10 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



very likely to be forgotten, and a slab of frozen mince- 

 collops. I was astounded, but I was assured all would be 

 needed before I had completed my journey, And so it 

 was. Morning, noon, and night, when resting for a little 

 at a station-house, I would ask for a hatchet, and, break- 

 ing off a lump of frozen collops, give it to the people to 

 heat; and my fellow-traveller was not loth to partake 

 with me of the savoury viands. Here this could not be 

 done ; but getting out a tongue, which, though cooked, had 

 not been frozen, I made signs to my fellow traveller that 

 I did not know what to do as I had no knife. Taking the 

 tongue in one hand, and taking hold of the tip of it with 

 the other, he screwed this off and held it out to me. I 

 received it with a laugh ; it was my first lesson in rough 

 travelling ; I have travelled many thousand miles since, 

 in America, in Africa, and in Europe, but never again 

 have I been at a loss what to do to prepare provisions, and 

 to use them when prepared. I can kindle a fire in the 

 desert, and prepare a carabonaje with the best of them ; 

 and eat it with a relish, with no garnishing but salt and 

 pepper. Only once was I placed in any difficulty and 

 that not from any squeamishness on my part, but from 

 the delicacy of feeling experienced by others. Three of 

 us, with attendants, were crossing the Karoo in South 

 Africa ; there was a stretch of eighty-four miles which 

 had to be travelled one day. We had purchased a live fowl 

 at a farm at which we slept the night before. At mid-day, 

 having out-spanned the horses, the drivers were sent with 

 them away some six miles to get water. Neither of my 

 companions could kill a fowl ; I volunteered to kill, and 

 strip, and cook, and eat it too, if they would allow me. 

 But they shrunk from letting a minister kill the fowl, and 

 from this delicacy of feeling on their part, we were likely 

 to have to wait for our dinner till the horses returned, 

 were in-spanned, and ready to take us forward on our 

 journey, lest we should be benighted in the feldt. We got 

 out of the difficulty at last by one of the party, not I, 

 pulling off the head with all his might, and throwing it 



