120   Art of Travel.

" The only means we had of preserving our sole suit of clothes dry from the drenching showers of rain, was by taking them off and stuffing them into the hollow of a tree, which, in the darkness of the night, we could do with propriety,"

Mr. Palliser's boatmen at Chagre took each a small piece of cloth, under which they laid their clothes every time that they stripped in expectation of a coming storm.

Dipping clothes wetted with rain, in Sea-water.-Captain Bligh, who was turned adrift in an open boat after the mutiny of the `Bounty,' writes thus about his experience:" With respect to the preservation of our health, during a course of 16 days of heavy and almost continual rain, I would recommend to every one in a similar situation the method we practised, which is to dip their clothes in the salt water and wring them out as often as they become filled with rain : it was the only resource we had, and I believe was of the greatest service to us, for it felt more li]e a change of dry clothes than could well be imagined. We had occasion to do this so often, that at length our clothes were wrung to pieces; for except the few days we passed on the coast of New Holland, we were continually wet, either with rain or sea."

Washing Clothes.-Substitute for Soap.-The lye of ashes and the gall of animals are the readiest substitutes for soap. The sailor's recipe for washing clothes is well known, but it is too dirty to describe. Bran, and the meal of many seeds, is good for scouring : also some earths, like fuller's-earth. Many countries possess plants that will make a lather with water. Dr. Rae says that in a very cold climate, when fire, water, and the means of drying are scarce, it will be found that rubbing and beating in snow cleanses all clothing remarkably well, _particularly woollens_. When preparing for a regular day's washing, it is a good plan to boil an abundance of ashes in water, strain off the lye, adding the gall of any animal you may have killed, and let the clothes soak in it. Next morning, take them to the water-side, and wash and beat them with a flat piece of wood, or lay them on a broad stone and knead and wring them with the hands.

Lye of Ashes,-In choosing plants to burn for ashes (whence

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