General Remarks.—­There are such infinite varieties of dress, that I shall only attempt a few general remarks and give a single costume, that a traveller of great experience had used to his complete satisfaction.  The military authorities of different nations have long made it their study to combine in the best manner the requirements of handsome effect, of cheapness, and of serviceability in all climates, but I fear their results will not greatly help the traveller, who looks more to serviceability than to anything else.  Of late years, even Garibaldi with his red-shirted volunteers, and Alpine men with their simple outfit, have approached more nearly to a traveller’s ideal.

Materials for Clothes.—­Flannel.—­The importance of flannel next the skin can hardly be overrated:  it is now a matter of statistics; for, during the progress of expeditions, notes have been made of the number of names of those in them who had provided themselves with flannel, and of those who had not.  The list of sick and dead always included names from the latter list in a very great proportion.

Cotton is preferable to flannel for a sedentary life, in hot damp countries, or where flannel irritates the skin.  Persons who are resident in the tropics, and dress in civilised costume, mostly wear cotton shirts.

Linen by universal consent is a dangerous dress wherever there is a chance of much perspiration, for it strikes cold upon the skin when it is wet.  The terror of Swiss guides of the old school at a coup d’air on the mountain top, and of Italians at the chill of sundown, is largely due to their wearing linen shirts.  Those who are dressed in flannel are far less sensitive to these influences.

Leather is the only safeguard against the stronger kinds of thorns.  In pastoral and in hunting countries it is always easy to procure skins of a tough quality that have been neatly dressed by hand.  Also it will be easy to find persons capable of sewing them together very neatly, after you have cut them out to the pattern of your old clothes.

Bark Cloth is used in several parts of the work.  It is simply a piece of some kind of peculiarly fibrous bark; in Unyoro, Sir S. Baker says, the natives use the bark of a species of fig-tree.  They soak it in water and then beat it with a mallet, to get rid of all the harder parts;—­much as hemp is prepared.  “In appearance it much resembles corduroy, and is the colour of tanned leather:  the finer qualities are peculiarly soft to the touch, as though of woven cotton.”

Effect of colour on warmth of clothing.—­Dark colours become hotter than light colours in the sunshine, but they are not hotter under any other circumstances.  Consequently a person who aims at equable temperature, should wear light colours.  Light colours are far the best for sporting purposes, as they are usually much less conspicuous than black or rifle-green.  Almost all wild beasts are tawny or fawn-coloured, or tabby, or of some nondescript hue and pattern:  if an animal were born with a more decided colour, he would soon perish for want of ability to conceal himself.