Home › M › Messrs (Burroughs Wellcome and Co know)

Messrs (Burroughs Wellcome and Co know)

Burroughs Wellcome and Co. know all about the medicines requisite for Africa, and they supply all drugs in tabloid form. These keep better and are more portable than powders or liquids. Quinine, calomel, and opium are the most important drugs, to which should be added iodoform, carbolic acid, carbolic oil, stron ammonia, sticking plaster, lint, and a clinical thermometer.

A. M. NAYLOR.

AMERICA, NORTH.-To the ordinary mortal, camping out means roughing it, but to an old campaigner it signifies, if not absolute comfort, something akin to it, and this at no extra cost or additional paraphernalia; in fact comfort is as easily obtained as the reverse, if only you know how to set to work.

The most useful pattern of tent for North America is the A shape, which is obtainable in most American towns, and costs but a few dollars. The advantage of this tent is that nothing but the bare canvas need be CAMPING OUT] carried, as the ridge pole and two supports can be cut on every suitable camping ground throughout the Rocky Mountains.

For winter work, the Indian Tepee cannot be improved upon: it is cone-shaped, supported by thirteen poles, and permits of a good fire inside, the smoke escaping through the open top. This tent can only be procured from Indians, and would be useless in a district destitute of small trees, unless inhabited by those tribes of Indians nature of the country. It is sometimes possible to manœuvre a wagon, otherwise the ordinary means is by pack horses, canoes, or pack Indians. In any case, however, some experienced person will be required to superintend the arrangements, and the only serviceable articles which cannot be procured on the spot are a good canteen and air bed. Anything else brought from England will only prove an additional expense and encumbrance. [Photo. kindly lent by II. Hesketh Prichard.

CAMPING OUT IN LABRADOR.. who always leave their Tepee poles standing when they move camp. Another useful form of tent is the Leanto, very serviceable in the mountains when a man may have to carry his whole outfit on his back; it simply consists of a sheet of canvas 8 ft. by 5 ft., which is fixed to windward in the same fashion as the A tent, and represents when erected half the roof of this tent. It serves well as a shelter from wind, snow, or rain.

Tents should not be taken out to America, but procured on the spot. What should be carried in the way of cooking utensils and luxuries entirely depends upon the mode of conveyance, and that is regulated by the Camping in the States and Canada is simpler work than in British Columbia, where the further we penetrate north, the greater become the difficulties. There is a marked difference between riding with a pack train of horses along a good trail in the beautifully timbered, park-like mountains of Wyoming, and plodding on foot behind a party of Indians through the almost impassable forests of Northern British Columbia. But the requirements for a good camping ground are the same. and consist of three essentials: namely, water, dry firewood, and sufficient level ground to pitch a tent on. No one who has not tried it could imagine the difficulty of remaining all night in a tent pitched on an incline. Fortunately in America, except upon the Prairies, there is rarely any difficulty about wood and water. The former is an important object, and necessitates a good axe-man, who knows how to lay his logs Kentucky fashion in order that the frying-pan bread may be properly baked beneath. Where wood abounds there is no occasion to economise it, and, therefore, when a dead tree is felled, it is cut into eight-feet lengths, which are laid upon two short cross-pieces for dogs. Then, if birch is handy, some bark is stripped off and placed beneath. This burns furiously, a [CAMPING OUT it may be presumed that the camp is supplied with servants and every possible luxury, though what people would find to amuse them after a couple of days of this life it is hard to say.

The fisherman may furnish his camp luxuriously, for when once on lake or river bank it becomes a permanency; it can usually be accommodated with anything desirable from no great distance. A very delightful time can be spent thus, but America's greatest curse, the mosquito, often renders an otherwise perfect summer unendurable. By selecting an open spot, however, in a breezy situation on the bank, A NIGHT CAMP ON THE TRAIL IN MONTANA. and the whole is soon ablaze and in condition to cook the fresh trout just caught, and the venison which will have been killed en route.

Camp life is exactly what you choose to make it, and the fussy man and grumbler are an abomination. It is a curious fact that, charming though it be, camp life brings out all the worst traits in nature, and fortunate is the party which can produce four friends who have camped together for a week without at least a coolness between some of them. "Be certain of your man, or woman, before asking either to camp out," is excellent advice, but very difficult to follow. Persons camp out for one of three reasons-Big-game shooting, fishing, or an idle life of pleasure. In the last case [Copyright by Underwood and Underwood. and guarding it with mosquito-netting, no great discomfort from these pests need ensue.

Camping after Big-game requires the judgment only obtained from experience.

The all-important object is reduction in weight, which necessitates baggage being restricted to the absolute minimum. A horse carries on the flat a pack of 300 lb.; an Indian, 100 lb.; and a squaw twice as much; but for mountain climbing these weights are reduced. Pack-horses must be packed by an experienced hand intimate with the intricacies of the diamond hitch.

A hunting outfit will be wanted as follows:

Tent, blankets, frying-pan, canteen, three round pots fitting into one another, flour, baking-powder, sugar, bacon, tinned milk, CAMPING OUT] salt, pepper, tea or coffee, and rice; soap, towels, dish-cloths, and also hobbles for the horses. As it is often impossible to camp high up a mountain, lightly equipped expeditions from the main camp must be undertaken. On these excursions, a hunter will carry his own pack of about 50 lb. weight, consisting of Lean-to, blankets, frying-pan, coffee-pot, round pot, flour, bacon, coffee, sugar, and salt.

Find a snug spot to camp in, and if the weather is fine and the thermometer above zero, the Lean-to can be dispensed with, a large fire supplying sufficient heat. A comfortable bed is made by plucking a quantity of tips from fir branches and laying them better. For a single sportsman a Cabul tent weighing 80 lb. and a Rowtie for the servants is sufficient. In the hot weather it is cooler to sleep in the open air, and even in the day-time it is pleasanter to have one's meals and to sit out under the shade of a tree, so that a tent is not much required for living in. It is, however, convenient for keeping things together, and is also useful in case there should be rain: heavy thunderstorms occasionally occur in the hot weather. A Cabul tent has a double roof and keeps rain out well. It is also a good protection from the sun in the heat of the day should the shade of the trees, under which a tent can almost always be pitched, not be suffi- PRINCE ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT'S CAMP IN BRITISH EAST AFRICA. carefully one upon the other to a depth of several inches. This also forms a most satisfactory bed upon snow. If bare ground is slept upon, a spot should be selected with slight hollows to fit the hip and shoulder, for they add greatly to comfort, or such hollows can be scooped out for one's self.

Late in the season there will be no water, and snow has to be melted in the round pot.

To roast fish and grouse, clean and split them, then fix them on sticks, stuck into the ground close to the fire. They will be found delicious. Bread is baked in the frying-pan.

J. TURNER TURNER.

INDIA. There is no difficulty in procuring tents in India, as they can be readily purchased or hired. For shooting purposes the less camp equipage that is taken the cient. About half the space of such a tent is taken up by the bed, which is placed along one side. A piece of netting should be sewn along each wall of the tent so as to form three or four large pockets, which are very convenient for holding clothing, books, and other articles in constant use.

Another tent, which gives more room and is light, is the Bechoba, a square tent with light bamboo framework and no pole. A small place outside the tent can be screened off for a bath with boughs or mats. In the cold weather, the nights are very chilly and there is heavy dew, and it is necessary then to sleep inside the tent.

A good bed is of great importance when out shooting, as nothing rests one more.

Folding-up camp beds, as sold in shops, are all uncomfortable. The best plan is to have a strong bedstead made, 7 feet by 4 feet, with cotton webbing, costing about ten rupees. No mattress is required; a resai, a kind of quilt stuffed with cotton (cost five rupees), answers that purpose. Such a bedstead is easily carried on a cart if placed on the top of the baggage, and the resai is rolled up with the rugs. If a folding bed is required, a good one is made with a stout piece of canvas. Each side is sewn round a bamboo, and the ends of the bamboos project and fit into stout wooden legs. Another bamboo at each end of the bed fits into these wooden legs, keeping them apart to the full width necessary to stretch the canvas tight. The two ends of the canvas are furnished with straps and buckles which pass round the end bamboos, and pull it tight in that direction. The objection to this kind of bed is that the canvas gets stretched with the weight upon it and bags down. It is convenient to carry, for the bamboos can be slipped out of the legs when the straps are undone, and the legs are rolled up inside the canvas. An ulster should always be taken. In the cold weather, at night, and in the early morning, it is most comfortable in camp. Even in the hot weather, the air is frequently chilly if there is rain. In the cold weather, plenty of warm coverings for the bed are necessary, and in the hot weather a good blanket or rug is often wanted in the early morning before sunrise. Carriage is easily procured; the most usual is the bullock cart. A sufficient number of carts should be hired for the trip at so much a day (about 12 annas =Is. each). It is a little more expensive, but much more comfortable than hiring locally for each move. In some places camels are used for transport; in others everything has to be carried on men's heads.

For supplies, fowls and milk can generally be obtained, but it is a good plan to buy two or three dozen live fowls and take them with you. Sheep or goats can also be got, but the sportsman will find that the less he draws on local supplies the more popular he will be. In any case he should make a point of paying in person a full price for everything got from the villagers, as native servants are apt to give less than what is due, if payment is left to them. When moving camp, the Patel or headman of the village should be seen and asked whether everyone is satisfied. A small tip to the village officials and to such of the villagers as have attended to the camp requirements, should not be neglected, for then the visit of the Sahib and his retinue will be a subject of congratulation. A butler, cook, and a third servant to make himself generally useful, is sufficient for the ordinary sports- [CAMPING OUT man. A good water-filter is essential. At least three chaguls (as the leather waterbags are called) are required for each sportsman to have with him when shooting.

Two should be taken out on a day's shooting in hot weather, and one in cold, the remainder being left in camp so as to have a supply of filtered cold water in the evening. Water in leather bags becomes quite cold. In order to sweeten new chaguls and remove all taste of leather, fill them with buttermilk, put in a handful of turmeric, and allow them to stand for two days.

When out shooting in camp for more than a week or so, it is advisable to take a Bania or native grain dealer with you, who will carry food for your men and feed them at 2 annas (about 2d.) per head per day at your expense. Everything that is required in the way of tinned meats, stores, liquor, cartridges, ammunition, and supplies generally can be bought in any of the Presidency towns as well as in England. If horses are used, a supply of grain, which is a substitute for oats in India, must be taken.

J. D. INVERARITY.

Bibliography. - The Camper's Handbook, T. H.

Holding (Simpkin), 1908; The Book of Camping and Woodcraft, H. Kephart (Grant Richards), 1909.

CANOES AND CANOEING-Cruise the world around, and there is not a place or port you can visit without encountering some form or type of canoe. Go back in history beyond the memory or records of man, and you will still find canoes. The early naval engagements, whether by State against State, or by individuals or clans or syndicates against any body or any State they could come across, were fought in canoes, or in craft of canoe type; indeed, we can hasten down to modern, up-to-date war, and find that one of the most destructive craft afloat at the present day is distinctly of canoe form the torpedo boat. Definition of Canoe. There are those who will define a canoe as a craft that is propelled by paddles wielded by man or men; but there are many types of canoes, belonging to countries thousands of miles apart, in which the paddle, except for steering, is an unknown implement. In these craft, sail is the furnisher of motive power by agency of the wind, or vice versa. Then, for civilised modern times, why not steam or electric propulsion?

If the craft is in type, form, and utility a canoe, and is propelled by a man wielding a paddle, she does not change her nature when the man ceases to paddle and hoists a sail, or when he, by suitable machinery, CANOES AND CANOEING] THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORT waggles a differently formed paddle, such as a screw propeller. I think there may legitimately be paddling-canoes, sailingcanoes, and motor-canoes; and, further, that the mode of propulsion should not determine the classification of a craft; but that model and capability to do work commonly assigned to canoes and canoeing is the true guide. No matter where you make your choice of investigation on the millions of miles of sea shore of this world, you will find the "canoe of that place is formed "sharp at each end"; she is a light draught craft, capable of being navigated in very shoal and also in very rough water; of as easy propulsion astern as in going ahead; except in a few rare cases she is always transportable by manual power from water to water overland; she is long, narrow, and of light construction. دو As to the canoes of savage peoples, any well fitted museum will furnish quite a bewildering assortment of models thereof, if historical research be the aim. We want, however, to get to canoeing as a sport at the present day; and in order somewhat to classify the type of craft which can legitimately claim to be a canoe, we may as well suggest "what is not a canoe."

You may have a canoe, and they exist in many parts of the world, of one hundred feet or more in length; you may have a canoe which carries fifty men; or you may have a canoe which will sail under five hundred square feet of sail, or down to fifty feet on small craft. But each of such craft can be paddled by her crew at or over her sides, by hand-worked paddles, without fixed boat-fulcrum; or she can be sailed under easily removable sails and spars; and she will be able to navigate into waters barely ankle deep, and she will be sharp at each end.

Therefore it is obvious that a small yacht, even though her hull be long and shallow and pointed at each end, if she be of deep fixed draught, with heavy spars and gear not immediately removable, and herself so weighted as to be too heavy for manual transportation, cannot rightly claim to be a canoe.

History of Canoeing. -Coming now to modern times, we may take it as settled that the sport of canoeing that is, river canoeing under paddle, and travelling abroad chiefly under paddle, but with a small sail for use in fair winds, was brought in and popularised by John MacGregor in his Rob Roy cruises and books thereon between 1866 and 1869. And canoe sailing in small canoes was similarly introduced by the writer's voyages in the Nautilus in Sweden and the Baltic during 1870 and 1871. Here it may be said that possibly there were other canoes more or less rigged; but with the exception of Mr. Tredwen's Pearl, which came into public notice immediately afterwards, there were none in evidence. Clubs were constituted and held regattas, and the effect of the racing competition, which was extremely keen, soon showed itself in the improvement of model, rig, and fitment, which progressed by leaps and bounds and brought the sailing canoe up to such perfection that, though comparatively a tiny craft, there were several sailing clubs which then barred canoes from competing in their races, because they were too successful.

Canoeing, both paddling, sailing, and cruising, quickly became an acknowledged. branch of sport, and it rapidly spread to the Continent and to America; and one soon heard of Englishmen, stationed away in far distant parts of the world, building and using canoes. Canoe Travelling, a book published by the writer of this article in 1871, was the first book on canoe design, rigging, and fitting, and it gave drawings thereon; and thereby the sailing canoe of those early days was known as of Nautilus type. The Pearl above mentioned, which came out shortly afterwards, was of somewhat different lines, or shape, but only so in detail, and of the Nautilus and Pearl new specimens of improved model and rig were steadily produced year by year, and led the fashion in building. They continued so to do, and to race, up to 1890, and since that year up to the present Nautilus designs have been from time to time published. Of course there are many men who have produced designs and built canoes which, in their opinion, are of original design; but distinct type they can hardly fairly claim, and it matters not here, nor indeed at all, to seek in them family likeness to Pearl or Nautilus. I will merely, in regard to the history of the sport, say that when these two sailing canoes were produced there were no existing sailing canoes of any practically valuable nature to copy, and the only book dealing with such craft at that time was Canoe Travelling; but since then canoeing, in technical articles and books. has been constantly before the public here and in America. The well-known technical book, Yacht and Boat Sailing (Horace Cox), has, in each of its eight editions, contained a complete up-to-date Canoeing Section," with designs, and drawings, and articles from the pens of "Nautilus," "Pearl," Cassey," and many other canoe men. (The 6th and 7th editions give the fullest ،، 66 THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF SPORT [CANOES AND CANOEING amount of designs and details, the advent of small yachts' designs having rather crowded the canoeing in the eighth edition.) At all times in the life of the sport of canoeing there has been a marked line between sailing and paddling; there have always been in each of the clubs, both in England and in America and Canada, paddling men who never sailed a canoe, and men who owned canoes built entirely for pleasure paddling, or for racing only.

In like manner, there has always been a division of men in each club who never used a paddle in their canoes except when a dead calm overtook them out sailing. But naturally also there have been a few instances of canoeists who have raced successfully both in the sailing classes and in paddling; and on the two £50 challenge cups of the Royal Canoe Club, the sailing and the paddling, may be found three or four double championship holders in the twenty years' existence of the cups. ،، Paddling Canoes. The racing paddling canoe is very like the hull of the sculling wager-boat, but without the rowing fittings and seat; the racer is built of two streaks only, one on each side, of cedar less than one-eighth of an inch thick. As to size, they of course vary according to the size and weight of the men they are built to carry, but probably an average size would be 20 ft. long by 22 in. wide at top-side.

They are decked fore and aft, retaining a bulkheaded well" or open section of about 4 ft. in length, guarded by a narrow side deck and shallow coaming. In this "well" the man sits on the floor, and has at his back a suitable back-board to press back upon, and an adjustable foot-board or stretcher forward. The paddles used in England are very short, 7 ft. 6 in. to 8 ft. long, with broad spoon blades; the stroke is made close along the side of the canoe, with the body kept sitting erect.

In America, the racing paddlers sit on comparatively high seats, some kneel, some even stand up; they use very long paddles and usually have the blades set up at right angles to one another, so that the one passing through the air is doing so edgewise while the other is square in the water.