HOME HELPS. 325 



tion, as above, on which the pliability depends. Skins, 

 when taken off, should be freed from grease or flesh by 

 thorough scraping, when they may be dried, and left to 

 wait the leisure of the owner. 



Indian Soft Skins. Trappers wash animal skins with 

 soap and soda to free them from grease, then rinse them in 

 clean water to cleanse them from the suds, then rub as dry 

 as possible ; after which the skins are put into a mixture of 

 two ounces of salt to a quart of water containing one ounce 

 of sulphuric acid added to three quarts of milk or bran- 

 water, and stirred briskly for forty or fifty minutes ; from 

 this the skins are put into a solution of soda, and stirred till 

 they will no longer foam ; then they are hung up to dry. 



MEDICAL HELP IN EMERGENCIES. To the timid mind 

 there is something dreadful in the idea of meeting an 

 accident, or being taken sick in places beyond the 

 reach of medical aid, and the feeling is natural. Visitations 

 of the kind are amongst* the distressing features of life in 

 the bush, when those concerned have not the skill or the 

 courage necessary to help themselves, or to help another in 

 a case of emergency. But, fortunately, colonists are seldom 

 so placed. The amount of downright medical skill afloat 

 in the bush might seem surprising. It is seldom that one 

 comes to a station, a plantation, a large work in progress, 

 or other place where bodies of men are collected, without 

 hearing of one or more who can treat an accident or 

 ordinary ailment in case of emergency. It is an admirable 

 peculiarity of bush life, and one that will be still more 

 extensively cultivated as the medical school becomes a more 

 general colonial institution. 



The following notes always keeping in mind the 

 remedies likely to be available in the bush have been put 

 together with the view of aiding those in a pinch while 

 beyond medical aid. It is in every case the desirable and 

 safest course to call in a medical man, if one can be 

 reached ; but in the meantime, it is simply the duty of 

 those around the sufferer to help to do whatever can 

 be done. 



Flesh Wounds. These are of various kinds- 

 punctured, a tear, a bruise, a shot, &c. The first, in a 



