken wheel-tire may be replaced with rhinoceros
or other thick hide; if the country to be travelled over be dry.
Sketch of lathe as described below].
Lathes may be wanted by a traveller, because the pulleys necessary for a
large sailing-boat, and the screw of a carpenter's bench, cannot be made
without one. The sketch will recall to mind the original machine, now
almost forgotten in England, but still in common use on the Continent. It
is obvious that makeshift contrivances can be set up on this principle,
two steady points being the main things wanted. A forked bough suffices
for a treadle. A very common Indian lathe consists of two tent-pegs, two
nails for the points; a leather thong, and some makeshift hand-rest;
neither pole nor treadle is used, but an assistant takes one end of the
thong in one hand, and the other end in the other hand, and hauls away in
a see-saw fashion. For turning hollows, a long spike is used instead of a
short point: then, a hole is bored into the wood to the depth of the
intended hollow, and the spike is pushed forward until it abuts against
the bottom of the hole.
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