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.

Toilet made overnight.—­During the harassing duties of active warfare, officers who aim at appearing in a decorous dress, in whatever emergency their presence may be required, make their toilet overnight before going to sleep.

Economising Water in Washing.—­Where water has to be economised, by far the best way of using it is after the Mahomedan fashion.  An attendant pours a slender stream from a jug, which the man who washes himself receives in his hands and distributes over his person.

Bath-glove.—­Fold a piece of very coarse towel in two parts:  lay your hand upon it, and mark its outline rudely; then guided by the outline, cut it out:  sew the two pieces together, along their edges, and the glove is made.  It is inexpensive, and portable, and as good a detergent as horsehair gloves or flesh-brushes.

Brushes.—­It is well to know how to make a brush, whether for clothes, boots, or hair, and the accompanying section of one will explain itself.  Bristles are usually employed, but fibres of various kinds may be used.

[Sketch of brush].

BEDDING.

General Remarks.—­The most bulky, and often the heaviest, parts of a traveller’s equipment are his clothes, sleeping-mat, and blankets:  nor is it at all desirable that these should be stinted in quantity; for the hardship that most tries a man’s constitution and lays the seeds of rheumatism, dysentery, and fever, is that of enduring the bitter cold of a stormy night, which may happen to follow an exhausting day of extreme heat or drenching wet.  After many months’ travel and camping, the constitution becomes far less susceptible of injury from cold and damp, but in no case is it ever proof against their influence.  Indeed, the oldest travellers are ever those who go the most systematically to work, in making their sleeping-places dry and warm.  Unless a traveller makes himself at home and comfortable in the bush, he will never be quite contented with his lot; but will fall into the bad habit of looking forwards to the end of his journey, and to his return to civilisation, instead of complacently interesting himself in its continuance.  This is a frame of mind in which few great journeys have been successfully accomplished; and an explorer who cannot divest himself of it, may suspect that he has mistaken his vocation.

It is a common idea among men who are preparing to travel for the first time, that all the bed-clothing about which they need concern themselves, is a sufficiency to cover them, forgetting that a man has an under as well as an upper side to keep warm, and must therefore have clothing between him and the earth, as well as between him and the air.  Indeed, on trying the experiment, and rolling oneself up in a single blanket, the undermost side in a cold night is found to be by far the colder of the two.  The substance of the blanket is compressed by the weight of the sleeper;

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The Art of Travel from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.