as nothing more appropriate at hand. A substitute for
a steel can be made, even by an ordinary traveller, out of common iron,
by means of "casehardening" (which see). The link of a chain, or the heel
of a boot, or a broken horse-shoe, is of a convenient shape for the
purpose.

Pyrites are, and have been, widely used for striking sparks. Two pieces
struck together, or one piece struck with a steel, gives a good spark;
but it is a very friable mineral, and therefore not nearly so convenient
as flint.

Guns.--If you wish to get a light by means of a flint-and-steel gun, the
touch-hole may be stuffed up, and a piece of tinder put among the priming
powder: a light can be obtained in that way without firing the gun. With
a percussion-cap gun, a light may be obtained by putting powder and
tinder outside the nipple and round the cap; it will, though not with
certainty catch fire on exploding the cap. But the common way with a gun
is to pour in a quarter of a charge of powder, and above it, quite
loosely, a quantity of rag or tinder. On firing the gun straight up in
the air, the rag will be shot out lighted; you must then run after it as
it falls, and pick it quickly up. With percussion-caps, gunpowder, and
tinder, and without a gun, a light may sometimes be had on an emergency,
by scratching and boring with a knife, awl, or nail, at the fulminating
composition in the cap, till it explodes; but a cap is a somewhat
dangerous thing to meddle with, as it often flies with violence, and
wounds. Crushing gunpowder with hard stones may possibly make it explode.

Lucifers.--An inexperienced hand will waste an entire boxful of them, and
yet will fail in lighting a fire in the open air, on a windy day. The
convenience of lucifers in obtaining a light is very great, but they have
two disadvantages: they require that the air should be perfectly still,
while the burning sulphur is struggling to ignite the stick; and, again,
when the match is thrust among the wood, the sticks upon which is has to
act, have not been previously warmed and consequently, though one or two
of them may become lighted, the further progress of the fire is liable to
cease. On the other hand, in methods where the traveller begins with
tinder, and blows its spark into a flame, the adjacent wood becomes
thoroughly heated by the process, and the flame, once started, is almost
certain to maintain itself. Consequently, in lighting a fire with
lucifers, be careful to shiel