WOODCRAFT SERIES

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

FOURTH IMPRESSION

DAN BEARD'S WOODCRAFT SERIES

American Boys' Handybook
of Camp-lore and Woodcraft
377 Illustrations
Opens a new world of sport. Beginning with the making
of campfires, the author initiates the lover of outdoor life
into all the mysteries of woodcraft.

American Boys' Book of Bugs,

Butterflies and Beetles
280 Illustrations
"Dan Beard has
natural history.
live

boy

and his

He

invented a new method of studying

opens a door that will tempt every
into this fascinating world."
American Forestry

sister as well

American Boys' Book of Signs,

Signals and Symbols
362 Illustrations
"Dan Beard has

recognized the interest every normal boy

has in signs and signals. This is a book which should be
popular with all boys, as it gives them much material that
can be introduced into their games and their excursions."
Springfield Republican

American Boys' Book of Wild Animals

Profusely illustrated
"Just what the boys ordered. It tells everything about the
animals and abounds with pictures. Every page is rich in
Times Star, Cincinnati
Uncle Dan's own experience."

American Boys' Book of Birds

and Brownies of the Wood
Profusely illustrated

"No

boy's library

is

complete without this book."

Times Star, Cincinnati

"Will cause a hike in the woods to be a joyful and everNew York Past
to-be-remembered event."

Do

it

Yourself

Profusely illustrated
Just the book boys who love hiking and camping have
been waiting for. It will make any "tenderfoot" an accomplished

woodsman.

of the Woods
242 Illustrations

Wisdom

Buckskin Book
for Buckskin

Men and Boys

Profusely illustrated

woo DC

ii

A f r

.s

/;

niKs

THE AMERICAN BOYS'

HANDYBOOK OF CAMPLORE AND WOODCRAFT
BY

DAN BEARD
POUNDER OF THE FIRST HOT SCOUTS SOCIETY; AUTHOR OF "THM
AMERICAN BOTS* BOOK OF SIT.NS, SIGNALS AND BTMBOLB," ETC.

WITH

S77

ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

*3OPYRIGHT, I92O, BY BEATRICE ALICE

BEARD

THE RIGHTS OF TRANSLATION ARB RESERVED

<

c.

1 1

',.'','

I
'

til,

C
,

v
.

<

o
u

PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

'

TO

GEORGE Du PONT PRATT

COMMISSIONER OF roNSKRVATION, STATE OF
SCOUT, SPORTSMAN" AND OUTDOOR

NEW YORK

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 a wonderful and invaluable asset to the nation,

for in the breast of every boy there is a divine spark, mateis

rialists call it

in

the "urge of youth," others call it the "Christ

it the "inner light," but all view

man," the Quakers call

with interest and anxiety, the ignorant with fear and the
wise with understanding sympathy, but also with a feeling
akin to awe.
it

Those

of us

who

think

we know

boys, feel that this "inner

light" illuminating their wonderful

powers of imagination,
the compelling force culminating in the vigorous accomplishments of manhood. It is the force which sent Columbus
is

voyaging over the unknown seas, which sent Captain Cook

on his voyage around the world, the same force which carried
it

is

Lindbergh in his frail airship across the Atlantic. Yes,

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,

other communicable diseases

Hydrophobia and

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
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,

busy

life

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

much

real pain

affairs

caused the writer so

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

men of the swivel chairs that

his task

was to convince the

be spent
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
in the

open; that the blue sky

boys' leisure should

is

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
and comprehensively envisions the objective objectum
quad complexum. Others may and will join him, and occasionally spurt ahead of the leader, like the hare in the fable,
trail

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
no, his

responsible for thfs bloodless revolution.

propaganda work did however win for him the
is

No,
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,

not

similar organizations failed

all

in

voicing their

approval. Furthermore he was always helped by his loyal

friends of the daily press. Many famous writers lent their

working consciously or unconsciously to help

the great cause of boyhood.
The author only claims that, in all these fifty long years,
influence, all

he has never ceased to work for the boys, never wavered in

and now? well, when he marched at the head

his purpose,

of fifty

air

thousand Scouts

in the great

muddy

outdoor Scout,

England, he realized that his ephemeral

castles had settled down to a firm foundation upon

camp

at Birkenhead,

Mother Earth.
Yes, boys we have won a great victory for boyhood\ We
have won it by iteration and reiteration, in other words, by
shouting

outdoors,

talking

and above

outdoors,

picturing

outdoors,

by writing about the outdoors, and constantly hammering on one subject and keeping one purpose always in view. By such means we have

singing outdoors

at

last,

all

not only interested the people of the United States

but stampeded the whole world to the forests

in the open,

and the

hymn:

fields.

So

let

us

all

join in singing the old

Methodist

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION

"Shout, shout,

we

are gaining ground,

Glory, Hallelujah!
The Devil's kingdom we'll put down,

Glory, Hallelujah!"

The

kingdom in this case is the ill-ventilated

and courts.
It is well to note that the work in this book was not done
the library, but either in the open itself or from notes and
Devil's

school rooms, offices

in

made

sketches

cooking

fire,

in the open.

When

telling

how

to build a

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

make pictures of impracThe paste pot and scissors

easier to

than to build them.

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 buckskin leggings, give a war whoop and be what God intended
you should be; healthy wholesome boys. This great Re-

tical fires

public belongs to

you and so does

this

BOOK OF CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT.

DAN BEARD
Suffern,

New

December
1930.

York,

first,

FOREWORD
HIDDEN
moose head

drawer

in a
in

my

in the

antique highboy, back of the

studio, there are specimens of Indian

bits of buckskin, necklaces

work,
a stone calumet,

and

made of the teeth

bead

of animals,

my old hunting knife with its rawhide sheath

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

bit of

buckskin

embroidered with mystic Indian signs.

was given to me as "big medicine" by Bowarrow, 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

The

flask

love of the big outdoors.

Also,

grizzly bear's flesh, one's

when one

eats of the mystic

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

unimaginative minds

that people with unromantic and

We
call this sentimentalism.

will

people of the outdoor tribes plead guilty to being sentimentalists but we know from experience that old Bow-arrow was
;

bear and
right, because we have ourselves eaten of the grizzly
smelled the castor of the beaver!

FOREWORD

vi

While the writer cannot give each of

of this coveted bear

meat

his readers

a taste

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

medium

matter of this book, and through

and bodies of his readers,

and
them
them
with a love of the WORLD
rejuvenate
purify
that

AS GOD

inoculate the souls

MADE

IT.

DAN BEARD
June, 1920

CONTENTS
PAO

CHAPTER
1.

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION .........................

How TO MAKE A FtBB-noARi), Row, DRILL AND THIMBLE. IVDIAB

K OK I-'IRK.
LBGKN;> OK THK. Soi
EuoOBD FIRE-MAKERS. RUHBIHGKSKIMO TIIIMIII.K. Hv,, BOW-STRING, TUIMHLK, FIBESTICK. OUTFIT.
BOARO, FlRi:-PAN. TlNDEK, (.'llAHUKU H.\i;s, PuFF BALL8. FlHE-U A K K.KM
i

OK TIIE BALKAN. FIRE WITHOUT A Bow, CO-LI-LI, THE FIBE SAW.

FlRK 1'fMPlNG Or THK IltlMjUOlS. PrBOPNKL'UATIC APPARATUS
II.

FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION.

....

il

TO USK FLINT A\r STEEL. WHRBB

TO OBTAIN IUK LINT AND STKKL. CHUCKNUCKS, PUNK BOXES. SPUNKS
AND MATCHES. REAL LITIKKR MATCHES. SLOW MATCH. How TO
CATCH Titr; ^-ARK. Si KSTITI ncx FOK FLIMT AND STKKL

THE WHITE MAN'S MHHO;>, How

1

III.

HOW TO BUILD

A FIRE ...............................

33

AN EXPERIENCE WITH TENDERFEKT.

DOING MANUAL LABOR. MATCHES. FIRE-MAKERB
-;n
\;<YLO\MNS. THK PALIMTATINO HE.\RT OF THE CAMP. GUMMY
FAI;IS .>r run PIVK. How TO MAKE A FIBE IN WET WEATHER. BACKTHK N fx -KS.SITV OF SMALL KINDLING WOOD. GOOD
\VOI>D-;M:..N'S KiKt:.
FIREWOOD. \n\ \NTAC;B OF >PLIT WOOD. FIRE-DOGS. How TO OPBH

How

TO LAY AND LIGHT A FIRE.

MODFKN FEAR

or-

How TO WHITTLE. How TO SPLIT A STICK WITH A KNIFE.

\ KXIKK.
BovMii - \\.) (<x v IL KIRKS. CAMP MKKTINO TORCU FIRES. ExPLODING STONES. CHARACTER iw FIRE. SLOW FIRES, SIGNAL FIBES
AND
l\.

HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING

FIRE ...............

33

RATIONS. THE MOST PRIMITIVE

OF COOKING OUTFITS. CAMP POT-HOOKS, THE GALLOW-CROOK, THE POTCLAW, THE HAKE, THF, GIB, THE SI-KYGP.LH AND THE SASTKB. TELKf.KM'ii WIRE ('OOKING IMPLKMKVTS, WIHK GRID-IRON, SKELETON CAMP
STOVE.
Cooxiv.; FII:K-, FIRE-DO*;^. ROASTING FIRE-LAY, CAMPFIRE LAY, UELMORE L.*Y, FRYING FIKE LAY, BAKING FIRE LAY. THE
Av RKS CRANK

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ON SHORT

V.

CAMP KITCHENS

..............
...
BEAN HOLES. COWUOY FIRE-HOLE. CHIHOOK COOKB \RBECUE-PITd. TflE GOLD DlGGKR's OvEN. THE
FEBGUSON CAMP STOVE. THE ADOBE OVEN. THE ALTAB CAMPFIBB
PLACE. CAMP KITCHEN FOR HIKF.RS, SCOUTS, EXPLORERS, SURVEYORS
AND HUNTERS. How TO COOK MEAT, FISH AICD BREAD WITHOUT POTS.
PANS OR STOVES. DRESSING SMALL ANIMALS. How TO BARBECUE
LARGE ANIMALS

79

CAMP FOOD ...........................................

101

CAMP

PIT-FIRES,

ING FlRE-HOLK.

VI.

How

TO MAKE ASH CAKE, POWE. COBM DODGERS, FLAPJACKS, JOHNMYCVKE, BISCUITS AND DoUQHOOD. MAKING DUTCH OvENB. VcMISOW.
BANUI':TS IN THE OPEN. How TO COOK BEAVER TAIL, PORCUPINES
AND Mi SKRAT.S. CAMP STEWS, BRITTSWICK STEWH AND BUBGOOS

.123

VU. PACKING HORSES .......

TO MARK A P\CK HORSE OF YOUB OWN. How TO MAKE AW

APAREJO. How TO MAKE A CINCHA. How TO MAKE A LATIOO. How
TO THROW A DIAMOND HITCH. How TO THROW A SQUAW HITCH. How
TO HITCH A HORSE IN OPKN LAND WITHOUT POST, TREE OR STICK OR
MAKE THEM. How THKTRAVOIS
STONE. I.'SK OK HOBBLED AND How
BUFFALO BILL AND GENERAL MILES. How TO
is MADE AND I'^rn.
THROW DOWN A SADDLE. How TO THROW v SADDLE ON A HORSE. How
TO MOUNT A HOBSE. How TO KNOW A WEBTEBH HORSE

How

vn

CONTENTS

viii

VIE.

THE USE OF DOGS. MAN PACKING

145

HIKING DOGB, PACK DOGS. How TO PACK A Doa. How TO THROW

THE DOG HITCH. How TO MAKE DOG TRAVOIS. Doa AS A BEAST o
BURDEN IN EUROPE AND ARCTIC AMERICA. MAN PACKING. PACK RATS.
DON'T FIGHT YOUR PACK. PORTAGE PACK. GREAT MEN WHO HAVE
CARRIED A PACK. KINDS or PACKS. ALPINE RUCKSACK. ORIGIN OF
BROAD BREAST STRAPS. MAKE YOUR OWN OUTFITS

IX.

PREPARING FOR CAMPING TRIP

165

PORTERS OP 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. FLT DOPE. PROTECTION
AGAINST BLACK FLIES, MOSQUITOES, MIDGETS AND NO-SEE-UMS. THB
CALL OF THE WILD

X.

SADDLES

183

How

TO CHOOSE A SADDLE. EVOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN SADDLE.

BIRTH OF THE BLUFF FRONTED SADDLE. THE COWBOT AGE. SAWBUCKS
OR PACK SADDLES. STRAIGHT LEG AND BENT KNEE. NAMES OF PARTS
OF SADDLE. CENTER FIRE AND DOUBLE CINCH

XL CHOOSING A CAMP SITE

196

'WARE SINGLE TREES OE SMALL GROUPS OF TREES. SAFETT m 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. 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. USB OF SHEARS, Gnre
AND TRIPODS

XII.

AXE AND SAW

217

OUR GREATEST AXEMAN. IMPORTANCE OF THE AXE. WHAT KIND or

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 OH 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 USB A

PARBUCKLE. How TO SPLIT A Loo. How TO USE A SAWPIT

X1H. COUNCIL

GROUNDS AND FIRES

CHEROKEE INDIAN COUNCIL BARBECUE.

245
CAMP MEETING COUNCIL

GROUND. THE INDIAN PALISADED COUNCIL FIBE. INDIAN LEGENDS

OF THE FERE. STEALING THE FIRE FBOM THE SUN-MAIDENS OF THB
EAST. MYTHS OF THE MEWAN INDIANS. TOTEMS OF THE FOUB 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 KNOWLEDGE. WHAT THE DIFFERENT COLORS STAND FOR. PATRIOTISM, POBTBT
AND AMERICANISM. CAMP MEETING TOBCH FIRES

XIV.

RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE

PROGRAM OF A COUNCIL FIRE.
OF ALL AMERICANS. APPEAL

INVOCATION.

265

THB PLEDGE AHD

CBJBBD

CHAPTER

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

TO MAKE A FIRE-BOARD, BOW, DRILL AND THIMBLJS
INDIAN LEGEND OF THE SOURCE OF FIRE

HOW

RECORD FIRE- MAKERS

RUBBING-STICK OUTFIT
ESKIMO Til 1MB LE

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 IROQUOI3

PYROPNEUMATIC APPARATUS

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

CHAPTER

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

WHEN THE
and other

like

"what-is-its" of Pithecantropus erectus age

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

volcanic

form of

upon

who

when it was vomited forth from

came crashing among them in the

hearts

craters,

lightning.

or

No wonder that

the primitive

as a deity, no doubt an evil deity at

fire

later

When

men

first

looked

but one

became good.
the vast fields of ice covered Europe during the
and forced men to think or die, necessity

glacier period

developed a prehistoric Edison

among the Neanderthal men,

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,

who discovered how

for

to build

not only the humble kitchen range, but the great factories

and power-plants are

by the

shivering,

all

depending upon the discovery made

savage w ho was hopr

teeth-chattering

ping around and trying to keep himself

European

But we people
primitive

warm among

the

glaciers.

fires just

of the camp-fires are

as the Neanderthal

more interested

men

built

in

them, than
3

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

we

are in the roaring furnaces of the steel works, the volcano

blast furnaces, or
of factory

any

of the scientific, commercialized fires

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 tlje author was up North in the unmapped

lake country of Canada, and while camping on the portage
between two wild and lonely
himself a

is

lakes,

Scout Joe

consisting of Fig.

1,

Van Vleck made

a thimble made of a

which to hold Fig. 2, the spindle made of balsam.

a bow cut from a standing bush; not an elastic bow,

burl, with

Fig. 3

fire outfit

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

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
was

to be crossing the portage

on which our camp

located.

It

was an American, Dr. Walter Hough

National

Museum

modern up-to-date

of Washington,
civilized

white

who

man

rubbing-sticks, as well as the primitive

of the U. S.

proved that a
can make a fire with
first

man.

But

it

was an

Englishman who popularized this method of making fire, introduced 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 vulture 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

Merriman, who stole the fire from the East and carried
under his chin. The mark of it is still there. The next

to Dr.
it

time you see a humming-bird note the brilliant spot of red

fire under his chin.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

Now

you understand why the king-pin in fire making 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

the more appropriate because it was the humming-bird man who hid the
fire in the oo-noo tree, and to this day, when the Indian wants
record time, then the

title of

Le-che-che

is all

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

fire,

and that some white boy,

ancestors.

how

like the

Scout previously mentioned,

as did the Indian's own

But even then the oo-noo* wood must be

has taught him

to

make

fire

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
onds; Mr. Ernest Miller of St. Paul

fire in

made

thirty-one sec-

fire in

thirty sec-

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
onds, but

it

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
own

witnesses.

Since then the same gentleman

world-record to twenty-six and one-fifth

this
time even that record t may have been
by

reduced his
seconds

broken.

The

"rubbing-stick"

is

a picturesque, sensational

*
It is not the buckeye of the Ohio and Mississippi Valley, but
nut buckeye of California, ^Esculus Californica.

The

record

is

now

eleven seconds.

and
is

the

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

method

interesting

but to-day

of building a fire,

practical use outside of the fact that

come

obstacles, to

and act with the

it

7
it is

of little

teaches one to over-

do things with the tools at hand, to think

vigor, precision and self-confidence of a

primitive man.

''RUBBING-STICK" OUTFIT

Ever

since the writer

"

was a small boy he has read about

"
"
"
or two sticks together,

two chips

making
by rubbing
and he was under the impression then, and
fire

is

under the im-

pression now, that no one can build a fire in that manner.

When we
slovenly

find reference to rubbing-sticks

manner

of describing the

other similar friction

one requires

first

fire

implements.

it

bow and

is

probably a

drill

and the

For the bow and

drill

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

made

of soft

wood with an

it

may

be

a piece of stone. In the

always a shallow hole or socket;

inlay of

bottom of the thimble there is

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)
a piece of serpentine, or soapstone.

drilled into

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
It is inlaid with copper and semi-precious
beetle (Fig. IB).
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
inlaid or set into the middle of the bottom of the

was then
thimble,

and cemented

has a thimble

made

for

there, Fig.

IB.

The author

him by Edmund Seymour

Camp-fire Club of America. This thimble

with a hole drilled in it, Fig. 1A.
It

bow

is

not necessary to

tell

the reader that

for power, the twirling spindle

is

a stone

when

also

of the
fossil

using the

cannot be held down with

the bare hand, consequently the use of the thimble for that

purpose

is

necessary.

fashioned that

it

may

Fig.

1C shows an Eskimo thimble

be held

in the fire-maker's

so

mouth.

THE Bow
Is

a stick or branch of wood

(Figs. 3,

3E,

a foot and a half long and almost an inch

3F and 3G) about

in diameter,

which

FIRE

MAKING BY FRICTION

has a permanent bend in

the bend

it

may be natural

or

may

bow is attached a slack

have been made artificially.
kind.
The Eskimos, more
some
thong, or durable string of
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.

To

the

THE Bow STRING

The

objection to wining string or belt lacing is that it is

if one can secure a strip of buckskin, a

apt to be too greasy, so

buckskin thong about two inches wide, and twist

it

string,

will

it

into a

probably best serve the purpose (Fig. 6).

THE SPINDLE
The
which

spindle

is

is

American Indians without the bow

stick or spindle

2, -2A, -2B and 2C)

and was used by our

the twirling stick (Figs.

usually about a foot long

may

(FL*.

7).

The

twirling

be three-quarters of an inch in diameter

at the middle; constant use and sharpening will gradually

shorten the spindle.

must be made.

When

The end

it

becomes too short a new one

of the spindle should not

be made

but should have a dull or rounded

sharp like a lead pencil,

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 FLRE-BOARD
The

fire-board (Figs. 5

cedar, balsam,

and 5A^ should be made

of spruce,

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

10

wood which has

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

Boy Scout Handbook. Make

called in the

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

is

fire-pan

wooden dust-pan used

it is pushed out by the twirling
The use of the fire-pan is also an Eskimos
a chip, shingle or

to catch the charred dust as

spindle (Fig. 4
idea,

(Fig.

but they cut a step in their driftwood fire-board

8) to serve as a fire-pan.

itself

TIXDER

When you
linen

pose

make
is

can procure them, charred rags of cotton or

excellent tinder, but the best fabric for that pur-

an old Turkish towel.

How

TO CHAR A

RAG

stone (Fig. 10; a broad piece of board, a smooth,

hard, bare piece of earth; set your cloth afire and after it

Find a

flat

begins to blaze briskly, smother

it

out quickly by using a

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

11

a square section of birch bark

This flapped down quickly upon
extinguish them without disturbing the

folded piece of paper (Fig. 9)

or another piece of board.

the flames

will

Or with

charred portion (Fig. 10).

your

feet quickly trample

out the

or tinder

flames.

Keep your punk

a water-tight box; a tin tobacco
box is good for that purpose, or do
in

like

our ancestors did

punk horn
Very

keep

it

in

(Fig. 30).

fine

dry grass

tinder, also the

is
good
mushroom, known

as the puff-ball or Devil's snuff-

The

box.

puff-balls, big ones,

may

be found growing about the edges

woods and they make very good punk or tinder. They

by hanging them on a string and drying them
after which they are cut into thin slices, laid on the

of the

are prepared
out,

board and beaten until

mered out

punk or

of them,

all

when

tinder (Fig. 11).

the black dust ("snuff") is hamthey are in condition to use as

In olden times there was a mush-

fungus imported from Germany, and

used as punk, but woodcraft consists in supplying oneself
with the material at hand; therefore do not forget that
or

room, toadstool

flying squirrels
14)

and

(Figs.

12 and 13), white-footed mice (Fig.

voles, or short-tailed

meadow

mice, are

all

addicted

to collecting good

TINDER
with which to
the

birds

vireos.

make their warm nests: So also do some of

summer yellow bird, humming-bird and

the

While abandoned humming-birds' nests are too

diffi-

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

cult to find, last year's vireos* nests are

ered suspended

like

more

easily discov-

cups between two branches, usually

within reach of the hand, and quite conspicuous in the

leaves are off the trees.

fall

when the

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

catch the spark

the flame.

in

punk

or

and

steel,

tinder in

it

is

necessary to

order to develop

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

How TO MAKE A

FIHE WITH A DRILL AND

make a

Bow

on which to place your

First find a level solid foundation

fire-board, then

13

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 holding 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

bow

the

as one does a fiddle

when playing on a bass

draw the bow
each time.

drill

is

it is

it

Or when you

bow
but

whole length

its

When

smoothly, speed

viol,

running

up.
feel

biting the

that

the

wood, press

harder on the thimble, not too

hard, but hard enough to hold
firmly, so that

the

drill

not

slip

will

continue to bite the wood

it

will

out of the socket but

the "sawdust" begins to

show
a
brown color, later it will
appear.
smoke
until
the thickening smoke
to
and
black
become
begin
until

At

first it will

CAMP-LORE AND ^YOODCRAFT

14

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 awav.
tf

As soon

as

you are

satisfied that

you have secured a spark,

the powdered embers on the fire-pan and place carefully

on top of it a bunch of tinder, then blow till it bursts into
lift

flame

take

Or fold the tinder over the spark gently,

your hand and swing it with a circular motion

Fig. 8A).
it

up

hi

until the flame flares out.

Even to this day peasantry throughout the Carpathian

and Balkan peninsulas build their fires with a "rubbingstick."
But these people not being campers have a permanent fire machine made by erecting two posts, one to represent
the fire-stick and the other the socket thimble.

The

spindle

rims 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

FIRE WITHOUT A

My pupils

in the

hy using the rung

15

Bow

Woodcraft Cainp

built fires successfully

of a chair for the spindle, a piece of packing

case for a fire-board,

and another piece

for the socket

wood

string from their moccasins for a bow string. They

used no bow, however, and two or three boys were necessary to make a fire, one to hold the spindle and two others

and the

to

saw on the moccasin

string (Fig. 17).

THE FIRE SAW

CO-LI-LI
is

made

of

two pieces

of

bamboo, or

This

fish pole.

is

the

making used by the Bontoc Igorot

seldom found among the men of the Philippine^.

oldest instrument for fire

and

is

now

Practically

called

all

Philippine boys, however,

know how

to

make

and so should our boys here, and men, too. It is

"o>-ii-li" and is made of two pieces of dry bamboo.

and use

it

two-fo<'t 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
Just over the picked fibres, but on the outside of the
i^Fig. 18
.

bamboo, a narrow groove

is

cut across

it

vFig.

1SG

This

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

16
piece of

bamboo

is

now

board" of the machine.

the stationary lower part or "fireOne edge of the other half of the

is sharpened like a chisel blade's edge (Fig. 19)

then
it is
grasped with one hand at each end and is slowly and
heavily sawed backward and forward through the groove in

original tube

the board, and afterwards worked more rapidly, thus producing a conical pile of dry dust on the wad of tinder picked
from the inside of the bamboo or previously placed there.
(Figs.

Fig. 22 is the fire-pan.

20 and 21).

"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
Usually before a hundred strokes a larger volume of
smoke tells us that the dry dust constantly falling on the pile

be seen.

has grown more and more charred until finally a tiny spark
falls, carrying combustion to the already heated dust cone."

The
of dust

hand

then carefully lifted and if the pinch

smouldering it maynowbe gently fanned with the

fire-board
is

is

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

The one in Fig. 23 is fitted

fitted to this.

out with a rusty iron wheel which I found

under the barn. Fig. 23 C shows a
pottery

many

years ago

Cincinnati, Ohio.

weight

wheel

in a gravel-pit in Mills

It

was brick-red

which I

found

Creek bottoms at

in color

and decorated

FIRE MAKING BY FRICTION

17

with strange characters. For many, many years 1 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

the

still

remains.

bow up and down

THE TWIRLING
Fig. 7

is

The

same

bow and thong

spindle twirled between the

by the

practised

is

twirled

by moving
and forward.

STICK (American Indian)

practically the

difference: the

fire-drill

instead of backward

as Figs. 16

and

17,

are dispensed with

palm

with this

and the

of the hands, as formerly

California Indians, the natives of Australia,

Caroline Islands, China, Africa and India.

Many

of the

American Indians made

friction fire in this

They spun the thin spindle by rolling it between

the palms of their hands and as pressure was exerted the
manner.

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

The

simplest

method

of friction

is

Indian)

that of the plow, which

requires only a fire-board with a

and a rubbing-stick
and
down the gutter
push up
Belmore
24).
Captain
(Fig.

gutter in

it

to

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

way than with

the

fire this

thong and

'/^

'

'

'

'I./*

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

18

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

Time: Forty seconds.

fire.

Of course
start

fire

unnecessary to tell anyone that he can

with a sunglass (Fig. 25) or with the lens of a
camera, or with the lens made from two
it is

old-fashioned
gether.

But

visible,

as

watch

crystals

as the sun

lenses

are

is

held

to-

not always

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 PYROPNETJMATIC APPARATUS

Before or about the time of the American Revolution some

gentleman invented a
ignited

punk made

fire

piston (Fig. 26) with which he

of fungus

sudden compression of the

by the heat engendered by the

air.

The ancient gentleman describes his invention as follows

The cylinder is about nine inches long, and half an inch in
:

diameter;

it

terminates in a screw on which screws the magaand some fungus. A steel rod

zine intended to hold a bougie,

attached to a solid piston, or plunger, not shown in the

figure, it being within the tube. This rod has a milled head
is

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
"

19

IT

piece of fungus, and

the
piece tight on and draw the
place it in the chamber, screw
Hold the
piston up by the end, till it stops.
instrument with both hands in the manner

Take from the magazine a small

represented in 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

not kindle.

will

"Here

it

may be remarked

that the instrument thus con-

structed has a decided advantage over the fire-cane, where the

fungus

is

But
still

inserted at such a depth as not easily to be reached."

in

Burmah they had

the same idea.

light their cigarettes with

also use the

same machine and

fire-piston.

ignite

There the

The

coolies

Philippines

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

At any rate we do
from the Burmahs, or the Philippines.
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.

FIHK

CHAPTER II
MAMNC BY I'KKCTSSION

THE WRITE MAX'S METHOD; HOW TO USE FLINT AND STEEL

WHERE TO OBTAIN THE FLINT AND STEEL
CHUCKNUCKS I'LMv BOXES, SPUNKS AND MATCHES
REAL LUC1FKK MATCHES
SLOW MATCH
HOW TO CATCH THE SPARK
SUBSTITUTES FOR FLINT AND STEEL

CHAPTER
FIllK

II

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
in which the pioneer white people used

can remember

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.

evidently

left

home

in

On

that occasion they

a great hurry, without their

and steels.
But this one instance

in itself

is

sufficient to

show

flints

to

ah

outdoor people the great importance of the knowledge and

Like our good friend, the
ability to make friction fires.

and author, Captain Belmore Browne, one

any time get hi 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.
artist,

may

explorer

at

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 Pyropneuinatic apparatus of the forgotten Mr. Bank,

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
fire

friends,

and among many smokers

23

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

24

How

TO USE FLINT AND STEEL

In the age of flint and steel, the guns were all fired by this
Fig. 33 shows the gun-lock of an old musket; the
hammer holds a piece of flint, a small piece of buckskin is

method.

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

hammer and is joined

steel sets opposite the

at full cock, the

to the top of the

powder-pan by a hinge. When the trigger is pulled the hammer 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.
of a

hammer and

This

is

the sort

our ancestors up to the

by
tune 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
lock used

all of

the olden times some people had flint lock pistols without
barrels, which were used only to ignite punk for the purpose of

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

fire-building.

spark necessary to generate the flames.

In the good old pioneer days, when

we all wore buckskin

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 JNIiles Standish and George Washington to
clothes

Abraham

Lincoln, used flint and steel.

different

forms

of

steel

used

by

Fig. 27

our

shows ten
and

grandsires

granddames.
Flint in
but, as

its

may be found in many states,

any stone which was used by the Indians for

natural condition

rule,

CnO
!

pi?

rz

f||3

W
r>

vi

^.
''

/.>!

"v

yi

0/-\,-\

"

**""

FIRE MAKING BY PERCUSSION

arrowheads

will

answer as a substitute for

flint,*

f7
that

is,

gritty or glassy stone, like quart/, agate, jasper or iron

any

Soft stones, limestones, slate or soapstones are not

pyrites.

for this purpose.

good

THE STEEL
Most of
them while

the old steels were so

made

that one might grasp

thrusting one's fingers through the inside of the

oval steel, Fig. 28 (left handed). Some of the Scoutmasters
of the

Boy Scouts

America make their own

of

but

steels of

broken

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 jackpieces of flat ten-cent

knife, or the

it

this is

back of the blade of one's hunting knife

steel for

enough

files,

anyone who has acquired the

is

good

art of using

as a steel.

But

if

shop or

vou must have

make them

quarter of

an inch

thick,

one of those shown

like

rounded

steels

manufactured at the machine

yourself, let

them be an inch wide, a

to form an ellipse

and long enough

in Fig. 27.

Have

the sharp edges

steel twisted

have your

you may
you
any of the shapes shown in Fig. 27 to imitate the ones
used by your great granddaddies.
off.

desire

If

in

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
*

York

flint

To-day

may

be obtained at Bannermans, 501 Broadway, New

have ancient steels which were used by the U. S.

City, where they also

soldiers.

The

flints

may

also be purchased

Establishment at Rochester,
supply of flints at one of the

New

from Wards Natural Sciene*

York, and the author found a plentiful

Army and Navy stores in New York.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

28
is

a small

German

silver

original fungus used for

piece of

box which

still

punk and an

contains

some

of the

ancient, well-battered

Around the box is fitted the steel in the form

and the whole thing is so small that it may be

flint.

of a band,

This was once the property of

Hagner, Lieutenant, of the City of Philadelphia at the

carried in one's vest pocket.

Phillip

time of the Revolution, that

is,

custodian of city property.

He took the Christ Church bells from Philadelphia to Bethlehem by ox-cart before the city was occupied by the British.
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 CounPhillip

ties,

Boy

Scouts of America.

PUNK BOXES
The cowhorn punk box

is made by sawing off the small

then
of
end and
the point
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

thong,

closed by a piece of thick sole leather attached to the

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 stopper 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 put ling the sulphur end hi the
(la 11 R.
According to our modern ideas of convenience they

appear very primitive.

land and "matches" in

They were called "spunks" in EngAmerica, and varied in length from

three to seven niches, 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

enough to be carefully preserved in the York Museum

England (Fig. 3Z%). 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
rare
in

Island.

These are carefully preserved among the antiquities

But they are less than half the length

in the writer's studio.

of the ones formerly used

on the Western Reserve.

\Yith

the ancient matches in the studio are also two old pioneer
The tinder boxes are
tinder boxes with flints and steels.

and contain a lot of baked rags. The inside lid

an extinguisher with which to cover up the punk or
tinder in the box after you have lighted the candle in the tin

made

of tin

acts as

lid of

the box (Fig. 32).

The matches we use today

When

are evolved from these old

the writer was a

little fellow up in
sulphur spunks.
the Western Reserve on the shores of Lake Erie, he was

intensely interested in an old lady making sulphur matches.

Over the open fire she melted the sulphur in an iron kettle
The
in which she dipped the ends of some pine slivers.
to
cool
of
was
allowed
on
end
the
sticks
then
the
sulphur
and harden. These matches were about the length of a lead
pencil

and could only be lighted by thrusting the sulphur

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

30

into the flame.

So, although having been born in the age of

was yet fortunate enough to

Lucifer matches, the writer

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

M. P. According to the Pall Mall

invention of Isaac Holden,

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
tune 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 M^bi, but it was very difficult to obtain a

on wood */ that explosive material, and the idea ocme to put sulphur under the explosive mixture.
did that and skewed it in my next lecture on chemistry,

light

curred to
I

a course of whiok I was delivering at a large academy."

Because every real woodsman is a student, as well as a
sentimentalist, a brief history

ments to

antertaia.

kim

as

we

these things are blazes which

given of these fire imple"'

trace." All
jog along the

is

mark the

trail to

the button

which now produces the electric light. Some of

like
the
them,
cla/ cylinders found in the ruins of Babylon,
are only useful im a historical sense, but many of them are
in our wall

essentially practical for woodcraft.

Cow

TO

MAKE

A CHUCKNUCK

The slow otateh or punk rope to fit in the brass cylinder

may be made ef candle wick or coach wick purchased at the
hardware

wick is about three-eighths of an inch

Scout Commissioner John H. Chase of Youngs-

store; such

in diameter.

FIRE MAKING BY 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

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

He fastens a cork in one end of the rope by a

he pulls the other end of the rope through the end of
the brass cartridge shell which has been filed off for that

cigar stores.
wire,

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
,

and

steel, holding the charred end of the

the
flint, as shown by the diagram (Fig. 29).
punk against
Loose cotton and various vegetable fibers twisted into a

would with

flint

rope soaked in water and gunpowder will

when

make good punk

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

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
strike,

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!

until

All these pocket contrivances for striking

merly known

fire

were for-

as "striker-lights" or "chucknucks."

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

32

SUBSTITUTE FOR FLINT AND STEEL

The Malays having

neither flint nor steel ingeniously

substitute for the flint a piece of broken chinaware,

the steel a

bamboo joint, and they produce a spark by

and

for

striking

the broken china against the joint of the bamboo, just as

we do with the flint and steel.

CHAPTER
HOW TO
HOW

III

BUILD A FIRE

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 WEATHER
BACKWOODSMEN'S FIRE
THE NECESSITY OF SMALL KINDLING WOOD
GOOD FIREWOOD
ADVANTAGE OF SPLIT WOOD
FIRE-DOGS

HOW
HOW

TO OPEN A KNIFE
TO WHITTLE; HOW TO SPLIT A STICK WITH A KNIFE
BONFIRES AND COUNCIL FIRES

CAMP MEETING TORCH FIRES

EXPLODING STONES
CHARACTER IN FIRE

BLOW

FIRES, SIGNAL FIRES

AND SMUDGB9

CHAPTER

III

HOW TO BUILD
"

By

A FIRE

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.

wood

collect the

The author asked the gentlemen

to

for the fire; thev

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 gathered around, one of them carefully lighted a match and
heap of damp cord wood sticks. Match
match he tried, then turned helplessly to the writer

applied
after

to the

it

with the remark, "It won't

the

humor

light, sir,"

and none there saw

of the situation!

Had anyone told the writer that from twenty-five to

men could be found, none of whom could build a fire,

thirty

he would have considered the statement as highly improbable,

but if he had been told that any intelligent man would try

wood sticks, wet or dry, by applying a match

would have branded the story as utterly beyond
is, however, really astonishing how few people

to light cord
to them, he
It

belief.

there are

who know how

to build a

fire

even when supplied

with plenty of fuel and abundant matches.

MATCHES

may be

It

that

it

well to call the reader's attention to the fact

takes very

little

moisture to spoil the scratch patch

35

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

36

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

The

take into the woods.

on the

bird's-eye

match

is

exceedingly

but the old-fashioned, ill-smelling

Lucifer match, sometimes called sulphur match, the kind
unreliable

trail,

'*'

one

may

secure at the

Hudson Bay Trading

that comes hi blocks and

is

Post, the kind

often packed in tin cans,

is

the

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
best

one of these matches

through one's

is

damp

it

may

be dried by running

it

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

and the

ability to

have the vim, the pep, the desire

Labor is a necessary attribute

do things.

HOW TO BUILD A
of the doer

and those who

FIRE

live in the

37

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

and 43)

industriously (Figs. 39, 42

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

has no place
Way among the

shirk, the quitter, or the side-stepper

in the

his habitat

is

on the Great White

open;
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

His body

burning.

is

heated by steam radiators, his food

cooked in some mysterious place beyond his ken, and

brought to him by subservient waiters. He will be dead and
is

on

flowers growing

his grave

when the

just attaining the full vigor of their

real fire-makers are

manhood.

Captain Belmore Browne says that the

we may add

trails of

the wilder-

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
ness are

its arteries;

dead and

That

lifeless.

brotherhood
of burning

all

love the

wood

is

is

that

all trails

the reason that

fire

that

is

we

of the

outdoor

the reason that the odor

incense to our nostrils; that

that the writer cannot help talking about

it

is

the reason

when he should

be telling

How
Do

TO BUILD A FIRE

not forget that lighting a fire in hot, dry weather is

but that it takes a real camper to perform the

child's play,

same act
or

in the

when the

damp, soggy woods on a cold, raw, rainy day,

damp snow is covering all the branches of

first

the trees and blanketing the moist ground with a slushy

mantle of white discomfort! Then it is that fire making

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

38
brings out

nevertheless
hail

can

all

the

skill

and patience

spell failure for

him.

GUMMY FAGOTS
of

of the woodcrafter;

when he takes proper care neither rain, snow nor

OF THE PINE

In the mountains of Pennsylvania the old backwoodsmen,

which there are very few left, invariably build their fires

with dry pine, or pitch pine sticks.

With then* axe they split a pine log (Fig. 4), 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 shavings adhering to the wood; they go round and round the stick

with their knife blade making curled shavings until the piece
wooden trees one used

of kindling looks like one of those toy

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

ablaze they are already putting on larger sticks of

black
ash,
birch, yellow birch, sugar maple or oak.

it is all

it known that however handy pitch pine is for

a
fire, it is not the material used as fuel in the fire
starting
itself, because the heavy smoke from the pitch blackens up

For be

the cooking utensils, gives a disagreeable taste to the food,

HOW TO BUILD
and

the coffee

spoils

is

A FIRE

not a pleasant

41

accompaniment

even for a bonfire.

In the North woods, in the land of the birch trees, green
is universally used as kindling with which to start

birch bark

a (ire; green birch bark burns like tar paper. But whether
one starts the fire with bireh 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

(Fig. 36), after

fire

must have

by the use

air

of a single

match

a simple matter. A
to breathe in order to live, that is a draught,

which the adding of

fuel

consequently kindling piled in the

is

little

wigwam shape

is

frequently used.

FIRE-DOGS
"

For an ordinary, unimportant fire the

turkey-lay"
fires we
and
for
but
is
camp-fires
cooking
handy,
(Fig. 54)
use andirons on which to rest the wood, but of course in the
forests

iron

to

we do not

call

them andirons. They are not made of

wood or stones and known

they are either logs of green

woodsmen by the name of "fire-dogs."

Wliile we are on the subject of fire making

worth while to

call

it

may be

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 efficiency 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

how to open a pocket

But today

I fail to recall

to

tell

to

my mind a single boy of my acquaintance who knows how

knife.

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

a camp full of boys, showing them how to

do the very things with their knives and their axes described
in the field with

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

flRSTMOYE

among them who

could

not whittle with consider-

and many a twelve

boy was an adept
at the art. I remember with
able

skill

year old
the

keenest

pleasure

the

charms and knickknacks which I carved with

a pocket knife before I had
rings,

reached the scout age of

Today, however, the

twelve.

boys handle their knives so

rrrirRD

movt

awkwardly as to make the

run down the back of
an onlooker.

chills

49
FOURTH MOVE.

In order toproperly open

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-

HOW TO BUILD A

(Fig. 46), otherwise

may be

pendicular as

FIRE
you

43

bend back

will

your thumbnail until it hurts or breaks. Pull the blade away

from your body, at the same time dn:\ving the handle of the
Continue this
knife towards the body (Figs. 47 and 48).

movement

until the blade

is

fully

open and points directly

from your body (Fig. 49).

Practise this

be

in

danger

and make

it

a habit; you

will

then never

of stabbing yourself during the process of open-

open a knife properly and quickly

termed
intuition, but what is really
by what is generally
habit.
and
the result of training
ing your knife

you

will

How
The age

of whittling

pocket knife

and reached

TO WHITTLE
began with the invention of the
climax about 1840 or '50, dying

its

out some time after the Civil War, probably about 1870.
All the old whittlers of the whittling age whittled away from
the body.
a habit.

If

you

practise whittling that

way

it will

become

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

by it, and sometimes dangerously wounded, because

slashed

a big artery runs along the inside of one's leg (Fig. 41 J/) 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

How
Fig. 40

TO SPLIT WITH A JACK-KNIFE

shows the proper way to use the knife

a stick, so that

it

in Fig. 44.

will

in splitting

not strain the spring at the back of the

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

44

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

and dry grass to start their fires. This they do

because they are accustomed to the use of paper and naturally
dry leaves

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

wood never fail to give satisfactory results.

There are many

sorts of fires used

slivers of

by campers and

dry

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
without saying that buffalo
chips are not good for bonfires or any fire where a big flame

for firewood in Kansas.

or illumination

is

an

It goes

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
or the
I

lie

wood may be

piled

BUILD A FIRE
up

kindling underneath the

log cabin style (Fig. 51) with

first floor.

In both of these forms there are air spaces purposely left

between the sticks of wood, which insure a quick and ready

moment the flames start to nicker in the kindling.

The best form of council fire is shown by Fig. 52, and
known as the

draught 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

CA^IP-LORE

46

AND WOODCRAFT

fire."
The platform is made of anything handy
covered with a thick flooring of sod, sand or clay for

"torch

his

and

is

the fire-place.

The tower is built exactly similar to the

towers but on a smaller scale ',Fig. 52).

Boy Scout

signal

DANGER OF EXPLODING STONES

However tempting a smooth rock may look as a convenient 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,
rock on becoming heated may generate steam
expand with some violence or burst like a bomband scatter far and wide the fragments, even endanger-

for the

and
shell

damp

either

ing the lives of those gathered around the

CHARACTER
The
length,
fire in

fire.

IN FIRE

more in
them on
meet them from

natives of Australia take dry logs, 6 ft. or

ft. or 4 ft. apart, set

and laying them down 3

several places.

Letting shorter logs

the outside, and placing good-sized pebbles around them, they

then stretch themselves on the ground and sleep between

and when the wood is consumed the

some time to radiate the heat they have
Many tribes of American Indians
previously absorbed.
have their own special fashion of fire building, so that a
the two lines of

fire,

stones continue for

deserted

camp fire will not infrequently

by which it was made.

reveal the identity

of the tribe

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
As the ends

burned

of the logs

A FIKE
off

47

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

someone must occasionally push them so that

together, when they send their heat from

night, but

come

their ends

one to the other, backwards and forwards, and thus keep the
But who want< to sit up all night
embers hot (Fig. 58
.

watching a fire?
sleep

all

I prefer to

use the

modern method and

night.

Sharpen the ends of two strong heavy stakes each about

5

ft.

in length, cut a

for the support or

ground about 6

notch

ft.

apart.

a log wall for the

making
two shorter

logs

in the rear of

back to key

each near the top.

into, drive the stakes into the

Place three logs one on the other,

fire-place. Next take

back of your

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 Frnz^

When
smoke

the greatest elevations of land are selected the

may be seen at a distance of from twenty to

signals

fifty miles.

grmss

Signal

fires

are usually

made with dry

leaves,

and weed? 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

Director of U.

outdoor people.
S.

Bureau

According to

of Ethno!

J.

W.

Powell,

the Indians use

but three kinds of signals, each of which consists of columns

of smoke.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

48

ALARM
Three or more smoke columns reads impending danger
This signal may be communicated
flood, fire or foe.
from one camp to another, so as to alarm a large section of
from

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

uous column and

viz.,

generally

made by producing one

signifies attention

when a band had become

contin-

for several purposes,

tired of

one

locality, or

the

been consumed by the ponies, or some other

cause necessitated removal, or should an enemy be reported
grass

may have

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

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
for

ATTENTION has been

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."

ITOW TO
THREE

Therefore,
or

more (lames

at

more smokes

or

night,

signal for attention,

BOLD A

is

Two

FIRE

49

smokes

THREE
ONH smoke a

in daylight, or

a signal of alarm,
tells

us that

all

is

well,

peaceful and happy.

SMOKE SIGNALS
The
smudge

usual

way

of signalling with

guisher.

removing it,
appear, and

a large globular puff of

is

How
it

is

make a

to

is

smoke

is

made to suddenly
anyone who

certain to attract the attention of

happens to be looking toward the

If

smoke

browse or grass and use a blanket as an extinBy covering the fire with the blanket and suddenly

fire of

site of

the

TO BUILD A FIRE ON THE

practical

it is

snow, but personally

of newly fallen snow.

SNOW

naturally better to shovel

have never done

fire.

Old snow which

is

away the

this except in case

more or

less

frozen

be tramped down until it is hard and then

covered with a corduroy of sticks for a hearth (Figs. 55 and
to the ground

may

56) or with bark (Fig. 57) and on top of this flooring

"
simple matter to build a fire. Use the turkey-" lay in

it is

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
55, 56

reader will note that in

and

back to the
it is

57), there
fire-place.

is

all

these illustrations (Figs.

either a log or stone or

perfectly safe to use a log for a

other occasions the log

start a forest fire.

No
will use
4

a bank for a

When everything is covered with snow

may

back

(Fig. 56)

but on

smoulder for a week and then

one but an arrant, thoughtless, selfish Cheechako

a live growing tree against which to build a fire.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

50

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

summer is often the best of camping places in

The water freezes and falls lower and lower,

in the

the winter time.

leaving convenient shelves of ice (Fig. 57) for one's larder.

offer a splendid barrier to the

The dense woods and brush

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

to extinguish

freely, it will
it.

practically take a cloud-burst

ELEVATION

CHAPTER
HOW TO LAY

IV

A GOOD COOKING FIRE

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ON SHORT RATIONS

THE MOST PRIMITIVE OF COOKING OUTFITS
CAMP POT-HOOKS, THE CALLOW-CROOK, THE POT-CLAW, THE HAKE,
THE GIB, THE SPEYGEUA AND THE 8ASTER
TELEGRAPH WIRE COOKING IMPLEMENTS, WIRE GRID-IRON, SKELETON CAMP STOVE
COOKING FIRES, FIRE-DOGS, ROASTING FIRE-LAY, CAMP-FIRE LAY,
BELMORE LAY, FRYING FIRE LAY, BAKING FIRE LAY
THE AURES CHA.NE

CHAPTER
HOW TO LAY

No

IV

GOOD COOKING FIRE

matter where the old camper may be, no matter how

may have elapsed since last he slept in the open,

long a time

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
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

open

Alleghenies, as the case

That

may

be.

faint hint in the air of burning firewood or the deli-

artificialities of

moment, will not only wipe

and his office furniture,
life.
Even the clicking of the

will turn into the

sound of clicking hoofs, the

cious odor of the bacon, for the

from

his vision his desk, his papers

but also

all

typewriter

the

become canyons, and the noise

the mountain torrent!
There is no use talking about it, there

streets will

of

of traffic the roar

is

no use arguing

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.

about

it,

there

is

Some years ago Mr. Arthur Rice, the Secretary of the

Camp-fire Club of America, and Patrick Cleary, a halfbreed Indian, with the author, became temporarily separated
from their party in the Northern wilds. They found themselves on a lonely wilderness lake surrounded by picture
mountains, and dotted with

Christmas

trees, giving the

tall rocky islands covered with

whole landscape the appearance

55

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

56

on drop-curtains
was grand, everything
on a generous scale,

of the scenery one sometimes sees painted

for the theatre.

was

Everything

beautiful, everything

in sight

was

built

everything was big, not forgetting the voyagers' appetites!

Unfortunately the provisions were in the missing canoe;
diligent search, however, in 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
Near this they built
spouted from the mossy ground.
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
also tobacco)

To

the

dumped the tea (and

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,
in a measure compensate for the lack of salt. The hunks

and

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

to allow a

man

to bite into

it

FIRE

57

with no danger of breaking his

teeth in the attempt.

To-day

it

seems to the author that that banquet on that

from the nearest living human being, was

lonely lake, miles

more

delicious

of Belshazzar

New

and more

satisfying than

he has since attended

any of the feasts

wonder city of

in the

York.

Therefore, when taking up the subject

and camp kitchen, he naturally begins with

of cooking fire

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

or perhaps a saster-pole on which to suspend or from

which to dangle, in front of the fire, a hunk of moose meat,

the

fire,

venison, mountain sheep, mountain goat, whale blubber,

skunk, rabbit, muskrat,

whatsoever fortune may send.
beaver,

woodchuck,

squirrel

or

CAMP POT-HOOKS
of various forms and designs, but they are not the
S shaped things formerly so familiar in the big open fireplaces of the old homesteads, neither are they the hated S
shaped marks with which the boys of yesterday were wont

Are

and disfigure the pages of their writing books.

of the camp pot-hooks had been drawn in the
one
any

to struggle
If

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

58

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
name might imply, a human crook too intiassociated
with the gallows, but on the contrary it is a
mately
rustic and useful bit of forked stick (Figs. 60, 61, 62 and 63)
Is not, as the

made

of a sapling.

and where to cut

shows how to

Fig. 60

select the sapling

below a good sturdy fork.

it

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

this switch may be bent down and bound with a

shows how

made

string or tape

main stem

of green bark,

as to form a loop

waugan-stick as in Fig. 63.

with which to

make

which
Fig.

and so fastened to the

will easily slip

over the

62A shows a handy hitch

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

pail or bucket,

fast the

and the pot or kettle,

hooked on to the lower fork. You will

sticks, as in Fig. 63,

is

note that the lower fork

main

stick

is

upon the opposite

side of the

from that from which the switch prong of the

upper fork springs.

This arrangement

make

the pot balance properly over the

holds good for all the other pot-hooks.*

is

not necessary to
the same rule

fire;

THE POT-CLAW
Will be best understood
64, 65

By
*

and

66),

these diagrams

The pots

will

by

which show

you

inspecting the diagrams (Figs.

evolution or gradual growth.

its

will see the stick is so cut

balance better

if

the notches are on the

same

that the

side.

HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING

FIRE

61

be hooked over the waugan-stick and the cooking

utensils, pots or kettles may be hung over the fire by slipping their handles into the notch cut in the stick on the side
fork

may

opposite to the fork and near the lower end of the pot-claw.
Tliis is a real honest- to-goodness Buckskin or
Sourdough

pot-hook; it
and one that

"whim"

is
is

one that requires little time to manufacture

made wherever sticks grow, or wherever

easily

or driftwood

sticks

may

be found heaped upon

the shore.

THE HAKE
Is easier to

make than

like the pot-claw,

end a

nail

is

hung on the

the pot-claw.

in place of the

is

a forked stick

making

it

possesses the

necessary for the

nails in his kit.

No

camper to carry
Sourdough on a long and

down with

a very good model for

of all descriptions

The hake

67 and 68).

perilous trip loads himself

is

It

notch near the lower

driven diagonally into the stick and the kettle

nail (Figs.

disadvantage of

a supply of

but

nails.

A hake, however,
and hikers
more thickly

Scouts, Girl Pioneers,

Boy
who may go camping

in the

settled parts of the country.

THE GIB
Is

possibly a corruption of gibbet, but

humane implement.
more skill to make a

It requires a little

it is

much more

more time and a

little

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.
cut to
is

fit

Fig.

69A shows how the two forked

sticks are

shows how

this splice

together in a splice,

and

it

also

nailed together with a couple of wire nails,

shows how

the wire nails are clinched.

and

Fig. 70

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

6?

In a book of this kind the details of

all

these designs are

not because any one camper is expected to use them all,

but because there are times when any one of them may be just
:r.ven

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
Xorth 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

because of the innate modesty of the men no one

belongs
claims the honor.

This misshapen pot-claw was responsible

on several occasions, not to speak of

for spilling the stew

Luckily one of the party was a stolid

a
one
consistent
member of the Presbyterian church,
Indian,
losing the boiled rice.

one a Scout and one a member of the Society of Friends,

consequently the air icas not blue and the only remarks made

"Oh my:"

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
were,

^:h

"Bless

pot-hooks belong.

my

soul!"

While

dissolved in smoke, the Indian

table pot-claw with a straight

notch.

good

it

burned and

made

its evil spirit

new pot-claw, a respeccharacter, and a more secure

a

This one by its benign presence brought peace and

the camp and showed the necessity of taking

will to

pains and using care in the manufacture of even so lowly a

thing as a pot-clavr.

The camp pot-hooks should be

of various lengths; long

HOW TO LAY

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

and medium ones

for

warm;

simmering or slow cooking.

THE SPEYGELIA
Is

is a long name for a short implement.

a forked stick or a notched stick Figs. 71,

not an Italian, but

The

speygelia

is

and 73), which is either propped up on a forked stick (Fig.

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
7-2

71)

used ui the same manner as 1

soft to

which

permit
may hold
it,

it

r'. 73.

Where the ground

is

driven diagonally into the earth,

The
in place without other support.

the stick

is

much used by cow-punchers and

speygelia
in places where wood is scarce.
is

other people

THE
The

saster

speygelia.

is

Meat

a long pole used in the same manner as the

is suspended from it in front of the fire to

and

75), or kettles are

roast (Figs.

74^

over the

to boil water (Fig. 74).

fire

suspended from

it

TELEGRAPH WIRE COOKING IMPLEMENTS

making for themselves cooking
from ordinary telegraph wire. In the
old time open fireplaces of our grand-ires' 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 rakcris made of bands of iron with

Many campers

are fond of

utensils improvised

holes

punched

in

them

for the

attachment of short iron pot-

CAMP-LOBE AND WOODCRAFT

With these ancient implements in their
some ingenious campers manufacture themselves
rakens and short pot-hooks from telegraph wire (Tig. 77).
hooks

(Fig. 76'.

minds,

By
be

twisting the wire in a series of short loops, each loop can

to serve as a place for attaching the pot-hooks as

made

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.

On

'
>

A_s vr

r.-i-rr&

one of these rakens one

may hook

the pail as high or

as low as one chooses (Fig. 73); not only that

(Fig. 79)
it is full

put a small

of water, for the

danger of scorching

but one

may

where

later

pail inside the larger one,

purpose of cooking cereal without

it.

The disadvantage

of all these

must be toted wherever one

lost sooner or later,

goes,

implements is that they

and parts are sure to be

whereupon the camper must

things "with the bark on

resort to

the gallow-crook, the

pot -claw, the hake, the gib, the speygelia, or the saster, or
'em,'*'

like

HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING

he

may go back

of a green

first

principles

67

and sharpen the forks

the bacon,

game

or fish

be thus toasted over the hot embers (Fig. 80).

do not put meat over the fire because it will burn on the

that

We

to the

wand and impale thereon

FIRE

it

may

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

made of a shingle-like piece of wood,

use the saster with a fan

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

But the same

and round.

result

is

secured with

a cord which has been soaked in 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
You will
of the roasting fire in front of which it hangs.

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,
note

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
whereas the intention

is

to

it spinuntil the heat sent the juices bubbling through

the skin and the apple gradually became thoroughly roasted.

towatch

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

68

in our kitchens.

ing a

Consequently they compromise by packhandful 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 adjusted over two green sticks resting upon two log fire-dogs

and upon the

(Fig. 83),

wires, so arranged,

meat and

fish

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-

may

wise the camper will sooner or later throw

them away rather

than be annoyed by losing one every now and then.

84, 85, 86, 87 and 88 show a little

Figs.

SKELETON CAMP STOVE

Ingeniously devised by a Boy Pioneer. Two pieces of telegraph wire are bent into a triangular form (Figs. 84 and 85),

A are left open or unjoined,

be
may readily
slipped through the loops in the
B
and
C
upright wires,
(Fig. 87), and thus form a take-a-part
skeleton stove (Fig. 86)
The young fellow from whom this
and the ends

of the triangle at

so that they

device was obtained was at the time using an old tin kerosenelamp (Fig. 88A) which he forced into the lower triangle of the

stove (Fig. 86), and which the spring of the wire of the
angle held in position (Fig. 88B).

But
there

is

if

one

is

tri-

going to use the telegraph wire camp stove

of carrying a lamp. The stove is made

no necessity

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

by bending the wires

in so doing

is

as

camp

stove, however,

shown

in Fig. 90,

may

be

made

but the only object

to develop one's ingenuity, or for

economy

sake,

HOW TO LAY A GOOD COOKING

otherwise one

camp

with legs which

the

fire,

69

purchase at the outfitter's folding wire

may

broilers for

FIRE

trifle,

may

made on

same

the

principle

and

be thrust into the ground surrounding

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 telegraph wire let us go back to the real thing again and talk
about laying and lighting a genuine

CAMP COOKING FIRE

is planned and built the more
be
accomplished. The first thing to
easily will the cooking
be considered in laying one of these fires is the

The more

carefully the fire

FIRE-DOGS

same as andirons in the open fire-places

our homes, and used for the same purpose. But domestic

Which
of

in

camp

are the

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 purpose 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
cabin style and the front

fire.

is left

The back

open.

is

laid

up

log-

In the open enclosure

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

70
the

fire is built

The logs on all

is

by

sticks being laid

in front of this,

hung

up

like those in Fig. 91.

and when the meat

from
the
end of the saster
suspended
and thoroughly roasted.

three sides radiate the heat

(Fig. 743/2), it is easily

THE CAMP-FIRE
with an eye to two purposes one is to reflect heat
in front, and the other is to so construct

Is built

into the

open tent

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
it

the comforting conviction that the

The

is

camp-fire

fire will last until

made with two

morning.

pushed back
and B), which form the foundafire-dogs

against a back log (Fig. 95

tion for the camp-fire. Two upright green sticks C (Fig. 95)
are placed in a slanting position and supported by other
sticks,

in

(Fig. 95),

stick at

the top ends of which rest in notches cut

and the bottom ends of which are

(Fig. 95),

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

fire-dogs,

two

in,

a mass of red hot embers, between the

and one log is

logs are laid across the dogs

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

At a convenient distance
is

waugan-stick

placed,

in

FIRE

73

front of the fuel logs, a

reaching

from one

fire-dog

to

the other.

In wilderness work the frying pan is about the only

is used as a toaster, a baker,

domestic utensil carried and

and a stew pan all combined. In it the

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

broiler, a fryer,

Buckskin

man and

and

resting their handles against the waugan-stick

have seen the baking fire used from British Columbia to Florida, but it was the explorer, Captain Behnore

the

fire

(Fig. 97)

Browne, who showed

me

nection with the baking

the use of the waugan-stick in confire, hence I have called this the

Belmore Lay.

A
Is

built

between two

and

(Figs. 98, 99

FRYING FIRE
logs,

two rows of stones, or sods

100); between these logs the fire

built, using the sides as fire-dogs,

in the turkey-lay (Fig.

make a
fire is

fire-dog

and

or the sticks

is

may be

usually

placed

100), so that the sticks themselves

allow, for a time, a draught until the

burning briskly, after which

it

settles

down

to hot

proper condition for frying. For be it

known that too hot a griddle will set the grease or bacon

embers and

afire,

is

which

but when one

in the

be funny under ordinary circumstances,

shy of bacon it is a serious thing. The

may
is

ORDINARY BAKING FERE 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.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

74

THE AUBES
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

The long end of the main branch is severed at

care
being taken not to cut through the green bark,
(Fig. 102),
B (Fig. 102). The bark of the latter, B, is then bent over the
(Fig. 102).

stub,

A (Fig. 102), forming a loop, C

(Fig. 103),

which

is

lashed

with green bark to the main stick and slipped over the upright,
braces the crane and holds it in
(Fig. 104). The fork at

a horizontal position, resting on a stub

How

purpose.

left

on

for that

be depends

may

practicable this thing

al-

together upon the time and

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
skill

well worth while

one has at one's disposal.

and at the same time very

interesting

to manufacture a neat Aures crane for the

The next

step in

camp

kitchen

be termed the pit fires, which

camp

work

kitchen.

include what might

be described in the following

fires will

will

chapter.

You have been

told

how

to select the firewood,

make

the

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
kindling and

start

fire in

and food to eat or they

In the case of the

we

it

will

fire

not

live.

we do not

a free circulation and

give
the food that the

with indigestion

is

fire eats

fire

and

call

the air breath, but

a draught. Wood is
must be digestible, a fire

call it
it

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

7T

a draught the fire must, of course, be raised

from the ground, but do not build it in a careless manner like

To produce

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
the frying pan into the fire."

Be

it

man, woman, boy or

to be a camper, he, or she or

tidy around camp.

Xo

it

matter

dumping the bacon "from

girl, if

must

how

he, she or

it

expects

learn to be orderly

soiled one's clothes

and

may

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
be,

as carefully arranged as

the next minute to

if

the military officer was expected

make an

inspection.

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.
All

my

readers

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 HUNTERS
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 firerustic

cranes and pot-hooks as already described,
with
places
but in deforested countries, or on the plains and prairies,
The pit itself shelters the fire
pit-fires are much in vogue.

on the windswept

plain, wliich

of the unprotected nature of such

of the kind of fuel used.

on the Western

The

chips.

doubly necessary because

camping places, and because

is

Buffalo-chips were formerly used

plains, but they are now superseded by cattle

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

thunder of their feet has died away forever, as
has also the whoop of the painted Indians. The romantic

sound

of the

and picturesque plainsmen and the wild and rollicking cowboys 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

in use.

THE MOST SIMPLE

Is a shallow trench

dug

PIT-FIRE

in the ground,

two

logs are placed; in the pit

the

name

on each

side of

which

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
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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

82

simply the damp earth left in its natural state. This pit-fire
is used differently from the preceding one, for in the

place

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

THE COWBOY

its leisure.

PIT-FIRE

The cowboy

pit-fire is simply a trench dug in the earth

with
a
(Fig. 107),
basin-shaped hole at the beginning. When
obtainable, sticks are laid across the trench and sods laid

upon the top

of the sticks.

of the pit-fire

Fig. 107

shows a section of view

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
The chinook

fire-pit is

FIRE-PIT

one which

is

used in the north-

western part of the United States, and seems to be a combination of the ordinary camp fire-dogs with cross logs and the

cowboy

fire-pit.

Fig. 109

shows a perspective view

of this

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

lay.

Fig. 110

view and also the deeper perspective view, as well as the plan,
will note that the two logs are placed across the fire-dogs

you

with space between. The back-log is placed upon the top

of another back-log A and B (Fig. 112). The fire-dogs have

^jns

their ends

back-

shoved against the bottom back-logs B, the two

ure kept in place

two top
or

AMP KiTaiE:

split

logs

wood

As the

fire

is

and

by the stakes C, C. Between the

figs. 112 and 110;, the smaller fuel

placed.

burns the hot coals drop into the

pit,

and when

quantity of embers are there they may be raked

forward and the frying pan placed on top of them 'Tig. IK

sufficient

The chinook
and

is

fire is good for baking, frying, broiling, toasting,

an excellent all-around kitchen camp stove.

THE HOBO
fire-place usually surrounding a shalthe sides built up with sods or stones. The hobo
answers for a hasty fire over which to boil the kettle (Fig. 1 13).

Is carelessly built, a

low

pit,

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
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.
Is

The fire-pit is about four feet wide and four feet deep and
> 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.

Homer Davenport 'the old-time and famous

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
The

late

cartoonist)

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

86

barbecue there was a

(Fig. 115)

dug

fire-pit

such an arrangement

is

in the side of the

known

bank

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

116

117

115

and

fits

in the socket

bottom

in the

by handles arranged like A,

or C.

log; the spit

The

pit

is

is

turned

lined with

which are heated by a roaring big

bake
the meat.
to
hot
until
enough

either stones or bricks,

fire

THE GOLD DIGGER

Is

by

another bank

pit,

in the

bank and using

pieces of iron.

in Montana
made by digging a hole
either made of stones or old

and one that

Japanese railroad hands.

shelves

It

have seen used

is

Gold
Fig. 116 shows the cross section of the

<

AMP KITCHENS

87

Digger with the stone door in place. Fig. 117 shows a perspective 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

made by

building a rounded hut of stones or sod

and
covering the same with branches over which
(Fig. 118),
or
is heaped (Fig. 119).
or
dirt
The oven is heated
sod,
clay,
inside
of
when
the
fire
and
it is very hot and
it,
by building
the fire has burned down, the food is placed inside and the
opening stopped up so as to retain the heat and thus cook
It

is

the food.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

THE AI>OBE
Is

one that the soldiers in Civil

The boys

to build.

War

days taught the author

an old barrel with

in blur generally used

the two heads knocked out Fir. 151

This they either set

bank or covered with clay Fir. 120 and in it thbuilt their fires which consumed the barrel but left the bake d
clay for the sides of the oven. The head of the barrel (Fig.
12 LA) 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. Firs. 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.
in the

THE MATASISO
Is a

cooking.

The matasiso

and used

like

which

is

built

camp

stove which the

and on

it

;
;

:'

in old

the troop of

Boone Scout?,

Kentucky, were wont to

to cook the big channel catfish, or little

bass or other food.

The Bank

Li _k is

made of fiat

pond

stones and

is

The Boone Scouts

Kenton County, Kentucky, fifty odd years ago.

one or two stories high Firs. 127 and 12S

flourished in

back while

of stones or sods (Fig. 126)

BAN-K LICK

who frequented Bank Lick

build

up

of the so-called Altar

to save one's

is

any other campfire.

THE
Is

and a form

stove or fire-place,

camp

Fire-place, the object of

THE ALIAS
Is built of Ic rs

Fir. 132

and

132;.

':'

stones, of sod, or of logs filledwith

and topped with clay Fir-. 130

The clay top being wider at one end than the other,

sods or stone Fig. 131

CAMP KITCHENS

on the plan of the well-known cumpfire (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

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 andshort 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.

by spearing the meat on a green twig

some similar wood, and toast it before the
or pinch the meat between the split ends of a twig (Fig.

Therefore, start
of sweet birch, or
fire

133) or better

still

FORK

IT

In order to do this select a wand with a fork to

it,

trim

the prongs of the forks, leaving them rather long (Fig.

134), then sharpen the ends of the prongs and weave them in

off

and out near the edges

of the

meat

(Fig. 135),

which

is

done

CAMP KITCHENS

03

by drawing the prongs slightly together before impaling

meat on the second prong. The natural spring and elasticity
of the branches will stretch the meat nice and flat (Fig.
13,5),

ready to toast in front of the flames, not over the flame.

very thick steak of moose meat or beef may be cooked

in this

Remember

manner.

have

to

fire-dogs

and a good

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

back

log; there will

until

it is

about done.

Any

sort of

meat can be thus cooked

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
it is

a favorite

way

of toasting

sides of the fowl.

PULLED FIREBREAD OR TWIST

Twist

is

Boy

Scout's

name

for this sort of bread.

The

made
twist
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
of

is

The

without touching each other.

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 pitfire.

The long end of the

stick

on which the twist

used for a handle to turn the twist so that

browned on

all sides,

or

it

may

it

is

may

coiled

is

be nicely

be set upright in front of

Ilie

flames (Fig. 142).

A HOE CAKE
May
that

be cooked
is,

by

in the

plastering

same manner that one planks a shad

on the flat face of a puncheon or

it

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

94

board, split from the trunk of a tree (Fig. 145), or flat clean
and propping it up in front of the fire as one would

stone,

when cooking

in a reflecting

cooked on one side

oven

(Fig. 146) .

When

the cake

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
is

it

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

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.
and

155).

Upon

this

How

TO DRESS SMALL ANIMALS

Dressing in this case really means undressing, taking

and removing their insides. In order to prepare

their coats off

for broiling or

baking any of the small fur-bearing animals,

skinning stick, using for the purpose a forked

make yourself a

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
point which corresponds to your

own

05

heel, just as the stick

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

in Fig. 155

is

squatting, the nose of the animal should just clear the

ground. First take off the fur coat. To do this you split

one

is

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;
use your fingers to roll

when the base

back the

skin.

of the tail
If

is

reached,

skinning for the

do not destroy any

pelt, follow directions given later, but
for
useful
hide
is
skin as the
many purposes around camp.

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

After the coat

is

having a strong or musky taste when

How

it is

cooked.

TO BARBECUE A DEER, OR SHEEP

First dress the carcass

and then

of black birch sticks, for this sweet

stretch

it

on a framework

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 bodyof 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

you put the meat on to cook.

bake the inside of the barbecued beast, then turn
over and bake the outside. To be well done, an animal the

coals before

First

it

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

96

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,
size of

bacon fat

for

for anyone, or use

good enough

itself is

hot

salt water.

Of course, it is much better to use charcoal for this purpose,

but charcoal

is

not always handy.

MAKE

A day

ONE'S

One

can, however,

OWN CHARCOAL

or two ahead of the barbecue day,

fires of

wood about the

by building big

thickness of one's wrist.

After the

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
fire

How

TO

MAKE DOUGH

Roll the top of your

bag back (Fig. 136), then build
a cone of flour in the middle of the bag and make a crater
flour

in the top of the flour mountain.

a heaping teaspoon or, to use Mr.

Vreeland's expression, put in "one and a half heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder," to which add a half spoonful
In the crater

of salt;

dump

mix these together with the dry flour, and when

this

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

is

will slide
is

from the

sides into the lava of the center, as the

water

poured in and care taken to avoid lumps.

Make

the dough as soft as

may

but very
between your well-

be, not batter

dough, stiff enough, however, to

floured hands.
soft

roll

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

07

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

drawn through this opening; the fish

then washed, cleaned and wrapped in a coating of paper

thrust in and the entrails

is

or fallen leaves, before the clay

upon a pancake

is

applied.

Place the fish

clay (Fig. 147), fold the clay over the

fish (Fig. 148), press the edges together, thus making a clay
of

stiff

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
pepper and sage, if you have any of the latter. The birds
with the feathers on them are then plastered over with clean

salt,

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
clay

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

98

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

of the

in the embers.

mud wrapper and when

clay broken

off,

leaving the juicy

it is

off

cooked and the brick-like

the skin comes off with the broken clay,

meat exposed to view.

To PLANK A
Cut

This seals the meat inside

FISH

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
with its own juices.
fish

fish

should be salted while

it is

damp

Heat the plank in front of the fire and then spread your
out flat on the hot puncheon or plank, and with your

hunting knife press upon it, make slit holes through the fish
(Fig. 14*5) 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 punch -on
up in front of a fire which has ;i good back-log and plenty
i

of hot coals to send out heat (Fig. 146).*

HEATING WATER
Water may be boiled in a birch bark vessel made by folding 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

the rawhide in the hole, bringing the edges

ground,
so
as
to
up
overlap the sod, weigh down the edges with stones,
fill the hide with water and heat with hot stones.
Figs. 159

in the

fit

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
TO MAKE ASH CAKE, PONE, CORN DODGERS, FLAPJACKS,
JOHNNY-CAKE, BISCUITS AND DOUGHGOD
MAKING DUTCH OVENS

HOW

VENISON

BANQUETS

IN

THE OPEN

HOW TO COOK BEAVER

TAIL, PORCUPINES AND MUSKRAT8

CAMP STEWS, BRUNSWICK STEWS AND BURGOO8

CHAPTER
'

VI

\MP fOOD
'

re Indian corn

\Vnj.

tx>

the world

.she
|

a priceless gift full of condensed pep. Corn in its vario

for
a wonderful food power; with a long, narrow buckskin
it

hag
was

parched cracked corn

an Indian or a white man

of nocake, or rock-a-hominy, as
called,

ild

swung upon

his back,

traverse the continent independent of

suffer hung-.-.-.
li x-jne,

Ken ton,

'

Mfadnngtoii,

game and nev

-

Crockett, and Carbon ah

knew

R/xL'-'.-r

Clark,

the sustaining

value of parched corn.

How

TO

The pioneer farmers

in

DRY

Co;

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

of the corn,

but

Selecting a

it

naturally begins with the harvesting

often continues until the first snow falls.

number

of ears of corn, the husks are pul.

back exposing the grain, and then the husks of the several
These bunches of corn
ears are braided together ^Fig. IGo
.

hung over branches of trees or horizontal poles and

for the winds to dry FL'. 166,

are

left

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

104

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

the eolle^

::.:.

o:

saw numbers

of these stone corn-mills in

Doctor Baldwin,

>f
V

of Springfield.

Mass.

X.JTr^^^^fe

TO PREPARE CORN TO FAT

In the southwest

much

grit

from the stone used

is

unin-

tentionally mixed with the corn, and hence all the elderly
Indies' 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

make

The

a pioneer mill like Figs. 163 or 164, from a log.

pestle or nmsher in Fig. 164 is of iron.

SWEET CORN
There
still

is

way

which a few white people

it from the Indians.
First

to preserve corn

practice just as they learned

AMP 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

the bottom of the ditch with glowing emb<

outer husks of the fresh green corn are then removed
r

tiiu

The

and the corn placed

r

I'i.

1^7).

Me by

in r

This practice gave the

side

on the hot embers

name

of Roasting

Ear

Season to July and August.

'?

rti

/',

C/

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"
old

camping

shell; these shells I

places of the

have often found

in 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

keep a supply of

it all

winter.

will tell

you.

One can

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

106

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
we parched

field corn, sugar corn and the regular pop

of
us had ever seen cracked corn or corn meal
but
none
corn,
as food, and I am inclined to think that the
and
used
parched
old pioneers themselves parched the corn as did their direct

hot;

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 corn as an article of diet.
to

make

The knowledge

generally from "roast ing-ears'* to corn puddings

from the American Indians. It was from them

how

to

of how-

the various kinds of corn bread and the use of corn

make

was gained

we

learned

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

tricks, and although the humming-bird,
who once stole the sun, still carries the mark under his chin,

no more plays such

no longer a humming-birdnian 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.

he

is

Mix
add to

half a teaspoonful of salt with a

it

cup of corn meal, and

may be

boiling hot water until the swollen meal

worked by one's hand

107

into a ball, bury the ball in a nice

b<

<i

(glowing embersj and leave it there to bake

a potato. Equalling the a>h fake in fame and -implicit v

of hot
like

CAMP FOOD
a.-h<">

POM
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

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.

not cooked the same, nor

is it

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

Have

If cooked properly it should be a rich dark

and with a crisp crust. Before it Ls 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 corn
meal is called a Johnny-cake and that they also call ash-

the other side.

brown

color

cakes "hoe-cakes," and corn bread "bannocks," at least they

camp corn bread, a bannock. Now since bannocks were

known before corn was known, suppose we call it

call

CAMP CORN BREAD AND CORN DODGERS

In the North they also call this
cake," but whatever it is called it
ing.

camp corn bread "Johnnywholesome and nourishflour and mix them

add a teaspoon
each;
pint
Ls

Take some corn meal and wheat

fifty-fifty: in

other words, a half

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

108

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

flour as thin as batter,

with the water and milk, make the

it into a reflector pan, or frying

pour

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
I have eaten it every
fine corn bread to stick to the ribs.

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 teaand mix them together thoroughly while dry.
milk and water, if not milk straight water,
add
you
for the flapjacks. Make a dough soft
as
it
described
mixing
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

spoonful of

To

salt,

this

to be good biscuits.

THE VREELAND BANNOCK

tells me that he makes this the same as he would
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

Fred

biscuits

CAMP FOOD

109

propped up with ;i stick and the bannock browned by

it must be eooked slowly and have "a ni<v
brown crust." I have never made bannocks but I have
eaten some of Vreeland's, and they are fine.

pan

is

reflected heat,

FLAPJACKS

fellow

who cannot throw a

flapjack

is

sadly lacking in

one expects to find in a real woodcrafter. A heavy,

greasy flapjack is an abomination, but the real article is a
the

skill

joy to

make and

Put a large

a joy to eat.
tin

cupful of flour in the pan, add half a

teaspoonf ul of salt, also

one heaping teaspoonf ul and one

teaspoonful of baking powder;

level

mix the salt and baking powder

Then build your little

it is dry.
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
well with the flour while

until all the flour

is

batter; the batter should be thin

enough

to spread out rapidly into the form of a pancake when

r
poured into the skillet or frying pan, but not w atery.

it is

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

cakes unfit to eat.

either; I tried

it

Do

and too much grease makes the

not put too

once and when

hot batter splattered all over

even hotter than my remarks.

my

much

batter in the pan,

flapped the flapjack the
face, and that batter was

Pour enough batter into the pan to spread almost but

not quite over the bottom; when the bubbles come thickly

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

110
in the

middle and the edges begin to smoke a

to flap the flapjack.

bit, it is

time

Do so by loosening the edges with a knife

blade, then dip the far side of the

pan downward and bring

quickly, sending the cake somersaulting in the air;

catch the cake as it falls batter side down and proceed to
it

up

cook that

side.

The penalty of dropping a flapjack in the

made to eat it without wiping off the ashes.

fire is

to be

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 miy rapidly with a spoon; pour

Dutch oven or a pan and bake; it should be done

it

into a

in thirty-

five or forty minutes, according to the condition of the fire.

When your campfire is built upon a hearth made of stones,

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.
if

In the old-fashioned open fire-places where our grandDutch oven was considered

parents did their cooking, a

essential.

The Dutch oven is still used by the

boys and

is

Abraham

guides and cow-

same form as that used by

consists of a more or less shallow

of practically the

Lincoln's folks;

it

dish of metal, copper, brass or iron, with four metal legs

CAMP FOOD
that

may

which

is

be set in the hot cinders.

made

so as to cover the

of the cover are turned

This

turned up.
are

is

dumped on top

so
of

up

all

made

it,

111

Over that

bottom

around

like

is

a metal top

and the edges

a hat with its brim

di.sh,

to hold the hot cinders which

but a

DUTCH OVKN MAY HE I.MPKOMSED

From any combination

of

two metal dishes so made orselected

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.
bakes, meat,

In this oven bread, biscuits, cakes, pies, stews,

fish, fowl and vegetables may be cooked with

delightful results.

made

to act as a

In camp two frying pans are frequently

Dutch oven. A Dutch oven is sometimes

used in a bean hole (Fig. 10G) Firstjbuild 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 piecrust. Slice venison, moose meat or bear steak, or plain beef,
medium thin and put in to the depth of 2^ inches, sal ting 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

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.

Dutch oven

in the center

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

over which burned a

fire

rilled in

with stones

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

burst

it.

is

a dry one, otherwise the heat may

heat it good and hot and

If satisfied that it is dry,

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

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.
part

is

How

TO COOK VENISON

you want to know how real wild meat tastes, drop a

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
If

sleek

CAMP FOOD
you are

in the open,

113

have a good appetite and you are

privileged to partake of a dish too good for

The gravy, oil my \vord! the reeollection of

any old king.

it makes me

hungry! I have eaten moose meat three limes a day for

weeks at a time, when it was eooked as described, without
losing my desire for more.

PERDIX AU CHOUX
Canada; the bird is cooked this way: Chop
and highly spice it, then stuff the bird with the

Is a great dish in

cabbage

fine

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

No

and porous

one with truth

may

as a sponge,

say that he

is

and burn

like coke.

a real woodcrafter

a good camp cook. At the same time it is an

error to think that the outdoor men live to eat like the
unless he

is

trencher

men

ancient

Rome.

of old England, or the degenerate epicures of

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.

W oodcrafters
r

with cultured Athenians

who

are really

strove to

more

make

in

their

sympathy

banquets
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
attractive with interesting talk, inspiring

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

114

BANQUETS
The word

itself is from the French

a
means
small
and
and Spanish
bench, a little seat, and when
a
means
three-legged stool. It has reference
spelled banqueta,

Originated in the open.

to sitting while eating instead of taking refreshments hi

The most enjoyable banquets

"stand up" fashion.

author's experience are those partaken

prominent among the wildwood dishes

hi the

in the wilderness,
is

and

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 putting them in there, peel an onion and slice it, placing the

Now pour half of the

slices in the bottom of the bean pot.
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
and pork on top of the beans. Over
of the beans, cover the top of the
remainder
the
pour
beans with molasses, on the top of the molasses put some more

making a

layer of onions

this

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

cinders, the cinders

the

fire

of birch has been burnt to hot

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

and

lumbermen

call

them, the black ashes.

the beans are put into the bean hole late in the afternoon
allowed to remain there all night, they will be done to a

If

CAMP FOOD

115

the next morning they will be wholesome,

and
browned
on top and delicious.
succi,
juicy
A bean hole is not absolutely nece>sary for a small pot of

turn for breakfast

I have cooked them in the wilderness by placing the

on
the
ground iti the middle of the place where the fire
pot
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

beans.

same experiment on the open hearth to

the
it

was a wonderful

my

studio and

success.

THE ETIQUETTE OF THE WOODS

Requires that when a porcupine has been killed it be immediately thrown into the fire, there to remain until all the quills

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.
funny, but I have experimented, unintentionally, by seating myself upon a porcupine quill. I can
assure the reader that there is nothing humorous in the ex-

This

may sound

perience to the victim, however funny

who look on.

it

may appear

to those

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

belly

and

from the
peel

tail

it off.

him up the middle

of the

to the throat, pull the skin carefully

When you come

to the feet cut

back

them

off.

the Thanksgiving turkey of the Alaskan

and British Columbia Indian, but unless it has been boiled
Broiled porcupine
in

is

two or three waters the taste does not

suit white

men.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

116

PORCUPINE WILDERNESS METHOD

After

it

has been parboiled, suspend the porcupine by its

good roasting fire, or over a bed of hot

forelegs in front of a
coals,

and

found

in the wilderness.

and

most savory;

is

well seasoned

it will

The

be as good meat as can be

tail particularly is

very meaty
tongue it is filled with fine bits
and take out the bone, then roast the

like beef

Split the tail

of fat.

meaty

if

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

baked by being buried deep under a heap of cinders

and covered with ashes. Two iron pans that will fit together,
hole, or

that

is,

one that

smaller one

may

is

trifle

larger than the other so that the

be pushed down into

it

to

some

extent, will

the purposes of the Dutch oven. Also two frying

pans arranged in the same manner.
Always remember that after the porcupine is skinned,

answer

all

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
let

the porcupine

or stale bread of

Dutch oven with a few hunks of fat pork;

upon some hard-tack, hard biscuit

itself rest

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
on the hot

coals,

117

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

The

sucking pig.

something

tail

like veal

with a suggestion of

of the porcupine, like the

TAIL OF THE BEAVER

Is considered

Many

a special delicacy.

of the old wilderness

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

men hang

the

flat trowel-like tails of

taste; others parboil

after

which the

tail

skin removed before

it

may

as advocated for porcupine meat,

be roasted or baked and the rough

eating.

BEAVER TAIL SOUP

made by stewing the tails with what other ingredients one
may have in camp all such dishes should be allowed to simmer

Is

for a long while in place of boiling rapidly.

A man who

was hunting in North Michigan said, "Although 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
dish

is

silly.

And

that

When

the beaver was brought into

cook went nearly wild, and so did the lumber-

beaver-tail soup.

camp the camp

men when they heard

the new s, and

r

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

118

and from

it

made such a soup

stock, at the

as never

came from any other

beck of the most expert and

scientific chef

that

ever put a kettle on."

MUSKRAT
Its name and rat-like appearance have created a prejudice against it as a food, but thousands of persons eat it without compunction. For those to
whom the name is a stumbling-block the euphemism " marsh

Is valuable also for his flesh.

has been invented, and under this name the

muskrat is sold even in the Wilmington market and served
on the tables of white country folk. In Delaware, especially, the muskrat is ranked as a delicacy, and personally

rabbit"

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

own name;^the dish was "muskrats and toast." For the

benefit of those who revolt at the muskrat as food, it is well
its

to state that

it is

one of the cleanest of

carefully washes all its

own

all

creatures, that

it

food and in every way conducts

flesh even to the most fastidious.

itself so as to recommend its

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 characteristic 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

good and
its

is

is, however, that everything which tastes

not indigestible is good to eat no matter what

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

CAM
it

distinguished for

FOOD

119

its intrinsic qualities, its

food value and

romance and picturesque accompaniment,

because of the illustrious people whoso names are

delicious flavor,

but also

I'

its

Kentucky history with the burgoo. One such

given some time between 1840 and 1850, was attended
Governor
Owlsley (old stone-hammer), Governor Metcalf,
by
Governor Bob Letcher, Governor Moorhead, General George
rrittenton, General John Crittenton, General Tom Crittenton, James II. Beard, and other distinguished men.
All Kentuckians will vow they understand the true meanlinked in
feast,

ing of the

But an

word "burgoo."

article in the

Insurance

derived from the low Latin burgus, fortified

(as a town) and goo-goo, very good." Hence the word, "burgoo," something very good, fortified with other good things, as

Field says, "It

will

is

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

How

fortified."

TO

MAKE

THE BURGOO

Anything from an ordinary

caldrons, according to the

ramp,

pail

number

will serve as vessels in

to one or

many

big

of guests expected at the

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

and barnyard fowls with vegetables from the garden,
but originally it was made from the wild things in the woods,
beasts

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

120

bear, buffalo, venison, wild turkey, quails, squirrels

splendid

and all the

that once roamed through Kentucky.

for woodcrafters we will take it for granted

game animals

As this book is
we are in the woods, that we have some

that

venison, moose,

bear meat, rocky mountain goat, big horn, rabbit, ruffed

grouse, or some good substitutes. It would be a rare occasion

we would really have these things. If, for inwe have a good string of grouse we will take their

indeed when
stance,
legs

and wings and necks for the burgoo and save their
and if we have not many grouse we will

breasts for a broil,

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
with the other meat.

legs are also good,

the meat up into pieces which will correspond,

roughly speaking, to inch cubes; do not throw away the bones;

Cut

all

put them in also. Now then, if you were wise enough when
you were outfitting for the trip to secure some of the illsmelling but palatable dried vegetables, they will add immensely to the flavor of your burgoo. Put all the material
in the kettle, that

as vegetables

if

unless you are using beans and potatoes

the meats had better be well cooked first,

is,

so,

because the beans and potatoes have a tendency to go to the

bottom, and by scorching spoil the broth.
Fill

hang

it

your

kettle, caldron or

over the

fire;

while

it is

pot half

making

full

of water

ready to boil get

and
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
of the meat,

vegetables.

and when the caldron

The

vegetables will

121

is

boiling

dump

in tin*

temporarily cool UK- water,

which should not be allowed to again boil, but should be put

When the stew is
fire and where it will simmer.
almost done add the salt and other seasonings. There should

over a slow

always be enough water to cover the vegetables. Canned

tomatoes will add to the flavor of your broth. In a real
burgoo we put 110 thickening like meal, rice or other material
of similar nature, because the broth
clear.

Also no sweet

When

is

strained

and served

vegetables like beets.

done dip it out and drink it from tin

Of course, if this is a picnic burgoo, you add olive
cups.
juice to the stew, while it is cooking, and then place a sliced
the burgoo

lemon and an

is

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

game was put into the caldron, the guests

and the stew was served late in the afternoon
each guest was supposed to come supplied with a tin cup and
returned and the

began to arrive

a spoon, the latter made of a fresh water mussel shell with a

split stick for a handle. Thus provided they all sal round and

partook of as
Since

many

helps as their hunger demanded.

we have given Kentucky's

add "Ole Virginny's"

after the

county where

celebrated dish,

favorite dish, which has been

it

originated.

we will
named

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

THE BRUNSWICK STEW
(sr

'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 potatoes, six ears of corn scraped

corn, half a

pound

from the cob, or a can of sweet

pound of salt pork, one

of butter, half a

teaspoonful of salt, three level teaspoonfuls of pepper and a

gallon of water. Cut the squirrels up as for fricassee, add

and water and

salt

boil five minutes.

beans, corn, pork, potatoes

again add the squirrel.

Then put

in the onion,

and pepper, and when boiling

"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
I do know that it
for it if I knew from whence it came.
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

on his way as a camp chef, and if he succeeds

start the novice

open the dishes here described, he need not

any culinary problem which conditions may

in cooking in the

fear to tackle

make

it

necessary for

him

to solve.

CHAPTER

VII

PACKING HORSES
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW

TO MAKE A PACK HORSE OF YOUR

TO MAKE AN APAREJO

OWN

TO MAKE A CINCHA
TO MAKE A LATIGO
TO THROW A DIAMOND HITCH
TO THROW A SQUAW HITCH

TO HITCH A HORSE IN OPEN LAND WITHOUT FOOT,

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 HORSE

CHAPTER

VII

PACKING HORSES
IF one

going on a real camping excursion where one

is

need pack horses, one should, by

/ill

neself with the proper

'iiis

method

can be done in one's own

all

means, familiarize

of packing a

cellar, attic

pack horse.

or woodshed and

rithout hiring a horse or keeping one for the purpose.

orse will be expensive

The

drill in

amps, and

enough when one needs

it

on the

The
trail.

packing a horse should be taught in all scout

camps and all Y. M. C. A. camps, and all

all girl

everywhere where anybody goes outanybody pretends to go outdoors; and

fter the tenderfeet have learned how to pack then it is the
roper time to learn what to pack; consequently we put
raining

oors at

camps;
all,

in fact,

or where

acking before outfitting, not the cart, but the pack before
le horse, so to speak.

When

the

Boy Scout Movement

started in America

it

ad the good aggressive American motto, "BE SURE YOU'RE

IIGHT, THEN Go AHEAD," which was borrowed from that
elightful old

buckskin man,

few years

later,

Davy

Crockett.

when the scout

idea

was taken up

in

England, the English changed the American motto to "BE

REPARED;" because the English Boy Scout promoter was

man himself and saw the necessity of preparedness

Great
Britain, which has since become apparent to us all.
y
And in order to be prepared to pack a horse, we must
rst be sure we are
right, then "go ahead" and practice packmilitary

ig

at home.

One

of the

most

useful things to the outdoor person

125

is

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

126

PACK HORSE
do not own a horse, but there is not a reader of
book so poor that he cannot own the horse shown by

All of us
this

Fig. 174.

188

Tl

^-

There are but few people

-=7

in the

United States

//

who cannot

honestly come

a pack

into possession of a barrel with which to build

horse or on which to practice throwing the diamond

They can also find, somewhere, some pieces of board

with which to make the legs of the horse, its neck and head.

hitch.

PACKING HORSES

127

Fig. 1G8 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

be procured by knocking them out of old boards;

at least that is the way the writer supplied himself with nails.

nails

may

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. 11-2
barrel.

shows how to
If

you

nail these cleats

find the barrel

onto the head of the

head so tough and

a nail cannot be easily hammered

elastic that

use a gimlet and bore

holes into the cleats and into the barrel head, and then fasten
in,

the cleats on with screws.

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

The

tail of

The legs of the horse are

wooden horse, of bits of plank

other end of the barrel (Fig. 173).

made

like those of a carpenter's

or boards braced under the barrel

by cross-pieces (Fig. 174).

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

Now

remember that you are doing

pack a real
and kick.

live horse,

it

in order to drill } r ourself to

a horse that

may

really buck, bite

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

128

There are a lot of words in the English language not to

be found in the dictionary. I remember a few years age
when one could not find "undershirt" or "catboat" in the
dictionary.

But in the dictionaries of to-day you will even

and "latigo," although neither of these words

find "aparejo"

was

in the dictionaries of yesterday.

MAKE YOUR OWN APAREJO

Make

your own aparejo of anything you can find. The

made of leather, but at the present time, 1920

real ones are

leather

some

is

very expensive.

We can,

however, no doubt secure

wrapping paper, a piece

the
would
be more like leathei
way,
by
than anything else, and cover these things with a piece oi
tent cloth, a piece of carpet, or even burlap. The oilcloth
builders' paper, tar paper, stiff

of old oilcloth, which,

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 il
in a real workmanlike manner, we can sew on a couple oi

leather shoes,

we can

made out

of old shoe leather or

new

leathei

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 latigc
which is the real wild and woolly name for the rope attached
But when you are talking aboul
to a cincha strap (Fig. 177)
"
horses
call
it
the
"cinch," and spell it cincha."
pack
packing
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

if

secure

ring fasten the lash rope (Fig. 177).

For the real horse and outfit one will need an aparejo,

PACKING HORSES

129

pack blanket, a lash rope with a cincha, a sling rope, a

and a pack cover. But here again do not
?all it a pack cover, for that will at once stamp you as a
tenderfoot. Assume the superior air of a real plainsman and
i

blind for the horse,

"
speak of it as a manta."
inventions of the Arabians

The

aparejo and pack saddle are

away back in the eighth century.

When the Moors from Africa overran Spain,

these picturesque
with
them
marauders brought
pack mules, pack saddles, and
When General Cortez and Pizarro carried the
aparejos.
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
of packing animals was perfectly adapted to their
purposes and they used to pack animals, the aparejos, the
The lash rope for a
latigos, and all the other kinds of gos.

method

real

inch,

the

pack horse should be of the best Manila -^ inch or -fand forty feet long; a much shorter one will answer for

wooden

horse.

EVEN BOYS CAN THROW THE HITCH

Back

in 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

Army. The Fourth Cavalry, United States Army,

was the first to become expert with the diamond hitch and

States

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

130

But these are the easiest things

to
secure.
couple of old potato or flour bags,
imaginable
stuffed with anything that is handy hay, grass, leaves, rags
or paper but stuffed tight (Fig. 179), will do for our load.
must have some packs.

When
"one man
hitch.

packing a horse, except with such hitches as the

"
"
"
hitch, it requires two men or boys to throw the

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

in the left

hand and

lets

and he takes the

the coils

fall

coiled lash rope

astern of the pack

he takes hold of the

animal (Fig. 180) with the right hand

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

the loop that goes over the forearm and the

along the back of the pack animal (Fig. 181).

way between

loop that

lies

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
The second packer
fall naturally on the neck of the animal.

runs the rope through the hook and pulls up the cincha
ond until the hook is near the lower edge of the off side of the

now

aparejo (Fig. 188).

grasps the rope A (Fig. 185) and
tucks a loop from the rear to the front under the part marked
B (Figs. 185 and 1SG), over the inner side pack (Figs. 184

The head packer next

Next the second packer passes the loose end of the

187)
(Fig. 187), and throws it on
rope under the part marked
the nigh (left) side of the pack animals.

and

The head packer now draws the tucked

loop forward and

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

tucks

it

(Fig. 189)

with his

left

hand, and at

(Fig. 187)

with his right

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.

hand.

191).

The second packer now

animal and

is

supposed to lead

takes the blind off his pack

it forward a few steps while

the head packer examines the load from the rear to see

if it

properly adjusted.
Then the blind is again put upon the animal for the final
tightening of the rope. While the second packer is pulling

is

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

134

comes from the pack on the inner side, and with the left
(Fig. 189), and his right shoulder against the cargo
to steady it, he gives the command "PULL!" Without jerks,

hand at J

but with steady

pulls,

the second packer

now

tightens the

"W

IS A REAL. CINCHA AND LATIGO

IS A REAL 3 AW-eUGK -SADDLE" WITH
ALFORJAS

LQ3

rope, taking care not to let it slip

He gives
slack

back through the hook.

the loose part to the head packer,

by steady

When

who

takes up the

pulls.

the second packer

is

satisfied that it is all right

he

"Enough!" The head packer then holds steady with

right hand and slips the other hand down to where the

cries,

his

rope passes over the front edge of the aparejo.

There he

PACKING HORSES

!:'..>

holds steady; his right hand then takes hold of the continuation of the rope at the back eorner of the pad and pulls tight.

Placing

liis

hand group

pad he
home, left-

right knee against the rear corner of the

pulls hard with both hands until the rope

is

well

(Fig. 188).

The second packer now

the rope with both hands,

takes up the slack

by grasping

(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
This draws the part of the lash rope K, K (Fig.
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
the slack.

189), well

taut, the

on

head packer at the same time taking up the slack

and then pulls steady, drawing the part L, L

his side

(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

hitch near the cincha end of the lash rope.

After passing under the corners, if the rope

on the

off

half

long enough

can then be passed over and made

side by tying around both parts of the lash

to reach over the load,

fast

is

by a

it

rope above the hook and by drawing them well together

(Fig. 191).

Alongside of Fig. 190 are a series of sketches showing how

and cinch two parcels or bags together; one bag is

to lash

made

black so that

its

In other words, it makes

position can better be understood.

it

easier to follow the different hitches.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

136

Learn to pack at home and you

on the trail.

will

not lose your packs

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.

Jk

In packing a live horse you will learn by practice not to

way as to cause the horse to step on your feet;

pull in such a

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
when one has no pack saddle like Fig. 200.

the animal, and

With

this

squaw hitch you must throw your burden across

made by a blanket (Fig.

the back of the horse, over the pad

PACKING HORSES

137

192), then put a loop over the end M, see

(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

(Fig. 193), bring the end Z
back again over the horse's back, also pass the end
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

QUAW MITChES

back, pass

through

top of pack (Fig. 194).

(Fig. 193), cinch tight

Fig.

and fasten on

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

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
to arrange the lead rope in a

lead rope

you

will

is

fastened to the pack in the usual manner.

take the rope and wind

it

If

loosely around the horse's

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

138

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

way where it will not

the meantime the rope is out of the

bother either the man or the horse.

all this on the wooden horse, then

when the time comes to handle a real

Practise

natural

it will

horse.

come
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
some given by Stewart Edward White, in
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,
of other hitches,

Oufing, called the Miner's Hitch, the

the lead rope, the manta, which is a cover for the pack, sometimes called the tarp short for tarpaulin, and the blind,
but as a rule a handkerchief is used for a blinder. The

aparejo
horse's
all

is a sort of a leather mattress which goes over the

back and on which the pack rests, but you will find

about that when you hit the trail with a pack train. The
is a Spanish name for the saddle-bags used on a pack

alforjas

horse.

When

the reader knows

how to pack

his horse,

knows

the Spanish names for the pack saddle and all that sort
of thing, there may come a time when he will have a horse
all

which needs to be hitched at night, and

it

may happen

he must needs

HITCH THE HORSE

On some

trail

but

is

he

where there are no

trees, sticks, or

even stones;

a good woodcrafter and plainsman, with his hunting knife he will proceed to dig as narrow and deep a hole as
if

PACKING HORSES

141

possible in the earth, then he will tie a knot in the

end of the
bottom of the hole
reality should be one-half inch

picket rope and drop the knot

(Fig. 201) (the picket rope in

rope, fifty feet long); the only

the hole

is

to the

way

to get that knot out of

to stand directly over the opening

knot up perpendicularly.

and

pull the

never occur to the horse

It will

by taking hold of it with his teeth, so that

stand over the hole and pull up the knot, consequently

to shorten the line

it

may

the animal will be as securely hitched as

if

tied to a post.

HOBBLES
For the front
202) or
,

legs

may be purchased

at

home-made from unravelled rope

any

outfitter's (Fig.

(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

ing

by

mode

of pack-

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

put the saddle-cloth over it,

bit, girth, etc., inside the saddle,

then he calmly stretched himself out

in front of

"Thatinan/'saidGeneralMiles/'was

Bill

the campfire.
Cody, Buffalo Bill !"

I'AMIMOKE AM> WOOLVUAFT

1K>

When Cody
its

side ^Fig.

put the saddle on the ground ho placed

on

it

00); in placing the saddle in this position

it

and thus the form of the

saddle is not destroyed and the reins and the stirrup straps
are protected] at the same time the saddle makes a good
pillow, and if it should rain at night the saddle blanket is the

preserves the curve of the skirts,

only thing, besides the rider, which gets a ducking, unless

the latter has a good waterproof sleeping-bag.

llmv TO

TUKOW

<i

Svnni.v:

ox A IIonsv:

So manage the saddle that with one swing it will 'light on

the horse's back with the pummel towards the horse's head

00?\ Graspwith your righi hand thehorn of the saddle,

and as yon swmg the saddle on the horse with a graceful
>weop. use your lefi hand to push the further skirt outward
(,Fig.

and thus prevent

it from doubling
up on the horse's back.
throw
far
the girth
l>e careful to
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

with the pummel

when

told

him

craft; he told

which

is

me

tsu\irda

tiie

western saddle on a horse

t<ii!.

and was very indignant

pummel should
knew more about

that a
lie

am

possibly true, as 1

face the

bow

horses than

of a
did,

not a horseman; he also saij

that in tho "hold country" he used to ride to "the

Ynmds,"

which goes to prove customs are different in different

Here we put the pummel of the saddle towards
countries.
tho horse's head; wo won't argue about it; we may be wrong,
all

of

the reader

matter of custom, and right or wrong is tho rule

must follow in America, even though the reader

may have

ridden to the

but

it

is

"omuls" while abroad.

misunderstand me, some of the best horsemen

are English., but this fellow

was not one

Do

in the

of them.

not

world

PAC'K'TXG IIORS!

HOW

MoF'ST A

Tf)

\Vf -TI.JiN

Years ago when the rid'-r was

Katon\ Ranch, near the celebrated
veil.

In-

l)<-in^

hud

tempted

fir-t

in

in

do so

h' notier/i, took

tlie rein
r

c,

the shoulders of

tin-

-ame hand, and put

the left foot in the

[!:

with \\Vslern

>

I.

lior

rid

^n-at terror of being ralN-d

ofh'-rs

in

mount

before he

horse; th'-n holding 1h" reins

hor-<-

his U-ft
-!

Montana on Howard

Each one of these plainsmen,

liis left hand while standing on

him.self.

the l-!l-hand sid

HORSE

ran<-h of Theodore

>hyly v

In-

to

e\-p.-ri'-nrf

and standing

sensitive

a tenderfoot,
;it

his

143

ovr

he grasped the mane with the

foot into the stirrup; hut to put

he turned the stirrup around so

htail, then he

r-'ip

that he eould uiouiit while faring the

grabbed hold of the pummel with his right hand and swung
into the saddle as UK- hor^ -larted.
1

That looked

^y; the writer also noticed that just before

the other- -truck th- -addle they gave a whoop, so without
e

showing any hesitation the author walked up to

his

cay use,

con
hand, lining care to stand
on the left-hand side of the horse; then he placed the left

took the reins

hand with the

tly in his left

reins

between the shoulders of the horse and

grabbed the mane, then he turned the stirrup around, turned

hi- bar-k to the horse's head,

and gave a

put

his left foot in the stirrup

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 !>'
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-

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

144

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

had made, but

up
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
to the first impression he

his best to live

could not cross his knees without helping one leg over with
both his hands; in fact, he could find no muscle in his body

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
that could be

pitch, the action will tend to

out of

throw you into the saddle, not

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

be understood.

of the West,

If

your wooden horse,

it will

which to be appreciated must

you want to make a real cayuse out of

brand it and any cowboy who then sees

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 TRAVOI8

DOG AS A BEAST OF BURDEN IN EUROPE 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
THE USE OF DOGS.
THERE

is

VIII

MAN PACKING

no good reason why every hiker should not be

accompanied by

A HIKING DOG
For

if

soul

it is

there

is

anything a dog does love better than its own

and every normal boy and

to hike with its master,

and every normal man and woman, loves the company

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
girl,

of a

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
and stronger the dog
he can carry and the more useful he

But the

sturdier

is,

the greater burden

be on the trail.

will

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

148

THE DOG HITCH

Is

not as complicated an

affair as

the diamond hitch, and

anyone who knows how to do up an ordinary

the dog hitch by one glance at Figs. 213 and

parcel can learn

214.

band over the dog's head, put the saddlebags 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. 21 3
shows a bundle with a breast band made of the lash rope, in
Slip the breast

which case the lash rope is usually made of cloth like that in
whole thing is simplicity itself and a good dog

Fig. 211; the

can carry quite a load packed in

A DOG

this

manner.

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

Northern
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 manufactured from the roots of the tamarack tree, so also was the
cord used to bind the parts of the frame together. The hooks

consists of a

Quebec

padded

collar similar to those used in

for sled dogs,

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 MAX PACKING

151

on dogs the same as they did upon horses and the

sudden appearance of game often produced a stampede of

travois

dog

travoises,

the duffel,

scattering

including papooses,

loaded on the travois.

It is not expected that the reader will

these contrivances, but

if

be a good woodsman he should

for
for

make every one

How, and

he does he will learn

know how,

of

to

so as to be prepared

any emergency. It is possible to make the whole pack

the dog from birch bark, but however it is made, if it

making the dog carry part of the pack,

the bark on the dog's back, you will teach the
animal that there are two kinds of barks; one of which is useful

serves the purpose of

when you put

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

trail, loyally guard the camp at night, and,
;

the packs on the

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
brush, something on which to sit and
to protect you from the rains and
overhead
sleep, something
dews of heaven, something to eat and something to eat with
besides your fingers, something from wlu'ch to drink which

toothbrush,

comb and

holds water better than the hollow of your hand or the

brim of your hat, and, in fact, all those necessary little

comforts

Without

that

fellow

wants

these useful articles

one

on

an

will

overnight hike.
wish that he had

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

15C
sol

bed himself to the slight fatigue necessary to

;'-.

pack a

a his Kick.

small pack

The word "pack"

itself is a

joy to the outdoor man. for

only outdoor men who use the word pack for carry, and
a bundle or load a
The reason for this is that

it is

the real wilderness ma::.

or scout,

on

...
;

his

....

.1

prospector, hunter, trapper

into a bundle which he carries

two small saddle-

in

..

bis

ags

which are carried by

husky c igs, or a number of well-balanced bundles which

are lashed on the pack saddle with a diamond hitch over the

his

back of a pack horse.

Yx; 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

Then we

also

man

himself packs on his own back.

rat, but the pack rat does not

have the pack

carry

thi:: r^

flop,

ho:::::.: over the

The pack rat comes flippityground 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
our consent.

::h

Jones's bunk.

The pack

rat deposits the teeth at the

of your cot, then deftly picking

up your watch, the

back to Bill Jones's cot and drops

where h soaks until n:
ig.

it

It is easy to see that

and however
the rat's

in the tin

head

packs

cup of water,

however funny the pack rat may be,

be to the Sunday comic paper,

useful he n:'_

humor

is n-.

:ed

of car:yh._- things.

whe
Thus

the word "earn-"

is

Rock;

it

rat

tains,

it is

by the campers in the

pack rat from its habit

called a

it is that in a newly settled country

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 DSE

IXX,S

<>]

MA\
When
ba<-k

your

you,

MAN RUKTVr

PACKED

reader, get the

my

and the tump

153

pack ad justed on

lin-

:g.

remember that you are being

22*

the great fraterliut no matter how tough or rough

in:

nity of outdoor pf-oplf.

may appear to the casual observer, your roughness
i

onJy apparent a boy or

;

ment

inside of

man

of refinement carries that refine-

he goes; at the same time when

him wh

carrying a pack on one's back and a tump line on

or a canoe on one's head,
one's forehead (Tig. 226}/>

one

is

even though a lady should be met on the trail it would

not l>e nc
-y for one to take off one's hat, for even
a foolish srxi-iety woman would not expect a man to doff the
canoe he might be carrying on his head.
stances use

and

common

sense; that

is

Under ah circum-

the rule of the wilderness

a bo of real culture.

The most important thing that you must learn on the

not to fret and fume over trifles, and even if your load

trail is

is heavy and irksome, even

though the shoulder straps chafe
and the tump line ma
'iir neck ache

DON'T FIGHT Yous PACE:

When we

speak of "fighting the pack" we mean fighting

mean getting one's load up against a

the load; that does not

tree

and punching it with one's fi-ts or "kicking the stuffings

it," but it means complaining and fretting because the

out of
load

is

irncomfortable.

There are two kinds of "packs" the pack that you carry
day after day on a long hike, and the pack that you camwhen on a canoe trip and you are compelled to leave the water

and cam' your canoe and

duffel overland

around some bad

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

154

The first-named pack should be as light as

30 and 40 pounds, for on a long tramp
between
possible, say
every pound counts, because you know that you must carry
rapids or

it

falls.

as long as

you keep going, and there

except when you stop for your meals

But the last-named pack, the

is

no

or to

relief in sight

camp

at night.

PORTAGE PACK,
218 and 223, the kind that you carry around bad pieces
may be as heavy as you can, with safety, load upon

Figs.

of water,

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

under a very heavy one.

is

strong you

will stagger along

When

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

he made up his mind to forget the blamed thing and

so when the pack wearied him and the straps rubbed the skin

death

body, he forced himself to think of the good dinners

he had had at the Camp-fire Club of America, yum! yum!

off his

Also, of all the jolly stories told by the toastmaster,

the fun he had had at some other entertainments.

and

of

Often

while thinking of these things he caught himself laughing out

loud as he trudged along the lone trail, FORGETTING the hate"In this way," said he, with a winning
ful pack on his back.
smile

how

upon

not

his

to fight

manly and weather-beaten face, "I learned

FORGET IT! Then he braced

the pack but to

O
w
o
*i

?
25

THE USE OF DOG> MAX 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.

\ow

that you know what a pack is, and what "lighting

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

i>

cr

and exacting, that is one's pack. If one's parents are worried

and forget themselves in 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-

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 "sis.-y." or
crafter or a scout,

a "mollycoddle," but straighten up, look the world straight

and hit the trail like a man!

in the eye,

Some of us

are carrying portage packs which we can dump

off our shoulders at the end of the "cam"/' 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

We

load.

our load "pack." but our SundaySchool teachers sometimes sj>eak of the pack they bear as a

outdoor folks

"cross."

Be

it so,

call

but don't fight your pack.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

158

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 in the real
wilderness, and not fancy pictures drawn from imagination.
Figs. 230, 231

and 232 show many

game on

ing big

different

one's shoulders or back.

methods

of carry-

Fig. 232 also

shows

the bag on his

back, held in place by shoulder straps; the other has a bag
thrown over his shoulder like a ragman.

a couple of prospectors on the

The

trail.

One has

or to speak more properly

one can pack a camera, notebook, sketching material,
lunch and all those things which a fellow wants on an enj oy-

with

alpine rucksack will carry

it

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 goodsized boy.

2
z
o

THE USE OF DOGS MAX PACKING

161

THE BROAD BAND

232-D shows the broad band used by the men of
The reader will note that the broad canvas
bands come over the shoulders from the top of the pack;
Fig.

the far north.

broad breast band connects the shoulder

that

also

bands, while rope, whang strings or thongs run through

eyelets in the band and to the bottom of the pack. This
said to be the

is

interesting history

most comfortable pack used and has an

it was evolved from an old pair of over;

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
alls.

his back.

The

overalls being wide

do smaller

his chest, as

But breast straps

by

all

authorities.

of
It

and broad did not cut

straps, thongs or

whang

strings.

any kind are not now recommended

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 TVMP
and

Figs. 226

226}/2

This tump strap

strap.

Arctic Circle.

show the use

is

of the celebrated

tump

used from Central America to the

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.

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.
l
Fig. 220

Fig. 218 shows the well-known portage pack basket which

used by the guides in the Adirondack regions. Fig. 219
shows the Nessmuk knapsack. Fig. 222 shows a pack harness

is

11

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

162
of straps

a thong

by which two

shows a

Fig. 225
;

duffel

also the

duffel

bag

It

belongings.

is

is

laced

end of the bag open.

THE DUFFEL BAG

The

on the back.
up at one end with

duffel bags are borne

bag which

is

is

USEFUL

the ideal poke in which to pack one's

it makes a good pillow, a far

waterproof,

and pair of boots on which I myself

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 I
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
better pillow than an axe

have rested

my

old bags, for even though they be greasy and shiny, and blackened with the charcoals of many campfires, they are chuck
full of delightful

memories.

the old-time poke made of a bandanna handkerchief, with its ends tied together and swung over a stick.
Fig.

This

220

is

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
oil painting hanging on my dining-room wall, which was
painted by some European artist back hi the seventeenth
When fellows carry the runaway pack they are
century.

old

"traveling light."

A
Fig. 229"shows how to construct a makeshift pack.
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

and it will weigh three hundred and fifty pounds at the

carry,

end of a hard day's tramp.

those

shown

in Fig.

-2-23,

Heavy packs, big packs, like

are only used on a portage, that is,

Of course, you fellows know that in all

any consequence one must cross overland
from one lake to another, or overland above a waterfall to
for short distance.

(a iiue

trips

of

a safe place below it, or around quick water, or to put it hi

the words of tenderfeet, water which is too quick for canoe
travel,

around tumultuous rapids where one must carry his

duffel.
But these carries or portages are seldom

canoe and
long.

The

longest I

remember

of

making was

trifle

over

five miles in length.

Remember

that the weight of a load depends a great deal

mind.
upon your
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.

Bur
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. 22-2 and 224\
is the proper and practical
thing. Duffel bags, by the way.

are water-proof canvas bags (Fig. ! ..'

made of different
which to pack one's clothes, food, or what not. The
.

sizes, in

portage basket (Fig. 218), is a favorite in the Adirondack-,

but it is not a favorite with the writer; the basket itself is

heavy and to
is

good

his

mind unnecessary, the knapsack (Fig. 219),

when one does not have to carry much.

for short hikes

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

man

all day long, day in and day

more
than
he wants to carry, but a
out, and forty pounds
to
be
able
carry forty pounds on his
good husky boy may
stores
and at the outfitter's
and
back. At the Army
Navy
and
of
duffel
bags
knapsacks, and at
you can find all sorts
will
tell
stores
they
you just what
any of the big outfitting

for a big strong

to carry
is

kind of baggage you will need for the particular trip, for someone in the stores has been over the very ground that you
the clerks and proprietors of the outBut yes, there is a "but"
fitting stores are sportsmen.
the real genuine American boy will construct his own outfit
are going over, for

duffel bags,

mess

all

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 TOUR 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
^\IANY people are so accustomed to have other people wait
them that they are absolutely funny when you meet

iijxm

them

in the

woods; when their canoe runs its prow up upon

is a portage to make, such people

the sandy beach and there

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

fellow begins to realize that

own

luggage, to build his

it is

own

"up to" himself to tote his

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 increasing 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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

168

Simon Kenton roved the woods, or at least back when Colonel

Cody, Buffalo Jones and Yellowstone Kelly were dashing
over the plains with General Miles, General Bell and the
Bill

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

But, honest now, is it not really too bad that there are
no longer any hostile Indians? And what a pity that imboy.

proved firearms have made the big game so very shy that
is afraid of a man with a gun

it

But cheer up, the joy of camping

because

we do not have

is

to fight all

not altogether ruined,

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"

an overhanging limb on our backs.

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
decline to drop from

Remember that

all

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, recreation camps, girls' camps and boys' camps, that it is somewhat
difficult for a writer to tell what to do in order to "Be Prepared." 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

shores of Devil's Lake, Xorth Dakota,

and

in the

160

few groves

that are back of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

But such camps have little attraction for the real hard-

and have no better claim to being the real

more
or less grand palaces built in the woods,
the
than
thing
with
outside
camouflaged
logs or bark, and called "camps" by
boiled camper,

their untruthful owners;

such people

belittle the

name of camp

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.

and

if

When we

talk of

brush or canvas

camping we mean

living

under bark,

"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

we can

place

in the

find,

except

camp, and even then we

when we go

like it better

to our

if it is

own

scout

located in a wild,

romantic spot.

How
There are some

TO GET READY FOR CAMP

little

personal things to which one should

give one's attention before starting on a long trip.

going to be a real wild

camping

trip

it is

If 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,
drawing room and

if

they are well manicured, will do for the

but in camp they have a

for the office,

habit of turning back (Fig. 232)

and gee willikens, how
will
hurt!
Or
down
into
the quick (Fig. 233)
they
they
split
and that hurts some, too! So trim them down snug and close;

do

it

before

you

start packing

up your things, or you may

But even before trimming

hurt your fingers while packing.

your

nails

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

170

Go

TO

YOUR DENTIST

upon him making an examination of every tooth

your head; a toothache is bad enough anywhere, goodness
knows, but a toothache away out in the woods with no help

And

insist

in

provoke a saint to use expressions not allowed

Manual. The Chief knows what he is talking
the
Scout
by
about he has been there He once rode over Horse Plains

in sight will

alongside of a friend

who had a bad

tooth,

and the friend was

His jaw was swelled out like a rubber balloon,

but he did not use one naughty word on the trip, notwithstanding every jolt of that horse was like sticking a knife
a real saint!

in him.

The

writer could not help

and he laughed at

it;

he was thoughtlessly cruel

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!
mind the details, they are too painful to talk
remember
the lesson that they teach Go TO THE
but
about,
DENTIST and get a clean bill of health on the tooth question
Well, never

before

you

start for a lengthy

camp.

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.

safety pin

is

as useful to

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

man

$f

5z

<ft

n x^n

PERSONAL IB
I

A BUCKSKIN'S POCKET

PREPARING FOR (AM PING 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-hag 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

There should be a pocket made in your shirt or

your notebook (Fig. 244), and a part of it stitched

buttons.
vest to

fit

to hold a pencil

up

this at

home

and a toothbrush.
before

for

you
have a good jack-knife;

you

Your mother can do

Then you should

leave.

always carry my jack-knife in my

A
hip pocket.
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)

come
out

double the whang strings up so that the two ends

together, tuck the loop through your belt until it comes

at the other side, then put the two ends of the

and the whang strings are fast but

when needed; whang strings are the same

string through the loop

easily pulled out

as belt lashings.

small whetstone (Fig. 238) can find a

place somewhere about your clothes, probably in the other

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

hip pocket, and

on the outside of your hat, carry a gut leader with medium-

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

174

flies attached, and around

your neck knot a
bandanna
handkerchief
it is a most use239)
big gaudy
(Fig.

sized artificial

can be used in which to carry your game, food

or for warmth, or worn over the head for
protection

ful article; it

or duffel,

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.

and every surveyor knows this and it

use a soft pencil and fountain pen
is only tenderfeet,
field
because
an upset canoe will blur all
for making
notes,
the
and
constant
ink marks
rubbing of the pages of the book

Every

scientist

who

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

of dropping out; also

it

make a

snugly with no chance

separate pocket for your toothwill fit

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

one's fingers are

numb

175

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

If you make your

to one's personal equipment.
fly dope have a slow fire and allow to simmer over it

(Fig. 2.51)

own

:>

d/. pine lar

07..

>/.

castor

or heat 3 oz. of pine tar with

stir in 1 oz. of

and

of

1 oz.

pennyroyal,

oil

penny r<-;

1 oz.

two

oz. of olive oil

of citronella,

and then

oz. of creosote

camphor.

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
If

to

above your elbow

the gloves so that you

and have an

(Fig. 246), cut the tips of the fingers off

may be able

elastic in the

to use

your hands handily,

top of the sleeve to hold them onto

Rigged thus, the black flies and mosquitoes can

the ends of your fingers, and, sad to say, they will
where the ends of the fingers are located.

your arm.
only bite
soon find

piece of cheese cloth, fitted over the hat to

hang down

over the face, will protect that part of your anatomy from
insects (Fig. ?46), but if they are not very bad use fly dope
(Fig.

ol),

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

Our vanity case has no lip stick, rouge or face powder;

only possesses a toothbrush and a bottle of fly dope.
Certain times of year, when one goes camping in the

pretty.
it

neighborhood of the trout brooks, one needs to BE PREPARED,

for one can catch more trout and
enjoy fishing better if pro-

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

176

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

few yards of mosquito netting or

by a pad (Fig. 246j^).
cheese cloth occupies little space and is of little weight, but

is

very useful as a protection at night. Bend a wand (Fig.

hoop and bind the ends together (Fig. 24 7A), with

247) into a

safety pins; pin this in the netting

its

center

by a

The black
pest, the

fly,

young

and suspend the net from

stick (Fig. 248).

(Fig. 249), is a

very small hump-backed

249a) live in cold, clear running
the cocoon.

(larvae) (Fig.

water; Fig. 249b is

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 arc 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 highbrow name for the I'nited Slates malaria distributor is
"

"Anopheles quadrimaeulatus (Fig. 250 F). It is only the

females that you need fear; drone bees do not sting and buck
mosquitoes do not bite.
Fig.

egg.

250d shows lower and upper side of the anopheles 's

Fig. 2oOe

the wiggler or larvae of the anopheles;

let the blood run to its head, and any

is

the anopheles likes to

careful observer will

know him

at a glance from his pose

while resting (Fig. 2JOg).

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

wilder places.

We

find real

There

is life

There

is

in the roar of plunging streams,

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 ea><-'
Darn the
12

adventure in

shout:

tall

houses, give us tall trees!

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

178

all

However crude these verses may be, the sentiment is

But may be it will express our idea better if we do
right.

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
the blood in one's veins tingle like ginger ale. Why do
;

make
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.

Because in these sounds we get the dampness of the

the
almond-like
odor of twin flowers, the burning drymoss,

Why?

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

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
power of suggestion.

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.

easy to pack, easy to carry on one's shoulders; but a
tightly filled bag (Fig. 253) is a nuisance on the trail. When
252)

is

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.

54); fold the cover

ends and

roll

over (Fig.

2.55),

then tuck in the

the package into a bundle arid cinch (Figs.

55 and 256).

A
SLEEPING -BAG

Can be improvised from

pins (Fig. 257).

one's blankets

section of the

the blankets are doubled.

bag
To make a

by the use of

(Fig. 258)

safety

shows how

BACK PACK
Fold as

in Fig. 259,

then bend up the end as indicated by

260 and 261, fold again, Fig. 262, then fold in the two
edges, Figs. 263 and 264, which show both sides of pack;

Figs.

bend over the

carry, Figs. 267

and 266, and strap ready to

For a

top, Figs. 265

and 268.

BLANKET ROLL
Fold as

in Fig. 269;

bend

in

the ends and

Strap or lash the ends together (Fig. 271).

roll (Fig.

270).

CHAPTER X
SADDLES
HOW

TO CHOOSE A SADDLE
EVOLUTION OF THE MEXICAN SADDLE
BIRTH OF THE BLUFF FRONTED 8ADDLB

THE COWBOY AGE

SAWBUCKS 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

But a

hikes.

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
lot of their

how

Besides

to do.

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 constantly quoting to the author things that he has said to the

now

boys, so that

count them

in writing

a book for the boys he must

in.

CHOOSE A SADDLE THAT FITS

one

Everyone knows the misery of an ill-fitting shoe, and no

in his right mind would think of taking a prolonged hike

in shoes that

pinched his

that a saddle should

cause almost as

fit

much

feet,

but everybody does not know

ill-fitting saddle can

the rider; an

discomfort as an

ill-fitting

best all-around sportsman's saddle in the world

saddle of the West.

who has

is

shoe.

the

The

cowboy

writer in the Saturday Evening Post,

written a delightfully intelligent article on saddles,

Western cow-puncher's saddle, says:

many good riders who have never thrown a

in speaking of the

'There are
leg over

any other

sort of saddle,

or in the mountains no

and

for

work on the plains

man who has used one would ever

It is as much a distinct product of

care for any other type.

this continent as is the birch bark canoe or the American

axe or

rifle."

185

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

186

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
a saddle with stirrups of ten weighed over sixty
These
saddles were garnished with silver and gold,
pounds.
and the spurs that the rancheros wore had big wheels with
"bells" on them, and spikes long enough to goad the thick skin
of an elephant. I formerly possessed one of the picturesque
(Fig. 273) ;such

old saddles on which

all

the leather work was engraved by

hand, by the use of some tool like a graver, probably a sharpened 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

at the

those that I remember seeing had rather a short horn

top sometimes covered with a

bow with a very broad

was

silver plate; the seat

also

much

longer than

it is

to-day.

Fig. 272 shows a military saddle which is a modified cowboy 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,
therefore,

long

when one

rifle in

front of

and on the ranges horses were plenty;

of the long-haired plainsmen, with his

him on the long

saddle,

and the heavy

by

Spanish-American trappings to the horse, killed the horse

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 themon the Southern ranges used the Spanish-American

selves

PACK TRAIN OUTFIT

SADDLES
outfit; the only blessing the

189

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
The cowboys themselves wore heavy leather breeches

tip|>ed.

called chaps

Thus with

(an abbreviation of the Spanish chaparejo).

and legs protected they could ride through

the cactus plants and dash through the mesquite country
withou tfearof being pricked by the thorns, no matterwhat hapthe feet

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
is the thing from which the bucking roll

front of their seat,

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
one to show the bulged front, and to change the narrow

first

bow

of the

cow saddle

to the bluff

bow

of the saddle as used

claimed that while this protects the rider from

to-day.
or less, it has a tendency not to give a
more
injuries
fellow the opportunity of as firm a grip with his legs as did
It is

the old narrow

began

bowed cowboy

seat.

Later, in Oregon, they

to manufacture "incurved saddles," so that the rider's

legs could

fit

better under the front,

makers caught the

and the Wyoming saddle

idea, so that to-day the vanishing race of

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

190

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;

if one goes systematically to work to produce

for instance,

fan-tail pigeons,

with feathered

one finds that he

legs.

The

is also producing pigeons

breeders have also discovered that

w hite feathers they unwillmeat.

What has this got
a
fowl
with
black
ingly produce
to do with saddles? Only that the same law holds good here:

in producing a chicken with silky

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
read
leather and the caps were lined with sheep's wool.

We

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

in so that the weight of the rider rests

way

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

one can occupy

a saddle should

it
fit

more comfortable the

saddle, the longer

without discomfort, and that

the rider.

is

the reason

SADDLES

191

WITH WESTERN HORSES

One must
educated

use Western ways; remember the horses were

in the

West

if

you were

not,

but

it is

not necessary

to use the cruel, old jaw-breaking Spanish hits 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

not go far wrong.

will

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

Fig. 280 is the lash rope which the man

latigo (Fig. 285).

above Fig. 284 is using. In Chapter VH 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

A glance

to

Abraham

Lincoln.

you how the

heaped on top of it

at the cross-section of the cover shows

edges are dented in to hold the hot ashes

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

The truth is that one could

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
work, saddles and pack saddles.

write a whole

you boys,

do the best

know how

to

make you understand

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

192

what I am talking about, and to excite in your mind and heart

a desire to do the things talked of; you must remember, however, 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

gam

the

names

skill

by

practice.

A book, however,

can

tell

you the

of the part of the things.

NAMES OF PARTS OF SADDLE

For instance
saddle-tree

is

(Fig.

made

272),

is

the saddle-tree; a good

cottonwood which

of five stout pieces of

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

The horn is
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
fact, it

makes one

solid piece of the whole.

fastened on to the tree

by its branched

the pelvis of a skeleton.

P is the pummel, A is the cantle,

a quarter strap

legs,

is

the side bar of the

the quarter strap

is
the stirrup buckle, F is the outer strap safe,
the cincha ring,
is the cincha cover; the cincha strap is
saddle-tree,

cantle,

is

side,

is

is

unlettered but

strap ring D; J

it
is

connects the cincha ring with the quarter

the cap or leather stirrup cover, L is the

SADDLES
wooden

stirrup,

is

the horsehair cincha.

193
Fig. 275

is

one of

the saddle pads to fit under the saddle. On Fig. 274M is the
the cantle, O the whang leather, which your saddler
horn,

will call tie strings.

note that in Fig. 274 there are two cinchas, and

You will also note that in Fig. 274 the
in Fig. 272 but one.
skirt of your saddle seems to be double, or even triple, and

You

will

the stirrup rigging comes on top of the skirt, and this is made
up of the back jockey, front jockey, and side joe- key or seat.

Now

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.

then,

But acknowledge yourself a tenderfoot, a short horn, a

a Cheechako, and ask your Western friends to
you have a horse that knows all the tricks of his trade,

shavetail,
let

but

who

has a compassionate heart for a greenhorn. There

among the Western horses, and

are lots of such good fellows

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 horseman 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

18

done

so.

CHAPTER XI
CHOOSING A CAMP SITE
'WARE SINGLE TREES OR SMALL QROCTPS OF TREES
SAFETY IN WOODS OR FOREST
KEEP YOUR EYE8 OPEN FOR GOOD CAMP SITES
IS GOOD
KEEP TO WINDWARD OF MOSQUITO HOLES
'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
USB OF SHEARS, GIN3 AND TRIPODS

CROSS STREAMS WHILE CROSSING

CHAPTER XI
CHOOSING A CAM!' SITE

WHEN

choosing a

or grove of

young

camp

trees.

site, if possible,

P^irst,

choose a forest

because of the shade they

give you; secondly, because they protect you from storms,

and

thirdly, because they protect

you from

lightning.

open pastures are

a
thunder
storm; tall trees on
exceedingly dangerous during
Single trees, or small

groups of trees in

the shores of a river or lake are particularly selected as targets

thunder bolts by the storm king. But the safest place

for

in a

thunder storm, next to a house, is a forest. The reason

is that each wet tree is a lightning rod silently conduct-

of this

ing the electric fluid without causing explosions.

camp

Do

at the foot of a very tall tree, or an old tree with

branches on

it,

for a high

wind may break

off. the

not

dead

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

A few days later we returned

As we stopped and looked at the site where
had been pitched we looked at each other solemnly,

Flathead Indian Reservation.

to our old camp.

our tents

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 rememfirst, and too close neighborhood to a

ber that safety comes

big tree

is

often unsafe.
197

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

198

Remember to choose the best camp

site

that can be found;

day, and as night comes on stop at any old

in
the
afternoon
keep your eyes open for likely spots.
place but
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

do not travel

all

jump
and

and horses

into the middle of the spring to cool himself,

cattle will befoul the water.

If

camping in the Western

stream which

states

on the shores of a shallow

along the trail, cross the stream before

or you may not be able to cross it for days.
lies

making camp
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
season.

dry

have known

of

parties

days by one of these sudden

which came unannounced, the great bole

being

detained

roaring floods of water,

for

logs sweeping

by

their

of

mud,

camp and taking with

it

sticks

and

everything

in its path.

A belt of dense timber between camp and a pond or swamp

will act as

windward

a protection from mosquitoes. As a rule, keep to

mosquito holes; the little insects travel with the

of

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.

is

bare spot on the earth, where there are no dry leaves,

a wind-swept spot; where the dust-covered leaves lie in

A windy place is generally

heaps the wind does not blow.
a
it
is
but
free from mosquitoes,
poor place to build a fire;

CHOOSING A (AMP SITE

a small

hank

is

we only

trees
It

lost

or more, while

fifty

from high wind and t \visters.

had a camp under the lee of a small

a great protection

During one tornado

elevation;

1!)!)

the

in

fly of

one tent out of a camp of

more exposed plaees nearby great

were uprooted and houses unroofed.

must not be supposed that the camping season

because the

summer vacation

is

The

over.

real

is

past

camping

season begins in the Wild Rice Moon, that is, September.

Even if school or business takes all our time during the week,
\\e still have week-ends in which to camp.
Saturday has

always been a boys' day. Camping is an American institution, because America affords the greatest camping ground
in the world.

The author
self,

is

seated in his

own

log house, built

by him-

on the shores of Big Tink Pond. Back of him there is

camp of six rows of tents, which are filled with a

pitched a

crowd of youngsters.
here in the mountains of Pike County, Pennsylvania,
where the bluestone is stratified in horizontal layers, that one

joyful, noisy
It

may

is

study the camp from

its

very birth to the latest and

finished product of this century.

mountains there are outcroppings

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

Everywhere

in these

of the bluestone,

trickle

down over

the face of the

snap turns the moisture into

cliff.

ice in

Then, when a cold

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 whitefooted mice and other small

mammals, chipmunks and cave

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

200

When

rats.

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 West Indies, the

crouching man was camping under the bluestone ledges of

old Pike County, Pennsylvania. There he built his campfires

and cooked

his

beaver and bear and deer and

dishes of pottery of his

elk,

using

own make and ornamented with crude

designs traced in the clay before the dishes were baked.

know all this to be true history, because within a

We

short walk of the author 's log house there are overhanging
ledges of bluestone, and underneath these ledges we, our-

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,
selves,

the split bones of different wild animals split so that the

savage camper might secure the rich marrow from the inside

arrowheads, bone awls and needles, tomahawks,

the skulls of beaver and spearheads; all these things have
been found under the overhanging bluestone.

of the bones

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 houghs, thus making the simplest form of

The Indians used sueh shelters before the advent

a lean-to.

of the white

man; Daniel Boone used them when he

first

Kentucky and, in spite of the great improvement in

the
tents,
overhanging ledge is still used in Pennsylvania by
visited

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

he

is

writing this in a camp in the woods,

that confront him, even though

will tell the practical things

he must mention a white man's shop broom.

most noticeable defect in the tendermanner 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
In the

place, the

first

foot's

work

at

because the

all

way

is

the

until the

affair,

chump who handled

broom became a

with a permanent

list

it

always used

it

one

useless, distorted, lopsided

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

broom every time you notice a tendency of the latter to

become one-sided, then the broom will wear to a stub and
the

In the next place, do not swing the broom up

each sweep and throw the dust up in the clouds,
but so sweep that the end of the stroke keeps the broom near
still

be of use.

in the air with

the floor or ground.

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

202

Now
craft

to

a word about making beds.

you

In

all

books on wood-

are directed to secure balsam boughs from which

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.

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

bag

filled

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.
tents, clears

away the

One makes camp, puts up 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

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
is

own

personal cleanliness that they forget their duty to the

CHOOSING A CAMP SITE

One's duty

others.

is

about

203

in this proportion: first to the

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

animals

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
roots, or the plant of the almond scented twin
ask
flowers;
pardon of the thallus of the lichen which you
are trampling under your feet.
Why? O! well because

up by

its

they had first right to the place, and because such little civilities 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

is no longer lonesome

your brother, the plants, the wilderness

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

encourages the camper

As
trip

hack the

trees

unnecessarily, but

to take pride in leaving a clean trail.

good friend, John Muir, said to me: "The camping

need not be the longest and most dangerous excursion

my

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,

up

calm or stormy,

camper

it

should be one in which the able, fearless

sees the most, learns the most, loves the

leaves the cleanest track;

most and

whose camp grounds are never

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

204

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

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
familiar.

same sort of a tent, but there is perhaps

no camper who has not used, and been very comfortable in,
sing the praise of the

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

unless one

to pitch alone

knows how.

TENT PEGS
any kind of a tent; you can buy
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

Are necessary

them

for almost

at the outfitter's

will cut your own tent pegs, shaped

and individual taste. Fig. 286
to
circumstances
according
shows the two principal kinds the fork and the notched tent

real

sourdough you

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

trousers

when

his suspenders break.

ground

like

a fellow's

\MP BITE

-IV;
C that UK- ground

i-

comparatively

-lant in on'- dir'-"tion or anoUi'-r -o tha*

case of rain.

in

'r

round

v.-ith

hf-avy

hut

''j

will

anywhere, and no

hen VOL

:r

.stub

to

think,

li-.e

in

as hravf; a

jv

hrave person }*:

accidents. Do not pitr-h
will

m^

.rnhli-

your toes at ni^ht, or torture

hlank'-*-.

Of

irnption.
/

arr- goinj:

your

oner

real

-.vhi'-h

protnj'

cornrnor

we

'!

not h
r^-al r-arnp^rr is

on which to

if

f, t

.->

hurt* fjnef.

liable to

;.-oij

it

i-

-)-

in the ^arr-le^rK-ss whir-h pro^luef--

hl'K-l:- for

J)o not pitch

it

tr'-<-:

Avoid '^impint' und

on t!;-n,.
bran^:,'
\'j-:w.rr\\/

<J<-ad

find

off

,t.

tli-

al way- bafl
,

drain

pitch yoiJr tent in a

a pool of

in

d'-rjd

in

'.u

but with a

will

ground, unless you want to wake up HV

hollov, or ba-in of

night -'op;
t'-nt near I

for

J'-v-I,

v.-atf-r

over them to -leep.

r
.

hut we must

all

ire all

know

that

tr

the big outdo*'.

At a famou- military academy the -plendid cavalrymen

gave a

brilliant exhibition of putting

'jired
up wall
four men to put up each tent. Immediately following t:
ne of the scouts trx^k the same tents, with one scout to

h tent, arid in less time than the cavalrymen took for

-ingle-handed, put up the

ne job, the twelve year old K

same

teri

HOW

TO PlTCH AND DlTCH rI.vr;LE-HA.VDED

Spread out your tent

p<-^le

all

and your two uprights

tent .stakes,

flat of

\i

them, so that you

287); drive the

will

not

in place,

put your ridj*

:ne
and then drr

your axe with which to drive

split

the tops of the stakes

two end stakes

and

(Fig.

%!)>

at an

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

208

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 inches 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

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

(Fig. 292).

This

tent poles.

Next
which

will

see that the

back guy pole

is

perpendicular, after

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.
it is

Remember, when you

are cutting the ridge poles

and the

and they should be

from rough projections, which might

uprights, to select fairly straight sticks,

as free as possible

injure the canvas; also the poles should be as

so as not to sag or cause the roof to belly.

stiff

as possible

DITCHING
Just as soon as your tent

erected and

is

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.

positive rule for digging this ditch;

it

There

around

it

away from the

(Fig. 294).

Fig. 295

tents

no

varies according to

surface of ground, but the gutter should be so

the water will run

is

and not to

made
it,

that

or stand

shows how to make a tent by

14

CHOOSING

AMP

BITE

211

'

folding a floor r-Ioth or

have a tent pole

be

dr.v.'/rj

and you

was as large

a,->

learn

will

ill,

In san'J
;>ply

must

may

to

although the pa;

if it

tarpaulir.

support the top, and the floor pie<-e*

M
.e out of a
together in the center.

of writing paj/er

a-

.rse it

'

-*f

how

the fold

do

to

.Id

be

Jxrcauje

it,

same

j;;

a church.
;

it

often taxe-

anchors for one's tent; an anch

sort to which the

nuity to

,-ht

be attached.

guy ropes may

a tent anchored by billet^ of wood; these are

of

some

all

supp^-'-d

and the ground

ground as i:.
down over and above them to keep them safe in
fig. t'.)~I -hows the hrz\. throw in the anchor

to be buried in the
trampl<-<!

their gr

hitch, Fig. ~'9S the second throw, arid Fig. 2DO the

the anchor.

hitf-h for

complete
knot by which t

Fig.

is tied to the main Line.

I
:
'//), 301 and
^w the detail of tying this knot, which Ls simplicity itself,
when you know how, like
knots. Fi^
:he

anchor rope

.1

:..

anchor hitch complete.

bundles of fagots; or bag5 of sand ah make useful
SiOB
1

are half billets of wood,

wood, Fig. 807 a bag of sand. All
be used to anchor your tent in the sands or loose ground.

anchors; Fig.
I

.-'

may

MM

-tone; F:_-

of

SHEARS, GINS OR TRIPODS

EC

names used

the

for different

forms of n,

:'or

the tents. Fig. 31-^ -hows the ordinary shear-. Fig. 313 -iv
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 advantages, because of the tendency of the rope to tighten or shrink
(

:r

it

becomes wet, which often makes

it

necessary

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

212

guy ropes and

for a fellow to get

up

redrive the pegs.

When the rain is pouring down, the thunder

in the night to adjust the

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

may not be pulled out of the ground by the shrinking ropes, and the cold mass of wet canvas allowed to fall
upon one's head. It is always necessary to loosen and tighten
tent pegs

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
When
(Fig. 316A) and it will be an automatic adjuster.

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.

and 318 show the ridge pole supported by shears,

and the ridge poles supported by forked sticks; the advantage

Figs. 315

of the shears in Fig. 315

is that it gives a clear opening to the

316
shows
an
exterior ridge pole supported by
Fig.
shears to which the top of the tent is made fast. Fig. 317

tent.

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. 815. 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

TIIE

OPEN COUNTRY

CHOOSING A CAMP SITE

215

shows some of the ordinary forms of tents, the

the Baker tent and the canoe tent. Fig. 310 shows

Fig. 309

wall tent,

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.
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

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
circulation of air

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 AX AXE
HOW TO REMOVE A BROKEN AXE HANDLE
HOW TO TIGHTEN THE HANDLE IS THE HBAB
ACCIDENTS

THE BRAINS OF AN AXE

ETIQUETTE OF THE AXE
HOW TO SHARPEN AN AXE
HOW TO "FALL" A TREE

HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW
HOW

TO SWAMP

HOW
HOW

TO SPLIT A LOG

TO MAKE A BEETLE OR MALL

TO HARDEN GREEN

WOOD

TO MAKE A FIREWOOD HOD

TO MAIIE A CHOPPING BLOCK
THE PROPER WAT TO CHOP
HOW TO MAKE SAWBUCKS FOR LOGS
HOW TO USE A PARBUCKLE
TO USE A SAWPIT

CHAPTER

XII

AXK AND SAW

To

good, loyal Americans, the axe is almost a sacred

tool, for our greatest American, Abraham Lincoln, was one
all

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
Redmcn 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
the use of the jack-knife, but they wr ere also
skilled in the use of the axe, and every boy of twelve years

were

skillful in

of age

knew how

to handle

an axe.

IMPORTANCE OF THE AXE

^liile lecturing at the Teachers' College,
versity, I

axe.

It

was asked

Columbia Uni-

to give a demonstration of the use of the

then and there suddenly occurred to

me

that

if

219

these

CAMP-LORE ANT) WOODCRAFT

220

grown men needed and asked for instructions in the use of

American tool, a talk on the same subject ^rould

this typical

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;
splits the shakes, clapboards, slabs and
from
the balsam tree, or other wood which splits
shingles
readily, and with the shakes, clapboards, or slabs he

with the axe he

shingles the roof of his hogan, his barabara, or

framework to

makes the

shack or his dugout, or with them

builds the foundation of a bogken.
With his axe he cuts
his sod

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

make a dugout canoe. A tree

canoe, or to "fall" the tree to

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 USE

When bound
axe.

you

for a real camp, take along with you a real

Never take an axe which is too large and heavy for

to swing with comfort.

.ich is

too li^ht,
*
f^^

It

is

also best to avoid

an axe

much
your own axe

as with such a tool vou must use too

labor to cut the wood.

*-

You

should select

Pick up the axe, go through the

otions of chopping and see if it feels right, if its balance
suits you; hold up the axe and sight along the top of the

according to your strength.

handle as you would along the barrel of a gun to see that

is not warped.

your handle

AXE AND SAW

Axes
In

may

be had of weight and

223

size to suit one's taste.

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 J4 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 nas 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,

carry the axe on your back,

is

when you must

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
it

kind

has a slender

bit;

will

cut readily and effectively provided

is, that it does not sheer off too

that

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

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

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
it is

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; the}7 are made of the best
gray steel and are beautiful tools. Fig. 324 is an ordinary
same as those used by the Boy Scouts.
was proposed to arm the Boy Scouts with guns, the

belt axe practically the

When

it

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

224

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 America, and the belt axe adopted is the same as that carried by
the Scouts of the Sons of Daniel Boone, which axes are modelled after Daniel

Boone 's own tomahawk.

Fig. 325

is

very heavy axe.

A WORD ABOUT

SWINGING THE AXE

Grasp the axe with the

left hand, close to the end of the

is
even
closer
than
shown
in the diagram (Fig. 326) ;
handle,
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

hand to slide down naturally

strike the blow, allow the right

(Fig. 327), close to the left

learn to grasp the lower

hand; learn to reverse, that is,

end of the handle with the right hand

and the left hand near the top,

left

so as to swing the axe

from the

shoulder down, as easily as from the right shoulder.

To be a real axeman, a genuine dyed-in-the-wool, blown-in-

you make a stroke with the axe

from
must
the
breath
emit
you
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
the-glass type, each time

which

it

always seems to really help the force of the blow.

How
It

TO REMOVE A BROKEN AXE HANDLE

was from a colored

worked

rail splitter

from Virginia, who

how to burn

for the writer, that the latter learned

out the broken end of the handle from the axe head.
the blade of your axe in the moist earth and build a

fire

Bury
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

veiy 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
'

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
of scouts

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

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
little

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

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 many,
15

were but few sick

many wounded men

in the car

men

aboard, there

and none, that he

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

wounded by falling trees; all were wounded by the
or by fragments of knots and sticks flying from
the axe and striking the axeman in the eyes or

could find,

axe

itself

blows of

other tender places.

You MUST SUPPLY THE BRAINS

I

have often warned

my young

friends to use great care

with firearms, because firearms are

purpose of killing.

made

owner, his friends, his brother or

kill its

father, just as quickly

for

gun, having no brains of

and

as surely as

it

the express

own, will
mother or

its

sister,

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

and bone
the user

purpose of cutting, and they

as quickly
is

and neatly

skillful in

will cut flesh

as they will cut wood, unless

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

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 accifor

dents,

and at the same time you

will experience great joy in

the handling of your axe. Xot 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

An axe to be respected must be sharp and no one

has
who
any ambition to be a pioneer, a sportsman or a
scout, should carry a dull axe, or an axe with the edge
1.

AXE AND SAW

nicked like a saw blade.

know

that the

pencil I

am

It

may

227

interest the reader

using with which to

make

to

tin

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

to ask for the loan of a sportsman's best

it is

gun or pet

6shing rod or toothbrush.

AXES AN D SHEATHS
T

4.

To

turn the edge or to nick another man's axe

Is

very grave offense.

5.

Keep your own axe sharp and

clean,

do not use

cut any object lying on the ground where there

is

it

to

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

beware of knots of any kind.

When not hi use an axe should have
in leather (Figs. 331, 332, 333

and

334), or

its
it

in cold

weather

blade sheathed

should be struck

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

228

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
On

the

trail

TO SHARPEN YOUR

we have no

grindstones,

AXE
and often have

re-

with which to sharpen our axe; sometimes we

use a whetstone for the purpose. New axes are not always

course to a

file

as sharp as one would wish; in that case if we use a grindstone to put on an edge we must be sure to keep the grindstone wet in 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
all out of line, the probabilities are one will knock a

are at
half

moon out of the blade in the first attempt to cut frozen

The best axe in the world, with an edge badly out

timber.

of line, cannot stand the strain of a

blow on hard frozen

While grinding the axe take a sight along the edge

every once in a while to see if it is true.
wood.

THE BEST TIME TO Cur OR PRUNE TREES

Is

when the sap

younger readers

is

is

dormant, which I will explain for my

that time of year when the tree is not

The reason for this is that when the sap or

the wood when cut, it will ferment, bubble and

full of juice.

juice

is

in

the same as sweet cider or grape juice will ferment,

and the fermentation will take all the "life" out of the

fizzle

lumber and give

for

it

a tendency to decay; again to translate

my younger readers, such wood will rot quicker than wood

cut at the proper season of the year.

AXE AND SAW

With pine

trees,

however, this

is

231
not always the case,

lx?cause the piteliy nature of the sup of the pine prevents

it

the pitch acts as a

so
and
to
mummifies,
preservative
speak, the wood. Pine
knots will last for a hundred years lying in the soft, moist

from fermenting

like

beech

s;ip; in faet,

ground and for aught I know, longer, because they are

with pitch and the pitch prevents decay.

Beech when cut

in

June

is

unfit for firewood the following

winter, but authorities say that the

and

left

same

trees cut in

August
twenty or thirty
make firmer and "livelier" timber than that cut

with the branches

days, will

fat

still

on them

for

under any other conditions.

An expert lumberman in ten minutes' time will cut down

hardwood

tree

one foot

in diameter,

over four minutes to cut

and

it will

not take him

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

yard, or

you are chopping

no

if

overhead,

if

you are chopping

in

your back-

in the forests see that there are

vines, twigs, or branches within

swing of your axe. By

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

carefully

removing

all

your axe from its course and cause the loss of a

or even a leg. This is the reason that swamping

toe,
is

a foot,

the most

dangerous part of the lumberman's work.

How
If

TO "FALL" A TREE

the tree, in falling, must pass between two other trees

is danger of its "hanging," so cut your kerf that

where there

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

one furthest away,

it will

side of the smallest tree or the

bounce away, thus giving the

fallen

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
tree

standing close together; it cannot be successfully done, for

the tops of the three trees will become interlaced, and you
will find it

free

very

difficult

fallen tree

and hazardous work to attempt to

from

its entanglement; probably it canyour

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 diameter 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

at the top part of the proposed notch, then at the bottom,

making as big chips as possible, and hew out the space befirst

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

cut another notch upon the opposite side of the tree at a

point a few inches higher than the notch already cut; when
tree,

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

the tree;

it

may

the tree as

it

kick and

kill

233

you; step to one side and waU-h

falls; there are

many

things that

may

deflect

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
it

in falling,

and one's safety

lies in

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

is felled, the swampers take charge of it and

the
branches, leaving the clean log for the teamaway
sters to "snake."
They do the swamping by striking the

After a tree

cut

all

lower side of the branch with the blade of the axe, the side

what might be called the underside, 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
towards the root of the

cut

it

tree,

into logs of required lengths.

If

the trunk

is

a thick

by standing on the tree trunk with legs

and
apart (Fig. 336),
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
one

it is

best to cut

it

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

up the

log

the log without wedging your axe.

A BEETLE
A

To

split

you should have

thing usually to be found

OR MALL,

among

the tools in the back-

woodsman's hut and permanent camps; of course we do not

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

234

make them

take the time to

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

with the bark on

is

be a young oak, beech or hickory, which

seven inches in diameter at the butt.

six or

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

hammer

head, so to speak, a
butt of ten inches, counting from the part where the roots
Before cutting the stump off above the
join the trunk.
feet in length, leaving for the

all around the roots, carefully scraping away all

stones and pebbles, then cut the roots off close up to the

ground, dig

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 applewood, or locust wood; never use green wedges if seasoned
ones may be obtained, for one seasoned wedge is worth many
In the north woods, or, in fact, in any woods,
be obtained, but dogwood and ironwood
cannot
applewood
make good substitutes even when used green (Figs. 338
green ones.

and

357).

How
Many

TO HARDEN GREEN

WOOD

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 suffi-

AXE AND SAW

ciently to force the sap out

237

and harden the

surface.

When'

dogwood, ITOnwood 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

MAKE

TO

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

making a puncheon (Fig: 342). (A puncheon is a

flattened
on one or both sides.) With this flattened
log
crotch one may, by sinking another flattened log in the earth
would

in

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
puncheon or slab spiked onto the ends of
In this case the two ends of the crotch should be

Fig. 339, with the

the crotch.

cut off with a saw,

flat

if

you have one, so

surface to which to nail the slab.

wood may be
of the hatchet.

split

as to give the proper

Then the

kindling

without danger to yourself or the edge

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

238

CHOP

IT

WAY

THE RIGHT

you are using an ordinary stick of wood for a chopping

and the stick you are about to chop rests solidly on

If

block,

top of the block where the axe strikes it will cut all right, but
you strike where the stick does not touch the chopping

if

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
fingers.

When

scouts cut his

of

my

I say there

thumb

friends in the

off,

is

danger of cutting

is

danger
another cut

North woods

In hunting for Indian

of

mean

off

one

it.

off

One

finger,

Canada cut

your

of our

and one

off his great

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
toe.

relics in

introduced.
If you have no chopping block and wish to cut your firewood into smaller pieces, you can hold the stick safely with
the hand if you use the axe as shown in Fig. 345. This will

you as a result two

some great splinters.
give

How
When
first

splitting

blow as

place,

but a

sticks,

TO SPLIT KINDLING

wood

in Fig. 346,
trifle

will

and the second blow

make

in the

slanting as in Fig. 347; the slanting

splits

splits readily, the slanting

blow

it.

have

WOOD

for the fire or kindling,

wedges the wood apart and

and

and the upper one

If the

wood

is

the

same
blow
small

may be made first. These

AXE AND SAW

230

can only be indicated to the readers because there

many circumstances which govern the case. If there
a knot in the wood, strike the axe right over the knot as

tilings

are so
is

in Figs.
If

IMS and 349.

you are chopping

across the grain

pendicularly as in Fig. 350, because

if

do not

wood

the

strike peris

hard the

simply bounce hack, but strike a slanting blow as in

Fig. 351, and the axe blade will bite deeply into the wood;
again let us caution you that if you put too much of a slant
axe

will

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 in 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

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

good a handle

it

may

be, it will

although a makeshift handle may be fashioned at camp, it

never answers the purpose as well as the skillfully and artistically made handle which comes with the axe.

HOLDERS OR SAW BUCKS FOR LOGS

Select

two saplings about

five inches in

butts, bore holes near the butts

end

for legs,

make a couple

about

diameter at the

six inches

from the

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

240
drive the

wedge and ends

When

home the wedge will hold them

You now have a couple of "straddle bugs," that is,

into the hole bored for the purpose.

the sticks are driven

in place.

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

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
roll

(Fig. 358),

with holes bored diagonally in the top for the inser-

tion of pins with which to hold the log in place while

being sawed.

heavy

But with

it is

sawbuck one cannot use

this

as

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

use the primitive pioneer methods of handling and

cutting timber, and I note up there in Pike County, Pennsylvania, they make the sawbuck for logs by using a log of wood

they

still

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

about a foot

and form a crotch to hold the wood to be sawed. The sawbuck is about ten or twelve feet long; consequently, in order
to provide for shorter logs there are
in holes bored for the purpose

two

sets of pegs driven

between the ends of the buck.

AXE AND SAW

241

THE PARBUCKLE

When
difficult,

one person is handling a heavy log it is sometimes

even with the lumberman's canthook, to roll it, but

is made in a rope and placed over a stump or a

stone
(Fig. 360), and the ends run under the log, even
heavy
roll
can
a boy
quite a heavy piece of timber by pulling on
if

a loop

the ends of the rope (Fig. 300).

To
The method used by

SPLIT A

all

woodsmen

same as used by quarrymen

difference: the

LOG
a log is the
with this

in splitting

in splitting bluestone,

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

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).
his axe.

he wishes to

If
splits,

he

first

split

the logs up into shakes, clapboards or

halves the log, that

is,

splitting

it

across from

A to (Fig. 356), and then quarters it by splitting from

to D, and so on until he has the splits of the required size.
B

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 times, the safe old
times, a house was not built in a week or a month the timber
;

was

well seasoned, well selected,

16

and

in

many

cases such

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

242

On

the next block where I live

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

houses are standing to-day

and from where

am

writing,

preaching under the spreading oaks on Long Island. The

timbers of this house are still sound and strong, although the
in nearby modern houses is decaying.
In the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee they

woodwork

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

know all

HE

man's work, but the boys of to-day should

it is part of history and they can better

these things ;

understand the history of our

how

laboriously,

worked to build

cheerily
their

own country when they know

and

cheerfully

own homesteads, and

their

ancestors

in the building

their own homesteads they unconsciously built that

character of which their descendants are so proud; also they

of

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 grandparents 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 careful in the use of the axe, not to discourage them in acquiring
skill
life

with
that

We must remember that there is nothing in

not dangerous, and the greatest danger of all is

it.

is

AXE AND SAW

not firearms,

is

not edged tools,

is

243

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

and doing hard work like chopping

makes a rugged body, a clean, healthy

of undergoing privation

and sawing logs,

mind, and gives long life.

trees

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

am

If I

talking to men, they need no detailed definition of

luxury they know all about it, its cause and its effect they
know that luxury kills a race and hardship preserves a
race. The American boy should be taught to love hardship
;

also

for hardship's sake,

and then the Americans as a race

be a success, and a lasting one.

will

CHAPTER

XIII

COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES

CHEROKEE INDIAN COUNCIL BARBECUE
CAMP MEETING COUNCIL GROUND
THE INDIAN PALISADED Cor.NCIL FIRE
INDIAN IXGFNDS OF THE FIRE
STEALING THE FIRE FROM THE BUN-MAIDENS OF THE EAST
MYTHS OF THE MEWAN INDIANS
TOTEMS OF THE FOUR WINDS, FOUR MOUNTAINS AND FOUR
POINTS OF THE COMPASS
IMPRACTICAL CdLNCIL 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 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 (ire-building, cooking

and axe work, we will leave the long trail and the hard trail

and dump our duffel hag 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

The council fires were burning
when Columbus discovered America. It was

also a product of America.

all

over this land

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

sade; that

Around

is,

the

fire

this fire the old

was

in the center of

men

addresses; also around this

of the tribe

fire

by a

pali-

a circular

fort.

made

their eloquent

the warriors danced the scalp

1

dance, the corn dance, the buffalo dance, and ah 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-

and the Kentucky barbecues became very famous;

what might be called a by-product of the old
were
they
Indian council fires and a European feast combined. But
tuck}-,

in 1799 the old Indian council fires

became camp meetings,

247

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

248

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

John McGee was such a great backwoods preacher (a pioneer Billy Sunday) that he drew imfrom West Tennessee.

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

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

holding council

was made for these assemblies, and some sugceremony and some meaning given to the council

regular plan
gestion of

grounds.

fires,

COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES

THE INDIAN ORIGINS

We

have searched the legends of the Red Man for suggestions, and from various sources have learned that the
Indian had a general belief that at the north there is a yellow
is a white mountain of

or black mountain, at the east there

light, at

the south there

there

a blue mountain.

is

is

a red mountain, and at the west

At the

also holes in the sky, through

east

and west there are

which the sun comes to

light

us by day, and through which the sun disappears so that

may

sleep

but not to
In the

That
the Red Men.

by

night.

"Dawn

a collection of

Me wan

is

news to most of

of the World,'* Dr. C.

"The Myths and

Indians of California,

"

my

we

readers,

Hart Merriam gives

W eird
T

which are

Tales told by the

full of

poetry and

suggestions useful for the council fire work.

seems that when the white-footed mouse man, and some

other of the animal people, were trying to steal the sun, or
It

the

fire

from which the sun was made, the robin man, Wit-

tab-bah, suspected these visitors to be sort of

and so he hovered over the

German

spies,

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

the
give
fire-keeper for our council the name of
Wit-tab-bah, the robin.

we

fire,

will

by the totem of the mounwe will give the officer occupying that
court the Indian name of the mountain lion, He-le-jah. The
Since the north

is

presided over

tain lion, or panther,

totem of the east

is

color of that court

is

of the south court

is

the white timber wolf, Too-le-ze; the

white, representing light.

the badger; the color

is

The totem
red and the

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

250
Indian

name

of the bear,

The

Too-winks.

is

blue and the totem

and the

color of the west court

the bear; Kor-le

is

title of

is

the Indian

is

name

the officer presiding over the

blue totem.

The golden

or yellow court is the throne of the presiding

the
scoutmaster
of the troop, the headmaster of the
officer,
the
of
school,
gangmaster
your gang, the campmaster of your

camp, or the captain of your team. The second

in

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 lieutenant-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

be more interested in scout camping, summer camping,

and recreation camps than in real wilderness work, but he

may

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

and very much more

interesting;

enjoy the council

better

fire

it will

easier for

also cause

them,

them

to

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

therefore we have given the coun-

many troops of Boy Scouts

cil fire

as the

most inconvenient as well

most romantic place to talk is at
serious study, because the

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 he

M-atcd on the circumference of the circle, and the Ma>ler

of Ceremonies

must stand

lire

and

fire

and consequently

back to part of

his

other side of the

necessarily with his face to the

his audience, or his

back to the

on the
Having had occasion over and over

also to the part of the audience

fire.

again to address the scouts at a council fire, the writer has

had all the discomforts impressed upon him many times. As
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

more

the greater the delight of the boys and the

the position of the orator or Master of Cerethis may be overcome, however, if in place of a

fire

difficult

monies.

AH

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).
circle

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. 36 2), and tie the ends together, thus
forming a loop (Fig. 363); put the loop over the two stakes
A and B; next make a murker stake C (Fig. 366), and with it
C

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

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

254

the cord to slip smoothly across the stick while the marking
is

being done (Fig. 364).

WHAT
An

is

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,
The dictionary says that an ellipse is
it will form an ellipse.
ellipse

a conic which does not extend to

infinity

and whose

sections with the line of infinity are imaginary.

is

a very lucid explanation!

inter-

Now that

hope you understand

it, it is

a dictionary to say such terrible

To tell the truth, I thought
harmless
about
a
ellipse.
things
I knew all about an ellipse until I read this explanation; but

so simple, but

never mind,

know what

it is

just like

we know what it looks like and

we do know that there are a

it is,

if

we do not

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

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

spite of 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) extending 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

up on end, as I used in one of my camps, or the

be
may
rough plank benches, or they may be ponchos
the
ground with the shiny side down to keep the
spread upon
from
the
audience as it squats tailor-fashion upon
dampness
of logs set
seats

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
having an elevated platform, or pulpit, or
stand
speaker's
(Fig. 368). On each side of each court there
should be a torch; Fig. 369 is what we will call the camp
court

only

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

my camps. But homemade torches

are to be preferred (see Fig. 369). A hand torch (Fig. 373) may
used with success in one of

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

wood

for the council

fire.

The

placed upon the ground ready to light

at a moment's notice; over that the heavy wood is piled,
kindling

is first

shown in the diagram. This fire should never be lighted

with a match; that is terrible bad form. The use of flint

as

and

steel or

mony

a rubbing stick to

make

fire is

the proper cere-

for such occasions.

Fig. 374

shows how to make a

fire

box of

sticks.

This

is

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

256

an aeroplane view of a

down upon

looking
clay or

dirt,

it.

box, that

fire

is,

a view from above,

This box should be

filled

with sand,

Fig. 375 and Fig.

to lash the framework together. Fig. 377

upon which the

fire is built.

376 show you how

shows how to put up the framework.

Fig. 369

is

the finished

torch.

The

idea of this torch

The

of the campers.

is

to have the light above the heads

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

a brand new idea for this purpose. It will

over the country and credited to all sorts of
sources and people, but you must remember that it was
elevated torch

be adopted

is

all

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

It may be roofed with boards and the

as to look rustic.

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

this we are having a COUNCIL FIRE

and we want the thing to look wild and
is part of the game, and if we are compelled

see the idea

not something else

rustic because that

is

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-

by camouflage. In front of the South Court on Fig. 371

the fire-place made of flat stones set in the earth.

sible
is

COUNCIL FIRE CEREMONIES

On

entering the council grounds always enter from the

white wolf, then go across the

east, salute Too-le-ze, the

DETAILS OF CAMF
^
"TOJRCI1 STAND dc'SAND BOX

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-lc-jah, the panther; remain standing

at salute until He-le-jah

gives

who

the

is

you permission to retire, or gives

commanding

officer,

you orders what to do;

then go back, always moving along these walks like a soldier,

to your seat.

On Sundays

the council ground

holding religious services.

is

a splendid place for

such occasions the minister

Court of Knowledge, the North Court on the

in the

sits

On

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

The

fire

belongs.

may be occupied by a
which
is
the
Pole,"
'Liberty
good old American name for
the flag pole, from which Old Glory flies. Never forget to
center of the council

respect the colors

deference,

fire

and greet them with the greatest ceremonial

for those colors possess a

magic quality; they

you everything that is grand, noble and inspiryou have any other kind of thoughts, this country

represent to
ing,

and

if

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
is

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."

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

260

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 Knowledge 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, meaning 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

Red

tints the spring leaves

the color of berries and

fruit.

and

In the spring the thickets and tree

stains the fall leaf.

trunks are tinged with red they are blushing, so to speak, as

is
says, "in order to show the waiting of love." Red
;

Ruskin

emphatically a masculine color, a MAN'S COLOR.

Blue is a feminine color; it stands for sentimental affec-

has a depressing effect and creates nervousness.

the ogre among colors; it devours every other
color; sometimes the North Court is black; black stands for
tions, blue light

Black

is

COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES

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

may have

because they

affects the color of birds

and animals.

Chapman, the famous

ornithologist

noted that climate

According to Frank

Museum

the

at

of

Natural History in New York, the animals of the humid

climate of the northwest are especially dark in color.

you use yellow for the north color, yellow means

laughter and mirth. Notwithstanding the fact that we use
If

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
for the south

Too- winks,

the north Kon-win.

He-le-jah

east,

west Kor-le, and for

for the
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

Knowledge.

to death!

life

At any

rate,

we

when they

will

take

it

the Path of

call it

as

we

find

it

adapt ourselves to the suggestions these meanings give

We

will

claim that colors are the

not

who govern

the

fire itself

the council

fire.

or the fire-place.

near the Southern or

Red

spirits, fairies

Wit-tab-bah

When

Court,

it

the

is

the

or

gives the

what

name

fire is built,

captain, the superintendent, or the scoutmaster,

and

us.

of

placed

chief,

the

who occu-

North Court, a space in front of him big enough to

accommodate his audience. The real way to illuminate, or
pies the

light up, the council

grounds

is

by having

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

262

TORCH FIRES
Erected at each of the four courts.

These

fire

torches at

kept replenished with dry wood, will light

council
the
up
grounds and give a most picturesque and wild
and
at the same time will not interfere with the
appearance,
the four courts,

if

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

fires, and at times it may even be riotous fun,

at the council

but always American fun, and the patriotic spirit should never
a moment be forgotten, nor yet the poetic spirit which

for

up in bonds of sympathy with all

we may, with seriousness, recite the

links us

that

created things so

COUNCIL GROUNDS AND FIRES

263

INDIAN INVWATIOX

Great Mystery, we l>esre< -h

That we may walk reverently

Beneath

I^ah-pali

our l>rolher>, the

That we may step

On

tint-.

tn-es.

lightly

Kis-so our kinsTiien, the grasses.

That we may walk lovingly

Over Loo-poo-oi-yes our brothers,
That we may rest trustfully
Where the O-lel-le bird sings

tin-

rocks.

Beside Ho-ha-oe, the talking waters.

or this,

Weave

for us,

Great Mystery,

bright blanket of wisdom;

Make the war]) the color of Father Sky,
Let He-koo-las, the sun-woman,

Lend her

bright hair for the weft.

And

mingle with it the red and gold threads of evening.

Great Mystery; O Mother Earth! O Father Sky!

We, your

children, love the things

Therefore,

let

you

love;

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 elvr
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

As

lie sits

We

thinking,

awinking, blinking.

act from intuition,

Fun and

mischief

is

our mission;

Solemn duty, we have none of it,

What we d<> is for the fun of it;
Fun i> none too light to prize,

Thought

is

naught but fancy's

Folly's jolly, wit

Laughter after

*From unpublished

is

flight.

wise,

all is right.

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 COl

THE

N< IL

ceremonies of the Council Fire

FIRE

may be conducted

with the accompaniment of pageantry to any extent desirable. At the Council Fire of the Dan Beard Outdoor School,
the officers dress in costume
the real ones.

Northern Lights,
lumberman and

who

MAN

not masquerade costumes but

attends to the

is

garbed in the blanket clothes of a northern

an axe.
THE MAN OF THE EAST,
where the sun maidens dwell, may be
the clothes of one of our Pilgrim fathers. THE

attends the

arrayed in

THE MAN OF THE NORTH, who

carries
fire

OF THE WEST, who attends the fire of the Blue Moundecked in the fringed buckskin clothes of the trapper,

tain, is

plainsman, or mountaineer. THE MAN OF THE SOUTH, w ho

guards the fire of the Red Mountain, is dressed in the picr

turesque costume of a Mexican with a high-crowned sombrero.

seats of the different courts are draped with the colors of

The

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 Council 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
With the last notes and the last call the Scouts,

assembly.

Woodcrafters, Pioneers or students enter the

circle, marching
is
and they stand
the
circle
until
around
complete,
single-file
Herald
now
blows a fanare
to
sit.
The
where
they
opposite

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

268

and the officers march into the council ground with the
and the color guard. The officers group themselves
around their Chief, the Scout Executive, the Scout Commissioner, the Headmaster or the man in authority at the North

fare

colors

Court.

INVOCATION

The Leader,

or head

officer, steps

forward and throwing

is imitated

both hands up in a gesture of appeal, in which he

by the assembly, he repeats:
Weave for

Then he

us,

(as already given).

cries:

Four Winds

Wind
Wind
Wind
Wind

O Great Mystery, etc.

of the Earth,

of the North,
of the East,

we have

saluted you!

from whence come our snow and

from whence come our clouds and

of the West, from

of the South,

whence comes our sunshine,

from whence comes our warmth,

Send us your men to guard the mystic

The Men

of the North, East,

in front of the Chief,

and he

fires,

fires.

West and South, now

them to

step

directs

See that the mystic

The

ice,

rains,

fires

are blazing.

having already been carefully prepared, are

now

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
lighted

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,

tain-lion is

the Medicine

fire

has been lighted, the

guarding the yellow mountain of the North,

All

is well.

Moun-

RITUAL OF THE COUNCIL FIRE

Chief.
Is the

.Man

of the Ka>l.

is

269

the Medirine Fire at Toolc-zc blazing?

White Wolf on guard at the White Mountain, where the sun-maidens

dwell?

Man

of the East.

on guard.

.Chief, T<n>-le-ze blazes in tin- Mast, the

Wah-lab-bah, the robin, shields the

All

Chief.

Man

of the West,
fire at Kor-le blaze?

Is the

Man

man

is

White Wolf

well.

of the plains

and mountains, does the mystic

Black H-'ar guarding the Blue Mountain, where the sun sets?
\\'.->t
.Chief, Kor-le is ablaze, the Black Bear's growls

of the

is

fire,

may

be heard in the torrent that guards the Blue Mountain.

All

is

well.

.Man of the South, how blazes the fire at Too-winks?

Has the Red Badger eome from its burrow to stand guard on
Chief.

Mountain?
Man of the South .... Chief, Too-winks flames
is on guard.

to the sky.

the

Red

The Red Badger

All is well.

The Color Guard now

the officers and

all

enters,

marches up to

stand at salute.

in front of

The Color Guard with

colors

about faces and the guests and

unison

all

present recite in

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 preamble 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

a government whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a Sovereign Nation
of many Sovereign States, a Democracy in a Republic, a per-

and

for the People,

fect Union,

one and inseparable.

live because of the

"A Union which will

vital principles of

CAMP-LORE AND WOODCRAFT

270

Freedom, Equality, Justice, Humanity and Kindness which

contains, and for which American Patriots have willingly

it

sacrificed their lives

and

fortunes.

"I therefore believe that in order to respect my own manhood I must love my country, support its Constitution and

obey
it

its

Laws;

against

all

must

also that I

After which

may come

Camp-fire oath, as the case

given

respect

its

Flag,

and defend

enemies."
the Scout oath, Pioneer oath or

may

be.

Then the command

followed

to

the

is

command

"spread ponchos,"
by
"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 provided 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

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
:

Good-night."

36

all

your hearts.

mil
IK SI
ami