OCR Rendition - approximate

35 o   Art of Travel.

Materials for Candles.- Tallow.-Mutton-suet mixed with oxtallow is the best material for candles. Tallow should never be melted over a hot fire : it is best to melt it by putting the pot in hot sand. To procure fat, see " Greasing Leather," p. 343.

Wax.-Boil the comb for hours, together with a little water to keep it from burning, then press the melted mass through a cloth into a deep puddle of cold water. This makes beeswax. (See " Honey, to find," p. 199.)

Candlestick.-A hole cut with the knife in a sod of turf or a potato ; 3, 4, or 5 nails hammered in a circle into a piece of wood, to act as a socket ; a hollow bone ; an empty bottle ; a strap with the end passed the wrong way through the buckle and coiled inside ; and a bayonet stuck in the ground, are all used as makeshift candlesticks. " In bygone days the broad feet, or rather legs, of the swan, after being stretched and dried, were converted into candlesticks."-Lloyd.

Lamps.-Lamps may be made of hard wood, hollowed out to receive the oil; also of lead. (See "Lead," p. 340.) The shed hoof of an ox or other beast is sometimes used.

Slush Lamp is simply a pannikin full of fat, with a rag wrapped round a small stick planted as a wick in the middle of it.

Lantern.-A wooden box, a native bucket, or a calabash,
will make the frame, and a piece of greased calico stretched
across a hole in its side, will take the place of glass.
A small tin, such as a preserved-meat case, makes
a good lantern, if a hole is broken into the bottom,
and an opening in the side or front. Horn (see p.
347) is easily to be worked by a traveller into any
required shape. A good and often a ready make
shift for a lantern, is a bottle with its end cracked
off. This is best effected by putting water into the
bottle to the depth of an inch, and then setting it
upon hot embers. The bottle will crack all round
at the level of the top of the water. It takes a
strong wind to blow out a candle stuck into the neck inside
the broken bottle. Alpine tourists often employ this contriv
ance when they start from their bivouac in the dark morning.

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