ld cotton;
stalks or bark, broken up and rubbed small between the fingers; peat or
cattle-dung pulverised; paper that has been doubled up in many folds and
then cut with a sharp knife into the finest possible shavings; tow, or
what is the same thing, oakum, made by unravelling rope or string; and
scrapings and fine shavings from a log of wood. The shreds that are
intended to touch the live spark should be reduced to the finest fibre;
the outside of the nest may be of coarser, but still of somewhat delicate
material.

Cook should collect them.--It is the duty of a cook, when the time of
encamping draws near, to get down from his horse, and to pick up, as he
walks along, a sufficiency of dry grass, little bits of wood, and the
like, to start a fire; which he should begin to make as soon as ever the
caravan stops. The fire ought to be burning, and the kettle standing by
its side, by the time that the animals are caught and are ready to be
off-packed.

Small Sticks.--There should be abundance of small sticks, and if neither
these nor any equivalent for them are to be picked up, the traveller
should split up his larger firewood with his knife, in order to make
them. It is a wise economy of time and patience to prepare plenty of
these; otherwise it will occasionally happen that the whole stock will be
consumed and no fire made. Then the traveller must recommence the work
from the very beginning, under the disadvantage of increasing darkness. I
have made many experiments myself, and have seen many novices as well as
old campaigners try to make fires; and have concluded that, to ensure
success, the traveller should be provided with small bundles of sticks of
each of the following sizes:--1st, size of lucifer-match; 2nd, of lead
pencil; 3rd, smaller than little finger; 4th, size of fore-finger; 5th,
stout stakes.

In wet Weather, the most likely places to find wherewithal to light a
fire, are under large stones and other shelter; but in soaking wet
weather, little chips of dry wood can hardly be procured except by
cutting them with an axe out of the middle of a log. The fire may then be
begun, as the late Admiral the Hon. C. Murray well recommended in his
travels in North America, in the frying-pan itself, for want of a dry
piece of ground.

To kindle a Spark into a Flame.--By whirling.--1st. Arrange the fuel
into logs; into small fuel, assorted as described above, and into shreds
and fibres. 2nd. Make a loose nest of the f