well painted and pitched, it never leaked or became
impaired in any way."

Boats.--Of Wood.--English-made boats have been carried by explorers for
great distances on wheels, but seldom seem to have done much useful
service. They would travel easiest if slung and made fast in a strong
wooden crate or framework, to be fixed on the body of the carriage. A
white covering is necessary for a wooden boat, on account of the sun:
both boat and covering should be frequently examined. Mr. Richardson and
his party took a boat, divided in four quarters, on camel-back across the
Sahara, all the way from the Mediterranean to Lake Tchad. A portable
framework of metal tubes, to be covered with india-rubber sheeting on
arrival, was suggested to me by a very competent authority, the late Mr.
M'Gregor Laird.

Copper boats have been much recommended, because an accidental dent,
however severe it may be, can be beaten back again without doing injury
to the metal. One of the boats in Mr. Lynch's expedition down the Jordan
was made of copper.

Corrugated Iron makes excellent boats for travellers; they are stamped by
machinery: Burton took one of them to Zanzibar. They were widely
advertised some ten years ago, but they never came into general use, and
I do not know where they can now be procured.

Canoes.--The earlier exploits of the 'Rob Roy' canoe justly attracted
much attention, and numerous canoe voyages have subsequently been made.
The Canoe Club is now a considerable institution, many of whose members
make yearly improvements in the designs of their crafts. Although canoes
are delicately built and apparently fragile, experience has amply proved
that they can stand an extraordinary amount of hard usage in the hands of
careful travellers. As a general rule, it is by no means the heaviest and
most solid things that endure the best. If a lightly-made apparatus can
be secured from the risk of heavy things falling upon it, it will outlast
a heavy apparatus that shakes to pieces under the jar of its own weight.

A hole cut in the square sail enables the voyager to see ahead.

To carry on Horseback.--Mr. Macgregor, when in Syria, took two strong
poles, each 16 feet long, and about 3 inches thick at the larger end.
These were placed on the ground 2 feet apart, and across them, at 3 feet
from each end, he lashed two stout staves, about 4 feet long. Then a
"leading" horse was selected, that is, one used to lead caravans, and on
his back a lar