etter, paper smeared with
damp gunpowder until it is blackened. Some grains of uncrushed gunpowder
should be left adhering to the paper, and a few more should be allowed to
lie loosely upon it. Unsized paper, like that out of a blotting-book, is
the best suited for making into touch-paper; paper is rendered unsized by
being well soaked and washed in water. (See next paragraph.)

Saltpetre for Tinder.--In all cases the presence of saltpetre makes
tinder burn more hotly and more fiercely; and saltpetre exists in such
great quantities in the ashes of many plants (as tobacco, dill, maize,
sunflower), that these can be used, just as they are, in the place of it.
Thus, if the ashes of a cigar be well rubbed into a bit of paper, they
convert it into touch-paper. So will gunpowder, for out of four parts of
it, three are saltpetre; damaged gunpowder may be used for making
touch-paper. If it be an object to prepare a store of tinder, a strong
solution of saltpetre in water should be obtained, and the paper, or
rags, or fungus, dipped into it and hung to dry. This solution may be
made by pouring a little water on a charge of gunpowder, or on the ashes
above-mentioned, which will dissolve the saltpetre out of them. Boiling
water makes a solution forty-fold stronger than ice-cold water, and about
eight times stronger than water at 60 degrees Fahr.

Hair of Plants.--The silky down of a particular willow (S. lanata) was
used by the Esquimaux, with whom Dr. Kane had intercourse; and the
botanist Dr. Lindley once informed me that he had happened to receive a
piece of peculiarly excellent tinder that was simply the hair of a
tree-fern. The Gomuti tinder of the Eastern Archipelago is the hair of a
palm.

Pith.--Many kinds of pith are remarkable as tinders; that whence the
well-known pith hats are made, is used as tinder in India. Pieces of pith
are often sewn round with thin cotton or silk, so as to form a long cord,
like the cotton lamp-wick I have described above, and they are carried in
tubes for the same reason.

b. We now come to the different kinds of tinder that fall into our second
division, namely, those that are too friable to bear handling.

Rags.--Charred linen rags make the tinder that catches fire most easily,
that burns most hotly when blown upon, and smoulders most slowly when
left to itself, of any kind of tinder that is generally to be obtained.
In making it the rags are lighted, and when in a blaze and before they