go through
another process. When dry, the meat is pounded between two stones till it
is broken into small pieces: these are put into a bag made of the
animal's hide, with the hair on the outside, and well mixed with melted
grease; the top of the bag is then sewn up, and the pemmican allowed to
cool. In this state it may be eaten uncooked; but the men who subsist on
it when travelling, mix it with a little flour and water, and then boil
it--in which state it is know throughout the country by the elegant name
of robbiboo. Pemmican is good wholesome food; will keep fresh for a great
length of time; and, were it not for its unprepossessing appearance, and
a good many buffalo hairs mixed with it, through the carelessness of the
hunters, would be very palatable. After a time, however, one becomes
accustomed to these little peculiarities."

Meat-biscuit.--Meat-biscuit, which is used in American ships, is stated
to be a thick soup, evaporated down to a syrup, kneaded with flour, and
made into biscuits: these are pricked with holes, dried and baked. They
can be eaten just as they are, or made into a porridge, with from twenty
to thirty times their weight of water. They were to be bought at
Gamble's, Leadenhall Street.

Dried Meat.--When more game is shot than can be eaten before the party
travel onwards, it is usual to jerk a part of it. It is cut in long
strips, and festooned about the bushes, under the full sun, in order to
dry it. After it has been sun-dried it will keep for long, before it
becomes wholly putrid. Dried meat is a poor substitute for fresh meat; it
requires long steeping in water, to make it tender, and then it is
tasteless, and comparatively innutritious. "Four expert men slice up a
full-grown buffalo in four hours and a-half." (Leichhardt.) The American
buccaneers acquired their name from boucan--which means jerked meat, in
an Indian dialect; for they provisioned their ships with the dried flesh
of the wild cattle that they hunted down and killed.

Dried Fish.--Fish may be pounded entire, just as they come from the
river, dried in the sun in large lumps, and kept: the negroes about the
Niger do this.

Flour travels conveniently in strong canvas bags, each holding 50 lbs.,
and long enough to be lashed on to a pack-saddle. (See "Pack-gabs," p.
71.)

Chollet's preserved Vegetables relieve agreeably the monotony of a bush
diet. A single ration weighs less than an ounce, and a cubic yard
contains 16,000 of t