THE LAST FRONTIER 



Your tent boy washes them out whenever he can 

 lay hands on them it is one of his harmless 

 manias. 



Your shirt should be of the thinnest brown flan- 

 nel. Leather the shoulders, and part way down 

 the upper arm, with chamois. This is to protect 

 your precious garment against the thorns when you 

 dive through them. On the back you have buttons 

 sewed wherewith to attach a spine pad. Before I 

 went to Africa I searched eagerly for information or 

 illustration of a spine pad. I guessed what it must 

 be for, and to an extent what it must be like, but 

 all writers maintained a conservative reticence as 

 to the thing itself. Here is the first authorized de- 

 scription. A spine pad is a quilted affair in con- 

 sistency like the things you are supposed to lift hot 

 flat-irons with. On the outside it is brown flannel, 

 like the shirt; on the inside it is a gaudy orange col- 

 our. The latter is not for aesthetic effect, but to 

 intercept actinic rays. It is eight or ten inches wide, 

 is shaped to button close up under your collar, and 

 extends halfway down your back. In addition it 

 is well to wear a silk handkerchief around the neck; 

 as the spine and back of the head seem to be the most 

 vulnerable to the sun. 



For breeches, suit yourself as to material. It will 

 have to be very tough, and of fast colour. The best 



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