hese rations. They are now to be bought at all
provision merchants'--as at Fortnum and Mason's, etc.

Salted Meat.--I have already said (see "Portable Food") that salt meat
cannot be depended upon to retain its nutritious qualities for a length
of time. When freshly made, it is sure to be good. It is well to
recollect that, for want of a salting-tub, animals can be salted in their
own hide. A hollow is scraped in the ground, the hide is laid over it and
pegged down, and the meat, salt, and water put into it. I know of an
instance where this was one on a very large scale.

Condiments.--The most portable and useful condiments for a traveller
are--salt, red pepper, Harvey's sauce, lime-juice, dried onions, and
curry-powder. They should be bought at a first-rate shop; for red pepper,
lime-juice, and curry-powder are often atrociously adulterated.

Salt..--The craving for salt (chloride of sodium) is somewhat satisfied
by the potash salts, and, perhaps, by other minerals: thus we often hear
of people reduced to the mixing of gun-powder with their food, on account
of the saltpetre that it contains. An impure salt is made widely in North
Africa, from wood-ashes. They are put into a pot, hot water is poured
over them and allowed to stand and dissolve out the salts they contain;
the ley is then decanted into another pot, where it is evaporated. The
plants in use, are those of which the wetted ashes have a saline and not
an alkaline taste, nor a soapy feel. As a general rule, trees that make
good soap (p. 122), yield little saltpetre or other good equivalent for
salt. Salt caravans are the chief sustainers of the lines of commerce in
North Africa. In countries where salt is never used, as I myself have
witnessed in South Africa, and among the Mandan North-American Indian
tribes (Catlin, vol. i, p. 124), the soil and springs are "brack." Four
Russian sailors who were wrecked on Spitzbergen, and whose well-known
adventures are to be found in Pinkerton's 'Voyages and Travels,' had
nothing whatever for six years to subsist on--save only the animals they
killed, a little moss, and melted snow-water. One of them died; the
others enjoyed robust health. People who eat nothing but meat, feel the
craving for salt far less strongly than those who live wholly on
vegetables.

Butcher.--One man in every party should have learnt from a professed
butcher, how to cut up a carcase to the best advantage.

Store-keeping.--All stores should be pa