jet.
3 wrenches for coupling-joints.
2 lamps.
2 lengths of scaling ladder.
1 fire-hook.
60 feet of patent line, and 20 feet of trace line.
1 mattock.
1 shovel.
1 hatchet or pole-axe.
1 saw.
1 iron crow-bar.
1 portable cistern.
1 flat suction strainer.
1 standcock, and hook for street plugs.
1 screw wrench.
1 canvas sheet with 10 or 12 rope handles round its edges.
9 canvas buckets.
1 hand-pump with 10 feet of hose and jet pipe.

Of these articles I shall endeavour to give a description as they
stand in the above list.

The article of hose being first in order, as well as importance,
merits particular attention.

The sort used is leather, made with copper rivets, and is by far the
most serviceable and durable hose that I have yet seen.

Manufacturers of this article, however, for a very obvious reason, are
not always careful to select that part of the hide which, being
firmest, is best adapted for the purpose. Indeed, I have known several
instances wherein nearly the whole hide has been cut up and made into
hose, without any selection whatever. The effect of this is very
prejudicial. The loose parts of the hide soon stretch and weaken, and
while, by stretching, the diameter of the pipe is increased, the
pressure of the water, in consequence, becomes greater on that than on
any other part of the hose, which is thereby rendered more liable to
give way at such places.

Hose are frequently made narrow in the middle, and, in order to fit
the coupling-joints, wide at the extremities--a practice which lessens
their capability of conveying a given quantity of water, in proportion
to the difference of the area of the section of the diameters at the
extremity and the middle part.

In order to make them fit the coupling-joints, when carelessly widened
too much, I have frequently seen them stuffed up with brown paper, and
in that case they almost invariably give way, the folds of the paper
destroying the hold which the leather would otherwise have of the
ridges made on the ends of the coupling-joints.

In order to avoid all these faults and defects, the riveted hose used
are made in the following manner:--

The leather is nine and five-eighths inches broad (that being the
breadth required for coupling-joints of two and a half inches diameter
of clear water-way), and levelled to the proper uniform thickness. The
leather used is ta