CHAPTER XXVI 



HINTS ON OUTFIT 



In the following pages I propose to deal briefly with 

 the important question of outfit, for it is on the careful 

 and judicious selection of equipment that the success 

 of a trip largely depends. No sum of money 

 expended on buying an outfit will counterbalance a 

 lack of knowledge as to what is essential and what 

 is not. Experience is the only guide which enables 

 the traveller to reduce his baggage to a minimum, 

 without appreciable loss of comfort. The desire to 

 " rough it " unnecessarily is rather puerile and marks 

 the inexperienced novice ; it inevitably tends not only 

 to weaken a man's power of resistance, and to render 

 him less fit to overcome illness and danger, but also, 

 if continued long enough, ends in a loss of self-respect. 

 I shall confine myself to mentioning what my experi- 

 ence has proved most useful during my wanderings 

 in the more remote corners of Mexico and Africa 

 far from civilisation. I do not wish to dogmatise, 

 only to suggest, for every traveller has his own 

 whims and fancies. For instance, it would be as 

 foolish to give a list of clothing as to state what I 

 consider to be the correct number and bore of the 

 rifles necessary for big-game shooting. Men of 

 much greater experience than I fail to agree on 

 these subjects, and they must be left to the individual 

 choice of the traveller. Personally I have always 



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