264 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March i, 1913 
THE AUTHOR AND HIS PACK. 
The bag is the same as shown in the illustration on page 265. Note the hat worn by the author. 
It is his pack “converted.” 
In Camping-Supplydom 
Some More of the Little-Known Camping Conveniences and Travel 
Foods of Other Nations 
By L. LODIAN 
Y OU would think the collapsilile metal pocket- 
cup for tourist convenience a modern con¬ 
trivance, yet the Japanese have had it 
centuries, neatly turned from different diameter 
bamboo wood rings, and sloped or slanted in 
the lathe to a close-fitting nicety making for im¬ 
permeability. One, which the writer purchased in 
Japan years ago, will be illustrated in a later article. 
About a dozen years ago a folding pocket 
lantern was patented here, but pocket lanterns, 
collapsible, first appeared in Europe about 300 
years ago. To anybody interested I can show 
any time an authentic photogravure of one pre¬ 
served in a European cathedral. 'I'his knock¬ 
down pocket-lantern is of the sixteenth century. 
Nearly a century ago the pocket-lantern— 
Just as we see it to-day in America—was in 
common use in Erance. Only the transparent 
water-white sheet-horn was used instead of mica 
or glass sides. They are still obtainable thus. 
NON-SLIPPING WOVEN HEMP ROPE SHOE SOLES FOR 
MOUNTAINEERING (PYRENEES). 
In mountain and rock climbing, ordinary 
leather footwear is too dangerously slippery to 
trust your limbs to; rubber soles “draw” the 
feet in warm weather, and after a couple of 
weeks are liable to emit the disgusting stifling 
“rubber” odor, due to the vile compounds used 
to cheapen the rubber by conscientious manufac¬ 
tures. The light-greenish so-styled “krom-tanned” 
leather soles should be rejected instanter, as 
they are treacherously slippery on wet rock. Un¬ 
tanned raw-hide soles are all right in dry 
weather, but instantly dangerously slippy when 
wet; and, further, a few days’ wetting and non¬ 
drying will soon develop in them the nauseat¬ 
ing odor of decomposing hide, which of course 
means rotting. Outside cork soles one-half to 
three-quarters of an inch thick have been re¬ 
peatedly tried, and are non-slipping, but cork is 
too brittle for foot wear. Densely com¬ 
pressed felt soles are non-slipping, but wear into 
ugly holes in a few days’ rough wear, and are 
not waterproof. Birch bark and other bark shoes 
have no life to them. Moccasins—even soled 
city-wear moccasins—are unsatisfactory. I have 
had many hundreds of miles’ walking in these 
last, called in the West “shoepacks.” 
So you see how in the years gone by we 
tried about every type of footwear known. Have 
even worn the gaudy yellow heelless turn up-toed 
footgear of the eunuchs of Turkish harems, and 
right here in this city, too, on Manhattan’s sweat¬ 
shop avenue (formerly lower Fifth avenue), but 
I took care that should be at night time. 
We are, therefore, in a kind of “vicious 
circle” in camping-shoedoni. Those of my read¬ 
ers who have toured the Swiss Alps will recall 
the e.xtreniely rough-woven hand-made worsted 
socks sold to climbers for pulling—just like socks 
—over the outsides of your shoes, to prevent 
slipping. They often give trouble trying to 
work off, are ungainly and unsightly, and soon 
ruined in hard exertion. Still, they’re better than 
a broken bone. 
But one footwear I haven’t mentioned, al¬ 
though familiar with it in actual use month after 
month over a score years ago in old Spain. 
This is the alpagata or hemp-fiber (sisal) shoe 
of the montaheros of the Iberian sierras. (They 
are procurable in Manhattan and among the 
Spanish.) The sole is composed exclusively of 
densely-woven hemp rope, is fairly waterproof, 
non-slipping, and has the faculty of picking up 
and retaining in its interstices sandy particles, 
especially when wet. This gives a gritty foot¬ 
hold which not alone overcomes slipperiness, but 
adds to the life-wear of the sole, as it is con¬ 
stantly presenting a thin stone-imbedded surface 
to resist abrasion. Contrary to our own experi¬ 
ence with leather shoes, the alpagata uppers 
wear out first, and as re-uppering would cost 
about as much as a new pair of shoes, they 
are discarded for new ones. I never saw a 
fairly worn-through alpagata sole, although have 
done myself hundreds of miles of walking, in 
the aggregate, in alpagatas, both in Spain and 
out of it. 
WATER-BOTTLE CAPS (SPAIN). 
These are an old device among Spanish 
fisherfolk and coastwise peasants. They are just 
cured bull or ox or mule bladders, and can be 
used either for holding water or wine or olive 
oil, or as a warm-water bag, or as an air-pillow; 
and, half-telescoped, as a wash-bowl or as a 
storm-proof cap. The Spaniards call it pellejo, 
which is the diminutive for and signifying “little 
skin” (pello, skin). Bladders from the giant 
mules of Iberia are most prized. Some of those 
animals are about the proportions of the pon¬ 
derous Belgian percheron stallions, and their 
bladders, when inflated, can be used as a make¬ 
shift camp or deck stool, if stood on end—so 
large are they—and, properly cured, will keep 
an amount of fresh water sweet for days. In¬ 
flated and dry, they will easily uphold the weight 
of a 20o-pound man. And when not required 
for these or a multitude of other usefulnesses, 
the camp-stool-used bladder can be used as a 
storm-proof cap, as before mentioned, covering 
completely the ears and leather coat collar of 
the Iberian, and will keep his head dry through 
the wettest of weather. 
The Spanish oil-skin coat is not an unsatis¬ 
factory, sticky, leaky rosin or varnish-coated 
cotton fabric as with us, but is the real animal 
skin which has been split and oil-cured. Hence 
the name oil-skin; i. e., a skin which has been 
oiled to render it impermeable. 
Any American outdoor-lifer can make these 
multi-usable or all-purpose bladder^caps for him¬ 
self. Your butcher will get some bladders for 
you. They are easily oil-cured with a few days’ 
treatment by any oil (not a mineral oil) both 
sides; or, if desired tanned, it suffices to save a 
few handfuls of used tea leaves. Stew them 
till they yield a dark-brown liquor. This holds 
the tannin of the tea leaves. Let the extract 
cool to just warm, and pour into bladder for a 
couple of days, with occasional shakings. In¬ 
vert or reverse the bladder for thorough tanning 
both sides. If drying stiff, dampen and oil to 
produce suppleness. The oil produces a mixed 
tannate, giving a dark-brown hue. 
