ely upon it. There is a great
convenience in this sort of fuel; because, as it is only in camps that
fuel is wanted, so it is precisely at old encamping-places that
cattle-dung is abundantly found.

Bones.--Another remarkable substitute for firewood is bones; a fact which
Mr. Darwin was, I believe, the first to mention. The bones of an animal,
when freshly killed, make good fuel; and even those of cooked meat, and
such as have been exposed to the air for some days, will greatly increase
the heat of a scanty fire. Their smell is not disagreeable: it is simply
that of roast or burnt meat. In the Falkland Islands, where firewood is
scarce, it is not unusual to cook part of the meat of a slaughtered bull
with its own bones. When the fire is once started with a few sticks, it
burns well and hotly. The flame of course depends on the fat within the
bones, and therefore the fatter the animal the better the fire. During
the Russian campaign in 1829, the troops suffered so severely from cold
at Adrianople, that the cemeteries were ransacked for bones for fuel.
(Moltke, in the Appendix.)

Sea-weed makes a hot though not a cheerful fire. It is largely used. The
vraic or sea-weed gatherers of the Channel Islands are represented in
many picturesque sketches. The weed is carted home, spread out, and
dried.

Peat.--Travellers must bear in mind that peat will burn, especially as
the countries in which it is found are commonly destitute of firewood;
and, besides that, are marshy, cold, and aguish.

Charcoal is frequently carried by travellers in sacks; they use a
prepared charcoal in the East, which is made in the form of very large
buttons, that are carried strung together on a string. An Indian
correspondent informs me that they are made by mixing powdered charcoal
with molasses, in the proportion of ten to one, or thereabouts, rolling
the mass into balls, and drying them in the sun. A single ball is called
a "gul." They are used for igniting hookhas: they are also burnt inside
the smoothing-iron used by washermen in order to heat it. The juice or
sap of many plants would probably answer the purpose of molasses in their
preparation.

Small Fuel for lighting the Fire.--Shreds and Fibres.--The live spark has
to be received and partly enclosed, in a loose heap or nest of
finely-shredded fuel. The substances for making such a nest, are one or
other of the following list:--

Dry grass of the finest kinds: leaves: moss: lichen, and wi