Small Boxes for Specimens.—­Cut the side of a cigar-box, or a strip of pasteboard, half through in three places, add two smaller pieces like wings, one on each side, by means of a piece of gummed paper overlapping them, as in the picture.

[Sketch of box unfolded and folded].

Any number of these may be carried like the leaves of a book, and when a box is wanted they may be bent into shape, and by the adherence of the moistened gum-paper, can be made into a box at a moment’s notice.  The shaded border of the figure represents the gummed paper.  Quills make convenient receptacles for minute specimens.  They should be dressed (see “Quills"), and may be corked with a plug of wood or wax, or, for greater security, a small quill may be pushed, mouth forward, into a larger one, as into a sheath.

TIMBER.

Green Wood.—­To season Wood.—­Green wood cannot be employed in carpentry, as it is very weak; it also warps, cracks, and becomes rotten:  wood dried with too great a heat loses its toughness as well as its pliability:  it becomes hard and brittle.  Green wood is seasoned by washing out the sap, and then drying it thoroughly.  The traveller’s way of doing this by one rapid operation, is to dig a long trench and make a roaring fire in it; when the ground is burning hot, sweep the ashes away, deluge the trench with boiling water; and in the middle of the clouds of steam that arise, throw in the log of wood, shovel hot earth over it, and leave it to steam and bake.  A log thick enough to make an axletree may thus be somewhat seasoned in a single night.  The log would be seasoned more thoroughly if it were saturated with boiling water before putting it into the trench; that can be done by laying it in a deep narrow puddle, and shovelling hot stones into the water.  All crowbars, wagon-lifters, etc., should be roughly seasoned as green wood is far too weak for such uses.  The regular way of seasoning is to leave the timber to soak for a long time in water, that the juices may be washed out.  Fresh water is better for this purpose than salt; but a mineral spring, if it is warm is better than cold fresh water.  Parties travelling with a wagon ought to fell a little timber on their outward journey, and leave it to season against their return, in readiness to replace strained axletrees, broken poles, and the like.  They might, at all events, cut a ring round through the bark and sap-wood of the tree, and leave it to discharge its juices, die, and become half-seasoned as it stands.

To bend Wood.—­If it is wished to bend a rod of wood, or to straighten it if originally crooked, it must be steamed, or at least be submitted to hot water.  Thus a rod of green wood may be passed through the ashes of a smouldering fire and, when hot, bent and shaped with the hand; but if the wood be dry it must first be thoroughly soaked in a pond or puddle.  If the puddle is made to boil by shovelling