1. A familiar example of the first method is afforded in common glue, which in its hard and dry state may be kept for any length of time. So also may white of egg, if prepared by pouring the white of a number of eggs into a large flat dish, and exposing this for twelve or fourteen hours to heat in front of the fire. As the water evaporates, the albumen forms into a yellow, transparent, hard, shining, brittle mass, which scales off at the least touch--a test that it is properly done. These two substances, _gelatine_ and _albumen_, are two of the constituents of flesh; _fibrin_ or _fleshy fibre_, which is the third, dries equally well, and is not liable to putrefaction in that state. Gelatine, after being dried, may be softened by the action of hot water. Albumen _coagulated_ by heat cannot be softened again by water; but if dried at about 140° without being coagulated, it may be dissolved in cold water, retaining all its valuable properties. Hence, in preserving meat by drying, too high a temperature must be carefully avoided, or the albumen will become coagulated, and the meat be made insoluble. The dried flesh of the bison, of the buffalo, and of the deer, forms _pemmican_, the preparation of which is thus described in Captain Back's Journal:-- "While meat remains in a thick piece, it is impossible to get the middle dried before putrefaction commences; but if the meat be cut into slices, its desiccation may be easily effected. The fleshy parts of the hind quarters are cut into very thin slices, dried in the sun, or before the fire, and pounded. Two parts of the pounded meat are then mixed with one of melted fat, and packed into a bag formed of the hide of the animal. A bag weighing ninety pounds is called a _taureau_ by the Canadian voyageurs; and, in fact, only one bag of pemmican is generally made from each bison cow. Two pounds of this kind of food are sufficient for the daily support of a laboring man; though, when the voyageurs first commence upon pemmican, they each consume three pounds or more. In the spring, they generally boil the young shoots of _Epilobium angustifolium_ with it, and some Scotchmen in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company add flour or oatmeal, thus rendering it more palatable. The best pemmican is made of finely-pounded meat mixed with marrow, and further improved by the addition of dried berries or currants. If kept from the air, it may be preserved sound for several years, and being very portable, it might be used with great advantage in provisioning troops that have to make forced marches. It may be eaten raw, or mixed with a little water and boiled; and although not much relished by those who taste it for the first time, the voyageur, with the single addition of the luxury of tea, requires nothing else for breakfast, dinner, and supper."