347) is easily to be worked by a
traveller into any required shape. A good and often a ready makeshift for
a lantern, is a bottle with its end cracked off. This is best effected by
putting water into the bottle to the depth of an inch, and then setting
it upon hot embers. The bottle will crack all round at the level of the
top of the water. It takes a strong wind to blow out a candle stuck into
the neck inside the broken bottle. Alpine tourists often employ this
contrivance when they start from their bivouac in the cark morning.
[Sketch of candle in bottle].
ON CONCLUDING THE JOURNEY.
Complete your Collections.--When your journey draws near its close,
resist restless feelings; make every effort before it is too late to
supplement deficiencies in your various collections; take stock of what
you have gathered together, and think how the things will serve in
England to illustrate your journey or your book. Keep whatever is pretty
in itself, or is illustrative of your every-day life, or that of the
savages, in the way of arms, utensils, and dresses. Make careful drawings
of your encampment, your retinue, and whatever else you may in indolence
have omitted to sketch, that will possess an after-interest. Look over
your vocabularies for the last time, and complete them as far as
possible. Make presents of all your travelling gear and old guns to your
native attendants, for they will be mere litter in England, costly to
house and attractive to moth and rust; while in the country where you
have been travelling, they are of acknowledged value, and would be
additionally acceptable as keepsakes.
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