184 



THE OUTFIT, 



bag contained journals and materials for writing 

 and sketching. Our arms were a six-shooter 

 each (4 lbs. 1 oz.), a Colt's rifle (10 lbs. 8 oz.), a 

 small Biichse by Nowotny of Vienna (8 lbs. 3 oz.), 

 a shot-gun (W. Richards, 11 lbs.), three swords, 

 and two bowie-knives ; in fact, fighting gear, 

 with the ammunition necessary for ourselves 

 and men. A solid leather portmanteau was 

 stuffed with a change of raiment and a gift 

 for Sultan Kimwere, namely a coat of black 



Consulate. On a rough mountain tour such an instrument would 

 certainly have come to grief, as it afterwards did on the lowlands 

 of the Continent. The instruments recommended by the Medical 

 Board, Bombay, did not reach us in time ; and the same was 

 the case with the reflecting circle kindly despatched by Mr 

 Francis Galton. We had in all four bath thermometers, and two 

 B. Ps. ; one used by Capt. Smyth, R. N., when crossing the Andes, 

 was given to us by Col. Hamerton ; and another (Newman) 

 was rendered useless by mercury settling in the upper bulb, air 

 having been carelessly left in the tube by the maker — a fre- 

 quent offence. We had no sympiesometers. The instrument is 

 portable, but the experience of naval officers pronounces against 

 it within the tropics, and especially near the Line (6° to 8""), 

 where its extreme sensitiveness renders it useless. Aneroids 

 also must be carried in numbers, and be compared with stand- 

 ard instruments not so likely to be deranged : they are seldom 

 true, and are liable to vary when ascending or descending the 

 scale. My latest explorations have been made with glass tubes, 

 supplied by Mr Louis Casella, of Hatton Garden : they are 

 portable, not easily broken, and, best of all, they give correct 

 results. Of course it is well to carry aneroids for all except 

 crucial stations ; and as for B. Ps., they are not worth the 

 trouble of carrying. 



