for
capturing small mammals, butterfly nets, bottles for preserving reptiles
in alcohol, insect-killing bottles (cyanide of potassium), a quantity of
arsenical soap, bone nippers, scalpels, and all other accessories
necessary for the collection of natural history specimens. There were
three sets of photographic apparatus in my outfit, and one hundred and
fifty-eight dozen dry plates, as well as all adjuncts for the developing,
fixing, etc. of the negatives as they were taken. The collecting
materials were given me by the British Museum of Natural History, to
which institution I had promised to present all specimens of fauna and
flora I might collect during my journey. I had two sets of instruments
for astronomical observation and for use in surveying (one of which had
been furnished me by the Royal Geographical Society), such as the
six-inch sextant, hypsometrical apparatus for measuring heights, with
boiling-point thermometers specially constructed for very great
altitudes; two aneroids, one to 20,000 feet, the other to 25,000 feet;
three artificial horizons (one mercury, the others plate-glass with
levels); a powerful telescope with astronomical eyepiece and stand; a
prismatic, a luminous, a floating, and two pocket compasses; maximum and
minimum thermometers, a case of drawing instruments, protractors,
parallel rules, tape rules, a silver water-tight half-chronometer watch
and three other watches, section paper in books and in large sheets,
Raper's and the Nautical Almanac for 1897 and 1898.

Not to neglect the artistic aspect of my expedition, I had provided
myself with ample painting and drawing materials, and I trust to the
appearance of my sketches in these volumes to prove that I did not carry
them in vain.

I was provided with a very light mountain _tente-d'abri_ seven feet long,
four feet wide, and three feet high. Well accustomed to the sort of
travelling I was in for, I decided that I required for myself only a
camel-hair blanket in the way of bedding. I reduced my clothing also to a
minimum and made no difference in it from start to finish. The only thing
I ever missed was my straw hat, which I wore up in the Himahlyas just as
I had worn it in the broiling plains, because it seemed to me always the
most comfortable headgear. It was rendered unwearable through the
clumsiness of one of my Shokas to whom I had lent it to carry in it some
swan eggs (presented by a friendly Shoka), and who fell with it, or on