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CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THE BOOK OF GAMP-LORE
AND WOODCRAFT
BY
-
DAN BEARD
FOUNDER OF THE FIRST BOY SCOUTS SOCIETY
WITH 377 ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR
GARDEN CITY PUBLISHING Co., INC.
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, I92O, BY BEATBICB ALICE BEARD
THE RIGHTS OF TRANSLATION ARE RESERVED
THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
t ' t , r ' c c '< t ' ' 1 l
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PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TO
GEORGE Du PONT PRATT
COMMISSIONER OF CONSERVATION, STATE OF NEW YORK
SCOUT, SPORTSMAN AND OUTDOOR MAN
.
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND
EDITION
BOYS, if this foreword is too "highbrow" for your taste,
skip it, but the author don't believe you will, and even if
he has used some dictionary words he feels that you will
forgive him after he tells you that he did so only because of
the lack of time to think up more simple terms. What he
wants to say is that . . .
Boyhood is a wonderful and hi valuable asset to the nation,
for in the breast of every boy there is a divine spark, mate-
rialists call it the "urge of youth," others call it the "Christ
in man," the Quakers call it the "inner light," but all view
it with interest and anxiety, the ignorant with fear and the
wise with understanding sympathy, but also with a feeling
akin to awe.
Those of us who think we know boys, feel that this " inner
light" illuminating their wonderful powers of imagination,
is the compelling force culminating in the vigorous accom-
plishments of manhood. It is the force which sent Columbus
voyaging over the unknown seas, which sent Captain Cook
on his voyage around the world, the same force which car-
ried Lindbergh in his frail airship across the Atlantic. Yes,
it is the sublime force which has inspired physicians and
laymen to cheerfully risk and sacrifice their lives in search
of the cause of Yellow Fever, Anthrax, Hydrophobia and
other communicable diseases . . . no, not for science but
for
HUMANITY!
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
As a boy, the author dreamed of wonderful municipal
playgrounds, of organizations giving the boys opportunity
to camp in the open, of zoological and botanical gardens
planned and adapted to the understanding of youth. His
busy life as a civil engineer, surveyor, and work in the open
gave him no opportunity to develop his dreams, but at the
end of a five year tour of the United States and Canada,
made over fifty years ago, he drifted into New York City
and was shocked beyond expression by the almost total lack
of breathing spaces for our boys, in the greatest of American
cities. True, it then had Central Park; but fifty years ago
Central Park was out among the goats, only to be reached
by a long and tiresome horse car journey.
This lamentable state of affairs caused the writer so
much real pain and concern that he then and there in-
augurated a personal crusade for the benefit of the boys, a
crusade with the avowed object of winning for them the
peoples' interest in the big outdoors.
The most difficult part of his task was to convince the
men of the swivel chairs that boys' leisure should be spent
in the open; that the blue sky is the only proper roof for a
normal boy's playground; also that the open spaces are the
places where God intended young people to live, work and
play.
No great crusade, no great movement of any kind is one
man's work, nevertheless, every successful movement must
have one enthusiast in the front rank, one who knows the
trail and comprehensively envisions the objective objectum
quad complexum. Others may and will join him, and occa-
sionally spurt ahead of the leader, like the hare in the fable,
but the enthusiast keeps right on just the same.
Pray do not understand by this that the writer claims
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
that he alone is responsible for thfs bloodless revolution.
No, no, his propaganda work did however win for him the
moral support of the editorial staff of St. Nicholas, Youth's
Companion and Harpers. Later he was openly backed and
encouraged by such distinguished sportsmen as President
Roosevelt, his chief forester Governor Pinchot, and his Chief
of Staff Major General Bell. While the stalwart men of the
Camp Fire Club of America worked hand and glove with
him, all similar organizations failed not in voicing their
approval. Furthermore he was always helped by his loyal
friends of the daily press. Many famous writers lent their
influence, all working consciously or unconsciously to help
the great cause of boyhood.
The author only claims that, in all these fifty long years,
he has never ceased to work for the boys, never wavered in
his purpose, and now? well, when he marched at the head
of fifty thousand Scouts in the great muddy outdoor Scout
camp at Birkenhead, England, he realized that his ephemeral
air castles had settled down to a firm foundation upon
Mother Earth.
Yes, boys we have won a great victory for boyhoodl We
have won it by iteration and reiteration, hi other words, by
shouting outdoors, talking outdoors, picturing outdoors,
singing outdoors and above all by writing about the out-
doors, and constantly hammering on one subject and keep-
ing one purpose always in view. By such means we have
at last, not only interested the people of the United States
in the open, but stampeded the whole world to the forests
and the fields. So let us all join in singing the old Methodist
hymn:
FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
*' Shout, shout, we are gaining ground,
Glory, Hallelujah!
The Devil's kingdom we'll put down,
Glory, Hallelujah!"
The Devil's kingdom in this case is the ill-ventilated
school rooms, offices and courts.
It is well to note that the work in this book was not done
in the library, but either in the open itself or from notes and
sketches made in the open. When telling how to build a
cooking fire, for instance, the author preferred to make his
diagrams from the fires built by himself or by his wilderness
friends, than to trust to information derived from some other
man's books. It is much easier to make pictures of imprac-
tical fires than to build them. The paste pot and scissors
occupy no place of honor in our woodcraft series.
So, Boys of the Open, throw aside your new rackets, your
croquet mallets, and your boiled shirts pull on your buck-
skin leggings, give a war whoop and be what God intended
you should be; healthy wholesome boys. This great Re-
public belongs to you and so does this
BOOK OF CAMP-LORE AND W T OODCRAFT.
DAN BEARD
Suffern, New York,
December first,
1930.
FOREWORD
HIDDEN in a drawer in the antique highboy, back of the
moose head in my studio, there are specimens of Indian bead
work, bits of buckskin, necklaces made of the teeth of animals,
a stone calumet, my old hunting knife with its rawhide sheath
and carefully folded in oiled paper is the jerked tenderloin
of a grizzly bear!
But that is not all ; for more important still is a mysterious
wooden flask containing the castor or the scentgland of a
beaver, which is carefully rolled up in a bit of buckskin
embroidered with mystic Indian signs.
The flask was given to me as "big medicine" by Bow-
arrow, the Chief of the Montinais Indians. Bow-arrow said
and I believe him that when one inhales the odor of the
castor from this medicine flask one's soul and body are then
and forever afterwards permeated with a great and abiding
love of the big outdoors. Also, when one eats of the mystic
grizzly bear's flesh, one's body acquires the strength and
courage of this great animal.
During the initiation of the members of a Spartan band
of my boys, known as the Buckskin Men, each candidate is
given a thin slice of the grizzly bear meat and a whiff of the
beaver castor.
Of course, we know that people with unromantic and
unimaginative minds will call this sentimentalism. We
people of the outdoor tribes plead guilty to being sentimen-
talists; but we know from experience that old Bow-arrow was
right, because we have ourselves eaten of the grizzly bear and
smelled the castor of the beaver!
vi FOREWORD
While the writer cannot give each of his readers a taste
of this coveted bear meat in material form, or a whiff of the
beaver medicine, direct from the wooden flask made by the
late Bow-arrow's own hands, still the author hopes that the
magical qualities of this great medicine will enter into and
form a part of the subject matter of this book, and through
that medium inoculate the souls and bodies of his readers,
purify them and rejuvenate them with a love of the WORLD
AS GOD MADE IT.
DAN BEARD
June, 1920
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION 1
How TO MAKE A FIRE-BOARD, Bow, DRILL AND THIMBLE. INDIAN
LEGEND OF THE SOURCE OF FIBE. RECORD FLBB-MAKERS. ROBBING-
STICK OUTFIT. ESKIMO THIMBLE. Bow, BOW-STBING, THIMBLE, FIRE-
BOARD, FIRE-PAN. TINDEB, CHARBED RAGS, PUFF BALLS. FIRE-MAKEBS
OF THE BALKAN. FIRE WITHOUT A Bow, CO-LI-LI, THE FIRE SAW.
FIRE PUMPING OF THE IHOQUOIS. PYBOPNEUMATIC APPARATUS
II. FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION 21
THE WHITE MAN'S METHOD, How TO USE FLINT AND STEEL. WHERE
TO OBTAIN THE FLINT AND STEEL. CHUCKNUCKS, PUNK BOXES, SPUNKS
AND MATCHES. REAL LUCIFER MATCHES. SLOW MATCH. How TO
CATCH THE SPARK. SUBSTITUTES FOB FLINT AND STEEL
III. HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 33
How TO LAY AND LIGHT A FIRE. AN EXPERIENCE WITH TENDEBFEET.
MODERN FEAR OP DOING MANUAL LABOR. MATCHES. FIRE-MAKERS
AND BABYLONIANS. THE PALPITATING HEABT OF THE CAMP. GUMMT
FAGOTS OF THE PINE. How TO MAKE A FIRE IN WET WEATHEB. BACK-
WOODSMEN'S FIRE. THE NECESSITY OF SMALL KINDLING WOOD. GOOD
FIREWOOD. ADVANTAGE OF SPLIT WOOD. FIRE-DOGS. How TO OPEN
A KNIFE. How TO WHITTLE, How TO SPLIT A STICK WITH A KNIFE.
BONFIRES AND COUNCIL FIBES. CAMP MEETING TORCH FIRES. EX-
PLODING STONES. CHABACTEB IN FIBE. SLOW FIBES, SIGNAL FIBES
AND SMUDGES
IV. HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 53
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ON SHORT RATIONS. THE MOST PRIMITIVB
OF COOKING OUTFITS. CAMP POT-HOOKS, THE GALLOW-CROOK, THE POT-
CLAW, THE HAKE, THE GIB, THE SPEYGELIA AND THE SASTER. TELK-
GBAPH WIBE COOKING IMPLEMFJTTS, WIBE GBID-IBON, SKELETON CAMP
STOVE. COOKING FIRES, FIRE-DOGS, ROASTING FIRE-LAY, CAMP-
FIRE LAY, BELMORE LAY, FRYING FIRE LAY, BAKING FIBE LAY. THB
AUBES CRANE
V. CAMP KITCHENS 79
CAMP PIT-FIBES, BEAN HOLES. COWBOY FIRE-HOLE. CHINOOK COOK-
ING FIRE-HOLE. BARBECUE-PITS. THE GOLD DIGGER'S OVEN. THE
FERGUSON CAMP STOVE. THE ADOBE OVEN. THE ALTAR CAMPFIBE
PLACE. CAMP KITCHEN FOR HIKERS, SCOUTS, EXPLORERS, SURVEYORS
AND HUNTERS. How TO COOK MEAT, FISH AND BREAD WITHOUT POTS,
PANS OR STOVES. DRESSING SMALL ANIMALS. How TO BABBECUB
LARGE ANIMALS
VI. CAMP FOOD 101
How TO MAKE ASH CAKE, PONE, CORN DODGERS, FLAPJACKS, JOHNNY-
CAKE, BISCUITS AND DOUGHGOD. MAKING DUTCH OvENS. VENISON.
BANQUETS IN THE OPEN. How TO COOK BEAVER TAIL, PORCUPINES
AND MUSKRATS. CAMP STEWS, BRUNSWICK STEWS AND BuBGOOS
PACKING HORSES 123
How TO MAKE A PACK HORSE OF YOUR OWN. How TO MAKE AW
APAREJO. How TO MAKE A CINCHA. How TO MAKE A LATIGO. How
TO THROW A DIAMOND HITCH. How TO THROW A SQUAW HITCH. How
TO HITCH A HORSE IN OPEN LAND WITHOUT POST, TREE OR STICK OR
STONE. USE OF HOBBLES AND How TO MAKE THEM. How THE TRAVOIS
is MADE AND USED. BUFFALO BILL AND GENERAL MILES. How TO
THROW DOWN A SADDLE. How TO THROW A SADDLE ON A HORSE. How
TO MOUNT A HOBSE. How TO KNOW A WESTERN HORSE
viii CONTENTS
VIII. THE USE OF DOGS. MAN PACKING .................. 145
HIKING DOGS, PACK DOGS. How TO PACK A Doo. How TO THBOW
THE Doo HITCH. How TO MAKE DOG TRAVOIS. Doa AS A BEAST OP
BURDEN IN EDROPE AND ARCTIC AMERICA. MAN PACKING. PACK RATS.
DON'T FIGHT YOUR PACK. PORTAGE PACK. GREAT MEN WHO HAVE
CARRIED A PACK. KINDS OF PACKS. ALPINE RUCKSACK. ORIGIN OF
BROAD BREAST STRAPS. MAKE YOUR OWN OUTFITS
EX. PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP ..................... 165
PORTERS OF THE PORTAGE. OLD-TIME INDIAN FIGHTERS AND WILD
ANIMALS. MODERN STAMPEDE FOR THE OPEN. How TO GET READY
FOR CAMP. CUT YOUR FINGER NAILS. Go TO YOUR DENTIST. GET A
HAIR CUT. A BUCKSKIN MAN'S POCKET. FLY DOPE. PROTECTION
AGAINST BLACK FLIES, MOSQUITOES, MIDGETS AND NO-SEE-UMS. THE
CALL OF THE WILD
X. SADDLES ............................................... 183
How TO CHOOSE A SADDLE. EVOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN SADDLE.
BIRTH OF THE BLUFF FRONTED SADDLE. THE COWBOY AGE. SAWBUCKS
OR PACK SADDLES. STRAIGHT LEG AND BENT KNEE. NAMES OF PARTS
OF SADDLE. CENTER FIRE AND DOUBLE CINCH
XI. CHOOSING A CAMP SITE .............................. 196
"WARE SINGLE TREES OR SMALL GROUPS OF TREES. SAFETY IN WOODS
OR FOREST. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR GOOD CAMP SITES. CROSS
STREAMS WHILE CROSSING is GOOD. KEEP TO WINDWARD OF MOSQUITO
HOLES. 'WARE ANTS' NESTS. How TO TELL WHEN WIND BLOWS. EVO-
LUTION OF THE SHACK. How TO SWEEP. How TO MAKE CAMP BEDS.
How TO DIVIDE CAMP WORK. TENT PEGS. How TO PITCH A TENT
SINGLE-HANDED. How TO DITCH A TENT. USE OF SHEARS, GINS
AND TRIPODS
XII. AXE AND SAW
OUR GREATEST AXEMAN. IMPORTANCE OF THE AXE. WHAT KIND OF
AXE TO USE. How TO SWING AN AXE. How TO REMOVE A BROKEN
AXE HANDLE. How TO TIGHTEN THE HANDLE IN THE HEAD. ACCIDENTS.
THE BRAINS OF AN AXE. ETIQUETTE OF THE AXE. How TO SHARPEN
AN AXE. How TO "FALL" A TREE. How TO SWAMP. How TO MAKE
A BEETLE OR MALL. How TO HARDEN" GREEN WOOD. How TO MAKE A
FIREWOOD HOD. How TO MAKE A CHOPPING BLOCK. THE PROPER
WAY TO CHOP. How TO MAKE SAWBUCKS FOR LOGS. How TO USE A
PARBUCKLE. How TO SPLIT A LOG. How TO USE A SAWPIT
XIII. COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES ...................... 245
CHEROKEE INDIAN COUNCIL BARBECUE. CAMP MEETING COUNCIL
GROUND. THE INDIAN PALISADED COUNCIL FIRE. INDIAN LEGENDS
OF THE FIRE. STEALING THE FIRE FROM THE SUN-MAIDENS OF THE
EAST. MYTHS OF THE MEWAN INDIANS. TOTEMS OF THE FOUR WINDS,
FOUR MOUNTAINS AND FOUR POINTS OF THE COMPASS. IMPRACTICAL
COUNCIL FIRES. ADVANTAGES OF THE OVAL COUNCIL GROUND. How
TO MAKE AN ELLIPSE. How TO DIVIDE THE COUNCIL GROUND IN FOUR
COURTS. COUNCIL CEREMONIES. GHOST WALK AND PATH OF KNOWL-
EDGE. WHAT THE DIFFERENT COLORS STAND FOR. PATRIOTISM, POETRY
AND AMERICANISM. CAMP MEETING TORCH FIRES
XIV. RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE .................... 265
PROGRAM OF A COUNCIL FIRE. INVOCATION. THE PLEDGE AND CBEED
OF ALL AMERICANS. APPEAL
CHAPTER I
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
HOW TO MAKE A FIRE-BOARD, BOW, DRILL AND THIMBLB
INDIAN LEGEND OF THE SOURCE OF FIRE
RECORD FIRE-MAKERS
RUBBING-STICK OUTFIT
ESKIMO THIMBLE
BOW, BOW-STRING, THIMBLE, FIRE-BOARD, FIRE-PAN
TINDER, CHARRED RAGS, PUFF BALLS
FIRE-MAKERS OF THE BALKAN
FIRE WITHOUT A BOW, CO-LI-LI, THE FIRE SAW
FIRE PUMPING OF THE IROQUOIS
PTROPNEUMATIC APPARATUS
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
CHAPTER I
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
WHEN THE "what-is-its" of Pithecantropus erectus age
and other like hob-goblin men were moping around the
rough sketch of an earth, there were no camp-fires; the
only fire that these creatures knew was that which struck
terror to their hearts when it was vomited forth from
volcanic craters, or came crashing among them in the
form of lightning. No wonder that the primitive men looked
upon fire as a deity, no doubt an evil deity at first but one
who later became good.
When the vast fields of ice covered Europe during the
glacier period and forced men to think or die, necessity
developed a prehistoric Edison among the Neanderthal men,
who discovered how to build and control a fire, thus saving
his race from being frozen in the ice and kept on cold storage,
like the hairy rhinoceros and elephant of Siberia.
The fire of this forgotten and unknown glacier savage was
the forerunner of our steam-heaters and kitchen ranges; in
fact, without it we could have made no progress whatever,
for not only the humble kitchen range, but the great factories
and power-plants are all depending upon the discovery made
by the shivering, teeth-chattering savage who was hop-
ping around and trying to keep himself warm among the
European glaciers.
But we people of the camp-fires are more interested in
primitive fires just as the Neanderthal men built them, than
3
4 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
we are In the roaring furnaces of the steel works, the volcano
blast furnaces, or any of the scientific, commercialized fires
of factory and commerce.
What we love is the genial, old-fashioned camp-fire in the
open, on the broad prairie, on the mountainside, or in the
dark and mysterious forests, where, as our good friend Dr.
Hornaday says,
We will pile on pine and spruce,
Mesquite roots and sagebrush loose,
Dead bamboo and smelly teak,
And with fagots blazing bright
Burn a hole into the night
Not long ago the author was up North in the unmapped
lake country of Canada, and while camping on the portage
between two wild and lonely lakes, Scout Joe Van Vleck made
himself a fire outfit consisting of Fig. 1, a thimble made of a
burl, with which to hold Fig. 2, the spindle made of balsam.
Fig. 3 is a bow cut from a standing bush; not an elastic bow,
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION 5
such as one uses with which to shoot arrows, but a bow with
a permanent bend to it. Fig. 4 is the fire-pan which is placed
under the fire-board to catch the charcoal dust as it falls
through the slot when the spindle is twirled.
Fig. 5 is the fire-board, made of a dead balsam tree which
was standing within three yards of the camp-fire.
In order to make his fire it was necessary for our Scout to
have some tinder, and this he secured from the bark of cedar
trees, also within a few yards of our camp. This indeed was
a novel experience, for seldom is material so convenient. The
fire was built in a few seconds, much to the wonderment of
our Indian guide, and the delight of some moose hunters
who chanced to be crossing the portage on which our camp
was located.
It was an American, Dr. Walter Hough of the U. S.
National Museum of Washington, who first proved that a
modern up-to-date civilized white man can make a fire with
rubbing-sticks, as well as the primitive man. But it was an
Englishman who popularized this method of making fire, in-
troduced it among the Boy Scouts of England and America,
and the sister organizations among the girls.
According to the American Indian legend the animal
people who inhabited the earth before the Redmen lived in
darkness in California. There was the coyote man, the vul-
ture man, the white-footed mouse man, and a lot of other
fabled creatures. Away over East somewhere there was light
because the sun was over there, and the humming-bird man
among the animal people of our Indians is the one, according
to Dr. Merriman, who stole the fire from the East and carried
it under his chin. The mark of it is still there. The next
time you see a humming-bird note the brilliant spot of red
fire under his chin.
6 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Now you understand why the king-phi in fire mak-
ing at your camp deserves the title of Le-che-che (the
humming-bird).
If one gets the fire from a fire-board, spindle and bow in
record time, then the title of Le-che-che is all the more appro-
priate because it was the humming-bird man who hid the
fire in the oo-noo tree, and to this day, when the Indian wants
fire, he goes to the oo-noo (buckeye) tree to get it; that is,
provided he has no matches in the pockets of his store clothes
and that some white boy, like the Scout previously mentioned,
has taught him how to make fire as did the Indian's own
ancestors. But even then the oo-noo* wood must be
dead and dry.
Austin Norton of Ypsilanti, Michigan, April, 1912, made
fire in thirty -nine and one-fifth seconds; Frederick C. Reed of
Washington, in December, 1912, made fire in thirty-one sec-
onds; Mr. Ernest Miller of St. Paul made fire in thirty sec-
onds, but it was Mr. Arthur Forbush, one of the author's
Scouts of the Sons of Daniel Boone (the scout organization
which preceded both the English Boy Scouts and the Boy
Scouts of America) who broke the record time in making fire
with "rubbing-sticks" by doing it in twenty-nine seconds at
the Sportsman's Show at Madison Square Garden, New
York. Mr. Forbush made this record in the presence of the
author and many witnesses. Since then the same gentleman
reduced his own world-record to twenty-six and one-fifth
seconds ; by this time even that record t may have been
broken.
The "rubbing-stick" is a picturesque, sensational and
* It is not the buckeye of the Ohio and Mississippi Valley, but is the
nut buckeye of California, /Esculus California.
t The record is now eleven seconds.
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
interesting method of building a fire, but to-day it is of little
practical use outside of the fact that it teaches one to over-
come obstacles, to do things with the tools at hand, to think
and act with the vigor, precision and self-confidence of a
primitive man.
"RUBBING-STICK" OUTFIT
Ever since the writer was a small boy he has read about
making fire by rubbing "two chips" or "two sticks" together,
and he was under the impression then, and is under the im-
pression now, that no one can build a fire in that manner.
When we find reference to rubbing-sticks it is probably a
slovenly manner of describing the bow and drill and the
other similar friction fire implements. For the bow and drill
one requires first a
8 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THIMBLE
(Figs. 1, 1A, IB, 1C and ID). This is a half round stone
or pebble, a half round burl or knot of wood, or it may be
made of soft wood with an inlay of a piece of stone. In the
bottom of the thimble there is always a shallow hole or socket;
see S on Figs. 1, 1A, IB, 1C, and ID. The thimble is an
invention of the Eskimos (Fig. 1C) ; they keep the spindle
upright by holding the pointed upper end of it in a hole (S)
drilled into a piece of serpentine, or soapstone.
The author has a thimble personally made for him by
Major David Abercrombie. This beautiful implement is
made of hard fine-grained wood carved into the form of a
beetle (Fig. IB). It is inlaid with copper and semi-precious
stones. The socket hole was drilled into a piece of jade (B),
using for the purpose some sand and the drill shown in Fig. 23.
There was a piece of steel pipe set into the end of the wooden
drill with which to bore a hole into the hard jade. The jade
was then inlaid or set into the middle of the bottom of the
thimble, and cemented there, Fig. IB. The author also
has a thimble made for him by Edmund Seymour of the
Camp-fire Club of America. This thimble is a stone fossil
with a hole drilled in it, Fig. 1A.
It is not necessary to tell the reader that when using the
bow for power, the twirling spindle cannot be held down with
the bare hand, consequently the use of the thimble for that
purpose is necessary. Fig. 1C shows an Eskimo thimble so
fashioned that it may be held in the fire-maker's mouth.
THE Bow
Is a stick or branch of wood (Figs. 3, 3E, 3F and 3G) about
a foot and a half long and almost an inch in diameter, which
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION 9
has a permanent bend in it the bend may be natural or may
have been made artificially. To the bow is attached a slack
thong, or durable string of some kind. The Eskimos, more
inventive than the Indians, made themselves beautiful bows
of ivory, carving them from walrus tusks, which they shaved
down and strung with a loose strip of walrus hide.
THE Bow STRING
The objection to whang string or belt lacing is that it is
apt to be too greasy, so if one can secure a strip of buckskin, a
buckskin thong about two inches wide, and twist it into a
string, it will probably best serve the purpose (Fig. 6).
THE SPINDLE
The spindle is the twirling stick (Figs. 2, 2A, 2B and 2C)
which is usually about a foot long and was used by our
American Indians without the bow (Fig. 7). The twirling
stick or spindle may be three-quarters of an inch in diameter
at the middle; constant use and sharpening will gradually
shorten the spindle. When it becomes too short a new one
must be made. The end of the spindle should not be made
sharp like a lead pencil, but should have a dull or rounded
end, with which to bore into the fire-board, thus producing
fine, hot charcoal, which in time becomes a spark: that is, a
growing ember.
THE FIRE-BOARD
The fire-board (Figs. 5 and 5A) should be made of spruce,
cedar, balsam, tamarack, cottonwood root, basswood, and
even dry white pine, maple and, probably, buckeye wood. It
should not be made of black walnut, oak or chestnut, or any
10 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
wood which has a gummy or resinous quality. The fire-board
should be of dry material which will powder easily. Dr.
Hough recommends maple for the fire-board, or "hearth," as
it is called in the Boy Scout Handbook. Make the fire-board
about eleven inches long, two inches wide and three-quarters
of an inch thick.
Near the edge of the board, and two inches from the end,
begin a row of notches each three-quarter inch long and cut
down through the fire-board so as to be wider at the bottom.
At the inside end of each notch make an indenture only
sufficiently deep to barely hold the end of your spindle while
you make the preliminary twirls which gradually enlarge the
socket to fit the end of your spindle.
THE FIRE-PAN
The fire-pan is a chip, shingle or wooden dust-pan used
to catch the charred dust as it is pushed out by the twirling
spindle (Fig. 4) . The use of the fire-pan is also an Eskimos
idea, but they cut a step in then* driftwood fire-board itself
(Fig. 8) to serve as a fire-pan.
TINDER
When you can procure them, charred rags of cotton or
linen make excellent tinder, but the best fabric for that pur-
pose is an old Turkish towel.
How TO CHAR A RAG
Find a flat stone (Fig. 10) , a broad piece of board, a smooth,
hard, bare piece of earth; set your cloth afire and after it
begins to blaze briskly, smother it out quickly by using a
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
11
folded piece of paper (Fig. 9) , a square section of birch bark
or another piece of board. This napped down quickly upon
the flames will extinguish them without disturbing the
charred portion (Fig. 10). Or with
your feet quickly trample out the
flames. Keep your punk or tinder
in a water-tight box; a tin tobacco
box is good for that purpose, or do
like our ancestors did keep it in a /<T/? ^ fiA f
punk horn (Fig. 30).
Very fine dry grass is good
tinder, also the mushroom, known
as the puff-ball or Devil's snuff-
box. The puff-balls, big ones, may
be found growing about the edges
of the woods and they make very good punk or tinder. They
are prepared by hanging them on a string and drying them
out, after which they are cut into thin slices, laid on the
board and beaten until all the black dust ("snuff") is ham-
mered out of them, when they are in condition to use as
punk or tinder (Fig. 11). In olden times there was a mush-
room, toadstool or fungus imported from Germany, and
used as punk, but woodcraft consists in supplying oneself
with the material at hand; therefore do not forget that
flying squirrels (Figs. 12 and 13), white-footed mice (Fig.
14) and voles, or short-tailed meadow mice, are all addicted
to collecting good
TINDER
with which to make their warm nests : So also do some of
the birds the summer yellow bird, humming-bird and
vireos. While abandoned humming-birds' nests are too diffi-
12
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
cult to find, last year's vireos' nests are more easily discov-
ered suspended like cups between two branches, usually
within reach of the hand, and quite conspicuous in the fall
when the leaves are off the trees.
Cedar bark, both red (Fig. 15) and white, the dry inner
bark of other trees, dry birch bark, when shredded up very
fine, make good tinder. Whether you use the various forms
of rubbing-sticks or the flint and steel, it is necessary to
catch the spark in punk or tinder in order to develop
the flame.
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
13
How TO MAKE A FIRE WITH A DRILL AND Bow
First find a level solid foundation on which to place your
fire-board, then make a half turn with the string of the bow
around the spindle, as in
the diagram (Fig. 16) ; now
grasp the thimble with
the left hand, put one end
of the drill in the socket
hole of the thimble, the
other end in the socket
hole on the fire-board,
with your left foot hold- .-,_ ^ ^
IT^ '""
ing the fire-board down. -* *
Press your left wrist firmly against your left shin. Begin
work by drawing the bow slowly and horizontally back and
forth until it works easily, work
the bow as one does a fiddle bow
when playing on a bass viol, but
draw the bow its whole length
each time. When it is running
smoothly, speed it up.
Or when you feel that the
drill is biting the wood, press
harder on the thimble, not too
hard, but hard enough to hold
the drill firmly, so that it will
not slip out of the socket but
will continue to bite the wood
until the "sawdust" begins to
appear. At first it will show a brown color, later it will
become black and begin to smoke until the thickening smoke
14
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
announces that you have developed the spark. At this stage
you gently fan the smoking embers with one hand. If you
fan it too briskly, as often happens, the powder will be
blown away.
As soon as you are satisfied that you have secured a spark,
lift the powdered embers on the fire-pan and place carefully
on top of it a bunch of tinder, then blow till it bursts into
flame (Fig. 8A) . Or fold the tinder over the spark gently,
take it up in your hand and swing it with a circular motion
until the flame flares out.
Even to this day peasantry throughout the Carpathian
and Balkan peninsulas build their fires with a "rubbing-
stick." But these people not being campers have a perma-
nent fire machine made by erecting two posts, one to represent
the fire-stick and the other the socket thimble. The spindle
runs horizontally between these two posts and the pressure
is secured by a thong or cord tied around the two posts, which
tends to pull them toward each other. The spindle is worked
by a bow the same as the one already described and the fire
is produced in the same manner.
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
FERE WITHOUT A Bow
15
My pupils in the Woodcraft Camp built fires successfully
by using the rung of a chair for the spindle, a piece of packing
case for a fire-board, and another piece for the socket wood
and the string from their moccasins for a bow string. They
used no bow, however, and two or three boys were neces-
sary to make a fire, one to hold the spindle and two others
to saw on the moccasin string (Fig. 17).
CO-LI-LI THE FIRE SAW
is made of two pieces of bamboo, or fish pole. This is the
oldest instrument for fire making used by the Bontoc Igorot
and is now seldom found among the men of the Philippines.
Practically all Philippine boys, however, know how to make
and use it and so should our boys here, and men, too. It is
called "co-li-li" and is made of two pieces of dry bamboo.
A two-foot section of dead and dry bamboo is first split
lengthwise and in one piece, a small area of the stringy tissue
lining of the tube is splintered and picked until quite loose
(Fig. 18) . Just over the picked fibres, but on the outside of the
bamboo, a narrow groove is cut across it (Fig. 18G). This
16 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
piece of bamboo is now the stationary lower part or "fire-
board" of the machine. One edge of the other half of the
original tube is sharpened like a chisel blade's edge (Fig. 19) ;
it is then grasped with one hand at each end and is slowly and
heavily sawed backward and forward through the groove in
the board, and afterwards worked more rapidly, thus pro-
ducing a conical pile of dry dust on the wad of tinder picked
from the inside of the bamboo or previously placed there.
(Figs. 20 and 21). Fig. 22 is the fire-pan.
"After a dozen strokes," says our authority, Mr. Albert
Ernest Jenks, "the sides of the groove and the edge of the
piece are burned down; presently a smell of smoke is plain
and before three dozen strokes have been made, smoke may
be seen. Usually before a hundred strokes a larger volume of
smoke tells us that the dry dust constantly falling on the pile
has grown more and more charred until finally a tiny spark
falls, carrying combustion to the already heated dust cone."
The fire-board is then carefully lifted and if the pinch
of dust is smouldering it may now be gently fanned with the
hand until the tinder catches; then it may be blown into a
flame.
FIRE PUMPING OF THE IROQUOIS
Fig. 23 shows another form of drill. For this one it is
necessary to have a weight wheel attached
to the lower part of the spindle. A hole
is made through its center and the drill
fitted to this. The one in Fig. 23 is fitted
out with a rusty iron wheel which I found
under the barn. Fig. 23 C shows a
pottery weight wheel which I found
many years ago in a gravel-pit in Mills Creek bottoms at
Cincinnati, Ohio. It was brick-red in color and decorated
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION 17
with strange characters. For many, many years I did not
know for what use this unique instrument was intended. I
presented it to the Flushing High School (Long Island), where
I trust it still remains. The fire-drill is twirled by moving
the bow up and down instead of backward and forward.
THE TWIRLING STICK (American Indian)
Fig. 7 is practically the same as Figs. 16 and 17, with this
difference: the bow and thong are dispensed with and the
spindle twirled between the palm of the hands, as formerly
practised by the California Indians, the natives of Australia,
Caroline Islands, China, Africa and India.
Many of the American Indians made friction fire in this
manner. They spun the thin spindle by rolling it between
the palms of their hands and as pressure was exerted the
hands gradually slid down to the thick lower end of the
spindle. To again get the hands to the top of the drill requires
practice and skill. Personally the writer cannot claim any
success with this method.
THE PLOW STICK (American Indian)
The simplest method of friction is that of the plow, which
requires only a fire-board with a
gutter in it and a rubbing-stick
to push up and down the gutter
(Fig. 24). Captain Belmore
Browne of Mt. McKinley fame
made a fire by this last method
when his matches were soaked
with water. It is, however, more
difficult to produce the fire this
way than with the thong and
2
18 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
bow. It is still used in the Malay Islands ; the natives place
the fire-board on a stump or stone, straddle it and with a
pointed drill plow the board back and forth until they
produce fire. Time: Forty seconds.
Of course it is unnecessary to tell anyone that he can
start a fire with a sunglass (Fig. 25) or with the lens of a
,. camera, or with the lens made from two
old-fashioned watch crystals held to-
gether. But as the sun is not always
visible, as lenses are not supposed to
grow in the wild woods and were not to
be found in the camps and log cabins of
the pioneers, and as watch crystals have short lives in the
woods, we will pass this method of fire making without
matches as one which properly belongs in the classroom.
THE PYROPNEUMATIC APPARATUS
Before or about the time of the American Revolution some
gentleman invented a fire piston (Fig. 26) with which he
ignited punk made of fungus by the heat engendered by the
sudden compression of the air.
The ancient gentleman describes his invention as follows:
"The cy Under is about nine inches long, and half an inch in
diameter; it terminates in a screw on which screws the maga-
zine intended to hold a bougie, and some fungus. A steel rod
is attached to a solid piston, or plunger, not shown in the
figure, it being within the tube. This rod has a milled head
and there is a small hole in the tube to admit the air, when
the piston is drawn up to the top, where a piece unscrews,
for the purpose of applying oil or grease to the piston. I have
found lard to answer the end best."
FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION
METHOD OF USING IT
" Take from the magazine a small piece of fungus, and
place it in the chamber, screw the piece tight on and draw the
piston up by the end, till it stops. Hold the
instrument with both hands in the manner
represented hi Fig. 26, place the end on a
table or against any firm body, either in a
perpendicular, horizontal or vertical direction,
and force the piston down with as much
rapidity as possible. This rapid compression
of the air will cause the fungus to take fire.
Instantly after the stroke of the piston, un-
screw the magazine, when the air will rush in,
and keep up the combustion till the fungus is
consumed. Observe, in lighting the tinder, the
fungus must be lifted up a little from the chamber, so as to
allow the tinder to be introduced beneath it, otherwise it
will not kindle.
"Here it may be remarked that the instrument thus con-
structed has a decided advantage over the fire-cane, where the
fungus is inserted at such a depth as not easily to be reached."
But in Burmah they had the same idea. There the coolies
still light their cigarettes with a fire-piston. The Philippines
also use the same machine and ignite a wad of cotton stuck
on the end of the piston by suddenly forcing the piston into
air-tight cylinders, and when the piston is quickly withdrawn
the cotton is found to be aflame, so it may be that the Colonial
gentleman had traveled to the Indies and borrowed his idea
from the Burmahs, or the Philippines. At any rate we do
not use it to-day in the woods, but it finds place here because it
belongs to the friction fires and may be good as a suggestion for
those among my readers of experimental and inventive minds.
CHAPTER II
FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION
THE WHITE MAN'S METHOD; HOW TO USE FLINT AND STEEL
WHERE TO OBTAIN THE FLINT AND STEEL
CHUCKNUCKS, PUNK BOXES, SPUNKS AND MATCHES
REAL LUCIFER MATCHES
SLOW MATCH
HOW TO CATCH THE SPARK
SUBSTITUTES FOR FLINT AND STEEL
CHAPTER II
FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION
THE preceding methods of producing fire by friction are
not the white man's methods, and are not the methods
used by our pioneer ancestors. The only case the writer
can remember in which the pioneer white people used
rubbing-sticks to produce fire, is one where the refugees
from an Indian uprising and massacre in Oregon made
fire from rubbing-sticks made of the bits of the splintered
wood of a lightning stricken tree. On that occasion they
evidently left home in a great hurry, without their flints
and steels.
But this one instance in itself is sufficient to show to all
outdoor people the great importance of the knowledge and
ability to make friction fires. Like our good friend, the
artist, explorer and author, Captain Belmore Browne, one
may at any time get in a fix where one's matches are soaked,
destroyed or lost and be compelled either to eat one's food
raw or resort to rubbing-sticks to start a fire.
It is well, however, to remember that the flint and steel is
THE WHITE MAN'S METHOD
And notwithstanding the fire canes of our Colonial dudes,
or the Pyropneumatic apparatus of the forgotten Mr. Bank,
fire by percussion, that is, fire by friction of flint and steel,
was universal here in America up to a quite recent date, and
it is still in common use among many of my Camp-fire Club
friends, and among many smokers
23
24 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
How TO USE FLINT AND STEEL
In the age of flint and steel, the guns were all fired by this
method. Fig. 33 shows the gun-lock of an old musket; the
hammer holds a piece of flint, a small piece of buckskin is
folded around the inside edge of the flint and serves to give
a grip to the top part of the hammer which is screwed down.
To fire the gun the hammer is pulled back at full cock, the
steel sets opposite the hammer and is joined to the top of the
powder-pan by a hinge. When the trigger is pulled the ham-
mer comes down, striking the flint against the steel, throwing
it back and exposing the powder at the same time to the
sparks which ignite the powder in the gun by means of the
touch hole in the side of the barrel of same. This is the sort
of a hammer and lock used by all of our ancestors up to the
time of the Civil War, and it is the sort of a hammer used by
the Confederates as late as the battle of Fort Donaldson. In
the olden times some people had flint lock pistols without
barrels, which were used only to ignite punk for the purpose of
fire-building. But when one starts a fire by means of flint
and steel one's hands must act the part of the hammer, the
back of one's knife may be the steel, then a piece of flint
or a gritty rock and a piece of punk will produce the
spark necessary to generate the flames.
In the good old pioneer days, when we all wore buckskin
clothes and did not bother about the price of wool, when we
wore coonskin caps and cared little for the price of felt hats,
everybody, from Miles Standish and George Washington to
Abraham Lincoln, used flint and steel. Fig. 27 shows ten
different forms of steel used by our grandsires and
granddames.
Flint in its natural condition may be found in many states,
but, as a rule, any stone which was used by the Indians for
FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION 27
arrowheads will answer as a substitute for flint,* that is,
any gritty or glassy stone, like quartz, agate, jasper or iron
pyrites. Soft stones, limestones, slate or soapstones are not
good for this purpose.
THE STEEL
Most of the old steels were so made that one might grasp
them while thrusting one's fingers through the inside of the
oval steel, Fig. 28 (left handed). Some of the Scoutmasters
of the Boy Scouts of America make their own steels of broken
pieces of flat ten-cent files, but this is unnecessary because
every outdoor man, and woman, too, is supposed to carry a
good sized jack-knife and the back of the blade of the jack-
knife, or the back of the blade of one's hunting knife is good
enough steel for anyone who has acquired the art of using
it as a steel.
But if you must have steels manufactured at the machine
shop or make them yourself, let them be an inch wide, a
quarter of an inch thick, and long enough to form an ellipse
like one of those shown in Fig. 27. Have the sharp edges
rounded off. If you desire you may have your steel twisted
in any of the shapes shown in Fig. 27 to imitate the ones
used by your great granddaddies.
THE CHUCKNTJCK
But the neatest thing in the way of flint and steel which
has come to the writer's attention is shown by Fig. 31. This
* To-day flint may be obtained at Bannermans, 501 Broadway, New
York City, where they also have ancient steels which were used by the U. S.
soldiers. The flints may also be purchased from Wards Natural Science
Establishment at Rochester, New York, and the author found a plentiful
supply of flints at one of the Army and Navy stores in New York.
28 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
is a small German silver box which still contains some of the
original fungus used for punk and an ancient, well-battered
piece of flint. Around the box is fitted the steel in the form
of a band, and the whole thing is so small that it may be
carried in one's vest pocket. This was once the property of
Phillip Hagner, Lieutenant, of the City of Philadelphia at the
time of the Revolution, that is, custodian of city property.
He took the Christ Church bells from Philadelphia to Bethle-
hem by ox-cart before the city was occupied by the British.
Phillip Hagner came from Saxony about 1700 and settled in
Germantown, Philadelphia. This silver box was presented
to the National Scout Commissioner by Mr. Isaac Sutton,
Scout Commissioner for Delaware and Montgomery Coun-
ties, Boy Scouts of America.
PUNK BOXES
The cowhorn punk box is made by sawing off the small
end and then the point of a cow's horn (Fig. 30). A small
hole is next bored through the solid small end of the horn to
connect with the natural open space further down, a strip
of rawhide or whang string larger than the hole is forced
through the small end and secured by a knot on the inside,
which prevents it from being pulled out. The large end of the
horn is closed by a piece of thick sole leather attached to the
thong, by tying a hard knot in the end and pulling the thong
through a hole in the center of the stopper until the knot is
snug against the leather disk; this should be done before the
wet leather is allowed to dry. If the thong and leather stop-
per are made to fit the horn tightly, the dry baked rags, the
charred cotton, or whatever substance you use for punk,
when placed in the horn will be perfectly protected from
moisture or dampness.
FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION 29
SULPHUR HEADED SPUNKS AND MATCHES
These old sulphur "spunks" were nothing more than
kindling wood or tinder, because they would not ignite by
rubbing but were lighted by putting the sulphur end hi the
flame. According to our modern ideas of convenience they
appear very primitive. They were called "spunks" in Eng-
land and "matches" in America, and varied hi length from
three to seven inches, were generally packed in bundles
from a dozen to two dozen and tied together with bits of
straw. Some spunks made as late as 1830 are considered
rare enough to be carefully preserved in the York Museum
in England (Fig. 323^). The ones illustrated in Fig. 32 are a
Long Island product, and were given to the author by the
late John Halleran, the most noted antique collector on Long
Island. These are carefully preserved among the antiquities
in the writer's studio. But they are less than half the length
of the ones formerly used on the Western Reserve. With
the ancient matches in the studio are also two old pioneer
tinder boxes with flints and steels. The^tinder boxes are
made of tin and contain a lot of baked rags. The inside lid
acts as an extinguisher with which to cover up the punk or
tinder in the box after you have lighted the candle in the tin
lid of the box (Fig. 32).
The matches we use today are evolved from these old
sulphur spunks. When the writer was a little fellow up in
the Western Reserve on the shores of Lake Erie, he was
intensely interested hi an old lady making sulphur matches.
Over the open fire she melted the sulphur in an iron kettle
in which she dipped the ends of some pine slivers. The
sulphur on the end of the sticks was then allowed to cool
and harden. These matches were about the length of a lead
pencil and could only be lighted by thrusting the sulphur
30 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
into the flame. So, although having been born in the age of
Lucifer matches, the writer was yet fortunate enough to
see manufactured and to remember the contemporary an-
cestors of our present-day "safety" match.
THE REAL LUCIFER MATCH
That is, the match which lights from friction, is the
invention of Isaac Holden, M. P. According to the Pall Mall
Gazette, Mr. Holden said, "In the morning I used to get up
at 4 o'clock in order to pursue my studies, and I used at that
time the flint and steel, in the use of which I found very great
inconvenience. Of course, I knew, as other chemists did,
the explosive material that was necessary in order to produce
instantaneous light, but it was very difficult to obtain a
light on wood by that explosive material, and the idea oc-
curred to me to put sulphur under the explosive mixture.
I did that and showed it in my next lecture on chemistry,
a course of which I was delivering at a large academy."
Because every real woodsman is a student, as well as a
sentimentalist, a brief history is given of these fire imple-
ments to entertain him as we jog along the "trace." All
these things are blazes which mark the trail to the button
in our wall which now produces the electric light. Some of
them, like the clay cylinders found in the ruins of Babylon,
are only useful in a historical sense, but many of them are
essentially practical for woodcraft.
How TO MAKE A CHUCKNUCK
The slow match or punk rope to fit in the brass cylinder
may be made of candle wick or coach wick purchased at the
hardware store; such wick is about three-eighths of an inch
in diameter. Scout Commissioner John H. Chase of Youngs-
FIRE MAKING KY PERCUSSION 31
town, Ohio, suggests that the rope may be made from the
wastes of a machine shop or a garage; but one of the best
woodsmen I know is Mr. Frederick K. Vreeland, and he
uses the apparatus shown by Fig. 34, which is made of the
yellow fuse rope, or punk rope, which may be purchased at
cigar stores. He fastens a cork in one end of the rope by a
wire, he pulls the other end of the rope through the end of
the brass cartridge shell which has been filed off for that
purpose. The end of the fuse rope must be charred, so as
to catch the spark. To get the spark he takes the back of the
blade of his knife (Fig. 35), and strikes the bit of flint as you
would with flint and steel, holding the charred end of the
punk against the flint, as shown by the diagram (Fig. 29).
Loose cotton and various vegetable fibers twisted into a
rope soaked in water and gunpowder will make good punk
when dry.
To GET THE SPARK
Place the charred end of the rope on the flint, the charred
portion about one thirty-second of an inch back of the edge
of the flint where the latter is to be struck by the steel;
hold the punk in place with the thumb of the left hand, as in
the diagram (Fig. 29) . Hold the knife about six inches above
at an angle of about forty -five degrees from the flint, turn
your knife so that the edge of the back of the blade will
strike, then come down at an angle about thirty -five degrees
with a sharp scraping blow. This should send the spark into
the punk at the first or second blow. Now blow the punk
until it is all aglow and you are ready to set your tinder afire.
Push the punk into the middle of a handful of tinder and
blow it until it is aflame, and the deed is done!
All these pocket contrivances for striking fire were for-
merly known as "striker-lights" or "chucknucks."
32 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
A SUBSTITUTE FOR FLINT AND STEEL
The Malays having neither flint nor steel ingeniously
substitute for the flint a piece of broken chinaware, and for
the steel a bamboo joint, and they produce a spark by striking
the broken china against the joint of the bamboo, just as
we do with the flint and steel.
CHAPTER III
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE
HOW TO LAY AND LIGHT A FIRE
AN EXPERIENCE WITH TENDERFEET
MODERN FEAR OF DOING MANUAL LABOR
MATCHES
FIRE-MAKERS AND BABYLONIANS
THE PALPITATING HEART OF THE CAMP
GUMMY FAGOTS OF THE PINE
HOW TO MAKE A FIRE IN WET WEATHEK
BACKWOODSMEN'S FIRE
THE NECESSITY OF SMALL KINDLING WOOD
GOOD FIREWOOD
ADVANTAGE OF SPLIT WOOD
FIRE-DOGS
HOW TO OPEN A KNIFE
HOW TO WHITTLE; HOW TO SPLIT A STICK WITH A KNIFE
BONFIRES AND COUNCIL FIRES
CAMP MEETING TORCH FIRES
EXPLODING STONES
CHARACTER IN FIRE
SLOW FIHES, SIGNAL FIRES AND SMUDGES
3
CHAPTER III
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE
"By thy camp-fire they shall know thee."
A PARTY of twenty or thirty men once called at the author's
studio and begged that he would go with them on a hike,
stating that they intended to cook their dinner out-of-doors.
We went on the hike. The author asked the gentlemen to
collect the wood for the fire; they did so enthusiastically
and heaped up about a quarter of a cord of wood. There
was no stick in the pile less than the thickness of one's arm,
and many as thick as one's leg. A fine misty rain was falling
and everything was damp. While all the other hikers gath-
ered around, one of them carefully lighted a match and
applied it to the heap of damp cord wood sticks. Match
after match he tried, then turned helplessly to the writer
with the remark, "It won't light, sir," and none there saw
the humor of the situation!
Had anyone told the writer that from twenty-five to
thirty men could be found, none of whom could build a fire,
he would have considered the statement as highly improbable,
but if he had been told that any intelligent man would try
to light cord wood sticks, wet or dry, by applying a match
to them, he would have branded the story as utterly beyond
belief. It is, however, really astonishing how few people
there are who know how to build a fire even when supplied
with plenty of fuel and abundant matches.
MATCHES
It may be well to call the reader's attention to the fact
that it takes very little moisture to spoil the scratch patch
35
36
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
on a box of safety matches and prevent the match itself
from igniting. The so-called parlor match, which snaps
when one lights it and often shoots the burning head into
one's face or on one's clothes, is too dangerous a match to
take into the woods. The bird's-eye match is exceedingly
unreliable on the trail, but the old-fashioned, ill-smelling
Lucifer match, sometimes called sulphur match, the kind
one may secure at the Hudson Bay Trading Post, the kind
that comes in blocks and is often packed in tin cans, is the
best match for woodcrafters, hunters, explorers, and hikers.
Most of the outfitting stores in the big cities either have these
matches or can procure them for their customers. When
one of these matches is damp it may be dried by running it
through one's hair.
Nowadays manual labor seems to be looked upon by
everyone more in the light of a disgrace or punishment than
as a privilege; nevertheless, it is a privilege to be able to
labor, it is a privilege to have the vim, the pep, the desire
and the ability to do things. Labor is a necessary attribute
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 37
of the doer and those who live in the open; no one need
attempt so simple a thing as the building of a fire and expect
to succeed without labor.
One must use the axe industriously (Figs. 39, 42 and 43)
in order to procure fuel for the fire; one must plan the fire care-
fully with regard to the wind and the inflammable material
adjacent: one must collect and select the fuel intelligently.
The shirk, the quitter, or the side-stepper has no place
in the open; his habitat is on the Great White Way among the
Babylonians of the big cities. He does not even know the
joys of a fire; he never sees a fire except when some building
is burning. His body is heated by steam radiators, his food
is cooked in some mysterious place beyond his ken, and
brought to him by subservient waiters. He will be dead and
flowers growing on his grave when the real fire-makers are
just attaining the full vigor of their manhood.
Captain Belmore Browne says that the trails of the wilder-
ness are its arteries; we may add that all trails proceed from
camp or lead to camp, and that the camp-fire is the living,
life-giving, palpitating heart of the camp; without it all is
dead and lifeless. That is the reason that we of the outdoor
brotherhood all love the fire; that is the reason that the odor
of burning wood is incense to our nostrils; that is the reason
that the writer cannot help talking about it when he should
be telling
How TO BUILD A FIRE
Do not forget that lighting a fire in hot, dry weather is
child's play, but that it takes a real camper to perform the
same act in the damp, soggy woods on a cold, raw, rainy day,
or when the first damp snow is covering all the branches of
the trees and blanketing the moist ground with a slushy
mantle of white discomfort! Then it is that fire making
38 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
brings out all the skill and patience of the woodcrafter;
nevertheless when he takes proper care neither rain, snow nor
hail can spell failure for him.
GUMMY FAGOTS OF THE PINE
In the mountains of Pennsylvania the old backwoodsmen,
of which there are very few left, invariably build their fires
with dry pine, or pitch pine sticks.
With their axe they split a pine log (Fig. 42), then cut
it into sticks about a foot long and about the thickness of
their own knotted thumbs, or maybe a trifle thicker (Fig. 40) ;
after that they proceed to whittle these sticks, cutting deep
shavings (Fig. 37), but using care to leave one end of the shav-
ings adhering to the wood; they go round and round the stick
with their knife blade making curled shavings until the piece
of kindling looks like one of those toy wooden trees one used
to find in his Noah's Ark on Christmas morning (Fig. 37).
When a backwoodsman finishes three or more sticks he sets
them up wigwam form (Fig. 38). The three sticks having
been cut from the centre of a pine log, are dry and maybe
resinous, so all that is necessary to start the flame is to touch
a match to the bottom of the curled shavings (Fig. 38).
Before they do this, however, they are careful to have a
supply of small slivers of pitch pine, white pine or split pine
knots handy (Fig. 36) . These they set up around the shaved
sticks, maybe adding some hemlock bark, and by the time
it is all ablaze they are already putting on larger sticks of
ash, black birch, yellow birch, sugar maple or oak.
For be it known that however handy pitch pine is for
starting a fire, it is not the material used as fuel in the fire
itself, because the heavy smoke from the pitch blackens up
the cooking utensils, gives a disagreeable taste to the food,
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 41
spoils the coffee and Is not a pleasant accompaniment
even for a bonfire.
In the North woods, in the land of the birch trees, green
birch bark is universally used as kindling with which to start
a fire; green birch bark burns like tar paper. But whether
one starts the fire with birch bark, shaved pine sticks or
miscellaneous dry wood, one must remember that
SPLIT WOOD
Burns much better than wood in its natural form, and
that logs from twelve to fourteen inches are best for splitting
for fuel (Fig. 42) ; also one must not forget that in starting a
fire the smaller the slivers of kindling wood are made, the
easier it is to obtain a flame by the use of a single match
(Fig. 36), after which the adding of fuel is a simple matter. A
fire must have air to breathe in order to live, that is a draught,
consequently kindling piled in the little wigwam shape is
frequently used.
FIRE-DOGS
For an ordinary, unimportant fire the "turkey-lay"
(Fig. 54) is handy, but for camp-fires and cooking fires we
use andirons on which to rest the wood, but of course in the
forests we do not call them andirons. They are not made of
iron; they are either logs of green wood or stones and known
to woodsmen by the name of "fire-dogs."
While we are on the subject of fire making it may be
worth while to call the reader's attention to the fact that
every outdoor person should know how to use a pocket
knife, a jack-knife or a hunter's knife with the greatest effi-
ciency and the least danger.
To those of us who grew up in the whittling age, it may
seem odd or even funny that anyone should deem it necessary
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
to tell how to open a pocket knife. But today I fail to recall
to my mind a single boy of my acquaintance who knows how
to properly handle a knife or who can whittle a stick with
any degree of skill, and yet there are few men in this world
with a larger acquaintance among the boys than myself.
Not only is this true, but I spend two months of each year
in the field with a camp full of boys, showing them how to
do the very things with their knives and their axes described
in this book.
How TO OPEN A KNIFE
It is safe to say that when the old-timers were boys
themselves, there was not a
lad among them who could
not whittle with consider-
able skill and many a twelve
year old boy was an adept
at the art. I remember with
the keenest pleasure the
rings, charms and knick-
knacks which I carved with
a pocket knife before I had
reached the scout age of
twelve. Today, however, the
boys handle their knives so
awkwardly as to make the
chills run down the back of
an onlooker.
Inorder toproperlyopen
a knife, hold it in your left
hand, and with the thumbnail of your right hand grasp the
blade at the nail notch (Fig. 45) in such a manner that the line
of the nail makes a very slight angle ; that is, it is as near per-
K
E.COND wovr
THIRD MOV*
49
FOURTH Movt
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 43
pendicular as may be (Fig. 46) , otherwise you will bend back
your thumbnail until it hurts or breaks. Pull the blade away
from your body, at the same time drawing the handle of the
knife towards the body (Figs. 47 and 48). Continue this
movement until the blade is fully open and points directly
from your body (Fig. 49).
Practise this and make it a habit; you will then never
be in danger of stabbing yourself during the process of open-
ing your knife you will open a knife properly and quickly
by what is generally termed intuition, but what is really
the result of training and habit.
How TO WHITTLE
The age of whittling began with the invention of the
pocket knife and reached its climax about 1840 or '50, dying
out some tune after the Civil War, probably about 1870.
All the old whittlers of the whittling age whittled away from
the body. If you practise whittling that way it will become
a habit.
Indians use a crooked knife and whittle towards the body,
but the queer shape of their knife does away with the danger
of an accidental stab or slash. Cobblers use a wicked sharp
knife and cut towards their person and often are severely
slashed by it, and sometimes dangerously wounded, because
a big artery runs along the inside of one's leg (Fig. 41^) near
where most of the scars on the cobbler's legs appear. When
you whittle do not whittle with a stick between your legs
as in Fig. 41, and always whittle away from you as in Fig. 44.
How TO SPLIT WITH A JACK-KNIFE
Fig. 40 shows the proper way to use the knife in splitting
a stick, so that it will not strain the spring at the back of the
44 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
handle of the knife, and at the same time it will help you
guide the knife blade and tend to make a straight split. Do
not try to pry the stick apart with a knife or you will sooner
or later break the blade, a serious thing for a wilderness
man to do, for it leaves him without one of the most
useful tools.
Remember that fine slivers of wood make a safer and more
certain start for a fire than paper. All tendprfeet first try
dry leaves and dry grass to start their fires. This they do
because they are accustomed to the use of paper and naturally
seek leaves or hay as a substitute for paper. But experience
soon teaches them that leaves and grass make a nasty smudge
or a quick, unreliable flame which ofttimes fails to ignite the
wood, while, when proper care is used, small slivers of dry
wood never fail to give satisfactory results.
There are many sorts of fires used by campers and all are
dependent upon the local supply of fuel; in the deforested
districts of Korea the people use twisted grass for fuel, on
our Western plains the hunters formerly used buffalo chips
and now they use cow chips, that is, the dry manure of cattle,
with which to build their fires for cooking their meals and
boiling their coffee. In the Zurn belt, in Tartary and Central
India cattle manure is collected, piled up like cord wood and
dried for fuel. A few years ago they used corn on the cob
for firewood in Kansas. It goes without saying that buffalo
chips are not good for bonfires or any fire where a big flame
or illumination is an object.
BONFIRES AND COUNCIL FIRES
Are usually much larger than camp-fires, and may be
made by heaping the wood up in conical form (Fig. 50) with
the kindling all ready for the torch in the center of the pile,
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 45
or the wood may be piled up log cabin style (Fig. 51) with
the kindling underneath the first floor.
In both of these forms there are air spaces purposely left
between the sticks of wood, which insure a quick and ready
draught the moment the flames start to flicker in the kindling.
The best form of council fire is shown by Fig. 52, and
known as the
CAMP MEETING TORCH
Because it was from a somewhat similar device at a camp
meeting in Florida, that the author got the suggestion for
46 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
his "torch fire." The platform is made of anything handy
and is covered with a thick flooring of sod, sand or clay for
the fire-place.
The tower is built exactly similar to the Boy Scout signal
towers but on a smaller scale (Fig. 52).
DANGER or EXPLODING STONES
However tempting a smooth rock may look as a con-
venient spot on which a fire may be built, do not fail to spread
a few shovels of sand, earth or clay on the stone as a fire bed,
for the damp rock on becoming heated may generate steam
and either expand with some violence or burst like a bomb-
shell and scatter far and wide the fragments, even endanger-
ing the lives of those gathered around the fire.
CHARACTER IN FIRE
The natives of Australia take dry logs, 6 ft. or more in
length, and laying them down 3 ft. or 4 ft. apart, set them on
fire in several places. Letting shorter logs meet them from
the outside, and placing good-sized pebbles around them, they
then stretch themselves on the ground and sleep between
the two lines of fire, and when the wood is consumed the
stones continue for some time to radiate the heat they have
previously absorbed. Many tribes of American Indians
have their own special fashion of fire building, so that a
deserted camp fire will not infrequently reveal the identity
of the tribe by which it was made.
SLOW FIRES
The camper's old method of making a slow fire was also
used by housekeepers for their open fire-places, and consisted
of placing three logs with their glowing ends together.
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 47
As the ends of the logs burned off the logs were pushed
forward, this being continued until the logs were entirely
consumed. Three good logs thus arranged will burn all day
or all night, but someone must occasionally push them so that
their ends come together, when they send their heat from
one to the other, backwards and forwards, and thus keep the
embers hot (Fig. 53) . But who wants to sit up all night
watching a fire? I prefer to use the modern method and
sleep all night.
Sharpen the ends of two strong heavy stakes each about
5 ft. in length, cut a notch in the rear of each near the top,
for the support or back to key into, drive the stakes into the
ground about 6 ft. apart. Place three logs one on the other,
making a log wall for the back of your fire-place. Next take
two shorter logs and use them for fire-dogs, and on these lay
another log and the arrangement will be complete. A fire
of this kind will burn during the longest night and if skillfully
made will cause little trouble. The fire is fed by placing fuel
between the front log and the fire-back.
SIGNAL FIRES
When the greatest elevations of land are selected the
smoke signals may be seen at a distance of from twenty to
fifty miles. Signal fires are usually made with dry leaves,
grass and weeds or "wiry willows," balsam boughs, pine
and cedar boughs, because such material produces great
volumes of smoke and may be seen at a long distance.
The Apaches have a simple code which might well be
adopted by all outdoor people. According to J. W. Powell,
Director of U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, the Indians use
but three kinds of signals, each of which consists of columns
of smoke.
48 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
ALARM
Three or more smoke columns reads impending danger
from flood, fire or foe. This signal may be communicated
from one camp to another, so as to alarm a large section of
the country in remarkably quick time. The greater the
haste desired the greater the number of smokes used. These
fires are often so hastily made that they may resemble puffs
of smoke caused by throwing heaps of grass and leaves upon
the embers again and again.
ATTENTION
"This signal is generally made by producing one contin-
uous column and signifies attention for several purposes,
viz., when a band had become tired of one locality, or the
grass may have been consumed by the ponies, or some other
cause necessitated removal, or should an enemy be reported
which would require further watching before a decision as
to future action would be made. The intention or knowledge
of anything unusual would be communicated to neighboring
bands by causing one column of smoke to ascend."
ESTABLISHMENT OF A CAMP, QUIET, SAFETY
"When a removal of camp has been made, after the signal
for ATTENTION has been given, and the party have selected
a place where they propose to remain until there may be a
necessity or desire for their removal, two columns of smoke
are made, to inform their friends that they propose to remain
at that place. Two columns are also made at other times
during a long continued residence, to inform the neighboring
bands that a camp still exists, and that all is favorable
and quiet."
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE 49
Therefore, THREE or more smokes in daylight, or THREE
or more flames at night, is a signal of alarm, ONE smoke a
signal for attention, Two smokes tells us that all is well,
peaceful and happy.
SMOKE SIGNALS
The usual way of signalling with smoke is to make a
smudge fire of browse or grass and use a blanket as an extin-
guisher. By covering the fire with the blanket and suddenly
removing it, a large globular puff of smoke is made to suddenly
appear, and is certain to attract the attention of anyone who
happens to be looking toward the site of the fire.
How TO BUILD A FIRE ON THE SNOW
If it is practical it is naturally better to shovel away the
snow, but personally I have never done this except in case
of newly fallen snow. Old snow which is more or less frozen
to the ground may be tramped down until it is hard and then
covered with a corduroy of sticks for a hearth (Figs. 55 and
56) or with bark (Fig. 57) and on top of this flooring it is a
simple matter to build a fire. Use the turkey-" lay " in which
one of the sticks acts the part of the fire-dog (Fig. 56) .
Don't fail to collect a generous supply of small wood
(Fig. 58) and then start the fire as already directed (Fig. 58).
The reader will note that in all these illustrations (Figs.
55, 56 and 57), there is either a log or stone or a bank for a
back to the fire-place. When everything is covered with snow
it is perfectly safe to use a log for a back (Fig. 56) but on
other occasions the log may smoulder for a week and then
start a forest fire.
No one but an arrant, thoughtless, selfish Cheechako
will use a live growing tree against which to build a fire.
50 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
A real woodcraft knows that a fire can ruin In a few minutes
a mighty forest tree that God himself cannot replace inside
of from forty to one hundred years.
While we are talking of building fires in the snow, it may
be well to remark that an uninhabitable and inaccessible
swamp in the summer is often the best of camping places in
the winter time. The water freezes and falls lower and lower,
leaving convenient shelves of ice (Fig. 57) for one's larder.
The dense woods and brush offer a splendid barrier to the
winter winds. Fig. 59 shows an arrangement for a winter
camp-fire.
How TO MAKE A FIRE IN THE RAIN
Spread a piece of bark on the ground to serve as a hearth
on which to start your fire. Seek dry wood by splitting the
log and taking the pieces from the center of the wood, keep
the wood under cover of your tent, poncho, coat or blanket.
Also hold a blanket or some similar thing over the fire while
you are lighting it. After the blaze begins to leap and the
logs to burn freely, it will practically take a cloud-burst
to extinguish it.
EUBVATJOJf
CHAPTER IV
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE
A PERSONA!, EXPERIENCE ON SHORT RATIONS
THE MOST PRIMITIVE OF COOKING OUTFITS
CAMP POT-HOOKS, THE GALLOW-CROOK, THE POT-CLAW, THE HAKE,
THE GIB, THE SPETGELIA AND THE SASTER
TELEGRAPH WIRE COOKING IMPLEMENTS, WIRE GRID-IRON, SKEL-
ETON CAMP STOVE
COOKING FIRES, FIRE-DOGS, ROASTING FIRE-LAY, CAMP-FIRE LAY,
BELMORE LAY, FRYING FIRE LAY, BAKING FIRE LAY
THE AURES CBANE
CHAPTER IV
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE
No matter where the old camper may be, no matter how
long a time may have elapsed since last he slept in the open,
no matter how high or low a social or official position he
may now occupy, it takes but one whiff of the smoke of an
open fire, or one whiff of the aroma of frying bacon, to send
him back again to the lone trail. In imagination he will
once more be hovering over his little camp-fire in the desert,
under the shade of the gloomy pines, mid the snows of Alaska,
in the slide rock of the Rockies or mid the pitch pines of the
Alleghenies, as the case may be.
That faint hint in the air of burning firewood or the deli-
cious odor of the bacon, for the moment, will not only wipe
from his vision his desk, his papers and his office furniture,
but also all the artificialities of life. Even the clicking of the
typewriter will turn into the sound of clicking hoofs, the
streets will become canyons, and the noise of traffic the roar
of the mountain torrent!
There is no use talking about it, there is no use arguing
about it, there is witchcraft in the smell of the open fire, and
all the mysteries and magic of the Arabian Nights dwell in
the odor of frying bacon.
Some years, ago Mr. Arthur Rice, the Secretary of the
Camp-fire Club of America, and Patrick Cleary, a half-
breed Indian, with the author, became temporarily separated
from their party in the Northern wilds. They found them-
selves on a lonely wilderness lake surrounded by picture
mountains, and dotted with tall rocky islands covered with
Christmas trees, giving the whole landscape the appearance
55
56 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
of the scenery one sometimes sees painted on drop-curtains
for the theatre. Everything in sight was grand, everything
was beautiful, everything was built on a generous scale,
everything was big, not forge tting the voyagers' appetites!
Unfortunately the provisions were hi the missing canoe;
diligent search, however, hi the bottom of Patrick deary's
ditty bag disclosed three small, hard, rounded lumps, which
weeks before might have been bread; also a handful of tea
mixed with smoking tobacco, and that was all! There was
no salt, no butter, no pepper, no sugar, no meat, no knives,
no forks, no spoons, no cups, no plates, no saucers and no
cooking utensils; the party had nothing but a few stone-like
lumps of bread and the weird mixture of tea and tobacco
with which to appease their big appetites. But in the lake
the trout were jumping, and it was not long before the
hungry men had secured a fine string of spotted beauties to
add to their menu.
Under the roots of a big spruce tree, at the bottom of a
cliff on the edge of the lake, a fountain of cold crystal water
spouted from the mossy ground. Near this they built
a fire while Mr. Rice fashioned a little box of birch bark,
filled it with water and placed it over the hot embers by
resting the ends of the box on fire-dogs of green wood. Into
the water in the birch bark vessel was dumped the tea (and
also tobacco) !
To the amazement and delight of the Indian half-breed,
the tea was soon boiling. Meanwhile the half-breed toasted
some trout until the fish were black, this being done so that
the charcoal or burnt skins might give a flavor to the fish,
and in a measure compensate for the lack of salt. The hunks
of bread were burned until they were black, not for flavor
this time, but in order that the bread might be brittle enough
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 57
to allow a man to bite into it with no danger of breaking his
teeth in the attempt.
To-day it seems to the author that that banquet on that
lonely lake, miles from the nearest living human being, was
more delicious and more satisfying than any of the feasts
of Belshazzar he has since attended in the wonder city of
New York.
Therefore, when taking up the subject of cooking fire
and camp kitchen, he naturally begins with
THE MOST PRIMITIVE OF COOKING OUTFITS
Consisting of two upright forked sticks and a waugan-stick
to lay across from fork to fork over the fire. Or maybe a
speygelia-stick thrust slantingly into the ground in front of
the fire, or perhaps a saster-pole on which to suspend or from
which to dangle, in front of the fire, a hunk of moose meat,
venison, mountain sheep, mountain goat, whale blubber,
beaver, skunk, rabbit, muskrat, woodchuck, squirrel or
whatsoever fortune may send.
CAMP POT-HOOKS
Are of various forms and designs, but they are not the
S shaped things formerly so familiar in the big open fire-
places of the old homesteads, neither are they the hated S
shaped marks with which the boys of yesterday were wont
to struggle and disfigure the pages of their writing books.
If any one of the camp pot-hooks had been drawn in the
old-time writing book or copybook, it would have brought
down the wrath (with something else) of the old-fashioned
school-master, upon the devoted head of the offending pupil.
For these pot-hooks are not regular in form and the shape
58 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
and designs largely depend upon the available material from
which they are fashioned, and not a little upon the individual
fancy of the camper. For instance the one known as
THE GALLOW-CROOK
Is not, as the name might imply, a human crook too inti-
mately associated with the gallows, but on the contrary it is a
rustic and useful bit of forked stick (Figs. 60, 61, 62 and 63)
made of a sapling. Fig. 60 shows how to select the sapling
and where to cut it below a good sturdy fork. Fig. 61 shows
the bit of sapling trimmed down to the proper length and
with two forks, one at each end. On the upper fork you
will note that one prong is a slender elastic switch. Fig. 62
shows how this switch may be bent down and bound with a
string or tape made of green bark, and so fastened to the
main stem as to form a loop which will easily slip over the
waugan-stick as in Fig. 63. Fig. 62A shows a handy hitch
with which to make fast the bark binding.
When the waugan-stick has been thrust through the loop
of the gallow-crook, the former is replaced in the crotches
of the two forked sticks, as in Fig. 63, and the pot or kettle,
pail or bucket, is hooked on to the lower fork. You will
note that the lower fork is upon the opposite side of the
main stick from that from which the switch prong of the
upper fork springs. This arrangement is not necessary to
make the pot balance properly over the fire; the same rule
holds good for all the other pot-hooks.*
THE POT-CLAW
Will be best understood by inspecting the diagrams (Figs.
64, 65 and 66), which show its evolution or gradual growth.
By these diagrams you will see the stick is so cut that the
* The pots will balance better if the notches are on the same side.
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 61
fork may be hooked over the waugan-stick and the cooking
utensils, pots or kettles may be hung over the fire by slip-
ping their handles into the notch cut in the stick on the side
opposite to the fork and near the lower end of the pot-claw.
This is a real honest-to-goodness Buckskin or Sourdough
pot-hook; it is one that requires little time to manufacture
and one that is easily made wherever sticks grow, or wherever
"whim" sticks or driftwood may be found heaped upon
the shore.
THE HAKE
Is easier to make than the pot-claw. It is a forked stick
like the pot-claw, but in place of the notch near the lower
end a nail is driven diagonally into the stick and the kettle
hung on the nail (Figs. 67 and 68) . The hake possesses the
disadvantage of making it necessary for the camper to carry
a supply of nails in his kit. No Sourdough on a long and
perilous trip loads himself down with nails. A hake, however,
is a very good model for Boy Scouts, Girl Pioneers, and hikers
of all descriptions who may go camping in the more thickly
settled parts of the country.
THE GIB
Is possibly a corruption of gibbet, but it is a much more
humane implement. It requires a little more time and a little
more skill to make a gib (Fig. 69) than it does to fashion the
preceding pot-hook. It is a useful hook for stationary camps
where one has time to develop more or less intricate cooking
equipment. Fig. 69A shows how the two forked sticks are
cut to fit together in a splice, and it also shows how this splice
is nailed together with a couple of wire nails, and Fig. 70
shows how the wire nails are clinched.
62 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
In a book of this kind the details of all these designs are
given not because any one camper is expected to use them all,
but because there are times when any one of them may be just
the thing required. It is well, however, to say that the most
practicable camp pot-hooks are the pot-claw and the hake.
In making a pot-claw care should be taken to cut the
notch on the opposite side of the forked branch, and at the
other end of the claw, deep enough to hold the handle of the
cooking utensils securely.
While the author was on an extended trip in the blustering
North land his party had a pot-claw as crooked as a yeggman,
and as knotty as a problem in higher mathematics. While
there can be no doubt that one of the party made this hoodoo
affair it has never yet been decided to whom the credit
belongs because of the innate modesty of the men no one
claims the honor. This misshapen pot-claw was responsible
for spilling the stew on several occasions, not to speak of
losing the boiled rice. Luckily one of the party was a stolid
Indian, one a consistent member of the Presbyterian church,
one a Scout and one a member of the Society of Friends,
consequently the air was not blue and the only remarks made
were, "Oh my!" "Bless my soul!" and "Gee willikens!"
The cook in despair put the wicked thing in the fire with
muttered hints that the fire might suggest the region where
such pot-hooks belong. While it burned and its evil spirit
dissolved in smoke, the Indian made a new pot-claw, a respec-
table pot-claw with a straight character, and a more secure
notch. This one by its benign presence brought peace and
good will to the camp and showed the necessity of taking
pains and using care in the manufacture of even so lowly a
thing as a pot-claw.
The camp pot-hooks should be of various lengths; long
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 63
ones to bring the vessels near the fire where the heat is more
intense; short ones to keep the vessels further from the fire
so that their contents will not cook but only keep warm;
and medium ones for simmering or slow cooking.
THE SPEYGELIA
Is not an Italian, but is a long name for a short implement.
The speygelia is a forked stick or a notched stick (Figs. 71,
72 and 73), which is either propped up on a forked stick (Fig.
71) and the lower end held down by a stone in such a manner
that the fork at the upper end offers a place to hang things
over, or in front of the fire, sometimes a notched stick is
used in the same manner as Fig. 73. Where the ground is
soft to permit it, the stick is driven diagonally into the earth,
which may hold it in place without other support. The
speygelia is much used by cow-punchers and other people
in places where wood is scarce.
THE SASTER
The saster is a long pole used in the same manner as the
speygelia. Meat is suspended from it in front of the fire to
roast (Figs. 74J^ and 75), or kettles are suspended from it
over the fire to boil water (Fig. 74).
TELEGRAPH WIRE COOKING IMPLEMENTS
Many campers are fond of making for themselves cooking
utensils improvised from ordinary telegraph wire. In the
old time open fireplaces of our grandsires' kitchen there were
trammels consisting of chains hanging down the chimney on
which things were hooked by short pot-hooks to hang over
the fire; there were also rakens made of bands of iron with
holes punched in them for the attachment of short iron pot-
64
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
hooks (Fig. 76). With these ancient implements in their
minds, some ingenious campers manufacture themselves
rakens and short pot-hooks from telegraph wire (Fig. 77).
By twisting the wire in a series of short loops, each loop can
be made to serve as a place for attaching the pot-hooks as
did the holes in the old-fashioned rakens. The advantages
they claim for the telegraph wire raken are lightness and its
possibility of being readily packed.
CAMP KITCME.N UTEN5IUS
On one of these rakens one may hook the pail as high or
as low as one chooses (Fig. 78) ; not only that but one may
(Fig. 79) put a small pail inside the larger one, where later
it is full of water, for the purpose of cooking cereal without
danger of scorching it.
The disadvantage of all these implements is that they
must be toted wherever one goes, and parts are sure to be
lost sooner or later, whereupon the camper must resort to
things "with the bark on 'em," like the gallow-crook, the
pot-claw, the hake, the gib, the speygelia, or the saster, or
\ \) n
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 67
he may go back to the first principles and sharpen the forks
of a green wand and impale thereon the bacon, game or fish
that it may be thus toasted over the hot embers (Fig. 80).
We do not put meat over the fire because it will burn on the
outside before it cooks and the fumes of the smoke will
spoil its flavor.
According to Mr. Seton, away up in the barren lands they
use the saster with a fan made of a shingle-like piece of wood,
fastened with a hitch to a piece of wire and a bit of string;
the wind when it is good-natured will cause the cord to
spin round and round. But the same result is secured with
a cord which has been soaked hi water to prevent it from
burning, and which has also been twisted by spinning the
meat with one's hands (Fig. 75). Such a cord will unwind
and wind more or less slowly for considerable time, thus
causing the meat to expose all sides of its surface to the heat
of the roasting fire in front of which it hangs. You will
note we say in front; again let us impress upon the reader's
mind that he must not hang his meat over the flame. In
Fig. 75 the meat is so drawn that one might mistake its
position and think it was intended to hang over the fire,
whereas the intention is to hang it in front of the fire as in Fig.
74. In the writer's boyhood days it was his great delight to
hang an apple by a wet string in front of the open fire, and
to watch it spin until the heat sent the juices bubbling through
the skin and the apple gradually became thoroughly roasted.
THE GRIDIRON
Campers have been known to be so fastidious as to
demand a broiler to go with their kit; at the same time
there was enough of the real camper in them to cause
them to avoid carrying unwieldy broilers such as are used
68 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
in our kitchens. Consequently they compromise by pack-
ing a handful of telegraph wires of even length with
their duffel (Fig. 81), each wire having its ends carefully
bent in the form of a hook (Fig. 82), which may be ad-
justed over two green sticks resting upon two log fire-dogs
(Fig. 83), and upon the wires, so arranged, meat and fish
may be nicely broiled.
This is not a bad scheme, but the campers should have a
little canvas bag in which they may pack the wires, other-
wise the camper will sooner or later throw them away rather
than be annoyed by losing one every now and then. Figs.
84, 85, 86, 87 and 88 show a little
SKELETON CAMP STOVE
Ingeniously devised by a Boy Pioneer. Two pieces of tele-
graph wire are bent into a triangular form (Figs. 84 and 85),
and the ends of the triangle at A are left open or unjoined,
so that they may readily be slipped through the loops in the
upright wires, B and C (Fig. 87), and thus form a take-a-part
skeleton stove (Fig. 86) . The young fellow from whom this
device was obtained was at the time using an old tin kerosene-
lamp (Fig. 88A) which he forced into the lower triangle of the
stove (Fig. 86), and which the spring of the wire of the tri-
angle held in position (Fig. 88B).
But if one is going to use the telegraph wire camp stove
there is no necessity of carrying a lamp. The stove is made
so that it may be taken apart and packed easily and the
weight is trifling, but a lamp of any kind, or even a lantern,
is a nuisance to carry.
The telegraph wire camp stove, however, may be made
by bending the wires as shown in Fig. 90, but the only object
in so doing is to develop one's ingenuity, or for economy sake,
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 69
otherwise one may purchase at the outfitter's folding wire
camp broilers for a trifle, made on the same principle and
with legs which may be thrust into the ground surrounding
the fire, as in Figs. 88 and 89, and, after the broiler is folded
in the middle, the legs may be folded back so that it will all
make a flat package. But leaving the artificialities of tele-
graph wire let us go back to the real thing again and talk
about laying and lighting a genuine
CAMP COOKING FIRE
The more carefully the fire is planned and built the more
easily will the cooking be accomplished. The first thing to
be considered in laying one of these fires is the
FIRE-DOGS
Which in camp are the same as andirons in the open fire-places
of our homes, and used for the same purpose. But domestic
andirons are heavy steel bars usually with ornamental brass
uprights in front and they would be most unhandy for one
to carry upon a camping trip, while it would be the height
of absurdity to think of taking andirons on a real hunting or
exploring expedition. Therefore, we use green logs, sods or
stones for fire-dogs in the wilderness. Frequently we have a
back-log against which the fire-dog rests; this back log is
shown in Fig. 91. In this particular case it acts both as a
back log and a fire-dog. In the plan just above it (Fig. 92),
there are two logs side by side which serve the double pur-
pose of fire-dogs and for sides of the kitchen stove (Fig. 93).
Fig. 94 shows
THE LAY OF A ROASTING FIRE
Sometimes called the round fire. The back is laid up log-
cabin style and the front is left open. In the open enclosure
70 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
the fire is built by sticks being laid up like those in Fig. 91.
The logs on all three sides radiate the heat and when the meat
is hung in front of this, suspended from the end of the saster
(Fig. 743/0, it is easily and thoroughly roasted.
THE CAMP-FIRE
Is built with an eye to two purposes : one is to reflect heat
into the open tent in front, and the other is to so construct
it that it may last a long time. When one builds a camp-fire
one wants to be able to roll up in one's blanket and sleep with
the comforting conviction that the fire will last until morning.
The camp-fire is made with two fire-dogs pushed back
against a back log (Fig. 95 A and B), which form the founda-
tion for the camp-fire. Two upright green sticks C (Fig. 95)
are placed in a slanting position and supported by other
sticks, D (Fig. 95), the top ends of which rest in notches cut
in C stick at E (Fig. 95) , and the bottom ends of which are
thrust into the ground. Against the upright sticks C, and
the logs F are heaped to form the back of the fire. The fire
is then built on the two fire-dogs AA, and against the F logs,
the latter will burn slowly and at the same time reflect the
heat into the open tent front. This same fire is sometimes
used for a baking fire, but the real fire for this purpose is
made by the
BELMORE LAY
Figs. 96 and 97. The first sketch shows the plan and the
second the perspective view of the fire. The stove is made
by two side logs or fire-dogs over which the fire is built and
after it has fallen in, a mass of red hot embers, between the
fire-dogs, two logs are laid across the dogs and one log is
placed atop, so that the flame then comes up in front of them
(Fig. 97) and sends the heat against the bread or bannock.
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 73
At a convenient distance in front of the fuel logs, a
waugan-stick is placed, reaching from one fire-dog to
the other.
In wilderness work the frying pan is about the only
domestic utensil carried and is used as a toaster, a baker,
a broiler, a fryer, and a stew pan all combined. In it the
Buckskin man and the Sourdough make their bread, and
after the bread has been baked over the coals on the bottom,
it is browned nicely on its top by tilting the pans in front of
the fire and resting their handles against the waugan-stick
(Fig. 97) . I have seen the baking fire used from British Co-
lumbia to Florida, but it was the explorer, Captain Belmore
Browne, who showed me the use of the waugan-stick in con-
nection with the baking fire, hence I have called this the
Belmore Lay.
A FRYING FIRE
Is built between two logs, two rows of stones, or sods
(Figs. 98, 99 and 100) ; between these logs the fire is usually
built, using the sides as fire-dogs, or the sticks may be placed
in the turkey -lay (Fig. 100), so that the sticks themselves
make a fire-dog and allow, for a time, a draught until the
fire is burning briskly, after which it settles down to hot
embers and is in the proper condition for frying. For be it
known that too hot a griddle will set the grease or bacon
afire, which may be funny under ordinary circumstances,
but when one is shy of bacon it is a serious thing. The
ORDINARY BAKING FIRE LAY
Is shown by Fig. 101. In this instance, the frying pans being
used as reflector ovens are propped up by running sticks
through the holes in their handles.
74 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THE AURES
Is a rustic crane made exactly of the same form as are the
cranes of the old-fashioned open fire-places, but ingeniously
fashioned from a carefully selected green stick with two forks
(Fig. 102). The long end of the main branch is severed at A
(Fig. 102), care being taken not to cut through the green bark,
B (Fig. 102). The bark of the latter, B, is then bent over the
stub, A (Fig. 102), forming a loop, C (Fig. 103), which is lashed
with green bark to the main stick and slipped overthe upright,
D (Fig. 104). The fork at E braces the crane and holds it in
a horizontal position, resting on a stub left on D for that
purpose. How practicable this thing may be depends al-
together upon the time and skill one has at one's disposal.
One would hardly use the Aures for a single night camp, but
if one were to spend a week in the same camp, it would be
well worth while and at the same time very interesting work
to manufacture a neat Aures crane for the camp kitchen.
The next step in camp kitchen fires will include what might
be termed the pit fires, which will be described in the following
chapter.
You have been told how to select the firewood, make the
kindling and start a fire in the preceding chapter on how to
build a fire; all you have to remember now is that in certain
particulars all fires are alike; they all must have air to breathe
and food to eat or they will not live.
In the case of the fire we do not call the air breath, but
we give it a free circulation and call it a draught. Wood is
the food that the fire eats and it must be digestible, a fire
with indigestion is a fire fed with punky, damp wood care-
lessly thrown together in place of well-selected dry split
wood which the fire can consume cleanly, digest evenly, and
at the same time give out the greatest amount of heat.
HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING FIRE 77
To produce a draught the fire must, of course, be raised
from the ground, but do not build it in a careless manner like
a pile of jack-straws. Such a fire may start all right, but
when the supporting sticks have burned away it will fall in a
heap and precipitate the cooking utensils into the flames,
upsetting the coffee or teapot, and dumping the bacon "from
the frying pan into the fire."
Be it man, woman, boy or girl, if he, she or it expects
to be a camper, he, or she or it must learn to be orderly and
tidy around camp. No matter how soiled one's clothes may
be, no matter how grimy one's face may look, the ground
around the camp-fire must be clean, and the cooking utensils
and fire wood, pot-hooks and waugan-sticks, all orderly and
as carefully arranged as if the military officer was expected
the next minute to make an inspection.
All my readers must remember that BY THEIR CAMP-FIRE
THEY WILL BE KNOWN and "sized up" as the real thing or
as chumps, duffers, tenderfeet and cheechakos, by the first
Sourdough or old-timer who cuts their trails.
CHAPTER V
CAMP KITCHENS
CAMP PIT-FIRES, BEAN HOLES
COW-BOY FIRE-HOLE
CHINOOK COOKING FIRE-HOLE
BARBECUE-PITS
THE GOLD DIGGER'S OVEN
THE FERGUSON CAMP STOVE
THE ADOBE OVEN
THE ALTAR CAMPFIRE PLACE
CAMP KITCHEN FOR HIKERS, SCOUTS,
EXPLORERS, SURVEYORS AND HUNTEBfl
HOW TO COOK MEAT, FISH AND BREAD
WITHOUT POTS, PANS OR STOVES
DRESSING SMALL ANIMALS
HOW TO BARBECUE LARGE ANIMALS
CHAPTER V
CAMP KITCHENS
REAL camp kitchens are naught but well arranged fire-
places with rustic cranes and pot-hooks as already described,
but in deforested countries, or on the plains and prairies,
pit-fires are much in vogue. The pit itself shelters the fire
on the windswept plain, which is doubly necessary because
of the unprotected nature of such camping places, and because
of the kind of fuel used. Buffalo-chips were formerly used
on the Western plains, but they are now superseded by cattle
chips. The buffalo-chip fire was the cooking fire of the Buck-
skin-clad long-haired plainsmen and the equally picturesque
cowboy; but the buffalo herds have long since hit the trail
over the Great Divide where all tracks point one way, the
sound of the thunder of their feet has died away forever, as
has also the whoop of the painted Indians. The romantic
and picturesque plainsmen and the wild and rollicking cow-
boys have followed the herds of buffalo and the long lines
of prairie schooners are a thing of the past, but the pit-fires
of the hunters are still hi use.
THE MOST SIMPLE PIT-FIRE
Is a shallow trench dug in the ground, on each side of which
two logs are placed ; in the pit between the logs a fire is built
(Fig. 105), but probably the most celebrated pit-fire is the
fireless cooker of the camp, known and loved by all under
the name of
THE BEAN HOLE
Fig. 106 shows a half section of a bean hole lined with
stones. The bean hole may, however, be lined with clay or
6 81
82 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
simply the damp earth left in its natural state. This pit-fire
place is used differently from the preceding one, for in the
bean hole the fire is built and burns until the sides are heated
good and hot, then the fire is removed and the bean pot put
in place, after which the whole thing is covered up with ashes
and earth and allowed to cook at its leisure.
THE COWBOY PIT-FIRE
The cowboy pit-fire is simply a trench dug in the earth
(Fig. 107), with a basin-shaped hole at the beginning. When
obtainable, sticks are laid across the trench and sods laid
upon the top of the sticks. Fig. 107 shows a section of view
of the pit-fire and trench chimney, and Fig. 108 shows the
top view of the same.
In removing the sod one should be careful not to break
them, then even though there be no sticks one may be able
to cover the draught chimney with the sods themselves by
allowing them to bridge the trench. At the end of the trench
the sods are built up, making a short smokestack.
THE CHINOOK FIRE-PIT
The chinook fire-pit is one which is used in the north-
western part of the United States, and seems to be a combina-
tion of the ordinary camp fire-dogs with cross logs and the
cowboy fire-pit. Fig. 109 shows a perspective view of this
lay. Fig. 110 shows the top view of plan of the lay. Fig. Ill
shows a steeper perspective view than that of Fig. 109, and
Fig. 112 shows a sectional view. By examining the sectional
view and also the deeper perspective view, as well as the plan,
you will note that the two logs are placed across the fire-dogs
with space between. The back-log is placed upon the top
of another back-log A and B (Fig. 112). The fire-dogs have
CAMP KITCHENS 85
their ends shoved against the bottom back-logs B, the two
back-logs are kept in place by the stakes C, C. Between the
two top logs D and A (Figs. 112 and 110), the smaller fuel
or split wood is placed.
As the fire burns the hot coals drop into the pit, and when
sufficient quantity of embers are there they may be raked
forward and the frying pan placed on top of them (Fig. 112).
The chinook fire is good for baking, frying, broiling, toasting,
and is an excellent all-around kitchen camp stove.
THE HOBO
Is carelessly built, a fire-place usually surrounding a shal-
low pit, the sides built up with sods or stones. The hobo
answers for a hasty fire over which to boil the kettle (Fig. 1 13) .
At the old-fashioned barbecue where our ancestors
roasted whole oxen, the ox was placed on a huge spit, which
was turned with a crank handle, very similar to the old-
fashioned well handle as used with a rope or chain and bucket.
THE BARBECUE-PIT
Is used at those feasts (Fig. 114), where they broil or roast a
whole sheep, deer or pig. At a late meet of the Camp-fire
Club of America they thus barbecued a pig.
The fire-pit is about four feet wide and four feet deep and
is long enough (Fig. 114) to allow a fire to be built at each
end of the pit, there being no fire under the meat itself for
the very good reason that the melted fat would drop into
the fire, cause it to blaze up, smoke and spoil the meat.
The late Homer Davenport (the old-time and famous
cartoonist) some years ago gave a barbecue at his wild animal
farm in New Jersey. When Davenport was not drawing
cartoons he was raising wild animals. At the Davenport
86
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
barbecue there was a fire-pit dug in the side of the bank
(Fig. 1 15) ; such an arrangement is known as
THE BANK-PIT
In the diagram it will be seen that the carcass is fastened
to a spit of green wood, which runs thru a hole in a cross log
114
116
115
117
and fits in the socket D in the bottom log; the spit is turned
by handles arranged like A, B or C. The pit is lined with
either stones or bricks, which are heated by a roaring big
fire until hot enough to bake the meat.
THE GOLD DIGGER
Is another bank pit, and one that I have seen used in Montana
by Japanese railroad hands. It is made by digging a hole
in the bank and using shelves either made of stones or old
pieces of iron. Fig. 116 shows the cross section of the Gold
CAMP KITCHENS
87
Digger with the stone door in place. Fig. 117 shows a per-
spective view of the gold digger with the stone door resting
at one side.
*;
We next come to the ovens, the first of which is known as
THE FERGUSON CAMP STOVE
It is made by building a rounded hut of stones or sod
(Fig. 118), and covering the same with branches over which
sod, or clay, or dirt is heaped (Fig. 119). The oven is heated
by building the fire inside of it, and when it is very hot and
the fire has burned down, the food is placed inside and the
opening stopped up so as to retain the heat and thus cook
the food.
88 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THE ADOBE
Is one that the soldiers in Civil War days taught the author
to build. The boys in blue generally used an old barrel with
the two heads knocked out (Fig. 121). This they either set
in the bank or covered with clay (Fig. 120), and in it they
built their fires which consumed the barrel but left the baked
clay for the sides of the oven. The head of the barrel (Fig.
121 A) was saved and used to stop up the front of the oven
when baking was being done; a stone or sod was used to
cover up the chimney hole. Figs. 122, 123, 124 and 125
show how to make an Adobe by braiding green sticks together
and then covering the same with clay, after which it is used
in the same manner as the preceding barrel oven.
THE MATASISO
Is a camp stove or fire-place, and a form of the so-called Altar
Fire-place, the object of which is to save one's back while
cooking. The matasiso is built up of stones or sods (Fig. 126)
and used like any other campfire.
THE BANK LICK
Is a camp stove which the boys of the troop of Boone Scouts,
who frequented Bank Lick in old Kentucky, were wont to
build and on it to cook the big channel catfish, or little pond
bass or other food. The Bank Lick is made of flat stones and is
one or two stories high (Figs. 127 and 128). The Boone Scouts
flourished in Kenton County, Kentucky, fifty odd years ago.
THE ALTAR FIRE-PLACE
Is built of logs (Fig. 132) , of stones, of sod, or of logs filled with
sods or stone (Fig. 131), and topped with clay (Figs. 130
and 132). The clay top being wider at one end than the other,
CAMP KITCHENS
91
on the plan of the well-known campfire (Fig. 129), is made
with stones and sometimes used when clay is unobtainable.
THE ALTAR CAMP FIRE-PLACE
The advantage of the altar fire and the matasiso is that
the cook does not have to get the backache over the fire
while he cooks. All of these ovens and fire-places are suitable
92 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
for more or less permanent camps, but it is not worth while to
build these ovens and altar fire-places for quick and short camps.
COOKING WITHOUT POTS, PANS OR STOVES
It is proper and right in treating camp cooking that we
should begin with the most primitive methods. For when one
PRIMITIVE COOKING UTENSILS
has no cooking utensils except those fashioned from the
material at hand, he must, in order to prepare appetizing
food, display a real knowledge of woodcraft.
Therefore, start by spearing the meat on a green twig
of sweet birch, or some similar wood, and toast it before the
fire or pinch the meat between the split ends of a twig (Fig.
133) or better still
FORK IT
In order to do this select a wand with a fork to it, trim
off the prongs of the forks, leaving them rather long (Fig.
134), then sharpen the ends of the prongs and weave them in
and out near the edges of the meat (Fig. 135), which is done
CAMP KITCHENS 93
by drawing the prongs slightly together before impaling the
meat on the second prong. The natural spring and elasticity
of the branches will stretch the meat nice and flat (Fig.
135), ready to toast in front of the flames, not over the Uame.
A very thick steak of moose meat or beef may be cooked
in this manner. Remember to have fire-dogs and a good
back log; there will then be hot coals under the front log and
flame against the back log to furnish heat for the meat in
front. Turn the meat every few minutes and do not salt it
until it is about done. Any sort of meat can be thus cooked ;
it is a favorite way of toasting bacon among the sportsmen,
and I have seen chickens beautifully broiled with no cooking
implements but the forked stick. This was done by splitting
the chicken open and running the forks through the legs and
sides of the fowl.
PULLED FIREBREAD OR TWIST
Twist is a Boy Scout's name for this sort of bread. The
twist is made of dough and rolled between the palms of the
hands until it becomes a long thick rope (Fig. 138), then it is
wrapped spirally around a dry stick (Fig. 139), or one with
bark on it (Fig. 137) . The coils should be close together but
without touching each other. The stick is now rested in
the forks of two uprights, or on two stones in front of the
roasting fire (Figs. 140 and 141), or over the hot coals of a pit-
fire. The long end of the stick on which the twist is coiled is
used for a handle to turn the twist so that it may be nicely
browned on all sides, or it may be set upright in front of 1lie
flames (Fig. 142).
A HOE CAKE
May be cooked in the same manner that one planks a shad :
that is, by plastering it on the flat face of a puncheon ar
94 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
board, split from the trunk of a tree (Fig. 145), or flat clean
stone, and propping it up in front of the fire as one would
when cooking in a reflecting oven (Fig. 146) . When the cake
is cooked on one side it can be turned over by using a hunting
knife or a little paddle whittled out of a stick for that purpose,
and then cooked upon the opposite side. Or a flat stone may
be placed over the fire and used as a frying pan (Figs. 116 and
128). I have cooked a large channel catfish in this manner
and found that it was unnecessary to skin the fish because,
there being no grease, the skin adhered firmly to the hot stone,
leaving the white meat flaky and delicate, all ready to be
picked out with a jack-knife or with chopsticks, whittled
out of twigs.
MEAT HOOKS
May be made of forked branches (Figs. 151, 152, 153, 154
and 155) . Upon this hook meat may be suspended before
the fire (Fig. 153) by a piece of twine made from the twisted
green bark of a milkweed or some other fibrous plant stalk
or tree bark, or a wet string will do if you have one.
How TO DRESS SMALL ANIMALS
Dressing in this case really means undressing, taking
their coats off and removing their insides. In order to prepare
for broiling or baking any of the small fur-bearing animals,
make yourself a skinning stick, using for the purpose a forked
branch; the forks being about an inch in diameter, make the
length of the stick to suit your convenience, that is, long
enough to reach between the knees whether you are sitting
on a camp stool or squatting on the ground, sharpen the
lower end of the stick and thrust it into the ground, then
take your coon, possum, squirrel or muskrat, and punch the
pointed ends of the forked stick thru the thin place at the
CAMP KITCHENS 95
point which corresponds to your own heel, just as the stick
in Fig. 155 is punched through the thin place behind the
heels of the small animals there sketched. Thus hung the
animal may be dressed with comfort to the workmen. If
one is squatting, the nose of the animal should just clear the
ground. First take off the fur coat. To do this you split
the skin with a sharp knife, beginning at the center of the
throat and cut to the base of the tail, being careful not to
cut deep enough to penetrate the inside skin or sack which
contains the intestines; when the base of the tail is reached,
use your fingers to roll back the skin. If skinning for the
pelt, follow directions given later, but do not destroy any
skin as the hide is useful for many purposes around camp.
After the coat is removed and all the internal organs taken
out, remove the scent glands from such animals as have them,
and make a cut in the forearms and the meaty parts of the
thigh, and cut out the little white things which look like
nerves, to be found there. This will prevent the flesh from
having a strong or musky taste when it is cooked.
How TO BARBECUE A DEER, OR SHEEP
First dress the carcass and then stretch it on a framework
of black birch sticks, for this sweet wood imparts no disagree-
able odor or taste to the meat.
Next build a big fire at each end of the pit (Fig. 114), not
right under the body of the animal, but so arranged that when
the melted fat drops from the carcass it will not fall on the
hot coals to blaze up and spoil your barbecue. Build big
fires with plenty of small sticks so as to make good red hot
coals before you put the meat on to cook.
First bake the inside of the barbecued beast, then turn
it over and bake the outside. To be well done, an animal the
96 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
size of a sheep should be cooking at least seven or eight hours
over a charcoal fire. Baste the meat with melted bacon fat
mixed with any sauce you may have or no sauce at all,
for bacon fat itself is good enough for anyone, or use hot
salt water.
Of course, it is much better to use charcoal for this purpose,
but charcoal is not always handy. One can, however,
MAKE ONE'S OWN CHARCOAL
A day or two ahead of the barbecue day, by building big
fires of wood about the thickness of one's wrist. After the
fire has been burning briskly for a while, it should be covered
up with ashes or dirt and allowed to smoulder all night, and
turn the wood into charcoal in place of consuming it
How TO MAKE DOUGH
Roll the top of your flour bag back (Fig. 136), then build
a cone of flour in the middle of the bag and make a crater
in the top of the flour mountain.
In the crater dump a heaping teaspoon or, to use Mr.
Vreeland's expression, put in "one and a half heaping tea-
spoonfuls of baking powder," to which add a half spoonful
of salt ; mix these together with the dry flour, and when this
is thoroughly done begin to pour water into the crater, a
little at a time, mixing the dough as you work by stirring it
around inside your miniature volcano. Gradually the flour
will slide from the sides into the lava of the center, as the water
is poured in and care taken to avoid lumps.
Make the dough as soft as may be, not batter but very
soft dough, stiff enough, however, to roll between your well-
floured hands.
BAKED POTATOES
Put the potatoes with their skins on them on a bed of
hot embers two or three inches thick, then cover the potatoes
CAMP KITCHENS 97
with more hot coals. If this is done properly the spuds will
cook slowly, even with the fire burning above them. Don't
be a chump and throw the potatoes in the fire where the outer
rind will burn to charcoal while the inside remains raw.
MUD COOKING
In preparing a small and tender fish, where possible, the
point under the head, where the gills meet, is cut, fingers
thrust in and the entrails drawn through this opening; the fish
is then washed, cleaned and wrapped in a coating of paper
or fallen leaves, before the clay is applied. Place the fish
upon a pancake of stiff clay (Fig. 147), fold the clay over the
fish (Fig. 148), press the edges together, thus making a clay
dumpling (Fig. 149) ; cook by burying the dumpling in the
embers of an ordinary surface fire, or in the embers in a pit-
fire (Fig. 150).
A brace of partridges may be beheaded, drawn, washed
out thoroughly and stuffed with fine scraps of chopped bacon
or pork, mixed with bread crumbs, generously seasoned with
salt, pepper and sage, if you have any of the latter. The birds
with the feathers on them are then plastered over with clean
clay made soft enough to stick to the feathers, the outside is
wrapped with stiffer clay and the whole molded into a ball,
which is buried deep in the glowing cinders and allowed to
remain there for an hour, and at the end of that time the clay
will often be almost as hard as pottery and must be broken
open with a stick. When the outside clay comes off the
feathers will come with it, leaving the dainty white meat of
the bird all ready to be devoured.
Woodchucks, raccoons, opossums, porcupines, rabbits
had better be barbecued (see Figs. 114, 115 and 155), but
squirrels and small creatures may be baked by first removing
7
98
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
the insides of the creatures, cleaning them, filling the hollow
with bread crumbs, chopped bacon and onions, then closing
the opening and plastering the bodies over with stiff clay
and baking them in the embers. This seals the meat inside
of the mud wrapper and when it is cooked and the brick-like
clay broken off, the skin comes off with the broken clay,
leaving the juicy meat exposed to view.
To PLANK A FISH
Cut off the head of the fish and clean by splitting it
through the back, in place of the usual way of splitting up
the belly. To salt red meat before you cook it is to make it
dry and tough, but the fish should be salted while it is damp
with its own juices.
Heat the plank in front of the fire and then spread your
fish out flat on the hot puncheon or plank, and with your
hunting knife press upon it, make slit holes through the fish
(Fig. 145) with the grain of the wood; tack your fish on with
CAMP KITCHENS 99
wooden pegs cut wedge shape and driven in the slits made
by your knife blade (Figs. 143 and 144) . Prop the puncheon
up in front of a fire which has a good back-log and plenty
of hot coals to send out heat (Fig. 146).*
HEATING WATER
Water may be boiled in a birch bark vessel made by fold-
ing up a more or less square piece of bark, bending in the
corner (Fig. 157) folds and holding them in place by thorns
or slivers (Fig. 156). Or the stomach of a large animal or
piece of green hide may be filled with water and the latter
made hot by throwing in it hot stones (Fig. 158) . Dig a hole
in the ground, fit the rawhide in the hole, bringing the edges
up so as to overlap the sod, weigh down the edges with stones,
fill the hide with water and heat with hot stones. Figs. 159
and 160 show how to make tongs with which to handle the
stones.
*The best plank is made from the oaks grown on the hammocks of
Southern Florida and the peculiar flavor this plank gives to shad has
made Planked Shad famous.
CHAPTER VI
CAMP FOOD
HOW TO MAKE ASH CAKE, PONE, CORN DODGERS, FLAPJACKS,
JOHNNY-CAKE, BISCUITS AND DOUGH GOD
MAKING DUTCH OVENS
VENISON
BANQUETS IN THE OPEN
HOW TO COOK BEAVER TAIL, PORCUPINES AND MDSKRAT8
CAMP STEWS, BRUNSWICK STEWS AND BURGOOS
CHAPTER VI
CAMP FOOD
PARCHED CORN AS FOOD
WHEN America gave Indian corn to the world she gave
it a priceless gift full of condensed pep. Corn in its various
forms is awonderful food power; with a long, narrow buckskin
bag of nocake, or rock-a-hominy, as parched cracked corn
was called, swung upon his back, an Indian or a white man
could traverse the continent independent of game and never
suffer hunger. George Washington, George Rodger Clark,
Boone, Kenton, Crockett, and Carson all knew the sustaining
value of parched corn.
How TO DRY CORN
The pioneer farmers in America and many of their
descendants up to the present time, dry their Indian corn by
the methods the early Americans learned from the Indians.
The corn drying season naturally begins with the harvesting
of the corn, but it often continues until the first snow falls.
Selecting a number of ears of corn, the husks are pulled
back exposing the grain, and then the husks of the several
ears are braided together (Fig. 165). These bunches of corn
are hung over branches of trees or horizontal poles and left
for the winds to dry (Fig. 166).
On account of the danger from corn-eating birds and
beasts, these drying poles are usually placed near the kitchen
door of the farmhouse, and sometimes in the attic of the old
farmhouse, the woodshed or the barn.
103
104
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Of course, the Indians owned no corn mills, but they used
bowl-shaped stones to hold the corn and stone pestles like
crudely made potato mashers with which to grind the corn.
The writer lately saw numbers of these stone corn-mills in
the collection of Doctor Baldwin, of Springfield, Mass.
ILIHT conn
How TO PREPARE CORN TO EAT
In the southwest much grit from the stone used is unin-
tentionally mixed with the corn, and hence all the elderly
Indians' teeth are worn down as if they had been sandpapered.
But the reader can use a wooden bowl and a potato masher
with a piece of tin or sheet iron nailed to its bottom with
which to crush the corn and make meal without grit. Or he
can make a pioneer mill like Figs. 163 or 164, from a log.
The pestle or masher in Fig. 164 is of iron.
SWEET CORN
There is a way to preserve corn which a few white people
still practice just as they learned it from the Indians. First
CAMP FOOD
105
they dig long, shallow trenches in the ground, fill them with
dried roots and small twigs with which they make a hot fire
and thus cover the bottom of the ditch with glowing embers.
The outer husks of the fresh green corn are then removed
and the corn placed in rows side by side on the hot embers
(Fig. 167). This practice gave the name of Roasting Ear
Season to July and August.
As the husks become scorched the ears are turned over,
and when browned on all sides they are deftly tossed out of
the ditch by means of a wand or stick used for that purpose.
The burnt husks are now removed and the grains of corn
are shelled from the cob with the help of a sharp -edged, fresh
water "clam" shell; these shells I have often found in the
old camping places of the Indians in the half caves of
Pennsylvania.
The corn is then spread out on a clean sheet or on pieces
of paper and allowed to dry in the sun. It is "mighty " good
food, as any Southern born person will tell you. One can
keep a supply of it all winter
106 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
PARCHED FIELD CORN
When I was a little shaver in old Kentucky, the children
were very fond of the Southern field corn parched in a frying
pan (Fig. 161), and then buttered and salted while it was still
hot; we parched field corn, sugar corn and the regular pop
corn, but none of us had ever seen cracked corn or corn meal
parched and used as food, and I am inclined to think that the
old pioneers themselves parched the corn as did their direct
descendants in Kentucky, and that said corn was crushed or
ground after it had been parched. Be this as it may, we know
that our bordermen traveled and fought on a parched corn
diet and that Somoset, Massasoit, Pocahontas, Okekankano,
Powhatan, all ate corn cakes and that it was either them or
the squaws of their tribes who taught bold Captain Smith's
people on the southern coast, and the Pilgrims further north,
the value of com as an article of diet. The knowledge of how
to make the various kinds of corn bread and the use of corn
generally from "roasting-ears" to corn puddings was gained
from the American Indians. It was from them we learned
how to make the
ASH CAKES
This ancient American food dates back to the fable times
which existed before history, when the sun came out of a
hole in the eastern sky, climbed up overhead and then dove
through a hole in the western sky and disappeared. The sun
no more plays such tricks, and although the humming-bird,
who once stole the sun, still carries the mark under his chin,
he is no longer a humming-birdman but only a little buzzing
bird; the ash cake, however, is still an ash cake and is made
in almost as primitive a manner now as it was then.
Mix half a teaspoonful of salt with a cup of corn meal, and
add to it boiling hot water until the swollen meal may be
CAMP FOOD 107
worked by one's hand into a ball, bury the ball in a nice bed
of hot ashes (glowing embers) and leave it there to bake
like a potato. Equalling the ash cake in fame and simplicity is
PONE
Pone is made by mixing the meal as described for the
ash cake, but molding the mixture in the form of a cone and
baking it in an oven.
JOHNNY-CAKE
Is mixed in the same way as the pone or ash cake, but it is
not cooked the same, nor is it the same shape; it is more in
the form of a very thick pancake. Pat the Johnny-cake into
the form of a disk an inch thick and four inches in diameter.
Have the frying pan plentifully supplied with hot grease and
drop the Johnny-cake carefully in the sizzling grease. When
the cake is well browned on one side turn it and brown it on
the other side. If cooked properly it should be a rich dark
brown color and with a crisp crust. Before it is eaten it may
be cut open and buttered like a biscuit, or eaten with maple
syrup like a hot buckwheat cake. This is the Johnny-cake
of my youth, the famous Johnny-cake of Kentucky fifty
years ago. Up North I find that any old thing made of com
meal is called a Johnny-cake and that they also call ash-
cakes "hoe-cakes," and corn bread "bannocks," at least they
call camp corn bread, a bannock. Now since bannocks were
known before corn was known, suppose we call it
CAMP CORN BREAD AND CORN DODGERS
In the North they also call this camp corn bread "Johnny-
cake," but whatever it is called it is wholesome and nourish-
ing. Take some corn meal and wheat flour and mix them
fifty-fifty; in other words, a half pint each; add a teaspoon
108 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
level full and a teaspoon heaping full of baking powder and
about half a teaspoonful of salt; mix these all together,
while dry, in your pan, then add the water gradually. If you
have any milk go fifty-fifty with the water and milk, make the
flour as thin as batter, pour it into a reflector pan, or frying
pan, prop it up in front of a quick fire; it will be heavy if
allowed to cook slowly at the start, but after your cake has
risen you may take more time with the cooking. This is a
fine corn bread to stick to the ribs. I have eaten it every
day for a month at a time and it certainly has the food
power in it. When made in form of biscuits it is called
"corn dodgers."
CAMP BISCUIT
Take two cups full of flour and one level teaspoonful and
one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder and half a tea-
spoonful of salt, and mix them together thoroughly while dry.
To this you add milk and water, if not milk straight water,
mixing it as described for the flapjacks. Make a dough soft
but stiff enough to mold with well floured hands, make it
into biscuits about half an inch thick, put them into a
greased pan, bake them in any one of the ovens already
described, or by propping them up in front of the fire. If the
biscuits have been well mixed and well baked they will prove
to be good biscuits.
THE VREELAND BANNOCK
Fred tells me that he makes this the same as he would
biscuits and bakes it in a frying pan. The frying pan is
heated and greased before the dough is dropped into it,
making a cake about a half inch thick. The frying pan is
then placed over the slow fire to give the bannock a chance
to rise and harden enough to hold its shape, then the frying
CAMP FOOD 109
pan is propped up with a stick and the bannock browned by
reflected heat, it must be cooked slowly and have "a nice
brown crust." I have never made bannocks but I have
eaten some of Vreeland's, and they are fine.
FLAPJACKS
A fellow who cannot throw a flapjack is sadly lacking in
the skill one expects to find in a real woodcrafter. A heavy,
greasy flapjack is an abomination, but the real article is a
joy to make and a joy to eat.
Put a large tin cupful of flour in the pan, add half a
teaspoonf ul of salt, also one heaping teaspoonf ul and one level
teaspoonful of baking powder ; mix the salt and baking powder
well with the flour while it is dry. Then build your little
mountain or volcano of flour with its miniature crater in the
middle, into which pour water little by little; making the
lava by mixing the dough as you go. Continue this process
until all the flour is batter; the batter should be thin enough
to spread out rapidly into the form of a pancake when it is
poured into the skillet or frying pan, but not watery.
Grease the frying pan with a greasy rag fastened to the
end of a stick or with a piece of bacon rind. Remember that
the frying pan only needs enough grease to prevent the cake
from sticking to the pan; when one fries potatoes the pan
should be plentifully supplied with very hot grease, but
flapjacks are not potatoes and too much grease makes the
cakes unfit to eat. Do not put too much batter in the pan,
either; I tried it once and when I flapped the flapjack the
hot batter splattered all over my face, and that batter was
even hotter than my remarks.
Pour enough batter into the pan to spread almost but
not quite over the bottom; when the bubbles come thickly
110 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
in the middle and the edges begin to smoke a bit, it is time
to flap the flapjack. Do so by loosening the edges with a knife
blade, then dip the far side of the pan downward and bring
it up quickly, sending the cake somersaulting in the air;
catch the cake as it falls batter side down and proceed to
cook that side.
The penalty of dropping a flapjack in the fire is to be
made to eat it without wiping off the ashes.
DOUGHGOD
First fry some bacon or boil it until it is soft, then chop
up the bacon into small pieces quite fine, like hash. Save
the grease and set the bacon to one side; now take a pint of
flour and half a teaspoon of salt, a spoonful of brown sugar
and a heaping spoonful of baking powder and mix them all
while they are dry, after which stir in the water as already
described until it is in the form of batter; now add the chopped
bacon and then mix rapidly with a spoon; pour it into a
Dutch oven or a pan and bake; it should be done in thirty-
five or forty minutes, according to the condition of the fire.
When your campfire is built upon a hearth made of stones,
if you brush the ashes away from the hot stone and place
your doughgod upon it, then cover it with a frying pan or
some similar vessel, and put the hot cinders on top of the
frying pan, you will find that it will bake very nicely and
satisfactorily on the hearthstone.
In the old-fashioned open fire-places where our grand-
parents did their cooking, a Dutch oven was considered
essential. The Dutch oven is still used by the guides and cow-
boys and is of practically the same form as that used by
Abraham Lincoln's folks; it consists of a more or less shallow
dish of metal, copper, brass or iron, with four metal legs
CAMP FOOD 111
that may be set in the hot cinders. Over that is a metal top
which is made so as to cover the bottom dish, and the edges
of the cover are turned up all around like a hat with its brim
turned up. This is so made to hold the hot cinders which
are dumped on top of it, but a
DUTCH OVEN MAY BE IMPROVISED
From any combination of two metal dishes so made or selected
that the large one will fit over the top and snugly overlap
the smaller dish, so as not to admit dirt, dust or ashes to the
food inside. In this oven bread, biscuits, cakes, pies, stews,
bakes, meat, fish, fowl and vegetables may be cooked with
delightful results. In camp two frying pans are frequently
made to act as a Dutch oven. A Dutch oven is sometimes
used in a bean hole (Fig. 106) . Firs^build a fire, using sufficient
small wood, chips and dry roots to make cinders enough with
which to fill your bean hole. While the fire is doing its work
let the cook prepare to cook
THE SOURDOUGH'S JOY
Slice bacon as thin as possible and place a layer over the
bottom and around the sides of the Dutch oven like a pie-
crust. Slice venison, moose meat or bear steak, or plain beef,
medium thin and put in to the depth of 2^ Laches, salting each
layer. Chop a large onion and sprinkle it over the top, cover
with another layer of bacon and one pint of water and put
on the lid. Fill the hole half full of hot embers, place the
Dutch oven in the center and fill the space surrounding the
oven full of embers. Cover all with about 6 inches of dirt,
then roll yourself up in your blanket and shut your eyes
your breakfast will cook while you sleep and be piping hot
when you dig for it in the morning.
112 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
The bean hole is far from a modern invention and the
dried droppings of animals, like "buffalo chips," were used
for fuel away back in Bible times; in ancient Palestine they
stewed their meat in a pot set in a hole filled in with stones
over which burned a fire of "chips" gathered where the
flocks pastured.
When the wood is of such a nature that it is difficult to
obtain a bed of live coals for toasting, meat may, in a pinch,
be cooked upon a clean flat stone (Figs. 116, 117 and 128).
Be certain that the stone is a dry one, otherwise the heat may
burst it. If satisfied that it is dry, heat it good and hot and
spread your thick slice of venison, moose, bear or sheep or
even beef upon the very hot stone; leave it there about twenty
minutes and allow it to singe, sizzle and burn on one side,
then turn it over and burn the other side until the charred
part is one-quarter or even a half inch deep. Now remove the
meat and with your hunting knife scrape away all the charred
meat, season it and toast some bacon or pork on a forked
stick and, after scoring the steak deeply and putting the
pork or bacon in the cuts, the meat is ready to serve to your
hungry self and camp mates.
How TO COOK VENISON
If you want to know how real wild meat tastes, drop a
sleek buck with a shot just over the shoulder no good
sportsman will shoot a doe dress the deer and let it hang
for several days; that is, if you wish tender meat. Cut a
steak two inches thick and fry some bacon, after which put
the steak in the frying pan with the bacon on top of it, and
a cover on the frying pan. When one side is cooked, turn the
meat over and again put the bacon on top, replace the cover
and let that side cook. Serve on a hot plate and give thanks
CAMP FOOD 113
'.hat you are in the open, have a good appetite and you are
privileged to partake of a dish too good for any old king.
The gravy, oh my word! the recollection of it makes me
hungry! I have eaten moose meat three times a day for
weeks at a time, when it was cooked as described, without
losing my desire for more.
PERDIX AU CHOUX
Is a great dish in Canada ; the bird is cooked this way : Chop
cabbage fine and highly spice it, then stuff the bird with the
cabbage and nicely cover the partridge or grouse with many
thin slices of bacon, and put bacon also in the baking pan.
When this is well baked and well basted a more delicious
game dinner you will never eat. Try it; it is an old French
way of cooking the partridge or pheasant.
When you need a real warm fire for cooking, do not forget
that dry roots make an intensely hot fire with no smoke; look
for them in driftwood piles, as they are sure to be there; they
are light as a cork and porous as a sponge, and burn like coke.
No one with truth may say that he is a real woodcrafter
unless he is a good camp cook. At the same time it is an
error to think that the outdoor men live to eat like the
trencher men of old England, or the degenerate epicures of
ancient Rome. Neither are the outdoor men in sympathy
with the Spartans or Lacedemonians and none of them would
willingly partake of the historic and disgusting black broth of
Lacedemonia. Woodcrafters are really more in sympathy
with cultured Athenians who strove to make their banquets
attractive with interesting talk, inspiring and patriotic odes
and delightful recitations by poets and philosophers. As a
campfire man would say: "That's me all over, Mable" and
he might add that like all good things on this earth
114 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
BANQUETS
Originated in the open. The word itself is from the French
and Spanish and means a small bench, a little seat, and when
spelled banqueta, means a three-legged stool. It has reference
to sitting while eating instead of taking refreshments in
"stand up" fashion. The most enjoyable banquets in the
author's experience are those partaken in the wilderness, and
prominent among the wildwood dishes is the
LUMBERMAN'S BAKED BEANS
Wash the beans first, then half fill a pail with them, put
them over the fire and parboil them until their skins are ready
to come off; they are now ready for the pot. But before put-
ting them in there, peel an onion and slice it, placing the
slices in the bottom of the bean pot. Now pour hah" of the
beans over the onions and on top of them spread the slices
of another onion. Take some salt pork and cut it into square
pieces and place the hunks of pork over the onions, thus
making a layer of onions and pork on top of the beans. Over
this pour the remainder of the beans, cover the top of the
beans with molasses, on the top of the molasses put some more
hunks of pork, put in enough water to barely cover the beans.
Over the top of all of it spread a piece of birch bark, then
force the cover down good and tight.
Meanwhile a fire should have been built in the bean hole
(Fig. 105). When the fire of birch has been burnt to hot
cinders, the cinders must be shoveled out and the bean pot
put into the hole, after which pack the cinders around the
bean pot and cover the whole thing with the dead ashes, or
as the lumbermen call them, the black ashes.
If the beans are put into the bean hole late in the afternoon
and allowed to remain there all night, they will be done to a
CAMP FOOD 115
turn for breakfast; the next morning they will be wholesome,
juicy and sweet, browned on top and delicious.
A bean hole is not absolutely necessary for a small pot of
beans. I have cooked them in the wilderness by placing the
pot on the ground in the middle of the place where the fire
had been burning, then heaping the hot ashes and cinders
over the bean pot until it made a little hill there, which I
covered with the black ashes and left until morning. I tried
the same experiment on the open hearth to my studio and
it was a wonderful success.
THE ETIQUETTE OF THE WOODS
Requires that when a porcupine has been killed it be immedi-
ately thrown into the fire, there to remain until all the quuls
have been singed off of the aggressive hide, after which it
may be skinned with no danger to the workmen and with no
danger to the other campers from the wicked barbed quills,
which otherwise might be waiting for them just where they
wished to seat themselves.
This may sound funny, but I have experimented, unin-
tentionally, by seating myself upon a porcupine quill. I can
assure the reader that there is nothing humorous in the ex-
perience to the victim, however funny it may appear to those
who look on.
After thoroughly singeing the porcupine you roll it in the
grass to make certain that the burnt quills are rubbed off its
skin, then with a sharp knife slit him up the middle of the
belly from the tail to the throat, pull the skin carefully back
and peel it off. When you come to the feet cut them off.
Broiled porcupine is the Thanksgiving turkey of the Alaskan
and British Columbia Indian, but unless it has been boiled
in two or three waters the taste does not suit white men.
116 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
PORCUPINE WILDERNESS METHOD
After it has been parboiled, suspend the porcupine by its
forelegs in front of a good roasting fire, or over a bed of hot
coals, and if well seasoned it will be as good meat as can be
found in the wilderness. The tail particularly is very meaty
and is most savory; like beef tongue it is filled with fine bits
of fat. Split the tail and take out the bone, then roast the
meaty part.
Porcupine stuffed with onions and roasted on a spit before
the fire is good, but to get the perfection of cooking it really
should be cooked in a Dutch oven, or a closed kettle or an
improvised airtight oven of some sort and baked in a bean
hole, or baked by being buried deep under a heap of cinders
and covered with ashes. Two iron pans that will fit together,
that is, one that is a trifle larger than the other so that the
smaller one may be pushed down into it to some extent, will
answer all the purposes of the Dutch oven. Also two frying
pans arranged in the same manner.
Always remember that after the porcupine is skinned,
dressed and cleaned, it should be put in a pot and parboiled,
changing the water once or twice, after which it may be
cooked in any way which appeals to the camper. The
NORTH METHOD
Is to place it in the Dutch oven with a few hunks of fat pork ;
let the porcupine itself rest upon some hard-tack, hard biscuit
or stale bread of any kind, which has been slightly softened
with water.
On top of the porcupine lay a nice slice or two of fat pork
and place another layer of soaked hard biscuit or hard-tack
on the pork, put it in a Dutch oven and place the Dutch oven
CAMP FOOD 117
on the hot coals, put a cover on the Dutch oven and heap
the living coals over the top of it and the ashes atop of that;
let it bake slowly until the flesh parts from the bones. Thus
cooked it will taste something like veal with a suggestion of
sucking pig. The tail of the porcupine, like the
TAIL OF THE BEAVER
Is considered a special delicacy. Many of the old wilderness
men hang the flat trowel-like tails of the beaver for a day or
two in the chimney of their shack to allow the oily matter
to exude from it, and thus take away the otherwise strong
taste; others parboil it as advocated for porcupine meat,
after which the tail may be roasted or baked and the rough
skin removed before eating.
BEAVER TAIL SOUP
Is made by stewing the tails with what other ingredients one
may have in camp ; all such dishes should be allowed to simmer
for a long while in place of boiling rapidly.
A man who was hunting in North Michigan said, "Al-
though I am a Marylander, and an Eastern Shore one at that,
and consequently know what good things to eat are, I want
to tell you that I'll have to take off my hat to the lumber
camp cook as the discoverer, fabricator and dispenser of a
dish that knocks the Eastern Shore cuisine silly. And that
dish is beaver-tail soup. When the beaver was brought into
camp the camp cook went nearly wild, and so did the lumber-
men when they heard the news, and all because they were
pining for beaver-tail soup.
"The cook took that broad appendage of the beaver, mailed
like an armadillo, took from it the underlying bone and meat
118 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
and from it made such a soup as never came from any other
stock, at the beck of the most expert and scientific chef that
ever put a kettle on."
MUSKRAT
Is valuable also for his flesh. Its name and rat-like appear-
ance have created a prejudice against it as a food, but thou-
sands of persons eat it without compunction. For those to
whom the name is a stumbling-block the euphemism " marsh
rabbit" has been invented, and under this name the
muskrat is sold even hi the Wilmington market and served
on the tables of white country folk. In Delaware, espe-
cially, the muskrat is ranked as a delicacy, and personally
the author ranks this rodent with the rabbit as an article
of food.
At Dover the writer has had it served at the hotel under
its own name; 5 the dish was "muskrats and toast." For the
benefit of those who revolt at the muskrat as food, it is well
to state that it is one of the cleanest of all creatures, that it
carefully washes all its own food and in every way conducts
itself so as to recommend its flesh even to the most fastidious.
As a matter of fact the flesh of the muskrat, though dark,
is tender and exceedingly sweet. Stewed like rabbit it looks
and tastes like rabbit, save that it lacks a certain gamy flavor
that some uneducated persons find an unpleasant character-
istic of the latter. But to the writer's way of thinking, while
the muskrat is good to eat, there are many things much
better; the point is, however, that everything which tastes
good and is not indigestible is good to eat no matter what
its name may be.
THE BURGOO
Of all the camp stews and hunters' stews of various names
and flavors, the Kentucky burgoo heads the list; not only is
CAMP FOOD 119
it distinguished for its intrinsic qualities, its food value and
delicious flavor, its romance and picturesque accompaniment,
but also because of the illustrious people whose names are
linked in Kentucky history with the burgoo. One such
feast, given some time between 1840 and 1850, was attended
by Governor Owlsley (old stone-hammer), Governor Metcalf,
Governor Bob Letcher, Governor Moorhead, General George
Crittenton, General John Crittenton, General Tom Critten-
ton, James H. Beard, and other distinguished men.
All Kentuckians will vow they understand the true mean-
ing of the word "burgoo." But an article in the Insurance
Field says, " It is derived from the low Latin burgus, fortified
(as a town) and goo-goo, very good." Hence the word, "bur-
goo," something very good, fortified with other good things, as
will be found in "Carey's Dictionary of Double Derivations":
"Burgoo is literally a soup composed of many vegetables
and meats delectably fused together in an enormous caldron,
over which, at the exact moment, a rabbit's foot at the end of
a yarn string is properly waved by a colored preacher, whose
salary has been paid to date. These are the good omens by
which the burgoo is fortified."
How TO MAKE THE BURGOO
Anything from an ordinary pail to one or many big
caldrons, according to the number of guests expected at the
camp, will serve as vessels in which to serve the burgoo. The
excellence of the burgoo depends more upon the manner of
cooking and seasoning it than it does on the material used
in its decoction.
To-day the burgoo is composed of meat from domestic
beasts and barnyard fowls with vegetables from the garden,
but originally it was made from the wild things in the woods,
120 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
bear, buffalo, venison, wild turkey, quails, squirrels and all the
splendid game animals that once roamed through Kentucky.
As this book is for woodcrafters we will take it for granted
that we are in the woods, that we have some venison, moose,
bear meat, rocky mountain goat, big horn, rabbit, ruffed
grouse, or some good substitutes. It would be a rare occasion
indeed when we would really have these things. If, for in-
stance, we have a good string of grouse we will take their
legs and wings and necks for the burgoo and save their
breasts for a broil, and if we have not many grouse we will
put in a whole bird or two. We will treat the rabbits the
same way, saving the body with the tenderloin for broiling.
When cleaned and dressed the meat of a turtle or two adds
a delicious flavor to the burgoo; frogs legs are also good,
with the other meat.
Cut all the meat up into pieces which will correspond,
roughly speaking, to inch cubes; do not throw away the bones ;
put them in also. Now then, if you were wise enough when
you were outfitting for the trip to secure some of the ill-
smelling but palatable dried vegetables, they will add im-
mensely to the flavor of your burgoo. Put all the material
in the kettle, that is, unless you are using beans and potatoes
as vegetables ; if so, the meats had better be well cooked first,
because the beans and potatoes have a tendency to go to the
bottom, and by scorching spoil the broth.
Fill your kettle, caldron or pot half full of water and
hang it over the fire; while it is making ready to boil get busy
with your vegetables, preparing them for the stew. Peel the
dry outer skin off your onions and halve them, or quarter
them, according to their size; scrape your carrots and slice
them into little disks, each about the size of a quarter, peel
your potatoes and cut them up into pieces about the size
CAMP FOOD 121
of the meat, and when the caldron is boiling dump in the
vegetables. The vegetables will temporarily cool the water,
which should not be allowed to again boil, but should be put
over a slow fire and where it will simmer. When the stew is
almost done add the salt and other seasonings. There should
always be enough water to cover the vegetables. Canned
tomatoes will add to the flavor of your broth. In a real
burgoo we put no thickening like meal, rice or other material
of similar nature, because the broth is strained and served
clear. Also no sweet vegetables like beets.
When the burgoo is done dip it out and drink it from tin
cups. Of course, if this is a picnic burgoo, you add olive
juice to the stew, while it is cooking, and then place a sliced
lemon and an olive in each cup and pour the hot strained
liquid into the cups.
The burgoo and the barbecue belong to that era when
food was plenty, feasts were generous and appetites good.
These historic feasts still exist in what is left of the open
country and rich farming districts, particularly in Kentucky
and Virginia. In Kentucky in the olden times the gentlemen
were wont to go out in the morning and do the hunting, while
the negroes were keeping the caldrons boiling with the pork
and other foundation material in them. After the gentlemen
returned and the game was put into the caldron, the guests
began to arrive and the stew was served late in the afternoon;
each guest was supposed to come supplied with a tin cup and
a spoon, the latter made of a fresh water mussel shell with a
split stick for a handle. Thus provided they all sat round and
partook of as many helps as their hunger demanded.
Since we have given Kentucky's celebrated dish, we will
add "Ole Virginny's" favorite dish, which has been named
after the county where it originated.
122 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THE BRUNSWICK STEW
"Take two large squirrels, one quart of tomatoes, peeled
and sliced, if fresh; one pint of lima beans or butter beans,
two teaspoonfuls of white sugar, one minced onion, six pota-
toes, six ears of corn scraped from the cob, or a can of sweet
corn, half a pound of butter, half a pound of salt pork, one
teaspoonful of salt, three level teaspoonfuls of pepper and a
gallon of water. Cut the squirrels up as for fricassee, add
salt and water and boil five minutes. Then put in the onion,
beans, corn, pork, potatoes and pepper, and when boiling
again add the squirrel.
"Cover closely and stew two hours, then add the tomato
mixed with the sugar and stew an hour longer. Ten minutes
before removing from the fire cut the butter into pieces the
size of English walnuts, roll in flour and add to the stew.
Boil up again, adding more salt and pepper if required."
The above is a receipt sent in to us, and I would give credit
for it if I knew from whence it came. I do know that it
sounds good, and from my experience with other similar
dishes, it will taste good.
I am not writing a cook book but only attempting to
start the novice on his way as a camp chef, and if he succeeds
in cooking in the open the dishes here described, he need not
fear to tackle any culinary problem which conditions may
make it necessary for him to solve.
CHAPTER VII
PACKING HORSES
HOW TO MAKE A PACK HORSE OF YOUR OWN
HOW TO MAKE AN APAREJO
HOW TO MAKE A CINCHA
HOW TO MAKE A LATIGO
HOW-TO THROW A DIAMOND HITCH
HOW TO THROW A SQUAW HITCH
HOW TO HITCH A HORSE IN OPEN LAND WITHOUT POST,
TREE OR STICK OR STONE
USE OF HOBBLES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM
HOW THE TRAVOIS IS MADE AND USED
BUFFALO BILL AND GENERAL MILES
HOW TO THROW DOWN A SADDLE
HOW TO THROW A SADDLE ON A HORSE
HOW TO MOUNT A HORSE
HOW TO KNOW A WESTERN HORSS
CHAPTER VII
PACKING HORSES
IF one is going on a real camping excursion where one
will need pack horses, one should, by all means, familiarize
oneself with the proper method of packing a pack horse.
This can be done in one's own cellar, attic or woodshed and
without hiring a horse or keeping one for the purpose. The
horse will be expensive enough when one needs it on the trail.
The drill in packing a horse should be taught in all scout
camps, and all girl camps and all Y. M. C. A. camps, and all
training camps; in fact, every where where anybody goes out-
doors at all, or where anybody pretends to go outdoors; and
after the tenderfeet have learned how to pack then it is the
proper time to learn what to pack; consequently we put
packing before outfitting, not the cart, but the pack before
she horse, so to speak.
When the Boy Scout Movement started in America it
jad the good aggressive American motto, "BE SURE YOU'RE
RIGHT, THEN Go AHEAD," which was borrowed from that
delightful old buckskin man, Davy Crockett.
A few years later, when the scout idea was taken up in
England, the English changed the American motto to "BE
PREPARED;" because the English Boy Scout promoter was
a military man himself and saw the necessity of preparedness
by Great Britain, which has since become apparent to us all.
And in order to be prepared to pack a horse, we must
first be sure we are right, then "go ahead" and practice pack-
ing at home.
One of the most useful things to the outdoor person is a
125
126
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
PACK HORSE
All of us do not own a horse, but there is not a reader of
this book so poor that he cannot own the horse shown by
Fig. 174.
168
There are but few people in the United States who cannot
honestly come into possession of a barrel with which to build
a pack horse or on which to practice throwing the diamond
hitch. They can also find, somewhere, some pieces of board
with which to make the legs of the horse, its neck and head.
PACKING HORSES 127
Fig. 168 shows the neck-board, and the dotted lines show
where to saw the head to get the right angle for the head and
ears, with which the horse may hear. Fig. 169 shows the
head-board, and the dotted line shows how to saw off one
corner to give the proper shape to this Arabian steed's
intelligent head-piece.
Fig. 170 shows how to nail the head on the neck. The
nails may be procured by knocking them out of old boards;
at least that is the way the writer supplied himself with nails.
He does not remember ever asking his parents for money
with which to buy nails, but if it is different nowadays, and
if you do not feel economically inclined, and have the money,
go to the shop and buy them. Also, under such circumstances,
go to the lumber yard and purchase your boards.
Fig. 171 shows how to nail two cleats on the neck, and
Fig. 172 shows how to nail these cleats onto the head of the
barrel. If you find the barrel head so tough and elastic that
a nail cannot be easily hammered in, use a gimlet and bore
holes into the cleats and into the barrel head, and then fasten
the cleats on with screws.
The tail of the nag is made out of an old piece of frayed
rope (Fig. 173), with a knot tied in one end to prevent the
tail from pulling out when it is pulled through a hole in the
other end of the barrel (Fig. 173). The legs of the horse are
made like those of a carpenter's wooden horse, of bits of plank
or boards braced under the barrel by cross-pieces (Fig. 174).
Now you have a splendid horse! "One that will stand
without hitching." It is kind and warranted not to buck,
bite or kick, but nevertheless, when you are packing him
remember that you are doing it in order to drill yourself to
pack a real live horse, a horse that may really buck, bite
and kick.
128 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
There are a lot of words in the English language not to
be found in the dictionary. I remember a few years ago
when one could not find "undershirt" or "catboat" in the
dictionary. But in the dictionaries of to-day you will even
find "aparejo" and "latigo," although neither of these words
was in the dictionaries of yesterday.
MAKE YOUR OWN APAREJO
Make your own aparejo of anything you can find. The
real ones are made of leather, but at the present time, 1920,
leather is very expensive. We can, however, no doubt secure
some builders' paper, tar paper, stiff wrapping paper, a piece
of old oilcloth, which, by the way, would be more like leather
than anything else, and cover these things with a piece of
tent cloth, a piece of carpet, or even burlap. The oilcloth
inside will stiffen the aparejo. At the bottom edge of it we
can lash a couple of sticks (Fig. 175), or if we want to do it
in a real workmanlike manner, we can sew on a couple of
leather shoes, made out of old shoe leather or new leather
if we can secure it, and then slip a nice hickory stick through
the shoes, as shown in the diagram (Fig. 176).
The aparejo is to throw over the horse's back as in Fig.
178, but in order to fasten it on the back we must have a latigo
which is the real wild and woolly name for the rope attached
to a cincha strap (Fig. 177) . But when you are talking about
packing the pack horses call it "cinch," and spell it "cincha."
Make your cincha of a piece of canvas, and in one end fasten
a hook a big strong picture hook will do; Fig. 177^ shows
a cinch hook made of an oak elbow invented by Stewart
Edward White, and in the other end an iron ring; to the iron
ring fasten the lash rope (Fig. 177).
For the real horse and outfit one will need an aparejo,
PACKING HORSES 129
a pack blanket, a lash rope with a cincha, a sling rope, a
bund for the horse, and a pack cover. But here again do not
call it a pack cover, for that will at once stamp you as a
tenderfoot. Assume the superior air of a real plainsman and
speak of it as a "manta." The aparejo and pack saddle are
inventions of the Arabians away back in the eighth century.
When the Moors from Africa overran Spain, these picturesque
marauders brought with them pack mules, pack saddles, and
aparejos. When General Cortez and Pizarro carried the
torch and sword through Mexico in their search for gold,
they brought with them pack animals, pack saddles, aparejos,
latigos, and all that sort of thing with which to pack their loot.
When the forty-niners went to California in search of
gold they found that the Arabian Moorish-Spanish-Mexican
method of packing animals was perfectly adapted to their
purposes and they used to pack animals, the aparejos, the
latigos, and all the other kinds of gos. The lash rope for a
real pack horse should be of the best Manila -|- inch or -f-
inch, and forty feet long; a much shorter one will answer for
the wooden horse.
EVEN BOYS CAN THROW THE HITCH
Back hi 1879, Captain A. B. Wood, United States Army,
introduced a knowledge of the proper use of the pack saddle
and the mysteries of the diamond hitch into the United
States Army. The Fourth Cavalry, United States Army,
was the first to become expert with the diamond hitch and
taught it to the others; but recently a military magazine
has asked permission, and has used the author's diagrams,
to explain to the Cavalry men how this famous hitch
is thrown.
It stands to reason that in order to pack one horse one
9
130 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
must have some packs. But these are the easiest things
imaginable to secure. A couple of old potato or flour bags,
stuffed with anything that is handy hay, grass, leaves, rags
or paper but stuffed tight (Fig. 179), will do for our load.
When packing a horse, except with such hitches as the
"one man hitch, " it requires two men or boys to "throw" the
hitch. The first one is known as the head packer, and the
other as the second packer. Remember that the left-hand
side of the horse is the nigh side. The head packer stands
on the nigh side of the horse and he takes the coiled lash rope
in the left hand and lets the coils fall astern of the pack
animal (Fig. 180) ; with the right hand he takes hold of the
rope about three or four feet from the cincha (Fig. 180) and
hands the hook end under the animal to the second packer,
who stands on the right-hand side of the horse (Fig. 180).
The right hand of the head packer, with the palm upwards,
so holds the rope that the loop will fall across his forearm;
the left hand with the palm downward holds the rope about
half way between the loop that goes over the forearm and the
loop that lies along the back of the pack animal (Fig. 181).
The head packer now throws the loop from his forearm across
PACKING HORSES 133
the pack on the back of the animal, allowing the left hand to
fall naturally on the neck of the animal. The second packer
now runs the rope through the hook and pulls up the cincha
end until the hook is near the lower edge of the off side of the
aparejo (Fig. 183).
The head packer next grasps the rope A (Fig. 185) and
tucks a loop from the rear to the front under the part marked
B (Figs. 185 and 186), over the inner side pack (Figs. 184
and 187) . Next the second packer passes the loose end of the
rope under the part marked D (Fig. 187), and throws it on
the nigh (left) side of the pack animals.
The head packer now draws the tucked loop forward and
tucks it under the corners and the lower edge of the nigh
side of the aparejo (Fig. 188), then holds it taut from the rear
corner, and the second packer takes hold of the rope at E
(Fig. 189) with his left hand, and at F (Fig. 187) with his right
hand. He passes the rope under the corners and lower edge
of the off side of the aparejo (G, H, Fig. 189, and G, H, Fig.
191). The second packer now takes the blind off his pack
animal and is supposed to lead it forward a few steps while
the head packer examines the load from the rear to see if it
is properly adjusted.
Then the blind is again put upon the animal for the final
tightening of the rope. While the second packer is pulling
the parts taut, the head packer takes up the slack and keeps
the pack steady. The tightening should be done in such a
manner as not to shake the pack out of balance or position,
(Figs. 188 and 190).
The second (or off side) packer grasps the lash rope above
the hook, and puts his knee against the stern corner of the
aparejo, left-hand group (Fig. 188). The head packer takes
hold with his right hand of the same part of the rope where it
134
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
comes from the pack on the inner side, and with the left
hand at J (Fig. 189), and his right shoulder against the cargo
to steady it, he gives the command "PULL!" Without jerks,
but with steady pulls, the second packer now tightens the
"W IS A REAL. C I NC MA AND LATlGO
^C IS A RtAL 6AW-8UCK >f\DDLE WITH
ALFOR-JAS ATTAJUtEI>~
rope, taking care not to let it slip back through the hook.
He gives the loose part to the head packer, who takes up the
slack by steady pulls.
When the second packer is satisfied that it is all right he
cries, "Enough!" The head packer then holds steady with
his right hand and slips the other hand down to where the
rope passes over the front edge of the aparejo. There he
PACKING HORSES 135
holds steady; his right hand then takes hold of the continua-
tion of the rope at the back corner of the pad and pulls tight.
Placing his right knee against the rear corner of the pad he
pulls hard with both hands until the rope is well home, left-
hand group (Fig. 188).
The second packer now takes up the slack by grasping
the rope with both hands, E (Fig. 189).
The head packer steps to the front to steady the pack.
The second packer pulls taut the parts on his side, taking up
the slack. This draws the part of the lash rope K, K (Fig.
189), well back at middle of the pack, giving the center hitch
the diamond shape from which the name is derived, X (Fig.
191). He then, with the left hand at the rear corner H, pulls
taut and holds solid, while with the right hand in front of G,
he takes up slack. Next with both hands at the front corner
and with his knee against it (Fig. 188), the second packer pulls
taut, the head packer at the same time taking up the slack
on his side and then pulls steady, drawing the part L, L
(Fig. 189), of the rope leading from the hook well forward at
the middle of the pack, finishing off the diamond at X. He
then carries the loose end under the corners and ends of the
aparejo, and draws that taut and ties the end fast by a half
hitch near the cincha end of the lash rope.
After passing under the corners, if the rope is long enough
to reach over the load, it can then be passed over and made
fast on the off side by tying around both parts of the lash
rope above the hook and by drawing them well together
(Fig. 191).
Alongside of Fig. 190 are a series of sketches showing how
to lash and cinch two parcels or bags together; one bag is
made black so that its position can better be understood.
In other words, it makes it easier to follow the different hitches.
136
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Learn to pack at home and you will not lose your packs
on the trail.
In following these instructions, whenever in doubt forget
the perspective views and keep in mind Figures 181, 183, 185,
187, 189 and 191, which tell the whole story. The perspective
views are principally to show the relative position of the
packers; the position of the rope can best be seen by looking
on top of the pack.
A
In packing a live horse you will learn by practice not to
pull in such a way as to cause the horse to step on your feet;
you will also learn that a live horse will not stand as still as
a wooden horse, but when you have learned to pack a wooden
horse quickly and well, it will only take you a short time to
become expert with a live horse.
THE SQUAW HITCHES
These are useful when one has no one to help in packing
the animal, and when one has no pack saddle like Fig. 200.
With this squaw hitch you must throw your burden across
the back of the horse, over the pad made by a blanket (Fig.
PACKING HORSES
137
192), then put a loop over the end M, see X (Fig. 192), and
another one over the end N, see Y (Fig. 192) . At the end of
the lash rope Z make a loop ; now pass that loop down under
the horse's belly and through Y (Fig. 193), bring the end Z
back again over the horse's back, also pass the end T down
through X, and bring it back over the horse's back, also pass
the end Z down through Y, and bring it back over the horse's
back, pass T through Z (Fig. 193), cinch tight and fasten on
top of pack (Fig. 194). Fig. 195 shows another throw in
another squaw hitch. Fig. 196 shows the next position.
Fig. 197 shows the thing made fast.
Anyone who travels with pack horses should know how
to arrange the lead rope in a manner so that it may be quickly
and easily loosened, and at the same time be out of the way,
so that the horse will not get his foot over it when climbing
or descending steep places, which often happens when the
lead rope is fastened to the pack in the usual manner. If
you will take the rope and wind it loosely around the horse's
138 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
neck, behind his left ear and in front of his right ear (Figs.
198 and 199), then tuck the end under the strands, as shown
in Fig. 198, the thing may be undone in an instant, and in
the meantime the rope is out of the way where it will not
bother either the man or the horse.
Practise all this on the wooden horse, then it will come
natural when the time comes to handle a real horse. The
manner of looping up the lead rope, just described, I learned
from the explorers of the Mt. McKinley expedition, who had
many occasions to test the best, as well as the worst methods
of packing and arranging their duffel. There are a number
of other hitches, some given by Stewart Edward White, in
Outing, called the Miner's Hitch, the Lone Packer's Hitch,
but possibly we have given the reader enough to start him
on his way; remember for the pack horse the necessary outfit
is a horse blanket, the cincha and lash rope, the sling rope,
the lead rope, the manta, which is a cover for the pack, some-
tunes called the tarp short for tarpaulin, and the blind,
but as a rule a handkerchief is used for a blinder. The
aparejo is a sort of a leather mattress which goes over the
horse's back and on which the pack rests, but you will find
all about that when you hit the trail with a pack train. The
alforjas is a Spanish name for the saddle-bags used on a pack
horse. When the reader knows how to pack his horse, knows
all the Spanish names for the pack saddle and all that sort
of thing, there may come a time when he will have a horse
which needs to be hitched at night, and it may happen
he must needs
HITCH THE HORSE
On some trail where there are no trees, sticks, or even stones;
but if he is a good woodcraf ter and plainsman, with his hunt-
kig knife he will proceed to dig as narrow and deep a hole as
PACKING HORSES 141
possible in the earth, then he will tie a knot in the end of the
picket rope and drop the knot to the bottom of the hole
(Fig. 201) (the picket rope in reality should be one-half inch
rope, fifty feet long); the only way to get that knot out of
the hole is to stand directly over the opening and pull the
knot up perpendicularly. It will never occur to the horse
to shorten the line by taking hold of it with his teeth, so that
it may stand over the hole and pull up the knot, consequently
the animal will be as securely hitched as if tied to a post.
HOBBLES
For the front legs may be purchased at any outfitter's (Fig.
202), or home-made from unravelled rope (Fig. 203). Make a
loop from a strand from a large rope and then fasten it
round one leg, as in diagram; after that twist the rope to make
the connections between the two loops, tie another knot to
prevent the rope from untwisting, then tie the two ends
around the leg of the horse (Fig. 203) ; the unravelled rope is
soft and will not chafe the horse's leg.
TRAVOIS
Figs. 204 and 205 show the famous Indian mode of pack-
ing by travois.
How TO THROW A SADDLE DOWN
General Miles once told the author that the handsomest
man he had ever seen came dashing into their camp in a
cloud of alkali dust; having ridden right through bands of
hostile Indians which surrounded the camp, he dismounted,
took off his saddle and threw it on the ground, put the bridle
bit, girth, etc., inside the saddle, put the saddle-cloth over it,
then he calmly stretched himself out in front of the campfire.
" Thatman,"saidGeneralMiles,"was Bill Cody, Buffalo Bill !"
142 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
When Cody put the saddle on the ground he placed it on
its side (Fig. 206) ; hi placing the saddle in this position it
preserves the curve of the skirts, and thus the form of the
saddle is not destroyed and the reins and the stirrup straps
are protected; at the same tune the saddle makes a good
pillow, and if it should rain at night the saddle blanket is the
only thing, besides the rider, which gets a ducking, unless
the latter has a good waterproof sleeping-bag.
How TO THROW A SADDLE ON A HORSE
So manage the saddle that with one swing it will 'light on
the horse's back with the pummel towards the horse's head
(Fig. 207). Grasp with your right hand the horn of the saddle,
and as you swing the saddle on the horse with a graceful
sweep, use your left hand to push the further skirt outward
and thus prevent it from doubling up on the horse's back.
Be careful to throw the girth far enough so that it will hang
down so as to be easily reached under the horse. I once had
an English farm hand who put a western saddle on a horse
with the pummel towards the tail, and was very indignant
when I told him that a pummel should face the bow of a
craft; he told me he knew more about horses than I did,
which is possibly true, as I am not a horseman; he also said
that in the "hold country" he used to ride to "the 'ounds,"
all of which goes to prove customs are different in different
countries. Here we put the pummel of the saddle towards
the horse's head; we won't argue about it; we may be wrong,
but it is a matter of custom, and right or wrong is the rule
the reader must follow in America, even though the reader
may have ridden to the "'ounds" while abroad. Do not
misunderstand me, some of the best horsemen in the world
are English, but this fellow was not one of them.
PACKING HORSES 143
How TO MOUNT A WESTERN HORSE
Years ago when the rider was in Montana on Howard
Eaton's Ranch, near the celebrated ranch of Theodore Roose-
velt, he had his first experience with Western horses, and
being sensitive and standing in great terror of being called
a tenderfoot, he shyly watched the others mount before he
attempted to do so himself. Each one of these plainsmen,
he noticed, took the reins in his left hand while standing on
the left-hand side of the horse; then holding the reins over
the shoulders of the horse he grasped the mane with the
same hand, and put his left foot into the stirrup; but to put
the left foot in the stirrup he turned the stirrup around so
that he could mount while facing the horse's tail, then he
grabbed hold of the pummel with his right hand and swung
into the saddle as the horse started.
That looked easy; the writer also noticed that just before
the others struck the saddle they gave a whoop, so without
showing any hesitation the author walked up to his cayuse,
took the reins confidently in his left hand, using care to stand
on the left-hand side of the horse; then he placed the left
hand with the reins between the shoulders of the horse and
grabbed the mane, then he turned the stirrup around, turned
his back to the horse's head, put his left foot in the stirrup
and gave a yell.
On sober afterthought he decided that he gave that yell
too soon; the horse almost went out from under him, or at
least so it seemed to him, or maybe the sensation would be
better described to say that it appeared to him as if he went
a mile over the prairie with his right leg waving in the air
like a one-winged aeroplane, before he finally settled down
into the saddle.
But this could not have been really true, because every-
144 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
body applauded and the writer was at once accepted by the
crowd without question as a thoroughbred Sourdough.
Possibly they may have thought he was feeling good and just
doing some stunts.
It may interest the reader to state that the author did
his best to live up to the first impression he had made, but
he did not go riding the next day, there were some books he
thought necessary to read; he discovered, however, that even
lounging was not without some discomfort; for instance, he
could not cross his knees without helping one leg over with
both his hands; in fact, he could find no muscle in his body
that could be moved without considerable exertion and pain.
But this is the point of the story : Had the author tried to
mount that cayuse in any other way he would have been
left sprawling on the prairie. The truth is that if you mount
properly when the horse starts, even if he begins to buck and
pitch, the action will tend to throw you into the saddle, not
out of it.
CAUTION
When you approach a horse which has a brand on it, always
approach from the left-hand side, because practically all the
Western horses have brands on them, and you can, as a rule,
count on a branded horse being from the West, with the hale
and hearty habits of the West, which to be appreciated must
be understood. If you want to make a real cayuse out of
your wooden horse, brand it and any cowboy who then sees
it will take off his hat.
CHAPTER VIII
THE USE OF DOGS. MAN PACKING
HIKING DOGS, PACK DOGS
HOW TO PACK A DOG
HOW TO THROW THE DOG HITCH
HOW TO MAKE DOG TRAVOIS
DOG AS A BEAST OF BURDEN IN EUBOPE AND ARCTIC AMERICA
MAN PACKING
PACK RATS
DON'T FIGHT YOUR PACK
PORTAGE PACK
GREAT MEN WHO HAVE CARRIED A PACK
KINDS OF PACKS
ALPINE RUCKSACK
ORIGIN OF BROAD BREAST STRAPS
MAKE YOUR OWN OUTFITS
10
CHAPTER VHI
THE USE OF DOGS. MAN PACKING
THERE is no good reason why every hiker should not be
accompanied by
A HIKING DOG
For if there is anything a dog does love better than its own
soul it is to hike with its master, and every normal boy and
girl, and every normal man and woman, loves the company
of a good dog. When they do not love it the fault is not
with the dog but with them; there is something wrong with
them that the outdoor world alone will cure.
But if a dog is going to enjoy the pleasure of a hike with
you, if it is a good square dog it should be willing to also
share the hardships of the hike with you, and to help carry
the burdens on the trail. Any sort of a dog can be trained as
A PACK DOG
But the sturdier and stronger the dog is, the greater burden
he can carry and the more useful he will be on the trail.
The alforjas for a dog, or saddle-bags, can be made by anyone
who is handy with a needle and thread. A dog pack consists
primarily of two bags or pouches (Figs. 209 and 210), with a
yoke piece attached to slide over the dog's head and fit across
the chest (Figs. 209, 210, 211 and 212). Also a cincha to
fasten around the waist or small part of the dog's body, back
of its ribs. The pouches (Fig. 210) should have a manta, or
cover (Figs. 211, 213, and 214), to keep the rain, snow or dust
out of the duffel. Simple bags of strong light material on the
pattern of Fig. 210 are best, because the weight of anything
unnecessary is to be avoided.
147
148 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
THE DOG HITCH
Is not as complicated an affair as the diamond hitch, and
anyone who knows how to do up an ordinary parcel can learn
the dog hitch by one glance at Figs. 213 and 214.
Slip the breast band over the dog's head, put the saddle-
bags well forward on the dog's shoulders, tie the cinch around
its waist, after which spread the cover or manta over the bag,
and throw the hitch as shown by Figs. 211 and 214. Fig. 213
shows a bundle with a breast band made of the lash rope, in
which case the lash rope is usually made of cloth like that in
Fig. 211; the whole thing is simplicity itself and a good dog
can carry quite a load packed in this manner.
A DOG TRAVOIS
Can also be used at times with advantage, as it was used by
our red brothers of the wilderness. Fig. 217 shows a dog
harnessed to a travois, made of two shaft poles; the harness
consists of a padded collar similar to those used in Northern
Quebec for sled dogs, and a cincha of leather or canvas and
traces of rope or thong. Figs. 215 and 216 show a rig made
by one of my Boy Scouts; the material used was the green
saplings cut in the woods, the traces were made of rope manu-
factured from the roots of the tamarack tree, so also was the
cord used to bind the parts of the frame together. The hooks
to which the traces were fastened were made of wire nails
bent over, and the staples to which the collar was fastened
by thongs to the shaft were made of wire nails, the heads of
which were ground off by rubbing them on stones; the nails
were then bent into the proper curve and driven into the
shaft in the form of a staple. Fig. 216 shows the same rig
with a leather harness. The American Indian used the
THE USE OF DOGS MAN PACKING 151
travois on dogs the same as they did upon horses and the
sudden appearance of game often produced a stampede of
dog travoises, scattering the duffel, including papooses,
loaded on the travois.
It is not expected that the reader will make every one of
these contrivances, but if he does he will learn How, and to
be a good woodsman he should know how, so as to be prepared
for any emergency. It is possible to make the whole pack
for the dog from birch bark, but however it is made, if it
serves the purpose of making the dog carry part of the pack,
when you put the bark on the dog's back, you will teach the
animal that there are two kinds of barks; one of which is useful
as a duffel bag, and the other as an alarm.
In Alaska and other parts of the far North, as well as in
Holland and other parts of Europe, the dog is generally used
as a beast of burden; it draws sleds in North America and
milk carts and market wagons in Holland, but it is not
necessary for us to live in Holland or in the far North in
order to make use of the dog ; a good dog will cheerfully carry
the packs on the trail, loyally guard the camp at night, and,
if necessary, die in defense of its master.
Any uncomfortable pack is an abomination; too heavy a
pack is an unhappy burden, no pack at all is fine until you
reach camp and hunt around for something to answer for a
toothbrush, comb and brush, something on which to sit and
sleep, something overhead to protect you from the rains and
dews of heaven, something to eat and something to eat with
besides your fingers, something from which to drink which
holds water better than the hollow of your hand or the
brim of your hat, and, in fact, all those necessary little
comforts that a fellow wants on an overnight hike.
Without these useful articles one will wish that he had
152 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
subjected himself to the slight fatigue necessary to pack a
small pack on his back.
The word "pack" itself is a joy to the outdoor man, for
it is only outdoor men who use the word pack for carry, and
who call a bundle or load a pack. The reason for this is that
the real wilderness man, explorer, prospector, hunter, trapper
or scout, packs all his duffel into a bundle which he carries
on his back, in two small saddle-bags which are carried by
his husky dogs, or a number of well-balanced bundles which
are lashed on the pack saddle with a diamond hitch over the
back of a pack horse.
You see we have pack dogs, pack horses and pack animals,
pack saddles and packers, as well as the packs themselves,
which the packers pack and these animals pack on their
backs, or which the man himself packs on his own back.
Then we also have the pack rat, but the pack rat does not
carry things with our consent. The pack rat comes flippity-
flop, hopping over the ground from the old hermit, Bill
Jones's, packing with him Bill Jones's false teeth which he
has abstracted from the tin cup of water at the head of Bill
Jones's bunk. The pack rat deposits the teeth at the head
of your cot, then deftly picking up your watch, the rat packs
it back to Bill Jones's cot and drops it in the tin cup of water,
where it soaks until morning.
It is easy to see that however funny the pack rat may be,
and however useful he might be to the Sunday comic paper,
the rat's humor is not appreciated by the campers in the
Rocky Mountains, where it is called a pack rat from its habit
of carrying things. Thus it is that in a newly settled country
the word "carry" is almost forgotten; one "packs" a letter
to the post box, or packs a horse to water, or packs a box of
candy to his best girl, or a pail of water from the spring.
THE USE OF DOGS MAN PACKING 153
MAN PACKING
When you, my good reader, get the pack adjusted on
your back and the tump line across your forehead (Fig. 226) ,
remember that you are being initiated into the great frater-
nity of outdoor people. But no matter how tough or rough
you may appear to the casual observer, your roughness is
only apparent; a boy or man of refinement carries that refine-
ment inside of him wherever he goes ; at the same tune when
one is carrying a pack on one's back and a tump line on
one's forehead (Fig. 226^) , or a canoe on one's head,
even though a lady should be met on the trail it would
not be necessary for one to take off one's hat, for even
a foolish society woman would not expect a man to doff the
canoe he might be carrying on his head. Under all circum-
stances use common sense; that is the rule of the wilderness
and also of real culture.
The most important thing that you must learn on the
trail is not to fret and fume over trifles, and even if your load
is heavy and irksome, even though the shoulder straps chafe
and the tump line makes your neck ache
DON'T FIGHT YOUR PACK
When we speak of "fighting the pack" we mean fighting
the load; that does not mean getting one's load up against a
tree and punching it with one's fists or " kicking the stuffings
out of it," but it means complaining and fretting because the
load is uncomfortable.
There are two kinds of "packs" the pack that you carry
day after day on a long hike, and the pack that you carry
when on a canoe trip and you are compelled to leave the water
and carry your canoe and duffel overland around some bad
154 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
rapids or falls. The first-named pack should be as light as
possible, say between 30 and 40 pounds, for on a long tramp
every pound counts, because you know that you must carry
it as long as you keep going, and there is no relief in sight
except when you stop for your meals or to camp at night.
But the last-named pack, the
PORTAGE PACK,
Figs. 218 and 223, the kind that you carry around bad pieces
of water, may be as heavy as you can, with safety, load upon
your sturdy back, because your mind is buoyed up by the
fact that you know you will not have to carry that load very
far, the work will end when you reach the water again, and
strange to say the mind has as much to do with carrying
the load as the muscles. If the mind gives up you will fall
helpless even under a small load; if the mind is strong you
will stagger along under a very heavy one.
When I asked a friend, who bears the scars of the pack
straps on his body, how it was that he managed to endure
the torture of such a load, he replied with a grin that as soon
as he found that to "fight his pack" meant to perish meant
death ! he made up his mind to forget the blamed thing and
so when the pack wearied him and the straps rubbed the skin
off his body, he forced himself to think of the good dinners
he had had at the Camp-fire Club of America, yum! yum!
Also, of all the jolly stories told by the toastmaster, and of
the fun he had had at some other entertainments. Often
while thinking of these things he caught himself laughing out
loud as he trudged along the lone trail, FORGETTING the hate-
ful pack on his back. "In this way," said he, with a winning
smile upon his manly and weather-beaten face, "I learned
how not to fight the pack but to FORGET IT! Then he braced
THE USE OF DOGS MAN PACKING 157
himself up, looked at the snow-capped mountain range ahead,
hummed a little cowboy song and trudged on over the frozen
snow at a scout's pace.
Now that you know what a pack is, and what "fighting
a pack" means, remember that if one's studies at school are
hard, that is one's pack. If the work one is doing is hard,
difficult or tiresome, that is one's pack. If one's boss is cross
and exacting, that is one's pack. If one's parents are worried
and forget themselves hi their worry and speak sharply,
that is one's pack. Don't fight your pack; remember that
you are a woodcrafter; straighten your shoulders, put on
your scout smile and hit the trail like a man !
If you find that you are tempted to break the Scout Law,
that you are tempted at times to forget the Scout Oath, that
because your camp mates use language unfit for a wood-
crafter or a scout, and you are tempted to do the same, if
your playmates play craps and smoke cigarettes, and laugh
at you because you refuse to do so, so that you are tempted
to join them, these temptations form your pack; don't give
in and fall under your load and whimper like a "sissy," or
a "mollycoddle," but straighten up, look the world straight
in the eye, and hit the trail like a man !
Some of us are carrying portage packs which we can dump
off our shoulders at the end of the "carry," some of us are
carrying hiking packs which we must carry through life and
can never dump from our shoulders until we cross the Grand
Portage from which no voyagers ever return. All our packs
vary in weight, but none of them is easy to carry if we fret
and fume and complain under the load.
We outdoor folks call our load "pack," but our Sunday
School teachers sometimes speak of the pack they bear as a
"cross." Be it so, but don't fight your pack.
158 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
MEN WHO HAVE CARRIED THE PACK
The whole north country is sprinkled with the bones of
the men who fought their packs. Our own land is also
sprinkled with men we call "misfits" and failures, but who
are really men who have fought their packs. But every post
of eminence in the United States is occupied by a man who
forgot his pack; this country was built by men who forgot
their packs. George Washington carried a portage pack in
weight all through his life, but it was a proud burden and he
stood straight under it. Good old Abe Lincoln had even a
heavier pack to carry, but in spite of the weight of it he
always had a pleasant scout smile for everyone and a merry
story to send the visitor away smiling. If Daniel Boone and
Simon Kenton had fought their packs we would never have
heard of them !
In the illustrations are shown many figures, and one should
not forget that these are sketches of real men hi the real
wilderness, and not fancy pictures drawn from imagination.
Figs. 230, 231 and 232 show many different methods of carry-
ing big game on one's shoulders or back. Fig. 232 also shows
a couple of prospectors on the trail. One has the bag on his
back, held in place by shoulder straps; the other has a bag
thrown over his shoulder like a ragman.
The alpine rucksack will carry or to speak more properly
with it one can pack a camera, notebook, sketching material,
lunch and all those things which a fellow wants on an enjoy-
able hike. The alpine rucksack is a many -gored poke about
18 inches wide and about 22 inches long without the gores.
These pokes can be made so that the gores fold in and produce
an ordinary-sized pack, or they may be pushed out like an
umbrella so as to make a bag in which one can carry a good-
sized boy.
J?
5
5
o
THE USE OF DOGS MAN PACKING 161
THE BROAD BAND
Fig. 232-D shows the broad band used by the men of
the far north. The reader will note that the broad canvas
bands come over the shoulders from the top of the pack;
also that a broad breast band connects the shoulder
bands, while rope, whang strings or thongs run through
eyelets in the band and to the bottom of the pack. This
is said to be the most comfortable pack used and has an
interesting history ; it was evolved from an old pair of over-
alls. There was a Hebrew peddler who followed the gold
seekers and he took a pair of canvas overalls and put them
across his breast, and to the legs he fastened the pack upon
his back. The overalls being wide and broad did not cut
his chest, as do smaller straps, thongs or whang strings.
But breast straps of any kind are not now recommended
by all authorities. It is claimed that they interfere with
the breathing and a fellow "mouching" along the trail needs
to have his chest free to expand, for not only his speed
but his endurance depends upon the free action of his lungs.
THE TUMP
Figs. 226 and 226^ show the use of the celebrated tump
strap. This tump strap is used from Central America to the
Arctic Circle. The Mexican water carrier uses it to tote his
burden; the Tete Bule Indian and the Montenais Indian in
the Northeast also carry their packs with a tump line.
Fig. 226 1/2 shows how the tump line is made. It is a strap
or lash rope with a broad band to fit over the packer's head,
and thus relieve the weight which the shoulders have to bear.
Fig. 218 shows the well-known portage pack basket which
is used by the guides in the Adirondack regions. Fig. 219
shows the Nessmuk knapsack. Fig. 222 shows a pack harness
11
162 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
of straps by which two duffel bags are borne on the back.
Fig. 225 shows a duffel bag which is laced up at one end with
a thong; also the end of the bag open.
THE DUFFEL BAG is USEFUL
The duffel bag is the ideal poke in which to pack one'&
belongings. It is waterproof, it makes a good pillow, a far
better pillow than an axe and pair of boots on which I myself
have rested my weary head many a night, and it also makes
a good cushion upon which to sit. The duffel bag may be
procured from any outfitting establishment. The ones 1
own are now shiny with dirt and grease, gathered from the
camps and forests extending from Maine to the State of
Washington, from Northern Quebec to Florida. I love the
old bags, for even though they be greasy and shiny, and black-
ened with the charcoals of many campfires, they are chuck
full of delightful memories.
Fig. 220 is the old-time poke made of a bandanna hand-
kerchief, with its ends tied together and swung over a stick.
This is the pack, a cut of which may be found in all the
old newspapers antedating the Civil War, where runaway
negroes are advertised. It is the sort of pack respectable
tramps used to carry, back in the times when tramps were
respectable. It is the kind of pack I find represented in an
old oil painting hanging on my dining-room wall, which was
painted by some European artist back in the seventeenth
century. When fellows carry the runaway pack they are
"traveling light."
Fig. 229 shows how to construct a makeshift pack. A
rope of cedar bark is arranged with a loop C (Fig. 229), for the
yoke the ends A and B are brought up under the arms and
tied to the yoke C, which then makes a breast band.
THE USE OF DOGS MAN PACKING 163
For a long hike thirty pounds is enough for a big boy to
carry, and it will weigh three hundred and fifty pounds at the
end of a hard day's tramp. Heavy packs, big packs, like
those shown in Fig. 223, are only used on a portage, that is,
for short distance. Of course, you fellows know that in all
canoe trips of any consequence one must cross overland
from one lake to another, or overland above a waterfall to
a safe place below it, or around quick water, or to put it in
the words of tenderfeet, water which is too quick for canoe
travel, around tumultuous rapids where one must carry his
canoe and duffel. But these carries or portages are seldom
long. The longest I remember of making was a trifle over
five miles in length.
Remember that the weight of a load depends a great deal
upon your mind. Consequently for a long distance the load
should be light; for a short distance the only limit to the load
is the limit of the packer's strength.
BUT
People differ so in regard to how to carry a pack and what
kind of a pack to carry, that the author hesitates to recom-
mend any particular sort; personally he thinks that a pack
harness hitched on to the duffel bags (Figs. 221, 222 and 224),
is the proper and practical thing. Duffel bags, by the way,
are water-proof canvas bags (Fig. 225), made of different
sizes, in which to pack one's clothes, food, or what not. The
portage basket (Fig. 218), is a favorite in the Adirondacks,
but it is not a favorite with the writer; the basket itself is
heavy and to his mind unnecessary, the knapsack (Fig. 219),
is good for short hikes when one does not have to carry much.
The best way for the reader to do is to experiment, see how
much of a load he can carry; fifty pounds is more than enough
164 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
for a big strong man to carry all day long, day in and day
out, and forty pounds is more than he wants to carry, but a
good husky boy may be able to carry forty pounds on his
back. At the Army and Navy stores and at the outfitter's
you can find all sorts of duffel bags and knapsacks, and at
any of the big outfitting stores they will tell you just what
kind of baggage you will need for the particular trip, for some-
one in the stores has been over the very ground that you
are going over, for all the clerks and proprietors of the out-
fitting stores are sportsmen. But yes, there is a "but"
the real genuine American boy will construct his own outfit
duffel bags, mess kit and tents.
CHAPTER IX
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP
PORTERS OF THE PORTAGE
OLD-TIME INDIAN FIGHTERS AND WILD ANIMALS
MODERN STAMPEDE FOR THE OPEN
HOW TO GET READY FOR CAMP
CUT YOUR FINGER NAILS
GO TO YOUR DENTIST
GET A HAIR CUT
A BUCKSKIN MAN'S POCKET
FLY DOPE
PROTECTION AGAINST BLACK FLIES, MOSQUITOES^
MIDGETS AND NO-SEE-UMS
THE CALL OF THE WILD
CHAPTER IX
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP
MANY people are so accustomed to have other people wait
upon them that they are absolutely funny when you meet
them in the woods; when their canoe runs its prow up upon
the sandy beach and there is a portage to make, such people
stand helplessly around waiting for some red-capped porter
to come and take their baggage, but the only red caps in the
woods are the red-headed woodpeckers and they will see you
in Germany before they will help tote your duffel across
the portage.
When one gets into the real woods, even if it is only in
Maine, Wisconsin, the Adirondacks, or the Southern pine
forests, one soon discovers that there are no drug stores
around the corner, the doctor is a long way off, the butcher,
the baker, the candle-stick maker, trolley cars, telephone
and taxi cabs are not within reach, sight or hearing; then a
fellow begins to realize that it is "up to" himself to tote his
own luggage, to build his own fires, to make his own shelters,
and even to help put up the other fellows' tents, or to cook
the meals. Yes, and to wash the dishes, too!
One reason we outdoor people love the woods is that it
develops self-reliance and increases our self-respect by in-
creasing our ability to do things; we love the work, we love
the hardship, we like to get out of sight of the becapped
maids, the butler and the smirking waiters waiting for a tip,
and for the same reason the real honest-to-goodness American
boys love a camp. Why bless your soul! every one of them
in his inmost heart regrets that he did not live away back in
the time when the long-haired Wetzel, Daniel Boone and
167
168 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Simon Kenton roved the woods, or at least back when Colonel
Bill Cody, Buffalo Jones and Yellowstone Kelly were dashing
over the plains with General Miles, General Bell and the
picturesque blond, long-haired General Custer.
Sometimes the author is himself guilty of such wishes,
and he used to dream of those days when he was a barefooted
boy. But, honest now, is it not really too bad that there are
no longer any hostile Indians? And what a pity that im-
proved firearms have made the big game so very shy that it
is afraid of a man with a gun !
But cheer up, the joyof camping is not altogether ruined,
because we do not have to fight all day to save our scalps
from being exported, or even because the grizzly bears refuse
to chase us up a tree, and the mountain lions or "painters"
decline to drop from an overhanging limb on our backs.
Remember that all things come to him who will but wait:
that is, if he works for these things while he is doing the
waiting. The Chief has spent his time and energy for the
last thirty odd years hammering away at two ideas : the big
outdoors for the boys, and Americanism for all the people.
Thank the Lord, he has lived long enough to see the boys
stampede for the open and the people for Americanism.
Because of the stampede for the open, in which people
of all ages have joined, there are so many kinds of camps
nowadays: scout camps, soldier camps, training camps, recre-
ation camps,girls' camps and boys' camps, that it is somewhat
difficult for a writer to tell what to do in order to "Be Pre-
pared." There are freight car side-track camps, gypsy wagon
camps, houseboat camps, old-fashioned camp-meeting camps
and picnic camps; the latter dot the shores of New Jersey,
the lake sides at Seattle, and their tents are mingled with
big black boulders around Spokane; you will find them on the
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP 169
shores of Devil's Lake, North Dakota, and in the few groves
that are back of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
But such camps have little attraction for the real hard-
boiled camper, and have no better claim to being the real
thing than the more or less grand palaces built in the woods,
camouflaged outside with logs or bark, and called "camps" by
their untruthful owners ; such people belittle the name of camp
and if they want to be honest they should stick to the bungling
bungalow but wait a minute even that is far-fetched; the
bungalow belongs in East India and looks as much like one
of these American houses as a corn-crib does like a church.
When we talk of camping we mean living under bark,
brush or canvas in the "howling wilderness," or as near a
howling wilderness as our money and time will permit us to
reach; in other words, we want a camp in the wildest
place we can find, except when we go to our own scout
camp, and even then we like it better if it is located in a wild,
romantic spot.
How TO GET READY FOR CAMP
There are some little personal things to which one should
give one's attention before starting on a long trip. If it is
going to be a real wild camping trip it is best to go to the
barber shop and get a good hair cut just before one starts.
Also one should trim one's nails down as close as comfort will
allow. Long nails, if they are well manicured, will do for the
drawing room and for the office, but in camp they have a
habit of turning back (Fig. 232) and gee willikens, how
they hurt ! Or they will split down into the quick (Fig. 233)
and that hurts some, too ! So trim them down snug and close;
do it before you start packing up your things, or you may
hurt your fingers while packing. But even before trimming
your nails
170 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Go TO YOUR DENTIST
And insist upon him making an examination of every tooth
in your head; a toothache is bad enough anywhere, goodness
knows, but a toothache away out in the woods with no help
in sight will provoke a saint to use expressions not allowed
by the Scout Manual. The Chief knows what he is talking
about he has been there ! He once rode over Horse Plains
alongside of a friend who had a bad tooth, and the friend was
a real saint ! His jaw was swelled out like a rubber balloon,
but he did not use one naughty word on the trip, notwith-
standing every jolt of that horse was like sticking a knife
in him.
The writer could not help it; he was thoughtlessly cruel
and he laughed at his friend's lugubrious expression Take
heed, do not be as cruel as was the writer, for sooner or later
you will pay for such thoughtless levity. It was only next
season, away up in the mountains of the British possessions
on the Pacific Coast, that the friend's turn came to laugh at
the author as the latter nursed an ulcerated tooth. Wow!
Wow! Wow!
Well, never mind the details, they are too painful to talk
about, but remember the lesson that they teach Go TO THE
DENTIST and get a clean bill of health on the tooth question
before you start for a lengthy camp.
A BUCKSKIN MAN'S POCKET
When we speak of his pocket that includes all of his
clothes, because on the inside of his coat, if he wears one,
are stuck an array of safety pins (Fig. 234), but usually the
pins are fastened onto his shirt. A safety pin is as useful to
a man in camp as is a hairpin to a woman, and a woman can
camp with no other outfit but a box of hairpins. One can
PERSONAL IFEMS
A BUCKSKIN'S POCKET
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP 173
use safety pins for clothespins when one's socks are drying at
night, one can use them to pin up the blankets and thus
make a sleeping-bag of them, or one can use them for the
purpose of temporarily mending rips and tears in one's
clothes. These are only a few of the uses of the safety pin
on the trail. After one has traveled with safety pins one
comes to believe that they are almost indispensable.
In one of the pockets there should be a lot of bachelor
buttons, the sort that you do not have to sew on to your
clothes, but which fasten with a snap, something like glove
buttons. There should be a pocket made in your shirt or
vest to fit your notebook (Fig. 244), and a part of it stitched
up to hold a pencil and a toothbrush. Your mother can do
this at home for you before you leave. Then you should
have a good jack-knife; I always carry my jack-knife in my
hip pocket. A pocket compass, one that you have tested
before starting on your trip, should lodge comfortably in one
of your pockets, and hitched in your belt should be your
noggin carved from a burl from a tree (Fig. 235) ; it should
be carried by slipping the toggle (Fig. 236) underneath the
belt. Also in the belt you should carry some whang strings
(Fig. 237) ; double the whang strings up so that the two ends
come together, tuck the loop through your belt until it comes
out at the other side, then put the two ends of the
string through the loop and the whang strings are fast but
easily pulled out when needed; whang strings are the same
as belt lashings. A small whetstone (Fig. 238) can find a
place somewhere about your clothes, probably in the other
hip pocket, and it is most useful, not only with which to
put an edge on your knife but also on your axe.
Inside the sweat band of your hat, or around the crown
on the outside of your hat, carry a gut leader with medium-
174 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
sized artificial flies attached, and around your neck knot a
big gaudy bandanna handkerchief (Fig. 239) ; it is a most use-
ful article; it can be used in which to carry your game, food
or duffel, or for warmth, or worn over the head for protection
from insects (Fig. 240). In the latter case put it on your
head under your hat and allow it to hang over your shoulders
like the havelock worn by the soldiers of '61.
Carry your belt axe thrust through your belt at your back
(Fig. 241), where it will be out of the way, not at your side
as you do on parade.
No camper, be he hunter, fisherman, scout, naturalist,
explorer, prospector, soldier or lumberman, should go into
the woods without a notebook and hard lead pencil (Fig. 242) .
Remember that notes made with a hard pencil will last longer
than those made with ink, and be readable as long as the
paper lasts.
Every scientist and every surveyor knows this and it
is only tenderfeet, who use a soft pencil and fountain pen
for making field notes, because an upset canoe will blur all
ink marks and the constant rubbing of the pages of the book
will smudge all soft pencil marks.
Therefore, have a pocket especially made (Fig. 244), so
that your notebook, pencil and fountain pen (Fig. 243), if
you insist upon including it will fit snugly with no chance
of dropping out; also make a separate pocket for your tooth-
brush which should be kept in an oil-skin bag (Fig. 243).
A piece of candle (Fig. 245) is not only a most convenient
thing with which to light a fire on a rainy day, but it has
ofttimes proved a life saver to Northern explorers benumbed
with the cold.
It is a comparatively easy thing to light a candle under
the shelter of one's hat or coat, even in a driving rain. When
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP 175
one's fingers are numb or even frosted, and with the candle
flame one can start a life-saving fire; so do not forget your
candle stub as a part of your pocket outfit.
In the black fly belt it is wise to add a bottle of fly dope
(Fig. 251) to one's personal equipment. If you make your
own fly dope have a slow fire and allow to simmer over it
3 oz. pine tar
2 oz. castor oil
1 oz. pennyroyal
or heat 3 oz. of pine tar with two oz. of olive oil and then
stir in 1 oz. of pennyroyal, 1 oz. of citronella, 1 oz. of creosote
and 1 oz. of camphor.
If you propose traveling where there are black flies and
mosquitoes, let your mother sew onto a pair of old kid gloves
some chintz or calico sleeves that will reach from your wrists
to above your elbow (Fig. 246), cut the tips of the fingers off
the gloves so that you may be able to use your hands handily,
and have an elastic in the top of the sleeve to hold them onto
your arm. Rigged thus, the black flies and mosquitoes can
only bite the ends of your fingers, and, sad to say, they will
soon find where the ends of the fingers are located.
A piece of cheese cloth, fitted over the hat to hang down
over the face, will protect that part of your anatomy from
insects (Fig. 246), but if they are not very bad use fly dope
(Fig. 251), and add a bottle of it to your pocket outfit. One
doesn't look pretty when daubed up with fly dope, but we
are in the woods for sport and adventure and not to look
pretty. Our vanity case has no lip stick, rouge or face powder;
it only possesses a toothbrush and a bottle of fly dope.
Certain times of year, when one goes camping in the
neighborhood of the trout brooks, one needs to BE PREPARED,
for one can catch more trout and enjoy fishing better if pro-
176
CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
tected against the attacks of the black flies, mosquitoes,
midges and "no-see-ums."
Anything swung by a strap across one's shoulder will in
time "cut" the shoulders painfully unless they are protected
by a pad (Fig. 246}/) . A few yards of mosquito netting or
cheese cloth occupies little space and is of little weight, but
is very useful as a protection at night. Bend a wand (Fig.
247) into a hoop and bind the ends together (Fig. 247A), with
safety pins; pin this in the netting and suspend the net from
its center by a stick (Fig. 248).
The black fly, C (Fig. 249) , is a very small hump-backed
pest, the young (larvae) (Fig. 249a) live in cold, clear running
water; Fig. 249b is the cocoon.
There are many kinds of mosquitoes; all of them are
Bolsheviks, and with the black flies and other vermin they
argue that since nature made them with blood suckers and
provided you with the sort of blood that they like, they have
an inherent right to suck your blood and they do it!
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP 177
But some mosquitoes are regular Huns and professional
germ carriers, and besides annoying one they skillfully insert
the germs of malaria and yellow fever into one's system.
The malaria mosquitoes are known as anopheles. The high-
brow name for the United States malaria distributor is
"Anopheles quadrimaculatus " (Fig. 250 F). It is only the
females that you need fear; drone bees do not sting and buck
mosquitoes do not bite.
Fig. 250d shows lower and upper side of the anopheles 's
egg. Fig. 250e is the wiggler or larvae of the anopheles;
the anopheles likes to let the blood run to its head, and any
careful observer will know him at a glance from his pose
while resting (Fig. 250g).
Of course, you will not need fly dope on the picnic grounds,
and you will not need your pocket compass on the turnpike
hike, and you will not need your jack-knife with which to
eat at the boarding house or hotel, but we Boy Scouts are
the real thing; we go to hotels and boarding houses and picnics
when we must, but not when we can find real adventure in
wilder places. We shout:
There is life in the roar of plunging streams,
There is joy in the campfire's blaze at night.
Hark! the elk bugles, the panther screams!
And the shaggy bison roll and fight.
Let your throbbing heart surge and bound,
List to the whoop of the painted Reds;
Pass the flapjacks merrily round
As the gray wolf howls in the river beds.
We weary of our cushions of rest;
God of our Fathers, give back our West.
What care we for luxury and ease?
Darn the tall houses, give us tall trees!
12
178 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
However crude these verses may be, the sentiment is
all right. But may be it will express our idea better if we do
not attempt rhyme. Suppose we try it this way
Listen to the whistle of the marmots;
The hooting of the barred owl, the bugling of the elk!
The yap, yap, yap of the coyote, the wild laugh of the loon;
The dismal howl of the timber wolf,
The grunting of the bull moose, the roaring of the torrent,
And the crashing thunder of the avalanche!
Ah, that's the talk; these are the words and sounds that
make the blood in one's veins tingle like ginger ale. Why do
all red-blooded men and real American boys like to hear
The crunching of the dry snow;
The flap, flap, flap of snowshoes;
The clinking of the spurs and bits;
The creaking of the saddle leather;
The breathing of the bronco;
The babbling of the rivulet;
The whisper of the pines.
The twitter of the birds.
And the droning of bees.
Why? Because in these sounds we get the dampness of the
moss, the almond-like odor of twin flowers, the burning dry-
ness of the sand, the sting of the frost, the grit of the rocks
and the tang of old mother earth! They possess the magic
power of suggestion. By simply repeating these words we
transport our souls to the wilderness, set our spirits free, and
we are once again what God made us; natural and normal
boys, listening to nature's great runes, odes, epics, lyrics,
poems, ballads and roundelays, as sung by God's own bards!
PACKING
When packing, remember that a partly filled bag (Fig.
252) is easy to pack, easy to carry on one's shoulders ; but a
tightly filled bag (Fig. 253) is a nuisance on the trail. When
268
MAKING A PACK
PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP 181
MAKING A PACK
To ship as baggage, fold the blankets lengthwise (Fig. 254),
place them in the middle of your tarpaulin or floor cloth
(Fig. 254); fold the cover over (Fig. 255), then tuck in the
ends and roll the package into a bundle and cinch (Figs.
255 and 256). A
SLEEPING-BAG
Can be improvised from one's blankets by the use of safety
pins (Fig. 257). A section of the bag (Fig. 258) shows how
the blankets are doubled. To make a
BACK PACK
Fold as in Fig. 259, then bend up the end as indicated by
Figs. 260 and 261, fold again, Fig. 262, then fold in the two
edges, Figs. 263 and 264, which show both sides of pack;
bend over the top, Figs. 265 and 266, and strap ready to
carry, Figs. 267 and 268. For a
BLANKET ROLL
Fold as in Fig. 269; bend in the ends and roll (Fig. 270).
Strap or lash the ends together (Fig. 271).
CHAPTER X
SADDLES
HOW TO CHOOSE A SADDLE
EVOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN SADDLE
BIRTH OF THE BLUFF FRONTED SADDLE
THE COWBOY AGE
8AWBUCK8 OR PACK SADDLES
STRAIGHT LEG AND BENT KNEE
NAMES OF PARTS OF SADDLE
CENTER FIRE AND DOUBLE CINCH
CHAPTER X
SADDLES
WE know that comparatively few of our boys take their
hikes on horseback, especially their camping hikes. But a
lot of their daddies and big brothers do take their horse, and
the pack horse on their hunting and fishing trips, and every
boy wants to know how to do the things his daddy knows
how to do. Besides all that, the author is aware of the fact
that the daddies and the uncles and the big brothers are
reading all the stuff he puts out for the boys. They are con-
stantly quoting to the author things that he has said to the
boys, so that now in writing a book for the boys he must
count them in.
CHOOSE A SADDLE THAT FITS
Everyone knows the misery of an ill-fitting shoe, and no
one in his right mind would think of taking a prolonged hike
in shoes that pinched his feet, but everybody does not know
that a saddle should fit the rider; an ill-fitting saddle can
cause almost as much discomfort as an ill-fitting shoe. The
best all-around sportsman's saddle in the world is the cowboy
saddle of the West. A writer in the Saturday Evening Post,
who has written a delightfully intelligent article on saddles,
in speaking of the Western cow-puncher's saddle, says:
"There are many good riders who have never thrown a
leg over any other sort of saddle, and for work on the plains
or in the mountains no man who has used one would ever
care for any other type. It is as much a distinct product of
this continent as is the bircb bark canoe or the American
axe or rifle."
185
186 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Like the cowboy hat, the diamond hitch and the lariat,
the cowboy saddle is evolved from the Spanish adaptation
of the Moorish saddle. The old-fashioned Spanish saddle
with the heavy wooden block stirrups, not the bent wood
stirrups, but the big stirrups made out of blocks of wood
(Fig. 273) ;such a saddle with stirrups of ten weighed over sixty
pounds. These saddles were garnished with silver and gold,
and the spurs that the rancheros wore had big wheels with
"bells" on them, and spikes longenough to goad the thick skin
of an elephant. I formerly possessed one of the picturesque
old saddles on which all the leather work was engraved by
hand, by the use of some tool like a graver, probably a sharp-
ened nail; consequently none of the designs was duplicated.
In the good old cow days there were two sorts of saddles :
the"California Center Fire" and the "Texas Double Chinch,"
and all those that I remember seeing had rather a short horn
at the bow with a very broad top sometimes covered with a
silver plate ; the seat was also much longer than it is to-day.
Fig. 272 shows a military saddle which is a modified cow-
boy saddle, and Fig. 274 shows a comparatively modern cow-
boy saddle. The up-to-date saddle of to-day has a bulge in
front, not shown on the diagram.
In the olden days there were no societies for the prevention
of cruelty to animals, and on the ranges horses were plenty;
therefore, when one of the long-haired plainsmen, with his
long rifle in front of him on the long saddle, and the heavy
Spanish-American trappings to the horse, killed the horse by
overwork, he simply took off his saddle and trappings, caught
another horse, mounted it and continued his journey; there
were plenty of horses why should he worry?
Later when the cowboy age came in, the cowboys them-
selves on the Southern ranges used the Spanish-American
PACK TRAIN OUTFIT
SADDLES 189
outfit; the only blessing the poor horse had was the blanket
under the saddle.
When the block wooden stirrups were abandoned and the
thinner oval stirrups adopted, the latter were protected by
long caps of leather, the dangling ends of which were silver
tipped. The cowboys themselves wore heavy leather breeches
called chaps (an abbreviation of the Spanish chaparejo).
Thus with the feet and legs protected they could ride through
the cactus plants and dash through the mesquite country
withoutfearof being pricked by the thorns,no matter what hap-
pened to the horse. Not only did this leather armor protect
them from thorns and branches, but it also prevented many a
broken leg resulting from kicks by burros, mules and horses.
The rolled coat or blanket, which the bronco busters on
the lower ranges in early times lashed across the horse in
front of their seat, is the thing from which the bucking roll
was evolved, and the buckskin bucking roll, we are told, is
the daddy of the swell or bulged front saddle now used.
The old-fashioned cowboy saddle has a narrow front, but
about two decades ago
THE VIDALIA SADDLE-TREE
Migrated slowly from California over the plains, and was the
first one to show the bulged front, and to change the narrow
bow of the cow saddle to the bluff bow of the saddle as used
to-day. It is claimed that while this protects the rider from
injuries more or less, it has a tendency not to give a
fellow the opportunity of as firm a grip with his legs as did
the old narrow bowed cowboy seat. Later, in Oregon, they
began to manufacture "incurved saddles," so that the rider's
legs could fit better under the front, and the Wyoming saddle
makers caught the idea, so that to-day the vanishing race of
190 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
cowboys are using saddles, which it would have taken a brave
man to straddle in the early days, not because the saddle is
dangerous but because it would have looked funny to the
old-time boys, and they would not have been slow in giving
expression to boisterous and discomforting merriment.
It is an odd thing, this law of growth or evolution, and it
is a law, and a fixed law, certain peculiarities go together;
for instance, if one goes systematically to work to produce
fan-tail pigeons, one finds that he is also producing pigeons
with feathered legs. The breeders have also discovered that
in producing a chicken with silky white feathers they unwill-
ingly produce a fowl with black meat. What has this got
to do with saddles? Only that the same law holds good here:
the more the front bulges in the saddle the more the horns
shrivel, developing a tendency to rake forward and upward;
the stirrups also dwindle in size. The saddle, which the
writer possessed, has stirrups made of iron rings covered with
leather and the caps were lined with sheep's wool. We read
that now the narrow half-round oval stirrup is a favorite
with the cow-punchers, which the cowboy uses with his foot
thrust all the way in so that the weight of the rider rests
upon the middle of the foot. This is as disturbing to the
European idea of "proper form" as was the Declaration of
Independence, but the Declaration of Independence has
proved its efficiency by its results; so also has it been proved
that for those who ride all day long the nearer they can come
to standing on their feet, and at the same time relieving the
feet of the total weight of the body byresting it on the saddle,
the easier it is to stay in the saddle for long stretches of time;
in other words, the more comfortable the saddle, the longer
one can occupy it without discomfort, and that is the reason
a saddle should fit the rider.
SADDLES 191
WITH WESTERN HORSES
One must use Western ways; remember the horses were
educated in the West if you were not, but it is not necessary
to use the cruel, old jaw-breaking Spanish bits with a ring on
them. I have one, but it only hangs on the studio wall as a
souvenir and a curious object of torture. But don't try a
straight bit on a Western horse; he may spit it out and laugh
at you; use the modern Western bits, saddles, and cinch
and you will not go far wrong. Of course
THE PACK HORSE
Is another proposition, for here you will need a pack sawbuck
saddle (Figs. 276, 277, 278 and 279) ; over this saddle you
can swing your two saddle bags, called alforjas (Fig. 283).
Fig. 284 is after Stewart Edward White's diagram, and shows
how the alforjas are lashed fast to the horse's back with a
latigo (Fig. 285). Fig. 280 is the lash rope which the man
above Fig. 284 is using. In Chapter VII we tell how to
throw the diamond hitch. Fig. 282 shows the cowboy favorite
cooking utensil, the old Dutch oven, and it is practically the
same model as the one once belonging to Abraham Lincoln.
A glance at the cross -section of the cover shows you how the
edges are dented in to hold the hot ashes heaped on top of it
when the bake oven is being used. Fig. 281 is a sketch of
two essentials for any sort of a trip : an axe and a frying pan.
Of course, one could write a whole book on horseback
work, saddles and pack saddles. The truth is that one could
write a whole book on any subject or any chapter in this book.
But my aim is to start you off right; I believe that the way
to learn to do a thing Is To Do IT, and not depend upon
your book knowledge. Therefore, when I write a book for
you boys, I do the best I know how to make you understand
192 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
what I am talking about, and to excite in your mind and heart
a desire to do the things talked of; you must remember, how-
ever, that no one ever could learn to skate from a school of
correspondence or a book, but one could gain a great deal
of useful knowledge about anything from a useful book,
knowledge that will be of great help when one is trying to do
the things treated of in the book.
I can tell you with the aid of diagrams how to pack a
blanket, and you can follow my diagrams and pack your
blanket; but in order to ride, skate, swim or dance, you must
gain the skill by practice. A book, however, can tell you the
names of the part of the things.
NAMES OF PARTS OF SADDLE
For instance (Fig. 272), T is the saddle-tree; a good
saddle-tree is made of five stout pieces of cottonwood which
are covered with rawhide ; when the rawhide shrinks it draws
the pieces together more tightly and perfectly than they could
be fastened by tongue and groove, glue, screws or nails; in
fact, it makes one solid piece of the whole. The horn is
fastened on to the tree by its branched legs, and covered with
leather or braided rawhide. The shanks are covered first and
then attached to the tree and the thongs are tacked to the
saddle-tree, after which the bulged cover is fitted on. When
a good saddle-tree is finished it is as much one piece as is-
the pelvis of a skeleton.
P is the pummel, A is the cantle, S is the side bar of the
saddle-tree, C is a quarter strap side, B is the quarter strap
cantle, E is the stirrup buckle, F is the outer strap safe, G is
the cincha ring, H is the cincha cover; the cincha strap is-
unlettered but it connects the cincha ring with the quarter
strap ring D; J is the cap or leather stirrup cover, L is the.
SADDLES 193
wooden stirrup, K is the horsehair cincha. Fig. 275 is one of
the saddle pads to fit under the saddle. On Fig. 274M is the
horn, N the cantle, O the whang leather, which your saddler
will call tie strings.
You will note that in Fig. 274 there are two cinchas, and
in Fig. 272 but one. You will also note that in Fig. 274 the
skirt of your saddle seems to be double, or even triple, and
the stirrup rigging comes on top of the skirt, and this is made
up of the back jockey, front jockey, and side jockey or seat.
Now then, you know all about horseback; there is nothing
more I can tell you about the pack horse, but remember
not to swell up with pride because of your vast knowledge,
and try to ride an outlaw horse with an Eastern riding school
bit. But acknowledge yourself a tenderfoot, a short horn, a
shavetail, a Cheechako, and ask your Western friends to
let you have a horse that knows all the tricks of his trade,
but who has a compassionate heart for a greenhorn. There
are lots of such good fellows among the Western horses, and
they will treat you kindly. I know it because I have tried
them, and as I said before, I make no boast of being a horse-
man myself. When I get astride of a Western horse I lean
over and whisper in his ear, and confess to him just how green
I am, and then put him on his honor to treat me white, and
so far he has always done so.
18
CHAPTER XI
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE
'WARE SINGLE TREES OR SMALL GROUPS OF TREES
SAFETY IN WOODS OR FOREST
KEEP TOUR EYES OPEN FOR GOOD CAMP SITES
CROSS STREAMS WHILE CROSSING IS GOOD
KEEP TO WINDWARD OF MOSQUITO HOLE3
'WARE ANTS' NESTS
HOW TO TELL WHEN WIND BLOWS
EVOLUTION OF THE SHACK
HOW TO SWEEP
HOW TO MAKE CAMP BEDS
HOW TO DIVIDE CAMP WORK
TENT PEGS
HOW TO PITCH A TENT SINGLE-HANDED
HOW TO DITCH A TENT
USE OF SHEARS, GINS AND TRIPODS
CHAPTER XI
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE
WHEN choosing a camp site, if possible, choose a forest
or grove of young trees. First, because of the shade they
give you; secondly, because they protect you from storms,
and thirdly, because they protect you from lightning.
Single trees, or small groups of trees in open pastures are
exceedingly dangerous during a thunder storm ; tall trees on
the shores of a river or lake are particularly selected as targets
for thunder bolts by the storm king. But the safest place
in a thunder storm, next to a house, is a forest. The reason
of this is that each wet tree is a lightning rod silently conduct-
ing the electric fluid without causing explosions. Do not
camp at the foot of a very tall tree, or an old tree with dead
branches on it, for a high wind may break off the branches
and drop them on your head with disastrous results; the big
tree itself may fall even when there is no wind at all.
Once I pitched my camp near an immense tree on the
Flathead Indian Reservation. A few days later we returned
to our old camp. As we stopped and looked at the site where
our tents had been pitched we looked at each other solemnly,
but said nothing, for there, prone upon the ground, lay that
giant veteran tree!
But young trees do not fall down, and if they did they
could not create the havoc caused by the immense bole of the
patriarch of the forest when it comes crashing to the earth.
A good scout must "Be Prepared," and to do so must remem-
ber that safety comes first, and too close neighborhood to a
big tree is often unsafe.
197
198 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Remember to choose the best camp site that can be found ;
do not travel all day, and as night comes on stop at any old
place ; but in the afternoon keep your eyes open for likely spots.
Halt early enough to give time to have everything snug
and in order before dark.
In selecting camping ground, look for a place where good
water and wood are handy. Choose a high spot with a gentle
slope if possible ; guard your spring or water hole from animals,
for if the day is hot your dog will run ahead of the party and
jump into the middle of the spring to cool himself, and horses
and cattle will befoul the water.
If camping in the Western states on the shores of a shallow
stream which lies along the trail, cross the stream before
making camp or you may not be able to cross it for days.
A chinook wind suddenly melting the snows in the distant
mountains, or a cloud-burst miles and miles up stream, may
suddenly send down to you a dangerous flood even in the
dry season. I have known of parties being detained
for days by one of these sudden roaring floods of water,
which came unannounced, the great bole of mud, sticks and
logs sweeping by their camp and taking with it everything
in its path.
A belt of dense timber between camp and a pond or swamp
will act as a protection from mosquitoes. As a rule, keep to
windward of mosquito holes ; the little insects travel with the
wind, not against it. 'Ware ant hills, rotten wood infested
with ants, for they make poor bedfellows and are a nuisance
where the food is kept.
A bare spot on the earth, where there are no dry leaves,
is a wind-swept spot; where the dust-covered leaves lie in
heaps the wind does not blow. A windy place is generally
free from mosquitoes, but it is a poor place to build a fire;
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 199
a small bank is a great protection from high wind and twisters.
During one tornado I had a camp under the lee of a small
elevation; we only lost the fly of one tent out of a camp of
fifty or more, while in more exposed places nearby great
trees were uprooted and houses unroofed.
It must not be supposed that the camping season is past
because the summer vacation is over. The real camping
season begins in the Wild Rice Moon, that is, September.
Even if school or business takes all our time during the week,
we still have week-ends in which to camp. Saturday has
always been a boys' day. Camping is an American institu-
tion, because America affords the greatest camping ground
in the world.
The author is seated in his own log house, built by him-
self, on the shores of Big Tink Pond. Back of him there is
pitched a camp of six rows of tents, which are filled with a
joyful, noisy crowd of youngsters.
It is here in the mountains of Pike County, Pennsylvania,
where the bluestone is stratified in horizontal layers, that one
may study the camp from its very birth to the latest and
finished product of this century.
Everywhere in these mountains there are outcroppings
of the bluestone, and wherever the face of a ridge of this
stone is exposed to the elements, the rains or melting snows
cause the water to drip from the earth on top of the stone and
trickle down over the face of the cliff. Then, when a cold
snap turns the moisture into ice in every little crack in the
rock, the expansion of the ice forces the sides of the cracks
apart at the seams in the rock until loose pieces from the
undersides slide off, leaving small spaces over which the rock
projects. The little caves thus made make retreats for white-
footed mice and other small mammals, chipmunks and cave
200 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
rats. When these become deeper they may become dens in
which snakes sleep through the winter.
The openings never grow smaller, and in course of time
are large enough for the coon, then the fox, and in olden
times they made dens for wolves and panthers, or a place
where the bear would "hole" up for the winter.
Time is not considered by Dame Nature; she has no trains
to catch, and as years and centuries roll by the little openings
in the bluestone become big enough to form a shelter for a
crouching man, and the crouching man used them as a place
in which to camp when the Norsemen in their dragon ships
were braving the unknown ocean. When Columbus, with
his toy boats, was blundering around the W T est Indies, the
crouching man was camping under the bluestone ledges of
old Pike County, Pennsylvania. There he built his camp-
fires and cooked his beaver and bear and deer and elk, using
dishes of pottery of his own make and ornamented with crude
designs traced in the clay before the dishes were baked.
We know all this to be true history, because within a
short walk of the author's log house there are overhanging
ledges of bluestone, and underneath these ledges we, our-
selves, have crouched and camped, and with sharp sticks
have dug up the ground from the layer of earth covering the
floor rock. And in this ground we have found bits of pottery,
the split bones of different wild animals split so that the
savage camper might secure the rich marrow from the inside
of the bones arrowheads, bone awls and needles, tomahawks,
the skulls of beaver and spearheads; all these things have
been found under the overhanging bluestone.
Wherever such a bluestone ledge exists, one may make a
good camp by closing up the front of the cave with sticks
against the overhanging cliff and thatching the sticks with
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 201
browse or balsam boughs, thus making the simplest form of
a lean-to. The Indians used such shelters before the advent
of the white man; Daniel Boone used them when he first
visited Kentucky and, in spite of the great improvement in
tents, the overhanging ledge is still used in Pennsylvania by
fishermen and hunters for overnight camps.
But if one uses such a site for his overnight camp or his
week's-end camp, one should not desecrate the ancient abode
by introducing under its venerable roof, modern up-to-date
cooking and camp material, but should exercise ingenuity
and manufacture, as far as possible, the conveniences and
furniture necessary for the camp.
Since the author is writing this in a camp in the woods,
he will tell the practical things that confront him, even though
he must mention a white man's shop broom.
In the first place, the most noticeable defect in the tender-
foot's work is the manner in which he handles his broom and
wears the broom out of shape. A broom may be worn to a
stub when properly used, but the lopsided broom is no use
at all because the chump who handled it always used it one
way until the broom became a useless, distorted, lopsided
affair, with a permanent list to starboard or port, as the case
may be.
To sweep properly is an art, and every all-around outdoor
boy and man should learn to sweep and to handle the broom
as skillfully as he does his gun or axe. In the first place, turn
the broom every time you notice a tendency of the latter to
become one-sided, then the broom will wear to a stub and
still be of use. In the next place, do not swing the broom up
in the air with each sweep and throw the dust up in the clouds,
but so sweep that the end of the stroke keeps the broom near
the floor or ground
202 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Now a word about making beds. In all books on wood-
craft you are directed to secure balsam boughs from which
to make your beds, and there is no better forest bedding than
the fragrant balsam boughs, but unfortunately the mountain
goose, as the hunters call it, from which you pluck the feathers
to make your camp bed, is not to be found in all localities.
A bag filled with dry leaves, dry grass, hay or straw will
make a very confortable mattress; but we are not always
in the hay and straw belt and dry leaves are sometimes
difficult to secure; a scout, however, must learn to make a bed
wherever he happens to be. If there happens to be a swale
nearby where brakes and ferns grow luxuriantly, one can
gather an armful of these, and with them make a mattress.
The Interrupted fern, the Cinnamon, the Royal fern, the
Lady fern, the Marsh fern and all the larger ferns are useful
as material.
A camping party should have their work so divided that
each one can immediately start at his own particular job
the moment a halt is made. One chops up the firewood and
sees that a plentiful supply of firewood is always on hand;
usually he carries the water. One makes camp, puts up the
tents, clears away the rubbish, fixes the beds, etc., while a
third attends strictly to kitchen work, preparing the meals,
and washing up the dishes.
With the labor divided in this manner, things run like
clock work and camp is always neat and tidy. Roughing it
is making the best of it; only a slob and a chump goes dirty
and has a sloppy -looking camp. The real old time veteran
and sourdough is a model of neatness and order. But a clean,
orderly camp is much more important than a clean-faced
camper. Some men think so much of themselves and their
own personal cleanliness that they forget their duty to the
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 203
others. One's duty is about in this proportion: first to the
animals if any, secondly to the men, and lastly to oneself.
Before pitching your tent, clear out a space for it to occupy ;
pick up the stones, rubbish and sticks, rake off the ground
with a forked stick. But do not be rude to your brother,
the ground pine ; apologize for disturbing it ; be gentle with
the fronds of the fern; do not tear the trailing arbutus vine
up by its roots, or the plant of the almond scented twin
flowers; ask pardon of the thallus of the lichen which you
are trampling under your feet. Why? O! well because
they had first right to the place, and because such little civili-
ties to the natural objects around you put your own mind
in accord with nature, and make camping a much more
enjoyable affair.
When you feel you are sleeping on the breast of your
mother, the earth, while your father, the sky, with his millions
of eyes is watching over you, and that you are surrounded by
your brother, the plants, the wilderness is no longer lonesome
even to the solitary traveler.
Another reason for taking this point of view is that it
has a humanizing effect and tends to prevent one from
becoming a wilderness Hun and vandal. It also not only
makes one hesitate to hack the trees unnecessarily, but
encourages the camper to take pride in leaving a clean trail.
As my good friend, John Muir, said to me: "The camping
trip need not be the longest and most dangerous excursion
up to the highest mountain, through the deepest woods or
across the wildest torrents, glaciers or deserts, in order to
be a happy one; but however short or long, rough or smooth,
calm or stormy, it should be one in which the able, fearless
camper sees the most, learns the most, loves the most and
leaves the cleanest track; whose camp grounds are never
204 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
marred by anything unsightly, scarred trees or blood spots
or bones of animals."
It is not the object of this book to advertise, or even
advise the use of any particular type of outfitting apparatus
other than the plain, everyday affairs with which all are
familiar. What we want to do is to start the reader right,
then he may make his own choice, selecting an outfit to suit
his own taste. There are no two men, for instance, who will
sing the praise of the same sort of a tent, but there is perhaps
no camper who has not used, and been very comfortable in,
the old style wall tent. It has its disadvantages, and so
has a house, a shack or a shanty. As a rule, the old wall
tent is too heavy to carry with comfort and very difficult for
one man to pitch alone unless one knows how.
TENT PEGS
Are necessary for almost any kind of a tent; you can buy
them at the outfitter's and lose them on the way to camp;
they even have iron and steel tent pegs to help make camping
expensive, and to scatter through the woods. But if you are
a real sourdough you will cut your own tent pegs, shaped
according to circumstances and individual taste. Fig. 286
shows the two principal kinds : the fork and the notched tent
pegs. For the wall tents one will need a ridge pole (Fig. 288),
and two forked sticks, or rods, to support the ridge pole;
the forks on these should be snubbed off close so that they
will not thrust themselves up against the canvas on the
top of the tent and endanger the fabric; these poles should
be of a proper height ; otherwise if the poles are too long, the
tent will not touch the ground at all, or if the poles are too
short, the tent will wrinkle all over the ground like a fellow's
trousers when his suspenders break.
l
r.
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 207
See that the ground is comparatively level, but with a
slant in one direction or another so that water will drain off
in case of rain. Never, for instance, pitch your tent in a
hollow or basin of ground, unless you want to wake up some
night slopping around in a pool of water. Do not pitch your
tent near a standing dead tree; it is liable to fall over and
crush you in the night. Avoid camping under green trees
with heavy dead branches on them. Remember the real
camper always has an eye to safety first, not because he is a
coward, but because the real camper is as brave a person as
you will find anywhere, and no real brave person believes
in the carelessness which produces accidents. Do not pitch
your tent over protruding stones which will make stumbling-
blocks for you on which to stub your toes at night, or torture
you when you spread your blankets over them to sleep. Use
common sense, use gumption. Of course, we all know that
it hurts one's head to think, but we must all try it, nevertheless,
if we are going to live in the big outdoors.
At a famous military academy the splendid cavalrymen
gave a brilliant exhibition of putting up wall tents ; it required
four men to put up each tent. Immediately following this
some of the scouts took the same tents, with one scout to
each tent, and in less time than the cavalrymen took for the
same job, the twelve year old boys, single-handed, put up the
same tents.
How TO PITCH AND DITCH SINGLE-HANDED
Spread out your tent all ready to erect, put your ridge
pole and your two uprights in place, and then drive some
tent stakes, using the flat of your axe with which to drive
them, so that you will not split the tops of the stakes (Fig.
287) ; drive the two end stakes A and B (Fig. 289) at au
208 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
angle to the ends of the tent. After the tent stakes are arranged
in a row, like the ones in Fig. 289, adjust the forks of the
uprights two niches from the ends of the ridge pole (Fig. 288)
then make fast the two extreme end guy ropes A and B to
the tent pegs; the others are unimportant for the present
after that is done, raise one tent pole part of the way up (Fig.
290), then push the other part of the way up (Fig. 291);
gradually adjust these things until the strain is even upon
your guy ropes. You will now find that your tent will stand
alone, because the weight is pulling against your guy ropes
(Fig. 292). This will hold your tent steady until you can
make fast the guy ropes to the pegs upon the other side, not
too tightly, because you need slack to straighten up your
tent poles.
Next see that the back guy pole is perpendicular, after
which it is a very easy matter to straighten up the front pole
and adjust the guy rope so that it will stand stiff as in Fig. 293.
Remember, when you are cutting the ridge poles and the
uprights, to select fairly straight sticks, and they should be
as free as possible from rough projections, which might
injure the canvas; also the poles should be as stiff as possible
so as not to sag or cause the roof to belly.
DITCHING
Just as soon as your tent is erected and you feel like
resting, get busy on ditching; no matter how dry the weather
may be at the time, put a ditch around the tent that will
drain the water away from your living place. There is no
positive rule for digging this ditch; it varies according to
surface of ground, but the gutter should be so made that
the water will run away from the tents and not to it, or stand
around it (Fig. 294). Fig. 295 shows how to make a tent by
14
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 211
folding a floor cloth or piece of tarpaulin; of course it must
have a tent pole to support the top, and the floor pieces may
be drawn together in the center. Make one out of a piece
of writing paper and you will learn how to do it, because
although the paper is small, the folds would be just the same
as if it was as large as a church.
In sandy or soft ground it often taxes one's ingenuity to
supply anchors for one's tent; an anchor is a weight of some
sort to which the guy ropes may be attached. Fig 296 shows
a tent anchored by billets of wood; these are all supposed
to be buried in the ground as in Fig. 308, and the ground
trampled down over and above them to keep them safe in
their graves. Fig. 297 shows the first throw hi the anchor
hitch, Fig. 298 the second throw, and Fig. 299 the complete
hitch for the anchor. Fig. 303 shows the knot by which the
anchor rope is tied to the main line. Figs. 300, 301 and 302
show the detail of tying this knot, which is simplicity itself,
when you know how, like most knots. Fig. 303 shows the
anchor hitch complete.
Stones, bundles of fagots; or bags of sand all make useful
anchors; Fig. 304 is a stone; Fig. 305 are half billets of wood,
Fig. 306 shows fagots of wood, Fig. 307 a bag of sand. All
may be used to anchor your tent in the sands or loose ground.
SHEARS, GINS OR TRIPODS
Are the names used for different forms of rustic supports for
the tents. Fig. 312 shows the ordinary shears, Fig. 313 shows
the tent supported by shears; you will also note that the
guy ropes for the tent (Fig. 313) are made fast to a rod
instead of to the pegs in the ground. This has many advan-
tages, because of the tendency of the rope to tighten or shrink
whenever it becomes wet, which often makes it necessary
212 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
for a fellow to get up in the night to adjust the guy ropes and
redrive the pegs. When the rain is pouring down, the thunder
crashing and the lightning flashing, it is no fun to go poking
around on the wet ground in one's nightie in order that the
tent pegs may not be pulled out of the ground by the shrink-
ing ropes, and the cold mass of wet canvas allowed to fall
upon one's head. It is always necessary to loosen and tighten
the guy ropes according to the weather; naturally the longer
the guy ropes are the more they will shrink and the more they
will stretch as the weather varies. To prevent this, lay a rod
over the ends of the guy rope between the pegs and the tent
(Fig. 316A) and it will be an automatic adjuster. When
the ropes are dry and stretch, the weight of this pole will hold
them down and keep them taut; when the guy ropes shrink
they will lift the pole, but the latter will keep the tension on
the ropes and keep them adjusted. The arrangement of
Fig. 313 has the advantage of making a clothes rack for your
bed clothes when you wish to air them, while the weight of
the suspended log keeps the tension on the ropes equalized.
Fig. 314 shows the shears made by the use of forked sticks.
Figs. 315 and 318 show the ridge pole supported by shears,
and the ridge poles supported by forked sticks ; the advantage
of the shears in Fig. 315 is that it gives a clear opening to the
tent. Fig. 316 shows an exterior ridge pole supported by
shears to which the top of the tent is made fast. Fig. 317
is the same without the tent. Fig. 318 shows the famous
Vreeland tent; in this case the ridge pole is supported by a
crotched upright stick, but may be equally well supported
by the shears as in Fig. 315. Fig. 319 shows the gin or tripod
made by binding the three sticks together. Fig. 320 shows
the same effect made by the use of the forked sticks; these
are useful in pitching wigwams or tepees.
COMMON TENTS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY
f-
P
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a
I
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE 215
Fig. 309 shows some of the ordinary forms of tents, the
wall tent, the Baker tent and the canoe tent. Fig. 310 shows
a tent with a fly extending out in front, thus giving the piazza
or front porch. In the background is a tepee tent. Fig. 311
shows two small Baker tents in the background, and the
Dan Beard tent in the foreground. These comprise the
principal forms, but the open-front tents to-day are much in
vogue with the campers. A mosquito netting in front will
keep out the insects and allow the air to come in freely,
whereas the old-fashioned way of closing the tent flap stops
circulation of air and makes conditions as bad as that of a
closed room in a big house, and the air becomes as foul as it
did in the little red school houses and does now in the Courts
of Justice, jails and other places of entertainment.
CHAPTER XII
AXE AND SAW
OUR GREATEST AXEMAN
IMPORTANCE OF THE AXE
WHAT KIND OF AXE TO USE
HOW TO SWING AN AXE
HOW TO REMOVE A BROKEN AXE HANDLE
HOW TO TIGHTEN THE HANDLE IN THE HEAD
ACCIDENTS
THE BRAINS OF AN AXE
ETIQUETTE OF THE AXE
HOW TO SHARPEN AN AXE
HOW TO "FALL" A TREE
HOW TO SWAMP
HOW TO MAKE A BEETLE OR MALL
HOW TO HARDEN GREEN WOOD
HOW TO MAKE A FIREWOOD HOD
HOW TO MAKE A CHOPPING BLOCK
THE PROPER WAT TO CHOP
HOW TO MAKE SAWBUCKS FOR LOGS
HOW TO USE A PARBUCKLE
HOW TO SPLIT A LOG
HOW TO USE A SAWPIT
CHAPTER XII
AXE AND SAW
To all good, loyal Americans, the axe is almost a sacred
tool, for our greatest American, Abraham Lincoln, was one
of our greatest axemen. When he was President of the United
States he used to exercise by chopping wood, then laughingly
extended his arm holding the axe in a horizontal position by
the extreme end of the handle. This he would do without a
tremor of the muscle or movement of the axe some stunt!
Try it and see if you can do it !
The American Indians, and practically all savages, used
stone and bone implements, and with such implements the
Redmen were wont to build the most beautiful of all crafts,
the birch bark canoe. If an American Indian produced such
wonders with implements made of stones, flint and bones, a
good red-blooded American boy should be able to do the
same with a sharp axe; therefore it should not only be his
pleasure but his duty to learn to be a skillful axeman.
Brother Jonathan, the imaginary character who repre-
sented the American people, was almost invariably pictured
with a jack-knife whittling a stick, because all early Americans
were skillful in the use of the jack-knife, but they were also
skilled in the use of the axe, and every boy of twelve years
of age knew how to handle an axe.
IMPORTANCE OF THE AXE
While lecturing at the Teachers' College, Columbia Uni-
versity, I was asked to give a demonstration of the use of the
axe. It then and there suddenly occurred to me that if these
219
220 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
grown men needed and asked for instructions in the use of
this typical American tool, a talk on the same subject would
be welcomed by the American boys.
The axe is the one necessary tool of the woodsmen; the
axe occupies the same position to the wilderness man that
the chest of tools does to the carpenter; with the axe the
woodsman cuts his firewood; with the axe he makes his traps;
with the axe he splits the shakes, clapboards, slabs and
shingles from the balsam tree, or other wood which splits
readily, and with the shakes, clapboards, or slabs he
shingles the roof of his hogan, his barabara, or makes the
framework to his sod shack or his dugout, or with them
builds the foundation of a bogken. With his axe he cuts
the birch for his birch bark pontiac, for his lean-to or his log
cabin. Without an axe it is most difficult for one to even
build a raft or to fell a tree to get the birch bark for one's
canoe, or to "fall " the tree to make a dugout canoe. A tree
may be felled by fire, as the Indians of old used to "fall"
them, but this takes a wearisome time.
THE KIND OF AXE TO USB
When bound for a real camp, take along with you a real
axe. Never take an axe which is too large and heavy for
you to swing with comfort. It is also best to avoid an axe
which is too light, as with such a tool you must use too much
labor to cut the wood. You should select your own axe
according to your strength. Pick up the axe, go through the
motions of chopping and see if it feels right, if its balance
suits you; hold up the axe and sight along the top of the
handle as you would along the barrel of a gun to see that
your handle is not warped.
AXE AND SAW 223
Axes may be had of weight and size to suit one's taste.
In New England they use short-handled axes which are not
popular in the woods. The axe handles should be well
seasoned, second growth hickory; a % axe has a 19-inch
handle and weighs two pounds. A ^ axe has a 24-inch
handle and weighs two and a half pounds. A % axe has a
28-inch handle and weighs three pounds. A full axe has a
36-inch handle and weighs five pounds.
Probably the best axe for camp work, when you must
carry the axe on your back, is one with a 30-inch second
growth hickory handle, weight about two and three-quarter
pounds, or somewhere between two and three pounds. A
light axe of this kind will cut readily and effectively provided
it has a slender bit; that is, that it does not sheer off too
bluntly towards the cutting edge. When you look at the
top of such an axe and it appears slender and not bulky,
it will cut well and can be wielded by a boy and is not too
light for a man (Fig. 322).
Fig. 321 shows the long-handled Hudson Bay axe used
much in the North country. It is made after the tomahawk
form to save weight, but the blade is broad, you notice, to
give a wide cutting edge. The trouble with this axe is that
it is too light for satisfactory work. Fig. 323 shows a belt
axe of a modified tomahawk shape, only three of which are
in existence; one was in the possession of the late Colonel
Roosevelt, one in the possession of a famous English author,
and one in the possession of the writer. These axes were
made for the gentlemen to whom they were presented by the
President of a great tool works; they are made of the best
gray steel and are beautiful tools. Fig. 324 is an ordinary
belt axe practically the same as those used by the Boy Scouts.
When it was proposed to arm the Boy Scouts with guns, the
224 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
writer put in strenuous objections and suggested belt axes
in place of guns ; the matter of costume and arms was finally
referred to him as a committee of one. The uniform was
planned after that of the Scouts of the Boy Pioneers of Amer-
ica, and the belt axe adopted is the same as that carried by
the Scouts of the Sons of Daniel Boone, which axes are mod-
elled after Daniel Boone 's own tomahawk. Fig. 325 is a
very heavy axe.
A WORD ABOUT SWINGING THE AXE
Grasp the axe with the left hand, close to the end of the
handle, even closer than is shown in the diagram (Fig. 326) ;
with the right hand grasp the handle close to the head of the
axe, then bring the axe up over your shoulder and as you
strike the blow, allow the right hand to slide down naturally
(Fig. 327), close to the left hand; learn to reverse, that is,
learn to grasp the lower end of the handle with the right hand
and the left hand near the top, so as to swing the axe from the
left shoulder down, as easily as from the right shoulder.
To be a real axeman, a genuine dyed-in-the-wool, blown-in-
the-glass type, each time you make a stroke with the axe
you must emit the breath from your lungs with a noise like
Huh ! That, you know, sounds very professional and will duly
impress the other boys when they watch you chop, besides
which it always seems to really help the force of the blow.
How TO REMOVE A BROKEN AXE HANDLE
It was from a colored rail splitter from Virginia, who
worked for the writer, that the latter learned how to burn
out the broken end of the handle from the axe head. Bury
the blade of your axe in the moist earth and build a fire over
AXE AND SAW 225
the protruding butt (Fig. 328) ; the moist earth will prevent
the heat from spoiling the temper of your axe blade while
the heat from the fire will char and burn the wood so that it
can easily be removed.
If you are using a double-bitted axe, that is, one of those
very useful but villainous tools with two cutting edges, and
the handle breaks off, make a shallow trench in the dirt, put
the moist soil over each blade, leaving a hollow in the middle
where the axe handle comes and build your fire over this
hollow (Fig. 329).
To TIGHTEN THE AXE HEAD
If your axe handle is dry and the head loosens, soak it
over night and the wood will swell and tighten the head.
Scoutmaster Fitzgerald of New York says, ' 'Quite a number
of scouts have trouble with the axe slipping off the helve
and the first thing they do is to drive a nail which only tends
to split the helve and make matters worse. I have discovered
a practical way of fixing this. You will note that a wire
passes over the head of the axe in the helve in the side view.
Then in the cross-section in the copper wire is twisted and a
little staple driven in to hold it in place." This may answer
for a belt axe but the hole in the handle will weaken it and
would not be advisable for a large axe (Fig. 330).
ACCIDENTS
We have said that the axe is a chest of tools, but it is a
dangerous chest of tools. While aboard a train coming from
one of the big lumber camps, the writer was astonished to
find that although there were but few sick men aboard, there
were many, many wounded men in the car and none, that he
15
226 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
could find, wounded by falling trees; all were wounded by the
axe itself or by fragments of knots and sticks flying from
blows of the axe and striking the axeman in the eyes or
other tender places.
You MUST SUPPLY THE BRAINS
I have often warned my young friends to use great care
with firearms, because firearms are made for the express
purpose of killing. A gun, having no brains of its own, will
kill its owner, his friends, his brother or sister, mother or
father, just as quickly and as surely as it will kill a moose, a
bear or a panther. Therefore it is necessary for the gunner
to supply the brains for his gun.
The same is true with the axeman. Edged tools are made
for the express purpose of cutting, and they will cut flesh
and bone as quickly and neatly as they will cut wood, unless
the user is skillful in the use of his tool; that is, unless he
supplies the brains which the tools themselves lack.
So you see that it is " up to you " boys to supply the brains
for your axes, and when you do that, that is, when you
acquire the skill in the use, and judgment in the handling,
you will avoid painful and may be dangerous or fatal acci-
dents, and at the same time you will experience great joy in
the handling of your axe. Not only this but you will acquire
muscle and health in this most vigorous and manly exercise.
We are not telling all this to frighten the reader but to
instil into his mind a proper respect for edged tools, especially
the axe.
ETIQUETTE OF THE AXE
1. An axe to be respected must be sharp and no one
who has any ambition to be a pioneer, a sportsman or a
scout, should carry a dull axe, or an axe with the edge
AXE AND SAW
227
nicked like a saw blade. It may interest the reader to
know that the pencil I am using with which to make these
notes was sharpened with my camp axe.
2. No one but a duffer and a chump will use another man's
axe without that other man's willing permission.
3. It is as bad form to ask for the loan of a favorite axe
as it is to ask for the loan of a sportsman's best gun or pet
fishing rod or toothbrush.
AXES AND SHEATHS
4. To turn the edge or to nick another man's axe is a
very grave offense.
5. Keep your own axe sharp and clean, do not use it to
cut any object lying on the ground where there is danger of
the blade of the axe going through the object and striking a
stone ; do not use it to cut roots of trees or bushes for the same
reason. Beware of knots in hemlock wood and in cold weather
beware of knots of any kind.
When not in use an axe should have its blade sheathed
in leather (Figs. 331, 332, 333 and 334), or it should be struck
228 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
into a log or stump (Fig. 335). It should never be left upon
the ground or set up against a tree to endanger the legs and
feet of the camper. Fig. 341 shows how a firewood hod is
made and used.
How TO SHARPEN YOUR AXE
On the trail we have no grindstones, and often have re-
course to a file with which to sharpen our axe; sometimes we
use a whetstone for the purpose. New axes are not always
as sharp as one would wish; in that case if we use a grind-
stone to put on an edge we must be sure to keep the grind-
stone wet hi the first place, and in the second place we must
be careful not to throw the edge of the blade out of line.
When this occurs it will cause a "binding strain" on the
blade which tends to stop the force of the blow. If the edges
are at all out of line, the probabilities are one will knock a
half moon out of the blade in the first attempt to cut frozen
timber. The best axe in the world, with an edge badly out
of line, cannot stand the strain of a blow on hard frozen
wood. While grinding the axe take a sight along the edge
every once in a while to see if it is true.
THE BEST TIME TO Cur OR PRUNE TREES
Is when the sap is dormant, which I will explain for my
younger readers is that time of year when the tree is not
full of juice. The reason for this is that when the sap or
juice is in the wood when cut, it will ferment, bubble and
fizzle the same as sweet cider or grape juice will ferment,
and the fermentation will take all the "life" out of the
lumber and give it a tendency to decay; again to translate
for my younger readers, such wood will rot quicker than wood
cut at the proper season of the year.
AXE AND SAW 231
With pine trees, however, this is not always the case,
because the pitchy nature of the sap of the pine prevents it
from fermenting like beech sap; in fact, the pitch acts as a
preservative and mummifies, so to speak, the wood. Pine
knots will last for a hundred years lying in the soft, moist
ground and for aught I know, longer, because they are fat
with pitch and the pitch prevents decay.
Beech when cut in June is unfit for firewood the following
winter, but authorities say that the same trees cut in August
and left with the branches still on them for twenty or thirty
days, will make firmer and "livelier" timber than that cut
under any other conditions.
An expert lumberman in ten minutes' tune will cut down a
hardwood tree one foot in diameter, and it will not take him
over four minutes to cut down a softwood tree of the same size.
CLEAR AWAY EVERYTHING
Before attempting to chop down a tree; in fact, before
attempting to chop anything, be careful to see that there are
no clothes lines overhead, if you are chopping in your back-
yard, or if you are chopping in the forests see that there are
no vines, twigs, or branches within swing of your axe. By
carefully removing all such things you will remove one of the
greatest causes of accidents in the wilderness, for as slight a
thing as a little twig can deflect, that is, turn, the blade of
your axe from its course and cause the loss of a toe, a foot,
or even a leg. This is the reason that swamping is the most
dangerous part of the lumberman's work.
How TO "FALL" A TREE
If the tree, in falling, must pass between two other trees
where there is danger of its "hanging," so cut your kerf that
232 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
the tree in falling will strike the ground nearest the smallest
of the trees, or nearest the one furthest away. Then, as
the tree falls, and brushes the side of the smallest tree or the
one furthest away, it will bounce away, thus giving the fallen
tree an opportunity to bump its way down to the place on
the ground selected for it, in place of hanging by its bough
in the boughs of other trees.
Do not try to "fall" a tree between two others that are
standing close together; it cannot be successfully done, for
the tops of the three trees will become interlaced, and you
will find it very difficult and hazardous work to attempt to
free your fallen tree from its entanglement ; probably it can-
not be done without cutting one or both of the other trees
down. The truth is, one must mix brains with every stroke
of the axe or one will get into trouble.
Where possible select a tree that may be made to fall in
an open space where the prostrate trunk can be easily handled.
Cut your kerf on the side toward the landing place, let the
notch go half-way or a trifle more through the trunk. Make
the notch or kerf as wide as the radius, that is, half the diam-
eter of the tree trunk (Fig. 344), otherwise you will have your
axe pinched or wedged before you have the kerf done and
will find it necessary to enlarge your notch or kerf. Score
first at the top part of the proposed no tell* then at the bottom,
making as big chips as possible, and hew out the space be-
tween, cutting the top parts of the notch at an angle but the
bottom part nearly horizontal. When this notch or kerf
is cut to half or a little more than half of the diameter of the
tree, cut another notch upon the opposite side of the tree at a
point a few inches higher than the notch already cut; when
this notch is cut far enough the tree will begin to tremble
and crack to warn you to step to one side. Don't get behind
AXE AND SAW 233
the tree; it may kick and kill you; step to one side and watch
the tree as it falls; there are many things that may deflect
it hi falling, and one's safety lies in being alert and watching
it fall. Also keep your eye aloft to watch for limbs which
may break off and come down with sufficient force to disable
you; accidents of this kind frequently happen, but seldom
or never happen where the axeman uses common sense or
due caution.
How TO TRIM OR SWAMP
After a tree is felled, the swampers take charge of it and
cut away all the branches, leaving the clean log for the team-
sters to "snake." They do the swamping by striking the
lower side of the branch with the blade of the axe, the side
towards the root of the tree, what might be called the under-
side, and chopping upwards towards the top of the tree.
Small branches will come off with a single blow of the axe.
When the tree has been swamped and the long trunk lies
naked on the turf, it will, in all probability, be necessary to
cut it into logs of required lengths. If the trunk is a thick
one it is best to cut it by standing on the tree trunk with legs
apart (Fig. 336), and chopping between one's feet, making
the kerf equal to the diameter of the log. Do this for two
reasons : it is much easier to stand on a log and cut it in two
that way than to cut it part the way through the top side,
and then laboriously roll it over and cut from the underside ;
also when you make the notch wide enough you can cut all
the way through the log without wedging your axe. To split
up the log you should have
A BEETLE OR MALL,
A thing usually to be found among the tools in the back-
woodsman's hut and permanent camps; of course we do not
234 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
take the time to make them for an overnight camp or a
temporary camping place, but they are very handy at a
stationary camp. To make one select a hardwood tree, which,
when stripped of its bark will measure about five inches in
diameter. The tree selected should not be one that would
split easily but may be a young oak, beech or hickory, which
with the bark on is six or seven inches in diameter at the butt.
In chopping this tree down leave a stump tall enough from
which to fashion your beetle, and while the stump is still
standing hew the top part until you have a handle scant two
feet in length, leaving for the hammer head, so to speak, a
butt of ten inches, counting from the part where the roots
join the trunk. Before cutting the stump off above the
ground, dig all around the roots, carefully scraping away all
stones and pebbles, then cut the roots off close up to the
stump, for this is the hardest part of the wood and makes the
best mall head (Fig. 337).
How TO MAKE THE GLUTS OR WEDGES
Farmers claim that the best wedges are made of apple-
wood, or locust wood; never use green wedges if seasoned
ones may be obtained, for one seasoned wedge is worth many
green ones. In the north woods, or, in fact, in any woods,
applewood cannot be obtained, but dogwood and ironwood
make good substitutes even when used green (Figs. 338
and 357).
How TO HARDEN GREEN WOOD
Many of the Southern Indians in the early history of
America tipped their arrows with bits of cane; these green
arrow points they hardened by slightly charring them with
the hot ashes of the fire. Gluts may be hardened in the
same manner; do not burn them; try to heat them just sufii-
AXE AND SAW 237
clently to force the sap out and harden the surface. Where
dogwood, ironwood and applewood are not to be obtained,
make your gluts of what is at hand; that is true woodcraft
(Fig. 337).
A year or two ago, while trailing a moose, we ran across
the ruins of a lumber camp that had been wiped out by fire,
and here we picked up half a dozen axe heads among the
moose tracks. These axe heads we used as gluts to split
our wood as long as we remained in that camp, and by their
aid we built a shack of board rived from balsam logs.
Fig. 341 shows how to make and how to use firewood
hods on farms or at permanent camps.
How TO MAKE A CHOPPING BLOCK
After you have cut the crotch and trimmed it down into
the form of Fig. 339, you may find it convenient to flatten
the thing on one side. This you do by hewing and scoring;
that is, by cutting a series of notches all of the same depth,
and then splitting off the wood between the notches, as one
would in making a puncheon (Fig. 342). (A puncheon is a
log flattened on one or both sides.) With this flattened
crotch one may, by sinking another flattened log in the earth
and placing the chopping block on top, have a chopping
block like that shown in Fig. 343. Or one may take the crotch,
spike a piece of board across as in Fig. 339 and use that, and
the best chopping block or crotch block is the one shown in
Fig. 339, with the puncheon or slab spiked onto the ends of
the crotch. In this case the two ends of the crotch should be
cut off with a saw, if you have one, so as to give the proper
flat surface to which to nail the slab. Then the kindling
wood may be split without danger to yourself or the edge
of the hatchet.
238 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
CHOP IT THE RIGHT WAY
If you are using an ordinary stick of wood for a chopping
block, and the stick you are about to chop rests solidly on
top of the block where the axe strikes it will cut all right, but
if you strike where the stick does not touch the chopping
block the blow will stun the hand holding the stick in a
very disagreeable manner. If you hold your stick against
the chopping block with your foot, there is always danger of
cutting off your toe; if you hold the stick with your hand and
strike it with the axe, there is danger of cutting off your
fingers. When I say there is danger I mean it. One of our
scouts cut his thumb off, another cut off one finger, and one
of my friends in the North woods of Canada cut off his great
toe. In hunting for Indian relics in an old camping cave in
Pennsylvania, my companion, Mr. Elmer Gregor, made the
gruesome find of a dried human finger near the embers of an
ancient campfire, telling the story of a camping accident
ages ago, but evidently after white man's edged tools were
introduced.
If you have no chopping block and wish to cut your fire-
wood into smaller pieces, you can hold the stick safely with
the hand if you use the axe as shown in Fig. 345. This will
give you as a result two sticks, and the upper one will have
some great splinters.
How TO SPLIT KINDLING WOOD
When splitting wood for the fire or kindling, make the
first blow as in Fig. 346, and the second blow in the same
place, but a trifle slanting as in Fig. 347; the slanting blow
wedges the wood apart and splits it. If the wood is small
and splits readily, the slanting blow maybe made first. These
AXE AND SAW 239
things can only be indicated to the readers because there
are so many circumstances which govern the case. If there
is a knot hi the wood, strike the axe right over the knot as
in Figs. 348 and 349.
If you are chopping across the grain do not strike per-
pendicularly as in Fig. 350, because if the wood is hard the
axe will simply bounce back, but strike a slanting blow as in
Fig. 351, and the axe blade will bite deeply hi to the wood;
again let us caution you that if you put too much of a slant
on your axe in striking the wood, it will cut out a shallow
chip without materially impeding the force of the blow, and
your axe will swing around to the peril of yourself or anyone
else within reach; again this is a thing which you must learn
to practice.
In using the chopping block be very careful not to put a
log in front of the crotch as hi Fig. 340, and then strike a
heavy blow with the axe, for the reason that if you split the
wood with the first blow your axe handle will come down
heavily and suddenly upon the front log, and no matter how
good a handle it may be, it will break into fragments, as the
writer has discovered by sad experience. A lost axe handle
in the woods is a severe loss, and one to be avoided, for
although a makeshift handle may be fashioned at camp, it
never answers the purpose as well as the skillfully and artis-
tically made handle which comes with the axe.
HOLDERS OR SAW BUCKS FOR LOGS
Select two saplings about five inches in diameter at the
butts, bore holes near the butts about six niches from the
end for legs, make a couple of stout legs about the size of an
old-fashioned drey pin, and about twenty inches long, split
the ends carefully, sufficiently to insert wedges therein, then
240 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
drive the wedge and ends into the hole bored for the purpose.
When the sticks are driven home the wedge will hold them
in place. You now have a couple of "straddle bugs," that is,
poles, the small ends of which rest upon the ground and the
butt ends supported by two legs. In the top of the poles
bore a number of holes for pins, make your pins a little longer
than the diameter of the log you intend to saw; the pins are
used exactly like the old-fashioned drey pins, that is, you
roll the log up the incline to the two straddle bugs and hold
the logs in place by putting pins in the nearest holes. Of
course, the pins should work easily in and out of the holes
(Fig. 357).
With such an arrangement one man can unaided easily
roll a log two feet in diameter up upon the buck; the log is
then in a position to be cut up with a cross-cut saw (Fig. 357).
Another form of sawbuck may be made of a puncheon stool
(Fig. 358), with holes bored diagonally in the top for the inser-
tion of pins with which to hold the log hi place while it is
being sawed. But with this sawbuck one cannot use as
heavy logs as with the first one because of the difficulty in
handling them.
I have just returned from a trip up into the woods where
they still use the primitive pioneer methods of handling and
cutting timber, and I note up there in Pike County, Pennsyl-
vania, they make the sawbuck for logs by using a log of wood
about a foot in diameter and boring holes diagonally through
the log near each end (Fig. 359); through these holes they
drive the legs so that the ends of them protrude at the top
and form a crotch to hold the wood to be sawed. The saw-
buck is about ten or twelve feet long; consequently, in order
to provide for shorter logs there are two sets of pegs driven
in holes bored for the purpose between the ends of the buck.
AXE AND SAW 241
THE PARBUCKLE
When one person is handling a heavy log it is sometimes
difficult, even with the lumberman's canthook, to roll it, but
if a loop is made in a rope and placed over a stump or a
heavy stone (Fig. 360), and the ends run under the log, even
a boy can roll quite a heavy piece of timber by pulling on
the ends of the rope (Fig. 360).
To SPLIT A LOG
The method used by all woodsmen in splitting a log i^ the
same as used by quarrymen in splitting bluestone, with this
difference: the quarryman hunts for a natural seam in the
stone and drives the wedge in the seam, while the lumberman
makes a seam in the form of a crack in the log by a blow from
his axe. In the crack he drives the wedge (Figs. 352 and 353).
But if the log is a long one he must lengthen the crack or
seam by driving other wedges or gluts (Fig. 353), or he may
do it by using two or more axes (Fig. 352).
If he wishes to split the logs up into shakes, clapboards or
splits, he first halves the log, that is, splitting it across from
A to B (Fig. 356), and then quarters it by splitting from C
to D, and so on until he has the splits of the required size.
A SAWPIT
In the olden times, the good old times, when people did
things with their own hands, and thus acquired great skill
with the use of their hands, boards were sawed out from the
logs by placing the log on a scaffolding over a sawpit (Fig. 361)
In the good old times, the slow old tunes, the safe old
times, a house was not built in a week or a month ; the timber
was well seasoned, well selected, and in many cases such
16
242 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
houses are standing to-day ! On the next block where I live
and from where I am writing, and across the street, there
stands a house still occupied which was built in 1661. It is
the house that Fox, the Quaker, was quartered in when he was
preaching under the spreading oaks on Long Island. The
timbers of this house are still sound and strong, although the
woodwork in nearby modern houses is decaying.
In the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee they still
use the sawpit, and the logs are held in place by jacks (Fig.
355), which are branches of trees hooked over the log and
the longest fork of the branch is then sprung under the sup-
porting cross-piece (Fig. 361).
Of course, the boy readers of this book are not going to
be top sawyers or make use of a sawpit; that is a real man's
work, a big HE man's work, but the boys of to-day should
know all these things ; it is part of history and they can better
understand the history of our own country when they know
how laboriously, cheerily and cheerfully their ancestors
worked to build their own homesteads, and in the building
of their own homesteads they unconsciously built that
character of which their descendants are so proud; also they
built up a physique that was healthy, and a sturdy body for
which their descendants are particularly thankful, because
good health and good physique are hereditary, that is, boys,
if your parents, your grandparents and your great grand-
parents were all healthy, wholesome people, you started your
life as a healthy, wholesome child.
In this chapter the writer has emphasized the danger of
edged tools for beginners, but he did that to make them care-
ful in the use of the axe, not to discourage them in acquiring
skill with it. We must remember that there is nothing in
life that is not dangerous, and the greatest danger of all is
AXE AND SAW 243
not firearms, is not edged tools, is not wild beasts, is not
tornadoes or earthquakes, avalanches or floods, but it is
LUXURY ; expressed in boy language, it is ice cream, soda water,
candy, servants and automobiles ; it is everything which tends
to make a boy dependent upon others and soft in mind and
muscle and to make him a sissy. But hardship, in the sense
of undergoing privation and doing hard work like chopping
trees and sawing logs, makes a rugged body, a clean, healthy
mind, and gives long life. So, boys, don't be afraid to build
your own little shack, shanty or shelter, to chop the kindling
wood for your mother, to split up logs for the fun of doing it,
or just to show that you know how. Don't be afraid to be a
real pioneer so that you may grow up to be a real Abe Lincoln !
If I am talking to men, they need no detailed definition of
luxury; they know all about it, its cause and its effect; they
also know that luxury kills a race and hardship preserves a
race. The American boy should be taught to love hardship
for hardship's sake, and then the Americans as a race will
be a success, and a lasting one.
CHAPTER XHI
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES
CHEROKEE INDIAN COUNCIL BARBECUE
CAMP MEETING COUNCIL GROUND
THE INDIAN PALISADED COUNCIL FIRE
INDIAN LEGENDS OF THE FERE
STEALING THE FIRE FROM THE SUN-MAIDENS OF THE EAST
MYTHS OF THE MEWAN INDIANS
TOTEMS OF THE FOUR WINDS, FOUR MOUNTAINS AND FOUB
POINTS OF THE COMPASS
IMPRACTICAL COUNCIL FIRES
ADVANTAGES OF THE OVAL COUNCIL GROUND
HOW TO MAKE AN ELLIPSE
HOW TO DIVIDE THE COUNCIL GROUND IN FOUB COUBTS
COUNCIL CEREMONIES
GHOST WALK AND PATH OF KNOWLEDGE
WHAT THE DIFFERENT COLORS STAND FOR
PATRIOTISM, POETRY AND AMERICANISM
CAMP MEETING TORCH FIRES
CHAPTER XIII
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES
Now that we have learned about the serious part of
camping, hiking and woodcraft, about fire-building, cooking
and axe work, we will leave the long trail and the hard trail
and dump our duffel bag in a recreation camp, a Boy Scout
camp, a Y. M. C. A. camp, or a school camp, and after we
have pitched our tent and arranged our cot to suit our own
convenience and everything is ship-shape for the night, it is
time for us to get busy on our "good turn" and do something
for the crowd.
Like the great Boy Scout Movement, the council fire is
also a product of America. The council fires were burning
all over this land when Columbus discovered America. It was
around the council fires that the Indians gathered in solemn
conclave to consult and discuss the affairs of their tribes.
Originally the council ground was surrounded by a pali-
sade; that is, the fire was in the center of a circular fort.
Around this fire the old men of the tribe made their eloquent
addresses; also around this fire the warriors danced the scalp
dance, the corn dance, the buffalo dance, and all their various
religious dances.
Later the Cherokee Indians changed the council fire into
a barbecue, where they roasted whole beefs in pits of glowing
coals. This custom was adopted by the politicians in Ken-
tucky, and the Kentucky barbecues became very famous;
they were what might be called a by-product of the old
Indian council fires and a European feast combined. But
in 1799 the old Indian council fires became camp meetings,
247
248 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
and around the blazing fagots the pioneers gathered to engage
in religious revivals. It was at one of these meetings that
Daniel Boone's great friend, Simon Kenton, was converted
and became a Methodist.
The camp meetings were originated by two brothers by
the name of McGee. Bill McGee was a Presbyterian, and
John McGee a Methodist minister. They came to Kentucky
from West Tennessee. John McGee was such a great back-
woods preacher (a pioneer Billy Sunday) that he drew im-
mense crowds of buckskin-clad men, each of whom carried
a cow's horn powder flask and a long barreled rifle.
The small buildings used for churches in the pioneer
settlements could not hold the crowd, so they gathered around
blazing council fires, and from this beginning came the great
religious revival which swept the border with a wave of
religious enthusiasm.
It is a far call back to the old Indian council fire, and the
blazing council fires of the pioneer camp meetings, but to-day
all over this land we are holding similar council fires, many of
them conducted with much ceremony, and not a few with
religious fervor. The summer hotels have their council fires;
the great Camp Fire Club of America, composed of all the
famous big game hunters, have lately bought a tract of land
for the purpose of holding their council fires in the open, and
the writer interrupted the writing of this chapter to attend
one of the club's council fires. The military schools are
holding council fires, and everywhere the Boy Scouts have
their council fires blazing; even the girls have fallen in line,
and this is as it should be, Therefore it is time that some
regular plan was made for these assemblies, and some sug-
gestion of ceremony and some meaning given to the council
grounds.
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 249
THE INDIAN ORIGINS
We have searched the legends of the Red Man for sug-
gestions, and from various sources have learned that the
Indian had a general belief that at the north there is a yellow
or black mountain, at the east there is a white mountain of
light, at the south there is a red mountain, and at the west
there is a blue mountain. At the east and west there are
also holes in the sky, through which the sun comes to light
us by day, and through which the sun disappears so that we
may sleep by night. That is news to most of my readers,
but not to the Red Men.
In the "Dawn of the World," Dr. C. Hart Merriam gives
a collection of "The Myths and Weird Tales told by the
Me wan Indians of California," which are full of poetry and
suggestions useful for the council fire work.
It seems that when the white-footed mouse man, and some
other of the animal people, were trying to steal the sun, or
the fire from which the sun was made, the robin man, Wit-
tab-bah, suspected these visitors to be sort of German spies,
and so he hovered over the fire, spreading his wings and tail
to protect it. Now if you don't believe this you look at the
robin's breast and you will see that he still carries the red
marks of the fire, which is proof enough for anyone; hence
we will give the fire-keeper for our council the name of
Wit-tab-bah, the robin.
Since the north is presided over by the totem of the moun-
tain lion, or panther, we will give the officer occupying that
court the Indian name of the mountain lion, He-le-jah. The
totem of the east is the white timber wolf, Too-le-ze; the
color of that court is white, representing light. The totem
of the south court is the badger; the color is red and the
250 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Indian name is Too-winks. The color of the west court is
blue and the totem is the bear; Kor-le is the Indian name
of the bear, and the title of the officer presiding over the
blue totem.
The golden or yellow court is the throne of the presiding
officer, the scoutmaster of the troop, the headmaster of the
school, the gangmaster of your gang, the campmaster of your
camp, or the captain of your team. The second hi command
occupies the white court, the third the red court, and the
fourth the blue court. If your council is a military school
the commandant occupies the yellow court, the lieuten-
ant-colonel the white court, the major the red court
and the first captain the blue court. Now that you
have that straight in your heads we will proceed to lay out
the court.
The author is aware of the fact that the general reader
may be more interested in scout camping, summer camping,
and recreation camps than in real wilderness work, but he
has tried to impress upon the boys and girls, too, for that
matter, the fact that the knowledge of real wilderness work
will make even the near-at-home camping easier for them,
and very much more interesting; it will also cause them to
enjoy the council fire better and have a greater appreciation
for everything pertaining to outdoor life. The wilderness
campfire over which the solitary explorer or hunter hovers,
or around which a group of hunters assemble and spin their
yarns, magnified and enlarged to a big blazing fire becomes
the council fire around which gather all the members of a
recreation camp, the pupils of an outdoor school, a troop or
many troops of Boy Scouts ; therefore we have given the coun-
cil fire serious study, because the most inconvenient as well
as the most romantic place to talk is at
m
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 253
THE COUNCIL FIRE
There could be no more impractical plan for a place to
speak than a circle with a big fire in the middle of it, and that
is the plan of all the council grounds. The audience must be
seated on the circumference of the circle, and the Master
of Ceremonies must stand necessarily with his face to the
fire and his back to part of his audience, or his back to the
fire and consequently also to the part of the audience on the
other side of the fire. Having had occasion over and over
again to address the scouts at a council fire, the writer has
had all the discomforts impressed upon him many times. As
a rule, the boys are enthusiastic, and so are the men, and the
enthusiasm is most often displayed by the size of the fire ; the
bigger the fire the greater the delight of the boys and the
more difficult the position of the orator or Master of Cere-
monies. All this may be overcome, however, if in place of a
circle the council grounds are laid out in an oval or an ellipse,
and the fire-place located near one end of the ellipse (Fig. 371).
How TO DESCRIBE AN ELLIPSE
After you have decided upon the size of your council
grounds, drive two stakes A and B (Figs. 363 and 365)
firmly into the ground; then take a cord, clothesline, or some
kind of twine (Fig. 362), and tie the ends together, thus
forming a loop (Fig. 363) ; put the loop over the two stakes
A and B; next make a marker stake C (Fig. 366), and with it
draw the slack of the line taut as in Fig. 364. The ellipse
is marked out as in Fig. 365. This is done by taking firm
hold of the top of the stake and using care to keep the line
taut while the marker walks around the ground scratching
the earth with the point of the marking stick, and allowing
254 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
the cord to slip smoothly across the stick while the marking
is being done (Fig. 364).
WHAT is AN ELLIPSE?
An ellipse might be called a flattened circle. If you take
a tin can and press the two sides of the open end of it inwards,
it will form an ellipse. The dictionary says that an ellipse is
a conic which does not extend to infinity and whose inter-
sections with the line of infinity are imaginary. Now that
is a very lucid explanation! I hope you understand it, it is
so simple, but it is just like a dictionary to say such terrible
things about a harmless ellipse. To tell the truth, I thought
I knew all about an ellipse until I read this explanation; but
never mind, we know what it looks like and if we do not
know what it is, we do know that there are a lot of things
besides ellipses that do not extend to infinity, and we also
know that an ellipse is a practical form for a council fire in
spite of the hard names the dictionary calls it. This oval is
really shaped like the body of a theatre and it gives the
audience a chance to see what is doing on the stage, and the
people on the stage a chance to see and address the audience.
How TO DIVIDE THE COUNCIL FIRE GROUND
This infinity talk has suggested to us a good idea, so we
must thank our highbrow dictionary while we lay our council
ground out with the major axis (the longest diameter) ex-
tending due north and south, and the minor axis (the shortest
diameter) extending due east and west, like any other well
regulated council or lodge, and we will put the fire-place near
the southern end S (Fig. 37l), while around the ellipse we will
arrange the seats, which may be of logs or stumps or sections
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 255
of logs set up on end, as I used in one of my camps, or the
seats may be rough plank benches, or they may be ponchos
spread upon the ground with the shiny side down to keep the
dampness from the audience as it squats tailor-fashion upon
the ponchos.
THE FOUR COURTS
Are composed of shacks, such as are shown by Fig. 367.
He-le-jah (Fig. 371), being the Court of Knowledge, is the
only court having an elevated platform, or pulpit, or
speaker's stand (Fig. 368). On each side of each court there
should be a torch; Fig. 369 is what we will call the camp
meeting torch; Fig. 370 is what we will call the steamboat
torch; it must be made by a blacksmith. It is an iron basket
supported by iron chains, hung down from an iron band at
the top of a staff; the latter is shod with an iron point so that
it may be thrust into the ground. These fire baskets I have
used with success in one of my camps. But homemade torches
are to be preferred (see Fig. 369). A hand torch (Fig. 373) may
be made of pine, spruce or cedar slivers and used for proces-
sions entering the council grounds; this gives a thrilling effect.
In the diagram (Fig. 370), the staff is short, but it should
be long enough to place the torch as high above the ground
as a chandelier is above the floor at home. Fig. 372 shows
the method of piling up the wood for the council fire. The
kindling wood is first placed upon the ground ready to light
at a moment's notice; over that the heavy wood is piled,
as shown in the diagram. This fire should never be lighted
with a match; that is terrible bad form. The use of flint
and steel or a rubbing stick to make fire is the proper cere-
mony for such occasions.
Fig. 374 shows how to make a fire box of sticks. This is
256 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
an aeroplane view of a fire box, that is, a view from above,
looking down upon it. This box should be filled with sand,
clay or dirt, upon which the fire is built. Fig. 375 and Fig.
376 show you how to lash the framework together. Fig. 377
shows how to put up the framework. Fig. 369 is the finished
torch.
The idea of this torch is to have the light above the heads
of the campers. The trouble with a fire upon the ground is
that while the flames give light they also hide part of the
crowd, and the smoke is always in someone's face. This
elevated torch is a brand new idea for this purpose. It will
be adopted all over the country and credited to all sorts of
sources and people, but you must remember that it was
designed for the readers of this book.
If milled lumber is used in building the shacks for the
four courts, it should be camouflaged with paint or stain so
as to look rustic. It may be roofed with boards and the
boards covered with tar paper, or any of the modern roofing
materials to be had, but in that case the roof should be
camouflaged by laying poles over the top of it, or, if poles
are not available, covering the top with sods.
You see the idea is this : we are having a COUNCIL FIRE
not something else and we want the thing to look wild and
rustic because that is part of the game, and if we are compelled
to go to the lumberyard for our material, which most of us
will have to do, then we must conceal this fact as far as pos-
sible by camouflage. In front of the South Court on Fig. 371
is the fire-place made of flat stones set in the earth.
COUNCIL FIRE CEREMONIES
On entering the council grounds always enter from the
east, salute Too-le-ze, the white wolf, then go across the
(DETAILS OF CAMP MET
TORCH STAND .St'SAMD BO
17
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 259
Ghost Walk with the sun to the West Court, and salute
Kor-le, the bear; about face and march back to the South
Court and salute Too-winks, the badger; then about face and
march up and salute He-le-jah, the panther; remain standing
at salute until He-le-jah who is the commanding officer,
gives you permission to retire, or gives you orders what to do ;
then go back, always moving along these walks like a soldier,
to your seat.
On Sundays the council ground is a splendid place for
holding religious services. On such occasions the minister
sits in the Court of Knowledge, the North Court on the
right-hand side of the presiding officer, and the two torches
in the daytime are replaced by flags or banners. The one
on the right-hand side of the presiding officer must be Old
Glory, the one on the left the flag of the school, the troop or
the club to which the council fire belongs.
The center of the council fire may be occupied by a
"Liberty Pole," which is the good old American name for
the flag pole, from which Old Glory flies. Never forget to
respect the colors and greet them with the greatest ceremonial
deference, for those colors possess a magic quality; they
represent to you everything that is grand, noble and inspir-
ing, and if you have any other kind of thoughts, this country
is no place for you. Remember that the council fire is
American, and we are proud to be called Americans.
The walk, or path from the east to the west is the Ghost
Walk, or the Spirit's Walk; it is the path which Indians
believe the spirit takes after leaving the body, an idea which
was consciously or unconsciously adopted by our brave boys
during the recent war and it explains what they meant when,
with bowed heads, they reported that their bunky, pal or
friend had "gone West."
260 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
The Western Court has the totem animal of the black
bear; the color of the court, however, is not black but blue,
blue from the blue Pacific; the totem object is a blue mountain.
The walk from the south to the north is the Path of Knowl-
edge; anyone traveling that trail is seeking further knowledge
of the benefits of woodcraft, nature and the big outdoors;
the totem animal of the North Court is the American panther,
cougar or mountain lion; the color of the North Court is
yellow or black, the latter representing the long arctic night.
The Southern Court has the badger for its totem animal,
and the red mountain for the totem object; red is its totem
color.
Thus we have white for the totem color of the east, mean-
ing light, peace and purity; red for the south, meaning
violence, disturbance, auction, danger, revolution, love and
life. This color is both stimulating and disturbing to man,
animal and plant.
Perhaps when we read of the turmoil that is constantly
disturbing our southern border, we may think that the
Indians had a knowledge of the real meaning of red when
they made the totem of the south a red mountain. Red is
the ruling color, the king of color, the dominant color, the
strong color, and symbolizes the blossoming of plants and is
the color of berries and fruit. Red tints the spring leaves
and stains the fall leaf. In the spring the thickets and tree
trunks are tinged with red ; they are blushing, so to speak, as
Ruskin says, "in order to show the waiting of love." Red is
emphatically a masculine color, a MAN'S COLOR.
Blue is a feminine color; it stands for sentimental affec-
tions, blue light has a depressing effect and creates nervousness.
Black is the ogre among colors; it devours every other
color; sometimes the North Court is black; black stands for
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 261
war and death, and yet the path to the north is the path of
knowledge. It may be that some of the Indians used black
for the north because they may have noted that climate
affects the color of birds and animals. According to Frank
Chapman, the famous ornithologist at the Museum of
Natural History in New York, the animals of the humid
climate of the northwest are especially dark in color.
If you use yellow for the north color, yellow means
laughter and mirth. Notwithstanding the fact that we use
yellow as a sign for contagious disease, women suffragists and
cowardice, a yellow light makes a gathering cheerful and
merry; so in approaching the North Court you may sing.
The Indian names for the four courts are Too-le-ze, the
east, for the south Too-winks, for the west Kor-le, and for
the north Kon-win. He-le-jah is the Indian name for the
panther or mountain lion that guards the north mountain.
Now then you have the symbolism ; in other words, know
what these things stand for, and that will give a meaning
to your ceremony around the council fire. Since red means
life and black means death, possibly the Indians have placed
a deep significance on the path from the Red Court to the
Black Court, from life to death! when they call it the Path of
Knowledge. At any rate, we will take it as we find it and
adapt ourselves to the suggestions these meanings give us.
We will claim that colors are the spirits, fairies or what
not who govern the council fire. Wit-tab-bah is the name of
the fire itself or the fire-place. When the fire is built, placed
near the Southern or Red Court, it gives the chief, the
captain, the superintendent, or the scoutmaster, who occu-
pies the North Court, a space in front of him big enough to
accommodate his audience. The real way to illuminate, or
light up, the council grounds is by having
262 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
TORCH FIRES
Erected at each of the four courts. These fire torches at
the four courts, if kept replenished with dry wood, will light
up the council grounds and give a most picturesque and wild
appearance, and at the same time will not interfere with the
ceremonies nor will they scorch the back or face of the
speaker. Wit-tab-bah may be used on occasions when the
crowd is not large.
No council fire anywhere within the borders of the United
States should open without the pledge to the American flag,
and the reciting in unison by all present of the American creed.
(See page 268.)
The council should close with the singing of "America."
Especially should these ceremonies be gone through with
when the assembly is composed of many young people,
because what George Washington said in his farewell address
is as true to-day as it was a hundred years ago.
"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influences I conjure
you to believe me, fellow citizens, the jealousy of a free people
ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience
prove that foreign influence is one of the most powerful foes
of republican government."
There is no reason why we should not have a lot of fun
at the council fires, and at times it may even be riotous fun,
but always American fun, and the patriotic spirit should never
for a moment be forgotten, nor yet the poetic spirit which
links us up in bonds of sympathy with all created things so
that we may, with seriousness, recite the
COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES 263
INDIAN INVOCATION
O Great Mystery, we beseech thee,
That we may walk reverently
Beneath Lah-pah our brothers, the trees.
That we may step lightly
On Kis-so our kinsmen, the grasses.
That we may walk lovingly
Over Loo-poo-oi-yes our brothers, the rocks.
That we may rest trustfully
Where the O-lel-le bird sings
Beside Ho-ha-oe, the talking waters.
or this,
Weave for us, O Great Mystery,
A bright blanket of wisdom;
Make the warp the color of Father Sky,
Let He-koo-las, the sun-womaa.
Lend her bright hair for the weft.
And mingle with it the red and gold threads of evening.
O Great Mystery; O Mother Earth! O Father Sky!
We, your children, love the things you love;
Therefore, let the border of our blanket
Be bending Ku-yet-tah, the rainbow,
And the fringe be glittering Nuk-kah, the slashing rain.
or with abandon we may sing, or chant the song of the elves,
* Oh, we are the fays, oh, we are the elves.
Who, laughing at everything, laugh at ourselves.
If Fortune's wheel is broke.
Why, we can put a spoke in it.
Misfortune hits no stroke.
But we can put a joke in it.
The owl can do our thinking,
As he sits awinking, blinking.
We act from intuition.
Fun and mischief is our mission;
Solemn duty, we have none of it,
What we do is for the fun of it;
Fun is none too light to prize,
Thought is naught but fancy's Sight.
Folly's jolly, wit is wise.
Laughter after all is right.
* From unpublished verses by Captain Harry Beard.
CHAPTER XIV
RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE
PROGRAM OF A COUNCIL FIRE
INVOCATION
THE PLEDGE AND CREED OF ALL AMERICANS
APPEAL
CHAPTER XIV
RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE
THE ceremonies of the Council Fire may be conducted
with the accompaniment of pageantry to any extent desir-
able. At the Council Fire of the Dan Beard Outdoor School,
the officers dress in costume ; not masquerade costumes but
the real ones. THE MAN OF THE NORTH, who attends to the
Northern Lights, is garbed hi the blanket clothes of a northern
lumberman and carries an axe. THE MAN OF THE EAST,
who attends the fire where the sun maidens dwell, may be
arrayed in the clothes of one of our Pilgrim fathers. THE
MAN OF THE WEST, who attends the fire of the Blue Moun-
tain, is decked in the fringed buckskin clothes of the trapper,
plainsman, or mountaineer. THE MAN OF THE SOUTH, who
guards the fire of the Red Mountain, is dressed in the pic-
turesque costume of a Mexican with a high-crowned sombrero.
The seats of the different courts are draped with the colors of
the courts.
PROGRAM OF A COUNCIL FIRE
The guests enter and take their seats, then the Herald
enters dressed in the costume of a scout, a frontiersman, or a
medicine man, according to the plan of the particular Coun-
cil Fire. The Herald faces the north from his stand in the
center of the council ground and blows assembly call, or a
blast on a cow's horn, then wheels about and faces the east,
then the south and then the west, and at each he blows
assembly. With the last notes and the last call the Scouts,
Woodcrafters, Pioneers or students enter the circle, marching
single-file around until the circle is complete, and they stand
opposite where they are to sit. The Herald now blows a fan-
267,
268 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
fare and the officers march into the council ground with the
colors and the color guard. The officers group themselves
around their Chief, the Scout Executive, the Scout Commis-
sioner, the Headmaster or the man in authority at the North
Court.
INVOCATION
The Leader, or head officer, steps forward and throwing
both hands up in a gesture of appeal, in which he is imitated
by the assembly, he repeats:
Weave for us, O Great Mystery, etc. (as already given).
Then he cries :
Four Winds of the Earth, we have saluted you!
Wind of the North, from whence come our snow and ice.
Wind of the East, from whence come our clouds and rams.
Wind of the West, from whence comes our sunshine,
Wind of the South, from whence comes our warmth.
Send us your men to guard the mystic fires.
The Men of the North, East, West and South, now step
in front of the Chief, and he directs them to
See that the mystic fires are blazing.
The fires, having already been carefully prepared, are now
lighted by the fire- keepers under the direction of the men of
the Four Winds, and the latter return and report to the Chief
in the following manner :
Chief .... Man of the North, you whose mighty axe bites to the heart of
the pine,
Are the mystic Northern Lights burning at Kon-win?
Is He-le-jah, the Mountain-lion, on guard on the yellow mountain of the
North?
Man of the North .... Chief, the Medicine fire has been lighted, the Moun-
tain-lion is guarding the yellow mountain of the North,
All is well.
RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE 269
Chief Man of the East, is the Medicine Fire at Too-le-ze blazing?
Is the White Wolf on guard at the White Mountain, where the sun-maidens
dwell?
Man of the East Chief, Too-le-ze blazes in the East, the White Wolf is
on guard. Wah-tab-bah, the robin, shields the fire,
All is well.
Chief .... Man of the West, man of the plains and mountains, does the mystic
fire at Kor-le blaze?
Is the Black Bear guarding the Blue Mountain, where the sun sets?
Man of the West. . . .Chief, Kor-le is ablaze, the Black Bear's growls may
be heard in the torrent that guards the Blue Mountain.
All is well.
Chief. . . .Man of the South, how blazes the fire at Too-winks?
Has the Red Badger come from its burrow to stand guard on the Red
Mountain?
Man of the South Chief, Too-winks flames to the sky. The Red Badger
is on guard.
All is well.
The Color Guard now enters, marches up to hi front of
the officers and all stand at salute. The Color Guard with
colors about faces and the guests and all present recite in
unison:
THE PLEDGE AND CREED OF ALL AMERICANS
*'I believe in the people of the United States, I believe in
the United States form of government, I believe in the pre-
amble of the Declaration of Independence, I believe that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
"I believe in our Government of the People, by the People
and for the People, a government whose just powers are de-
rived from the consent of the governed, a Sovereign Nation
of many Sovereign States, a Democracy in a Republic, a per-
fect Union, one and inseparable.
"A Union which will live because of the vital principles of
270 CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT
Freedom, Equality, Justice, Humanity and Kindness which
it contains, and for which American Patriots have willingly
sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
"I therefore believe that in order to respect my own man-
hood I must love my country, support its Constitution and
obey its Laws; also that I must respect its Flag, and defend
it against all enemies."
After which may come the Scout oath, Pioneer oath or
Camp-fire oath, as the case may be. Then the command is
given to "spread ponchos," followed by the command
"squat!" when all the Scouts, Woodcrafters, Pioneers, or
students squat tailor-fashion upon their ponchos, and the
guests seat themselves on the benches which have been pro-
vided for them.
Following this comes the address by the speakers, the
entertainments and exhibitions of woodcraft, scoutcraft, or
handicraft, the games, and other entertainment; then follows
the awarding of honors. After which all stand to sing
"America." Then the Chief or Leader steps forward and
repeats the following
APPEAL
O Great Mystery, we beseech thee (as previously given)
and ends up with the benediction, in which he uses the Indian
phraseology :
"May the Great Mystery put sunshine in all your hearts.
Good-night."
CENTRAL CIRCULATION
CHILD ROC
