half fill it with
sand or earth, and prepare a thin stick of pine, round which wrap a
strip of soft cotton cloth. The stick should be about half an inch
longer than the depth of the pannikin. Melt some waste fat, fill the
pannikin therewith, push the stick down into the earth at the
bottom, and you have a light, which, if not equal to the electric or
incandescent gas burner, is quite serviceable. In Australia the soft
velvety core of the "bottle brush," _Banksia marginata_, is often used
instead of the cotton wick.

CHAPTER XII

RULES OF THUMB

MINING APPLIANCES AND METHODS

A TEMPORARY FORGE

What prospector has not at times been troubled for the want of a forge?
To steel or harden a pick or sharpen a drill is comparatively easy,
but there is often a difficulty in getting a forge. Big single action
bellows are sometimes bought at great expense, and some ingenious
fellows have made an imitation of the blacksmith's bellows by means of
sheepskins and rough boards.

With inadequate material and appliances to hand, the following will
be found easier to construct and more lasting when constructed. Only
a single piece of iron is required, and, at a pinch, one could even
dispense with that by using a slab of talcose material, roughly shaping
a hearth therein and making a hole for the blast. First, construct a
framing about the height of an ordinary smith's forge. This can made
with saplings and bark, or better still, if available, out of an empty
packing case about three feet square. Fill the frame or case with
slightly damped earth and ram it tight, leaving the usual hollow hearth.
Then form a chamber below the perforated hearth opening to the rear.
Now construct a centrifugal fan, such as is used for the ventilation of
shallow shafts and workings. Set this up behind the hearth and revolve
by means of a wooden multiplying wheel. A piece of ordinary washing line
rope, or sash line rope, well resined if resin can be got--but pitch,
tar, or wax will do by adding a little fine dust to prevent sticking--is
used as a belt. With very rough materials a handy man can thus make a
forge that will answer ordinary requirements.--N.B. Do not use clay for
your hearth bed unless you can get a highly aluminous clay, and can give
it full time to dry before the forge fire is lit. Ordinary surface soil,
not too sandy, acts well, if damped and rammed thoroughly. Of course,
if you can get an iron nozzle for your blower the whole operat