Hints on Shooting. 261
the steel, its lightness, and the strong way in which the blade is set in the haft.
Pocket-knife.-If a traveller wants a pocket-knife full of all kinds of tools, he had best order a very light one of 24 inches long, in a tortoise-shell handle, without the usual turnscrew at the end. It should have alight" picker" to shut over its back ; this will act as a strike-light, and a file also, if its under surface be properly roughened. Underneath the picker, there should be a small triangular borer, for making holes in leather, and a gimlet. The front of the knife should contain a long, narrow pen-blade of soft steel; a cobbler's awl, slightly bent; and a packing-needle with a large eye, to push thongs and twine through holes in leather. Between the tortoise-shell part of the handle and the metal frame of the knife, should be a space to contain three flat thin pieces of steel, turning on the same pivot. The ends of these are to be ground to form turnscrews of different sizes, two of them being small, for the screws of brass instruments : when this excellent contrivance is used, it must be opened out like the letter T, the foot of which represents the turnscrew in use and the horizontal part represents the other two turnscrews, which serve as the handle. It may be thought advisable to add a button-hook, a corkscrew, and a large blade; but that is not my recommendation, because it increases the size of the knife and makes it heavy; now a heavy knife is apt to be laid by, and not to be at hand when wanted, while a light knife is a constant pocket companion.
Sheath Knives, to carry.-They are easily carried by halfnaked, pocketless savages, by attaching the sheaths to a leather-loop, through which the left forearm and elbow are to be passed. A swimmer can easily carry a knife in this way ; otherwise he holds it between his teeth.
Substitutes for Knives.-Steel is no doubt vastly better than iron, but it is not essential for the ordinary purposes of life; indeed, most ancient civilized nations had nothing better than iron. Any bit of good iron may be heated as hot as the camp-fire admits ; hammered flat, lashed into a handle, and sharpened on a stone. A fragment of flint or obsidian may be made fast to a handle, to be used as a carpenter cuts paper
