The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland ExpeditionsMarcy, Randolph B. (Randolph Barnes)
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The Prairie Traveler: A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions
Marcy, Randolph B. (Randolph Barnes)
Overland journeys to the Pacific; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Every mess of six or eight persons will require a wrought-iron camp
kettle, large enough for boiling meat and making soup; a coffee-pot and
cups of heavy tin, with the handles riveted on; tin plates, frying and
bake pans of wrought iron, the latter for baking bread and roasting
coffee. Also a mess pan of heavy tin or wrought iron for mixing bread
and other culinary purposes; knives, forks, and spoons; an extra camp
kettle; tin or gutta percha bucket for water--wood, being liable to
shrink and fall to pieces, is not deemed suitable; an axe, hatchet, and
spade will also be needed, with a mallet for driving picket-pins.
Matches should be carried in bottles and corked tight, so as to exclude
the moisture.
A little blue mass, quinine, opium, and some cathartic medicine, put up
in doses for adults, will suffice for the medicine-chest.
Each ox wagon should be provided with a covered tar-bucket, filled with
a mixture of tar or resin and grease, two bows extra, six S's, and six
open links for repairing chains. Every set of six wagons should have a
tongue, coupling pole, king-bolt, and pair of hounds extra.
Every set of six mule wagons should be furnished with five pairs of
hames, two double trees, four whipple-trees, and two pairs of lead bars
extra.
Two lariats will be needed for every horse and mule, as one generally
wears out before reaching the end of a long journey. They will be found
useful in crossing deep streams, and in letting wagons down steep hills
and mountains; also in repairing broken wagons. Lariats made of hemp
are the best.
One of the most indispensable articles to the outfit of the prairie
traveler is buckskin. For repairing harness, saddles, bridles, and
numerous other purposes of daily necessity, the awl and buckskin will
be found in constant requisition.
ARMS.
Every man who goes into the Indian country should be armed with a rifle
and revolver, and he should never, either in camp or out of it, lose
sight of them. When not on the march, they should be placed in such a
position that they can be seized at an instant's warning; and when
moving about outside the camp, the revolver should invariably be worn
in the belt, as the person does not know at what moment he may have use
for it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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