The Art of Travel eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 457 pages of information about The Art of Travel.

The Art of Travel eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 457 pages of information about The Art of Travel.

Stores for general use:—­

Various small stores 95 lbs. 
Various heavy stores
Stationery 30
Mapping 31
Natural History (occasional) 30

Stores for Individual use:—­

For each white man (at rate of 7 lbs. per month) 66

For each black man (at rate of 3 lbs. per month 30

Presents and articles of payment are usually of far
greater weight than all the above things put together.

TOTAL WEIGHT TO BE CARRIED BY EXPEDITION 282

Mem.—­If meat and bread, and the like, have to be carried, a very large addition of weight must be made to this list, for the weight of a daily ration varies from 3 lbs., or even 4 lbs., to 2 lbs., according to the concentration of nutriment in the food that is used.  Slaughter animals carry themselves; but the cattle-watchers swell the list of those who have to be fed.

Means of Transport.—­In order to transport the articles belonging to an expedition across a wild and unknown country, we may estimate as follows:—­

Beasts of burthen:—­

An ass will not usually care more than about (net weight) 65 lbs. 
A small mule 90
A horse 100
An ox of an average greed 120
A camel (which rarely can be used by an explorer) 300

It is very inconvenient to take more than six pack-animals in a caravan that has to pass over broken country, for so much time is lost by the whole party in re-adjusting the packs of each member of it, whenever one gets loose, that its progress is seriously retarded.

Carriages.—­An animal—­camels always excepted—­draws upon wheels in a wild country about two and a half times the weight he can carry.

         &nb
sp;                                                    lbs. 
A light cart, exclusive of the driver, should not carry
    more than...........................
.......................800
A light waggon, such as one or two horses would trot
    away with, along a turnpike road, not more than...........1500
A waggon of the strongest construction, not more than.........3000

Weight of Rations.—­A fair estimate in commissariat matters is as follows:—­
A strong waggon full of food carries 1000 full-day rations
The pack of an ox " 40 "
The pack of a horse " 30 "
A slaughter ox yields, as fresh meat 80 "
A fat sheep yields " 10 "
(N.B.  Meat when jerked loses about one-half of its nourishing powers.)

MEDICINE.

General Remarks.—­Travellers are apt to expect too much from their medicines, and to think that savages will hail them as demigods wherever they go.  But their patients are generally cripples who want to be made whole in a moment, and other suchlike impracticable cases.  Powerful emetics, purgatives, and eyewashes are the most popular physickings.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Art of Travel from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.