The Art of Rough Travel
From the Peculiar to the Practical, Advice from a 19th-Century Explorer

Sir Francis Galton
Introduction by Kitty Harmon
The Mountaineers Books, 2006
Hardcover, 176 pages
ISBN: 1-59485-058-5
$15.95

Here is a small masterpiece of the Victorian age first published in 1855. Upon returning from an arduous journey to Africa, Sir Francis Galton compiled a book of wisdom for adventurers’ use in all manner of trying situations. He combed through geographical books by and about "travelers of distinction" and culled from them nuggets of useful knowledge such as how to handle elephants, avoid cobras, pull teeth, find water, keep watch, pass through hostile country, and secure tent ropes in shifting sand. This is a condensed version of the exhaustive handbook, which became a bible of self-sufficiency for explorers and a bestseller among armchair travelers.

With the rediscovery of this forgotten classic, readers will appreciate the worth of Galton's erudite advice for adventurers in farflung corners of the globe in all manner of adverse conditions. In its time no explorer would endeavor to bivouac in hostile country, manage a horde of bearers, or walk a straight line through the forest without The Art of Rough Travel—and nor should you.

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Sample bits of advice from The Art of Rough Travel

• Arrows are most readily poisoned by steeping a thread in the juice or venom and wrapping it around the barbs.

• It is perfectly easy, for a person who is cool, to avoid a charging animal by dodging to one side or other of a bush. Few animals turn if the rush be unsuccessful. The buffalo is an exception; he regularly hunts a man and is therefore peculiarly dangerous.

• The chilliness consequent on staying long in water is retarded by first rubbing all over the body about twice as much oil or bear’s grease as a person uses for his hair.

• If you have an ordinary boat, and wish to make it of greater burden, saw it in half and lengthen it. Comparatively coarse carpentering is good enough for this purpose.

• In fording a swift stream, carry heavy stones in your hands, for you require weight to resist the force of the current; indeed, the deeper you wade, the more weight you require on account of the water buoying you up.

• It is usual, when no damp earth can be seen, but where the place appears likely to yield well water, to force an iron ramrod deep into the soil, and if it bring up any grains that are moist, to dig.

• It must be remembered that thirst is greatly relieved by the skin being wetted, and therefore it is well for a man suffering from thirst to strip to the rain.

• Rainwater is lodged for some days in the huge pitcher-like corollas of many tropical flowers.

• People who eat nothing but meat feel the craving for salt far less strongly than those who live wholly on vegetables.

• When considering how much weight it will be possible to carry, it must be borne in mind that the tent will become far heavier than it is found to be in the peculiarly dry atmosphere of a tent-maker’s showroom.

• Persons who travel even with the smallest quantity of luggage would do wisely to take a thick dressing gown. It is a relief to put it on in the evening, and is a warm extra dress for sleeping in.

• A muslin turban twisted and rolled round the hat is a common plan to keep the sun from the head and spine; it can also be used as a rope in an emergency.