Substitute for Candles.—­A strip of cotton, 1 1/2 foot long, drenched in grease, and wound spirally round a wand, will burn for half an hour.  A lump of beeswax, with a tatter of an old handkerchief run through it, makes a candle on an emergency.

Materials for Candles.—­Tallow.—­Mutton-suet mixed with ox-tallow 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 makeshift 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 contrivance when they start from their bivouac in the cark morning.

[Sketch of candle in bottle].

ON CONCLUDING THE JOURNEY.

Complete your Collections.—­When your journey draws near its close, resist restless feelings; make every effort before it is too late to supplement deficiencies in your various collections; take stock of what you have gathered together, and think how the things will serve in England to illustrate your journey or your book.  Keep whatever is pretty in itself, or is illustrative of your every-day life, or that of the savages, in the way of arms, utensils, and dresses.