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186   Art of Travel.

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.-lst. Arrange the fuel into logs ; into small fuel, assorted as described above, and into shreds and fibres. 2nd. Make a loose nest of the fibre, just like a sparrow's nest in shape and size, and let the finer part of the fibres be inwards. 3rd. Drop the lighted

tinder in the nest. 4th. Holding the " nest " ~~ quite loosely in the half-closed hand, whirl the outstretched arm in vertical circles round the shoulder joint, as indicated by the dotted line in the diagram. In 30 seconds, or about 40 revolutions, it will begin to glow, and will shortly after burst out in a grand flame. 5th. Drop it, and pile small twigs round it, and nurse the young fire carefully, bearing in mind the proverb that " small sticks kindle a flame, but large ones put it out."

By blowing.-Savages usually kindle the flame by blowing at the live spark and feeding it with little bits of stick, just so much as is necessary. But it is difficult to acquire the art of doing this well, and I decidedly recommend the plan I have described in the foregoing paragraph, in preference to it. When the wind blows steadily and freshly, it suffices to hold up the " nest " against the wind.

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