The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries by Francis Galton
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page 11 of 465 (02%)
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return. And thus, when some months have passed by, you will look back
with surprise on the great distance travelled over; for, if you average only three miles a day, at the end of the year you will have advanced 1200, which is a very considerable exploration. The fable of the Tortoise and the Hare is peculiarly applicable to travellers over wide and unknown tracts. It is a very high merit to accomplish a long exploration without loss of health, of papers, or even of comfort. Physical Strength of Leader.--Powerful men do not necessarily make the most eminent travellers; it is rather those who take the most interest in their work that succeed the best; as a huntsman says, "it is the nose that gives speed to the hound." Dr. Kane, who was one of the most adventurous of travellers, was by no means a strong man, either in health or muscle. Good Temper.--Tedious journeys are apt to make companions irritable one to another; but under hard circumstances, a traveller does his duty best who doubles his kindliness of manner to those about him, and takes harsh words gently, and without retort. He should make it a point of duty to do so. It is at those times very superfluous to show too much punctiliousness about keeping up one's dignity, and so forth; since the difficulty lies not in taking up quarrels, but in avoiding them. Reluctant Servants.--Great allowance should be made for the reluctant co-operation of servants; they have infinitely less interest in the success of the expedition than their leaders, for they derive but little credit from it. They argue thus:--"Why should we do more than we knowingly undertook, and strain our constitutions and peril our lives in enterprises about which we are indifferent?" It will, perhaps, surprise a leader who, having ascertained to what frugal habits a bush servant is |
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