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OUTDOOR SPORTS AND GAMES
by
CLAUDE H. MILLER, PH.B.
Garden City
New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1911
The Library of Work and Play
[Illustration: A Boys' Camp]
[Illustration: Title Page]
CONTENTS
I. Introductory
The human body a perfect machine--How to keep well--Outdoor
sleeping--Exercise and play--Smoking--Walking.
II. The Boy Scouts of America
Headquarters--Purpose--Scout Law--How to form a patrol of
Scouts--Organization of a troop--Practical activities for
Scouts--A Scout camp--Model Programme of Sir R.S.S.
Baden-Powell Scout camp.
III. Camps and Camping
How to select the best place to pitch a tent--A brush bed--The
best kind of a tent--How to make the camp fire--What to do when
it rains--Fresh air and good food--The brush leanto and how to
make it.
IV. Camp Cooking
How to make the camp fire range--Bread bakers--Cooking
utensils--The grub list--Simple camp recipes.
V. Woodcraft
The use of an axe and hatchet--Best woods for special
purposes--What to do when you are lost--Nature's compasses.
VI. Use of Fire-arms
Importance of early training--Why a gun is better than a
rifle--How to become a good shot.
VII. Fishing
Proper tackle for all purposes--How to catch bait--The fly
fisherman--General fishing rules.
VIII. Nature Study
What is a true naturalist?--How to start a collection--Moth
collecting--The herbarium.
IX. Water Life
The water telescope--How to manage an aquarium--Our insect
friends and enemies--The observation beehive.
X. The Care of Pets
Cats--Boxes for song birds--How to attract the birds--Tame
crows--The pigeon fancier--Ornamental land and water
fowl--Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice--How to build
coops--General rules for the care of pets--The dog.
XI. The Care of Chickens
The best breed--Good and bad points of incubators--What to feed
small chicks--A model chicken house.
XII. Winter Sports
What to wear--Skating--Skiing--Snowshoeing--Hockey.
XIII. Horsemanship
How to become a good rider--The care of horses--Saddles.
XIV. How to Swim and to Canoe
The racing strokes--Paddling and sailing canoes.
XV. Baseball
How to organize a team and to select the players--The various
positions--Curve pitching.
XVI. How to Play Football
The various positions and how to select men for them--Team
work and signals--The rules.
XVII. Lawn Tennis
How to make and mark a court--Clay and sod courts--The proper
grip of the racket--Golf--The strokes and equipment.
XVIII. Photography
The selection of a camera--Snapshots vs. real pictures--How to
make a photograph from start to finish.
XIX. Outdoor Sports for Girls
What to wear--Confidence--Horseback riding--Tennis--Golf--Camping.
XX. One Hundred Outdoor Games
ILLUSTRATIONS
A Boy's Camp
A Child's May-day Party
Fishing is the One Sport of Our Childhood
that Holds Our Interest Through Life
The Moth Collector and His Outfit
The Exciting Sport of Ski-running
Swimming is One of the Best Outdoor Sports
In Canoeing Against the Current in Swift Streams
a Pole is Used in Place of the Paddle
Photographs of Tennis Strokes Taken in Actual Play
How an Expert Plays Golf
I
INTRODUCTORY
The human body a perfect machine--How to keep well--Outdoor
sleeping--Exercise and play--Smoking--Walking
Suppose you should wake up Christmas morning and find yourself to be
the owner of a bicycle. It is a brand-new wheel and everything is in
perfect working order. The bearings are well oiled, the nickel is
bright and shiny and it is all tuned up and ready for use. If you are
a careful, sensible boy you can have fun with it for a long time until
finally, like the "One Hoss Shay" in the poem, it wears out and goes
to pieces all at once. On the other hand, if you are careless or
indifferent or lazy you may allow the machine to get out of order or
to become rusty from disuse, or perhaps when a nut works loose you
neglect it and have a breakdown on the road, or you may forget to oil
the bearings and in a short time they begin to squeak and wear. If you
are another kind of a boy, you may be careful enough about oiling and
cleaning the wheel, but you may also be reckless and head--strong and
will jump over curbstones and gutters or ride it over rough roads at a
dangerous rate of speed, and in this way shorten its life by abuse
just as the careless boy may by neglect.
It is just so with the human body which, after all, is a machine too,
and, more than that, it is the most wonderful and perfect machine in
the world. With care it should last many years. With abuse or neglect
it may very soon wear out. The boy who neglects his health is like the
boy who allows the bearings on his wheel to become dry or the metal
parts rusty. The chief difference is that when the bicycle wears out
or breaks down we may replace the parts or even buy another machine,
but when our health is injured, money will not restore it.
In order to keep well we must observe certain rules of health. By
exercise we keep the working parts in good order. If we are lazy or
indolent we are like the bicycle that is allowed to go to pieces from
lack of use. If we are reckless and foolhardy we may injure some part
of the delicate machinery from excessive exercise or strain.
Play is the most natural thing in the world but we must use judgment
in our play. A boy or girl who is not allowed to play or who is
restrained by too anxious parents is unhappy indeed. Nearly all
animals play. We know, for instance, that puppies, kittens, and lambs
are playful. It is a perfectly natural instinct. By proper play we
build up our bodies and train our minds. The healthy man never gets
too old to play. He may not care to play marbles or roll hoops, but he
will find his pleasure in some game or sport like tennis, golf,
horseback riding, camping, fishing or hunting.
In this book we shall talk about some forms of play and recreation
that are not strictly confined to children, but which we may still
enjoy even after we have become grown men and women. We shall also
talk about some children's games that some of the older readers may
have outgrown. While we play we keep our minds occupied by the sport,
and at the same time we exercise our muscles and feed our lungs and
our bodies with oxygen.
It is unfortunate that in school or college athletics those who need
exercise the most are often those who are physically unfitted to play
on the school teams. In other words, we select our runners and jumpers
and football players from among the stronger boys, while the weaker
ones really need the benefit of the sport. Every boy should take part
in school games when possible even if he is not as swift or as strong
as some other boys.
It is very unmanly of one boy to make fun of another because he is
weak or clumsy or unskilful. After all, the thing that counts and the
thing that is most creditable is to make the most of our opportunities
whatever they may be. If an undersized or timid boy becomes stronger
or more brave because he joins in games and sports, he deserves a
hundred times more credit than the big, strong boy whom nature has
given a sturdy frame and good lungs and who makes a place on the
school team without any real effort.
If we live a natural, open-air life we shall have but little need of
doctors or medicine. Many of our grandmothers' notions on how to keep
well have changed in recent years. Old-fashioned remedies made from
roots and herbs have been almost completely replaced by better habits
of life and common-sense ideas. We used to believe that night air was
largely responsible for fevers and colds. Doctors now say that one of
the surest ways to keep well is to live and sleep in the open air. In
many modern houses the whole family is provided with outside sleeping
porches with absolutely no protection from the outside air but the
roof. I have followed the practice of sleeping in the open air for
some time, and in midwinter without discomfort have had the
temperature of my sleeping porch fall to six degrees below zero. Of
course it is foolish for any one to sleep exposed to rain or snow or
to think that there is any benefit to be derived from being cold or
uncomfortable. The whole idea of open-air sleeping is to breathe pure,
fresh air in place of the atmosphere of a house which, under the best
conditions, is full of dust and germs. If we become outdoor sleepers,
coughs and colds will be almost unknown. General Sherman once wrote a
letter in which he said that he did not have a case of cold in his
entire army and he attributed it to the fact that his soldiers slept
and lived in the open air.
[Illustration: A Child's May Day Party (Photograph by Mary H.
Northend)]
One can almost tell a man who sleeps in the open by looking at him.
His eye is clear and his cheek ruddy. There is no surer way to become
well and strong than to become accustomed to this practice. Then you
can laugh at the doctor and throw the medicine bottles away. In
stating this I know that many parents will not agree with me, and will
feel that to advise a boy to sleep in the open when the weather is
stormy or extremely cold is almost like inviting him to his death. It
is a fact just the same that every one would be healthier and happier
if they followed this practice. In a few years I expect to see outdoor
sleeping the rule rather than the exception. Progressive doctors are
already agreed on this method of sleeping for sick people. In some
hospitals even delicate babies are given open-air treatment in
midwinter as a cure for pneumonia. My own experience is that in the
two years that I have been an outdoor sleeper, with the snow drifts
sometimes covering the foot of the bed, with the wintry winds howling
about my head in a northeaster, I have been absolutely free from any
trace of coughs or colds. Thousands of others will give the same
testimony. According to old-fashioned ideas such things would give me
my "death of cold." It rarely happens that one begins the practice of
sleeping out without becoming a firm believer in it.
One of the children of a friend in Connecticut who had just built a
beautiful home was taken ill, and the doctor recommended that the
child's bed be moved out on the porch. This was in December. The
father also had his own bed moved out to keep the baby company. My
friend told me that after the first night he felt like a changed man.
He awoke after a refreshing sleep and felt better than he had in
years. The whole family soon followed and all the beautiful bedrooms
in the house were deserted. The baby got well and stayed well and the
doctor's visits are few and far between in that household.
By all means sleep in the open if you can. Of course one must have
ample protection from the weather, such as a porch or piazza with a
screen or shelter to the north and west. A warm room in which to dress
and undress is also absolutely necessary. If your rest is disturbed by
cold, as it will probably be until you become accustomed to it and
learn the tricks of the outdoor sleeper, you simply need more covers.
In winter, the bed should be made up with light summer blankets in
place of sheets, which would become very cold. Use, as a night cap, an
old sweater or skating cap. A good costume consists of a flannel
shirt, woollen drawers, and heavy, lumberman's stockings. With such an
outfit and plenty of covers, one can sleep out on the coldest night
and never awaken until the winter's sun comes peeping over the hill to
tell him that it is time to get up.
Besides fresh air, another important thing in keeping well is to eat
slowly and to chew your food thoroughly. Boys and girls often develop
a habit of rapid eating because they are anxious to get back to play
or to school. Slow eating is largely a matter of habit as well, and
while it may seem hard at first it will soon become second nature to
us. Remember to chew your food thoroughly. The stomach has no teeth.
We have all heard of Mr. Horace Fletcher, that wonderful old man who
made himself young again by chewing his food.
There is no fun in life unless we are well, and a sensible boy should
realize that his parents' interest in him is for his own benefit. It
may seem hard sometimes to be obliged to do without things that we
want, but as a rule the judgment of the older people is better than
our own. A growing boy will often eat too much candy or too many sweet
things and then suffer from his lack of judgment. To fill our stomachs
with indigestible food is just as foolish as it would be to put sand
in the bearings of our wheel, or to interfere with the delicate
adjustment of our watch until it refuses to keep time.
While we play, our muscles are developed, our lungs filled with fresh
air and the whole body is made stronger and more vigorous. Some boys
play too hard. Over-exertion will sometimes cause a strain on the
delicate machinery of the body that will be very serious in after
life. The heart is especially subject to the dangers of overstrain in
growing boys. We are not all equally strong, and it is no discredit to
a boy that he cannot run as far or lift as much as some of his
playmates or companions. You all remember the fable of the frog who
tried to make himself as big as the ox and finally burst. The idea of
exercise is not to try to excel every one in what you do, but to do
your best without over-exertion. If a boy has a rugged frame and well
developed muscles, it is perfectly natural that he should be superior
in most sports to a boy that is delicate or undersized.
To be in good physical condition and to laugh at the doctor we must
keep out of doors as much as possible. Gymnasium work of course will
help us to build up our strength and develop our muscles, but skill in
various acrobatics and gymnastic tricks does not give the clear eye
and ruddy cheek of the person whose life is in the open air. Outdoor
sports, like tennis, baseball, and horseback riding are far superior
to chestweights or Indian clubs as a means of obtaining normal
permanent development.
Parents who criticize school or college athletics often forget that
the observance of the strict rules of training required from every
member of a team is the very best way to keep a boy healthy in mind
and body.
Tobacco and alcohol are absolutely prohibited, the kind of food eaten
and the hours for retiring are compulsory, and a boy is taught not
only to train his muscles but to discipline his mind. Before a
candidate is allowed to take active part in the sport for which he is
training he must be "in condition," as it is called.
There are a great many rules of health that will help any one to keep
well, but the best rule of all is to live a common-sense life and not
to think too much about ourselves. Systematic exercises taken daily
with setting up motions are very good unless we allow them to become
irksome. All indoor exercise should be practised with as much fresh
air in the room as possible. It is an excellent plan to face an open
window if we practise morning and evening gymnastics.
There are many exercises that can be performed with no apparatus
whatever. In all exercises we should practise deep regular breathing
until it becomes a habit with us. Most people acquire a faulty habit
of breathing and only use a small part of their total lung capacity.
Learn to take deep breaths while in the fresh air. After a while it
will become a habit.
Just how much muscle a boy should have will depend upon his physical
make-up. The gymnasium director in one of our largest colleges, who
has spent his whole life in exercise, is a small, slender man whose
muscles are not at all prominent and yet they are like steel wires.
He has made a life-long study of himself and has developed every
muscle in his body. From his appearance he would not be considered a
strong man and yet some of the younger athletes weighing fifty pounds
more than he, have, in wrestling and feats of strength, found that the
man with the largest muscles is not always the best man.
There is one question that every growing boy will have to look
squarely in the face and to decide for himself. It is the question of
smoking. There is absolutely no question but that smoking is injurious
for any one, and in the case of boys who are not yet fully grown
positively dangerous. Ask any cigarette smoker you know and he will
tell you _not to smoke_. If you ask him why he does not take his own
advice he will possibly explain how the habit has fastened its grip on
him, just as the slimy tentacles of some devil fish will wind
themselves about a victim struggling in the water, until he is no
longer able to escape. A boy may begin to smoke in a spirit of fun or
possibly because he thinks it is manly, but more often it is because
the "other fellers" are trying it too.
My teacher once gave our school an object lesson in habits which is
worth repeating. He called one of the boys to the platform and wound a
tiny piece of thread around the boy's wrists. He then told him to
break it, which the boy did very easily. The teacher continued to wind
more thread until he had so many strands that the boy could break them
only with a great effort and finally he could not break them at all.
His hands were tied. Just so it is with a habit. The first, second, or
tenth time may be easy to break, but we shall finally get so many tiny
threads that our hands are tied. We have acquired a habit. Don't be a
fool. Don't smoke cigarettes.
Walking is one of the most healthful forms of exercise. It may seem
unnecessary to devote much space to a subject that every one thinks
they know all about, but the fact is that, with trolley cars,
automobiles, and horses, a great many persons have almost lost the
ability to walk any distance. An excellent rule to follow if you are
going anywhere is this: If you have the time, and the distance is not
too great, walk. In recent years it has been the practice of a number
of prominent business and professional men who get but little outdoor
exercise to walk to and from their offices every day, rain or shine.
In this way elderly men will average from seven to ten miles a day and
thus keep in good condition with no other exercise.
It is very easy to cultivate the street car habit, and some boys feel
that they must ride to and from school even if it is only a few blocks
or squares. We have all read of the old men who are walking across the
country from New York to California and back again and maintaining an
average of forty miles a day. There is not a horse in the world that
would have the endurance to go half the distance in the same time and
keep it up day after day. For the first week or ten days the horse
would be far ahead but, like the fable of the hare and the tortoise,
after a while the tortoise would pass the hare and get in first.
In walking for pleasure, avoid a rambling, purposeless style. Decide
where you are going and go. Walk out in the country if possible and on
roads where the automobiles will not endanger your life or blow clouds
of dust in your face. Never mind the weather. One rarely takes cold
while in motion. To walk comfortably we should wear loose clothing and
old shoes. Walking just for the sake of exercise can easily become a
tiresome occupation, but the active mind can always see something of
interest, such as wild flowers, gardens, and all the various sides of
nature study in the country, and people, houses and life in the city.
A tramping vacation of several days furnishes a fine opportunity to
see new scenes and to live economically, but near a city you may have
difficulty in persuading the farm-wife where you stop that you are not
a tramp who will burn the house in the night. If you intend to live by
the wayside, the surest way to inspire confidence is to show in
advance that you have money to pay for your accommodations. Also try
to avoid looking like a tramp, which is quite different from looking
like a tramper.
There seems to be a great difference of opinion on the question of how
fast one can walk. The popular idea is "four miles an hour" but any
one who has tried to cover a mile every fifteen minutes will testify
that such a rate of speed is more like a race than a walk and that it
will require great physical exertion to maintain it for any
considerable distance. An eighteen or twenty-mile walk is about all
the average boy should attempt in a day, and this is allowing the full
day for the task from early morning until sunset.
Short and frequent rests are much better than long stops, which have a
tendency to stiffen the muscles. The walker on a long tramp must pay
especial attention to the care of his feet. They should be bathed
frequently in cold water to which a little alum has been added. A
rough place or crease in the stocking will sometimes cause a very
painful blister.
Mountain climbing is a very interesting branch of walking. It is
sometimes very dangerous as well and in such cases should only be
attempted under the guidance of some one familiar with the
neighbourhood. For rough climbing our shoes should be provided with
iron hob nails. Steel nails often become very slippery and will cause
a bad fall on rocks.
Cross-country running and hare and hound chases are much more common
in England than in America. Our runners as a rule excel in the sprints
and short dashes, although in the recent Olympic sports we have shown
that our trained athletes are the equal of the world in nearly all
branches of sport.
In many of the English schools it is a regular part of the school work
for the teacher to organize hare and hound chases. The hares are given
a start of several minutes and leave a trail by means of bits of paper
or confetti, which they carry in a bag. In this kind of running the
object to be sought is not so much speed as endurance. An easy dog
trot with deep regular breathing will soon give us our second wind,
when we can keep on for a long distance.
After any kind of physical exertion, especially when we are in a
perspiration, care must be exercised not to become chilled suddenly. A
rub down with a rough towel will help to prevent soreness and stiff
muscles. The lameness that follows any kind of unusual exercise is an
indication that certain muscles have been brought into use that are
out of condition. A trained athlete does not experience this soreness
unless he has unduly exerted himself, and the easiest way to get over
it is to do more of the same kind of work until we are in condition.
II
THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Headquarters--Purpose--Scout law--How to form a patrol of
scouts--Organization of a troop--Practical activities for scouts--A
scout camp--Model programme of a Sir R.S.S. Baden-Powell scout camp
The Boy Scout movement that has recently been introduced both in
England and America with such wonderful success is so closely related
to nearly all branches of outdoor recreation and to the things that
boys are interested in that this book would be incomplete without
mention of the object and purposes of this organization. It is a
splendid movement for the making of better citizens, and it cannot be
too highly recommended.
The Boy Scouts of America is a permanent organization, and it has its
headquarters at 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City. From the central
office, patrols and troops are being formed all over the United
States. Any information with reference to the movement may be
obtained by applying to this office.
Through the courtesy of the managing secretary, Mr. John L. Alexander,
certain facts are presented concerning the organization, which are
obtained from their published literature, for which due credit is
hereby given.
The Boy Scouts is an organization the purpose of which is
character-building for boys between the ages of twelve and eighteen.
It is an effort to get boys to appreciate the things about them and to
train them in self-reliance, manhood, and good citizenship. It is
"peace-scouting" these boys engage in, living as much as possible out
of doors; camping, hiking and learning the secrets of the woods and
fields. The movement is not essentially military, but the military
virtues of discipline, obedience, neatness and order are scout
virtues. Endurance, self-reliance, self-control and an effort to help
some one else are scout objectives. Every activity that lends itself
to these aims is good scoutcraft.
The Boy Scouts were started in England by Gen. Sir Robert
Baden-Powell. He was impressed with the fact that 46 per cent. of the
boys of England were growing up without any knowledge of useful
occupations, and wanted to do something that would help the boy to
become a useful citizen. He emphatically stated that his intention was
not the making of soldiers. In his work. General Baden-Powell has
touched the boy's life in all its interests and broadened a boy's
outlook by the widest sort of activities. In two and a half years over
half a million Boy Scouts have been enrolled, and twenty thousand of
these have been in parade at one time in London.
The scout idea has sprung up spontaneously all over America. In
Canadian cities the Boy Scouts number thousands. In the United States,
towns and cities are being swept by the idea. Gangs of boys are to be
seen on every hand, doing their best at scoutcraft, "doing a good turn
every day to some one," and getting fun out of it. Prominent business
men and educators are behind the movement.
The aim of the Boy Scouts is to supplement the various existing
educational agencies, and to promote the ability in boys to do things
for themselves and others. The method is summed up in the term
"scoutcraft" and is a combination of observation, deduction and
handiness--or the ability to do. Scoutcraft consists of "First Aid,"
Life Saving, Tracking, Signalling, Cycling, Nature Study, Seamanship
and other instruction. This is accomplished in games and team play and
in pleasure, not work, for the boy. The only equipment it needs is the
out-of-doors, a group of boys and a leader.
Before he becomes a scout, a boy must take the scouts' oath thus:
"On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, 1. To do my duty to
God and my country. 2. To help other people at all times. 3. To obey
the scout law."
When taking this oath the scout will stand holding his right hand
raised level with his shoulder, palm to the front, thumb resting on
the nail of the little finger, and the other three fingers upright
pointing upward. This the scouts' salute and secret sign.
When the hand is raised shoulder high it is called "the half salute."
When raised to the forehead it is called "the full salute."
The three fingers held up (like the three points on the scouts' badge)
remind him of his three promises in the scouts' oath.
There are three classes of scouts. A boy on joining the Boy Scouts
must pass a test in the following points before taking the oath:
Know the scouts' laws and signs and the salute.
Know the composition of the national flag and the right way to fly it.
Tie four of the following knots: Reef, sheet bend, clove hitch,
bowline, middleman's, fisherman's, sheep-shank.
He then takes the scouts' oath and is enrolled as a tenderfoot and is
entitled to wear the buttonhole badge.
A SECOND-CLASS SCOUT
Before being awarded a second-class scout's badge, a boy must pass the
following tests:
1. Have at least one month's service as a tenderfoot.
2. Elementary first aid bandaging.
3. Signalling. Elementary knowledge of semaphore or Morse alphabet.
4. Track half a mile in twenty-five minutes, or if in a town describe
satisfactorily the contents of one store window out of four, observed
for one minute each.
5. Go a mile in twelve minutes at "scouts' pace."
6. Lay and light a fire using not more than two matches.
7. Cook a quarter of a pound of meat and two potatoes without cooking
utensils other than the regulation billy.
8. Have at least twenty-five cents in the savings bank.
9. Know the sixteen principal points of the compass.
FIRST-CLASS SCOUT
Before being awarded a first-class scout's badge, a scout must pass
the following test in addition to the tests laid down for a
second-class scout:
1. Swim fifty yards. (This may be omitted where the doctor certifies
that bathing is dangerous to the boy's health).
2. Must have at least fifty cents in the savings bank.
3. Signalling. Send and receive a message either in semaphore or
Morse, sixteen letters per minute.
4. Go on foot or row a boat alone to a point seven miles away and
return again, or if conveyed by any vehicle or animal go a distance of
fifteen miles and back and write a short report on it. It is
preferable that he should take two days over it.
5. Describe or show the proper means for saving life in case of two of
the following accidents: Fire, drowning, runaway carriage, sewer gas,
ice breaking, or bandage an injured patient or revive an apparently
drowned person.
6. Cook satisfactorily two of the following dishes as may be directed:
Porridge, bacon, hunter's stew; or skin and cook a rabbit or pluck and
cook a bird. Also "make a damper" of half a pound of flour or a
"twist" baked on a thick stick.
7. Read a map correctly and draw an intelligent rough sketch map.
Point out a compass direction without the help of a compass.
8. Use an axe for felling or trimming light timber: or as an
alternative produce an article of carpentry or joinery or metal work,
made by himself satisfactorily.
9. Judge distance, size, numbers and height within 25 per cent. error.
10. Bring a tenderfoot trained by himself in the points required of a
tenderfoot.
THE SCOUTS' LAW
1. A scout's honour is to be trusted. If a scout were to break his
honour by telling a lie, or by not carrying out an order exactly, when
trusted on his honour to do so, he may be directed to hand over his
scouts' badge and never to wear it again. He may also be directed to
cease to be a scout.
2. A scout is loyal to his country, his officers, his parents and his
employers. He must stick to them through thick and thin against any
one who is their enemy or who even talks badly about them.
3. A scout's duty is to be useful and to help others. He must be
prepared at any time to save life or to help injured persons, and he
must try his best to do a good turn to somebody every day.
4. A scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other scout, no
matter to what social class the other belongs.
5. A scout is courteous, especially to women, children, old people,
invalids, and cripples. And he must never take a reward for being
courteous.
6. A scout is a friend to animals. Killing an animal for food is
allowable.
7. A scout obeys orders of his parents, patrol leader, or scout master
without question.
8. A scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.
9. A scout is thrifty and saves every penny he can and puts it into
the bank.
The scout master is the adult leader of a troop. A troop consists of
three or more patrols. The scout master may begin with one patrol. He
must have a deep interest in boys, be genuine in his own life, have
the ability to lead and command the boys' respect and obedience, and
possess some knowledge of a boy's ways. He need not be an expert on
scoutcraft. The good scout master will discover experts for the
various activities.
To organize a patrol, get together seven or more boys, explain to them
the aims of the Boy Scouts, have them elect a leader and corporal from
their own number and take the scout oath as tenderfeet. To organize a
local committee, call together the leading men of a town or city,
teachers, business men, professional men, and all who are interested
in the proper training of boys, for a committee to superintend the
development of the scout movement.
There are a number of divisions to scouting depending upon the place
where the boys live and upon their opportunities. For instance, to
obtain:
_An Ambulance Badge_: A scout must know: The fireman's lift. How to
drag an insensible man with ropes. How to improvise a stretcher. How
to fling a life-line. The position of main arteries. How to stop
bleeding from vein or artery, internal or external. How to improvise
splints and to diagnose and bind fractured limb. The Schafer method of
artificial respiration. How to deal with choking, burning, poison,
grit in eye, sprains and bruises, as the examiners may require.
Generally the laws of health and sanitation as given in "Scouting for
Boys," including dangers of smoking, in continence, want of
ventilation, and lack of cleanliness.
_Aviator_: A scout must have a knowledge of the theory of aeroplanes,
ball balloons and dirigibles, and must have made a working model of an
aeroplane or dirigible that will fly at least twenty-five yards. He
must also have a knowledge of the engines used for aeroplanes and
dirigibles.
_Bee-farmer_: A scout must have a practical knowledge of swarming,
hiving, hives, and general apiculture, including a knowledge of the
use of artificial combs, etc.
_Blacksmith_: A scout must be able to upset and weld a one-inch iron
rod, make a horseshoe, know how to tire a wheel, use a sledge hammer
and forge, shoe a horse correctly, and rough-shod a horse.
_Bugler_: A scout must be able to sound properly on the bugle the
Scouts' Rally and the following army calls: Alarm, charge, orderlies
(ord. corpls.), orders, warning for parade, quarter bugle, fall in,
dismiss, rations, first and second dinner calls (men's), reveille,
last post, lights out.
_Carpenter_: A scout must be able to shoot and glue a four-foot
straight joint, make a housing, tenon and mortise, and halved joint,
grind and set a chisel and plane iron, make a 3 ft. by 1 ft. 6 in., by
1 ft. by 6 ft. dovetailed locked box, or a table or chair.
_Clerk_: A scout must have the following qualifications: Good
handwriting and hand printing. Ability to use typewriting machine.
Ability to write a letter from memory on the subject given verbally
five minutes previously. Knowledge of simple bookkeeping. Or, as
alternative to typewriting, write in shorthand from dictation at
twenty words a minute as minimum.
_Cook_: A scout must be able to light a fire and make a cook-place
with a few bricks or logs; cook the following dishes: Irish stew,
vegetables, omelet, rice pudding, or any dishes which the examiner may
consider equivalent; make tea, coffee, or cocoa; mix dough and bake
bread in oven; or a "damper" or "twist" (round steak) at a camp fire;
carve properly, and hand plates and dishes correctly to people at
table.
_Cyclist_: A scout must sign a certificate that he owns a bicycle in
good working order, which he is willing to use in the scouts' service
if called upon at any time in case of emergency. He must be able to
ride his bicycle satisfactorily, and repair punctures, etc. He must
be able to read a map, and repeat correctly a verbal message. On
ceasing to own a bicycle the scout must be required to hand back his
badge.
_Dairyman_: A scout must understand: Management of dairy cattle; be
able to milk, make butter and cheese; understand sterilization of
milk, safe use of preservatives, care of dairy utensils and
appliances.
_Electrician_: A scout must have a knowledge of method of rescue and
resuscitation of persons insensible from shock. Be able to make a
simple electro-magnet, have elementary knowledge of action of simple
battery cells, and the working of electric bells and telephone.
Understand and be able to remedy fused wire, and to repair broken
electric connections.
_Engineer_: A scout must have a general idea of the working of motor
cars and steam locomotives, marines, internal combustion and electric
engines. He must also know the names of the principal parts and their
functions; how to start, drive, feed, stop, and lubricate any one of
them chosen by the candidate.
_Farmer_: A scout must have a practical knowledge of ploughing,
cultivating, drilling, hedging and draining. He must also have a
working knowledge of farm machinery, hay-making, reaping, heading and
stacking, and a general acquaintance with the routine seasonal work on
a farm, including the care of cattle, horses, sheep and pigs.
_Fireman_: A scout must know how to give the alarm to inhabitants,
police, etc. How to enter burning buildings. How to prevent spread of
fire. Use of hose, unrolling, joining up, hydrants, use of nozzle,
etc. The use of escape, ladders, and shutes; improvising ropes,
jumping sheets, etc. The fireman's lift, how to drag patient, how to
work in fumes, etc. The use of fire extinguishers. How to rescue
animals. How to salve property, climb and pass buckets. "Scrum" to
keep back crowd.
_First Aid to Animals_: A scout must have a general knowledge of the
anatomy of domestic and farm animals, and be able to describe
treatment and symptoms of the following: Wounds, fractures and
sprains, exhaustion, choking, lameness. He must understand shoeing and
shoes, and must be able to give a drench for colic.
_Gardener_: A scout must dig a piece of ground not less than twelve
feet square, know the names of a dozen plants pointed out in an
ordinary garden, understand what is meant by pruning, grafting and
manuring, plant and grow successfully six kinds of vegetables or
flowers from seeds or cuttings, cut and make a walking stick, or cut
grass with scythe under supervision.
_Handyman_: A scout must be able to paint a door or bath, whitewash a
ceiling, repair gas fittings, tap washers, sash lines, window and door
fastenings, replace gas mantles and electric light bulbs, hang
pictures and curtains, repair blinds, fix curtain and portiere rods,
blind fixtures, lay carpets, mend clothing and upholstery, do small
furniture and china repairs, and sharpen knives.
_Horseman_: A scout must know how to ride at all paces, and to jump an
ordinary fence on horseback. How to saddle and bridle a horse
correctly. How to harness a horse correctly in single or double
harness, and to drive. How to water and feed, and to what amount. How
to groom his horse properly. The evil of bearing and hame reins and
ill-fitting saddlery. Principal causes and remedies of lameness.
_Interpreter_: A scout must be able to carry on a simple conversation,
write a simple letter on subject given by examiner, read and translate
a passage from a book or newspaper, in either Esperanto or any
language that is not that of his own country.
_Leather Worker_: A scout must have a knowledge of tanning and
curing, and either (a) be able to sole and heel a pair of boots, sewn
or nailed, and generally repair boots and shoes: or (b) be able to
dress a saddle, repair traces, stirrup leathers, etc., and know the
various parts of harness.
_Marksman_: A scout must pass the following tests for miniature rifle
shooting from any position: N.R.A. Standard Target to be used. Twenty
rounds to be fired at 15 or 25 yards. Highest possible, 100 points. A
scout gaining 60 points or over to be classified as marksman. Scoring:
Bull's-eye, 5 points; inner, 4 points; magpie, 3 points; outer 2
points. Also: Judge distance on unknown ground: Five distances under
300 yards, 5 between 300 and 600 yards, with not more than an error of
25 per cent. on the average.
_Master-at-arms_: A scout must attain proficiency in two out of the
following subjects: Single-stick, quarter-staff, fencing, boxing,
jiu-jitsu and wrestling.
_Missioner_: The qualifications are: A general elementary knowledge of
sick-nursing; invalid cookery, sick-room attendance, bed-making, and
ventilation. Ability to help aged and infirm.
_Musician_: A scout must be able to play a musical instrument
correctly other than triangle, and to read simple music. Or to play
properly any kind of musical toy, such as a penny whistle,
mouth-organ, etc., and sing a song.
_Pathfinder_: It is necessary to know every lane, by-path, and short
cut for a distance of at least two miles in every direction around the
local scouts' headquarters in the country, or for one mile if in a
town, and to have a general knowledge of the district within a
five-mile radius of his local headquarters, so as to be able to guide
people at any time, by day or night. To know the general direction of
the principal neighbouring towns for a distance of twenty-five miles,
and to be able to give strangers clear directions how to get to them.
To know, in the country, in the two-mile radius, generally, how many
hayricks, strawricks, wagons, horses, cattle, sheep and pigs there are
on the different neighbouring farms; or, in a town, to know in a
half-mile radius what livery stabling, corn chandlers, forage
merchants, bakers, butchers, there are. In town or country to know
where are the police stations, hospitals, doctors, telegraph,
telephone offices, fire engines, turncocks, blacksmiths and
job-masters or factories, where over a dozen horses are kept. To know
something of the history of the place, or of any old buildings, such
as the church, or other edifice. As much as possible of the above
information is to be entered on a large scale map.
_Photographer_: A scout must have a knowledge of the theory and use of
lenses, and the construction of cameras, action of developers. He must
take, develop and print twelve separate subjects, three interiors,
three portraits, three landscapes and three instantaneous photographs.
_Pioneer_: A scout must have extra efficiency in pioneering in the
following tests, or suitable equivalents: Fell a nine-inch tree or
scaffolding pole neatly and quickly. Tie eight kinds of knots quickly
in the dark or blindfolded. Lash spars properly together for
scaffolding. Build model bridge or derrick. Make a camp kitchen. Build
a hut of one kind or another suitable for three occupants.
_Piper_: A scout must be able to play a march and a reel on the pipes,
to dance the sword-dance, and must wear kilt and Highland dress.
_Plumber_: A scout must be able to make wiped and brazed joints, to
cut and fix a window pane, repair a burst pipe, mend a ball or faucet
tap, and understand the ordinary hot and cold water system of a house.
_Poultry Farmer_: A scout must have a good knowledge of incubators,
brooders, sanitary fowl-houses and coops and runs; also of rearing,
feeding, killing, and dressing birds for market; also he must be able
to pack birds and eggs for market.
_Printer_: A scout must know the names of different types and paper
sizes. Be able to compose by hand or machine, understand the use of
hand or power printing machines. He must also print a handbill set up
by himself.
_Seaman_: A scout must be able to tie eight knots rapidly in the dark
or blindfolded. Splice ropes, fling a rope coil. Row and punt a boat
single-handed, and punt with pole, or scull it over the stern. Steer a
boat rowed by others. Bring the boat properly alongside and make it
fast. Box the compass. Read a chart. State direction by the stars and
sun. Swim fifty yards with trousers, socks, and shirt on. Climb a rope
or pole of fifteen feet, or, as alternative, dance the hornpipe
correctly. Sew and darn a shirt and trousers. Understand the general
working of steam and hydraulic winches, and have a knowledge of
weather wisdom and knowledge of tides.
_Signaller_: A scout must pass tests in both sending and receiving in
semaphore and Morse signalling by flag, not fewer than twenty-four
letters per minute. He must be able to give and read signals by
sound. To make correct smoke and flame signals with fires. To show the
proper method of signalling with the staff.
_Stalker_: A scout must take a series of twenty photographs of wild
animals or birds from life, and develop and print them. Or,
alternately, he must make a collection of sixty species of wild
flowers, ferns, or grasses, dried and mounted in a book and correctly
named. Or, alternately, he must make coloured drawings of twenty
flowers, ferns or grasses, or twelve sketches from life of animals and
birds. Original sketches, as well as the finished pictures, to be
submitted. Or, alternately he must be able to name sixty different
kinds of animals, insects, reptiles, or birds in a museum or
zoological garden, or from unnamed coloured plates, and give
particulars of the lives, habits, appearance and markings of twenty of
them.
_Starman_: A scout must have a general knowledge of the nature and
movements of the stars. He must be able to point out and name six
principal constellations. Find the north by means of other stars than
the Pole Star in case of that star being obscured by clouds, etc., and
tell the hour of the night by the stars or moon. He must have a
general knowledge of the positions and movements of the earth, sun
and moon, and of tides, eclipses, meteors, comets, sun spots, planets.
_Surveyor_: A scout must map correctly, from the country itself, the
main features of a half a mile of road, with 440 yards each side, to a
scale of two feet to the mile, and afterward re-draw same map from
memory. Measure the heights of a tree, telegraph pole and church
steeple, describing method adopted. Measure width of a river, and
distance apart of two objects a known distance away and
unapproachable. Be able to measure a gradient, contours, conventional
signs of ordnance survey and scales.
_Swimming and Life Saving_: A scout must be able to dive and swim
fifty yards with clothes on (shirt, trousers, socks as minimum). Able
to fling and use life-line or life-buoy. Able to demonstrate two ways
of rescue of drowning person, and revival of apparently drowned.
THE PATROL
The simplest way to form a patrol of scouts is to call together a
small group of boys over twelve years of age. A simple recital of the
things that scouts do, with perhaps an opportunity to look over the
Manual, will be enough to launch the organization. The selection of a
patrol leader will then follow, and the scouting can begin. It is well
not to attempt too much at the start. Get the boys to start work to
pass the requirements for the tenderfoot.
_The Patrol Leader_: Each patrol should have a patrol
leader--preferably a boy. The choice of this leader has much to do
with the success of the patrol. He should be a recognized leader among
the boys in the group. Do not hesitate to entrust him with details.
Let him feel that he is your right-hand man. Ask his opinion on
matters pertaining to the patrol. Make him feel that the success of
the organization depends largely upon him, being careful, of course,
not to overdo it. You will find that this attitude will enlist the
hearty cooperation of the boy and you will find him an untiring
worker, with the ability to bind the boys closer together than you
could ever hope to do alone.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. Scouting does not consist in wearing a khaki suit or a lot of
decorations. It is in doing the things that are required for the
tenderfoot, second-class and first-class scout badges and the badges
of merit.
2. Scouts do not wish any one to buy things for them. They buy their
own equipment and pay their own way.
3. Scouts do their best to keep the scout oath and law.
4. The glory of scouting is "_to do a good turn to some one every day
without reward_."
5. Scouts regard the rights of others, and do not trespass on the
property or feelings of others.
6. Scouting means obedience and discipline. The boy who can't obey
will never command.
7. Scouts are always busy and getting fun out of it--at work, at
school, at home, at play. _Be a good scout._
HOW TO ORGANIZE A TROOP
_First_: Write to Headquarters, which is at 200 Fifth Avenue, New York
City, for a scout master's certificate.
_Second_: Either combine three or more patrols or having one patrol,
appoint several patrol leaders and enlist boys for the new patrols.
_Third_: The minimum number of patrols in a troop is three, and the
maximum the number a scout master can _rightly_ handle. Care should be
taken not to organize for the sake of a big showing.
_Hints on starting_: In actually starting a troop, it has been found
better to start in a small way. Begin by one or two leader-men making
a careful study of "Scouting for Boys" and as soon as the main ideas
have been grasped, get together a small number of boys, and go through
with them the initial stages step by step, until the boys bubble over
with scouting ideals, and until the notion of a fancy uniform and
games in the country have given place to a definite desire to qualify
for manhood and citizenship. These boys will make the nucleus round
which to form a troop, and should pass on their training and
enthusiasm to the boys who are enlisting under them. It has been found
better to obtain _distinctly older fellows for patrol leaders_: the
scout masters should invariably be men who feel the great
responsibility of having boys under their charge, and the possibility
of leading the boys from the moment when they enlist in the scouts to
the time they pass out again to be fully fledged men.
_Finances_: The finances necessary to run a troop of scouts should be
met by the scouts themselves. It is a main principle of scouting to
teach the boys to be self-reliant, and anything which will militate
against the constant sending round of the hat will be a national
good.
_The Scout Master_: The scout master is the adult leader of a troop.
The scout master may begin with one patrol. He must have a deep
interest in boys, be genuine in his own life, have the ability to lead
and command the boys' respect and obedience and possess some knowledge
of a boy's ways. He need not be an expert on scoutcraft. The good
scout master will discover experts for the various activities.
Applications for scout masters' certificates may be made at the
Headquarters, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
From the outset, the scout master must have the interest of each boy
at heart. He must not play favourites with any of the boys in his
patrol or troop. While there are sure to be boys in the group who will
develop more rapidly than others, and whose keenness will be sure to
call forth the admiration of the scout master, he should not permit
himself to be "carried away" by the achievements of these "star boys"
to such an extent that he will neglect the less aggressive boy. The
latter boy is the one who needs your attention most, and your interest
in him must be genuine. Every effort he makes, no matter how poor it
may be, should be commended just as heartily as the better
accomplishments of the more handy boy.
PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES FOR SCOUTS
1. _Scoutcraft_: Boy Scouts' organization, scout laws, discipline,
scouts' secret signs, badges, etc.
2. _Campaigning_: Camp life and resourcefulness. Hut and mat making.
Knots. Fire lighting. Cooking. Boat management. Judging distances,
heights and numbers. Swimming. Cycling. Finding the way.
SIGN POSTS
1. Do not have in the same patrol boys of great disparity in ages. For
instance, the boy of twelve should not be in the same group with the
sixteen-year-old boy, if it can possibly be avoided. You must remember
that in most cases the things that appeal to the younger boy will have
no attraction for the older boy.
2. Do not enroll boys under twelve. If you do you are certain to lose
your older boy. The movement is distinctly for boys of the adolescent
period and is designed to help them to rightly catch the spirit of
helpfulness.
3. Do not try to do everything yourself. Try to remember that the
boys are always willing and anxious to take hold. Let the boys
understand that the whole proposition is theirs. It is what they make
it. Your contract with them should be largely of a big brother nature.
4. Do not burden nor weary the boys with excessive military drills and
tactics. The movement is not a military one. The military virtues of
obedience, neatness, order, endurance and erect, alert bearing,
however, are scout virtues. Use everything that develops boys. This is
good scoutcraft.
5. Do not confine the activities of the patrols to things of one
character. Touch every activity as far as possible. Do not omit
anything. Get the proper agencies to cooperate with you for these
ends--a military man for signalling; a naturalist for woodcraft; a
physician for first aid, etc.
6. Do not permit the boys to fail in the proper keeping of the scout
oath and law.
7. Never fail to keep an engagement with your patrol or troop. If
something should delay your coming or should you find yourself unable
to keep an appointment with them, be sure to notify the patrol leaders
beforehand. It might be well to require the same of the boys.
8. A real danger point is the failure of a scout master to visit the
boys in their homes. Knowing the boys' parents means much, and their
cooperation will be much heartier when they know the man to whose care
they entrust their boy, after he has discussed with them the real
purpose of the scout movement.
9. Do not hesitate to give a boy a hard task, but not an impossible
one. A boy likes to do hard things.
10. Do not attempt right at the start to give the boy every bit of
detail regarding the activities of the troop. Work out the plans with
the boys from time to time, always reserving some things of interest
for the next meeting. Your attempt to give them everything at one time
will cause the whole proposition to assume the nature of a task
instead of pleasurable education, as was originally intended.
11. Hold frequent tests for advancement to the classes of scouthood.
Get your fellows to really win their badges.
12. As a scout master use good judgment. If there are other scout
masters in your town, or a scout council or local committee, cooperate
with these. To be a scout master, you must have the spirit of '76,
but be sure to work with others. The boys will benefit by the lesson.
THE SCOUTS' CAMP
To go camping should mean more than merely living under canvas away
from the piles of brick and stone that make up our cities. To be in
the open air, to breathe pure oxygen, to sleep upon "a bed of boughs
beside the trail," to look at the camp fire and the stars, and to hear
the whisper of the trees--all of this is good. But the camp offers a
better opportunity than this. It offers the finest method for a boy's
education. Between twelve and eighteen years the interests of a boy
are general ones, and reach from the catching of tadpoles and minnows
to finding God in the stars. His interests are the general mass
interests that are so abundant in nature, the activities that give the
country boy such an advantage for the real enjoyment of life over the
city lad. Two weeks or two months in camp, they are too valuable to be
wasted in loafing, cigarette smoking, card playing or shooting craps.
To make a camp a profitable thing there must needs be instruction; not
formal but _informal_ instruction. Scouting, nature study, scout law,
camp cooking, signalling, pioneering, path finding, sign reading,
stalking for camera purposes, knowledge of animals and plants, first
aid, life saving, manual work (making things), hygiene, sex
instruction, star gazing, discipline, knowing the rocks and trees, and
the ability to do for one's self, in order that a boy may grow strong,
self-reliant, and helpful. This is a partial list of the subject in
the camp curricula.
A model scout camp programme is given here. It takes eight days to
carry it out, but there is material enough to run ten times the number
of days specified.
A SIR R.S.S. BADEN-POWELL SCOUT CAMP MODEL PROGRAMME
_First Day_: Preliminary work: settling into camp, formation of
patrols, distribution of duties, orders, etc.
_Second Day_: Campaigning: camp resourcefulness, hut and mat making,
knots, fire lighting, cooking, health and sanitation, endurance,
finding way in strange country, and boat management.
_Third Day_: Observation: noticing and memorizing details far and
near, landmarks, tracking, deducing meaning from tracks and signs, and
training the eyesight.
_Fourth Day_: Woodcraft: study of animals, birds, plants and stars;
stalking animals, noticing people, reading their character and
condition, and thereby gaining their sympathy.
_Fifth Day_: Chivalry: honour, code of knights, unselfishness,
courage, charity and thrift; loyalty to God, country, parents and
employers, or officers; practical chivalry to women; the obligation to
do a "good turn" daily, and how to do it.
_Sixth Day_: Saving life: from fire, drowning, sewer gas, runaway
horses, panic, street accidents, improvised apparatus, and first aid.
_Seventh Day_: Patriotism: national geography, the history and deeds
that won our world power, the navy and army, flags, medals, duties of
a citizen, marksmanship, helping the police.
_Eighth Day_: A summary of the whole course: sports comprising games
and competitive practices in all subjects of the course.
CAMP ROUTINES
6.30 a.m. Turn out, bathe, etc.
7.00 " Breakfast
8.00 " Air bedding in sun if possible
9.00 " Scouting games and practice
11.00 " Swimming
12.00 m. Dinner
1.00 p.m. Talk by leader
2.00 " Water games, etc.
6.00 " Supper
7.30 " Evening council around camp fire
Order of business:
Opening council
Roll-call
Record of last council
Report of scouts
Left-over business
Complaints
Honours
New scouts
New business
Challenges
Social doings, songs, dances, stories
Closing council (devotional services when desired)
10.00 p.m. Lights out.
The father of scouting for boys in America, and in fact the
inspiration for the movement in England under Lieut-Gen. Sir Robert
S.S. Baden-Powell, K.C.B., is Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton, the
distinguished naturalist and nature student.
The official handbook of the organization may be obtained from
Doubleday, Page and Company, Garden City, N.Y., the publishers of this
book, or from the national headquarters of The Boy Scouts of America.
III
CAMPS AND CAMPING
How to select the best place and to pitch the tent--A brush bed--The
best kind of a tent--How to make the camp fire--What to do when it
rains--Fresh air and good food--The brush leanto and how to make it
Going camping is the best fun in the world if we know how to do it.
Every healthy boy and girl if given an opportunity should enjoy living
outdoors for a week or two and playing at being an Indian. There is
more to camping however than "roughing it" or seeing how much hardship
we can bear. A good camper always makes himself just as comfortable as
he can under the circumstances. The saying that "an army travels on
its stomach" means that a soldier can not make long marches or fight
hard unless he has good food. The surest sign of a "tenderfoot" is the
boy who makes fun of you because you try to have a soft dry bed while
he prefers to sleep on the ground under the mistaken idea that it is
manly or brave. He will usually spoil a trip in the woods for every
one in the party.
Another poor kind of a camper pitches his tent so that his bed gets
wet and his food spoiled on the first rainy day, and then sits around
cold and hungry trying hard to think that he is having fun, to keep
from getting homesick. This kind of a boy "locks the door after the
horse is stolen." If we go camping we must know how to prevent the
unpleasant things from happening. We must always be ready for wind and
rain, heat and cold. A camping party should make their plans a long
time ahead in order to get their equipment ready. Careful lists should
be made of what we think we shall need. After we are out in the woods,
there will be no chance to run around the corner to the grocer's to
supply what we have forgotten. If it is forgotten, we must simply make
the best of it and not allow it to spoil our trip.
It is surprising how many things that we think are almost necessary to
life we can get along without if we are obliged to. The true woodsman
knows how to turn to his use a thousand of nature's gifts and to make
himself comfortable, while you and I might stand terrified and
miserable under the same conditions.
Daniel Boone, the great wilderness traveller, could go out alone in
the untracked forest with nothing but his rifle, his axe and a small
pack on his back and by a knowledge of the stars, the rivers, the
trees and the wild animals, he could go for weeks travelling hundreds
of miles, building his bed and his leanto out of the evergreen boughs,
lighting his fire with his flint and steel, shooting game for his food
and dressing and curing their skins for his clothing and in a thousand
ways supplying his needs from nature's storehouse. The school of the
woods never sends out graduates. We may learn something new every day.
[Illustration: With a head shelter and a sleeping bag he can keep dry
and warm]
The average city boy or girl does not have an opportunity to become a
skilled master of woodcraft, but because we cannot learn it all is no
reason why we should not learn something. The best way to learn it is
in the woods themselves and not out of books.
A party of four boys makes a good number for a camping trip. They will
probably agree better than two or three. They can do much of the camp
work in pairs. No one need to be left alone to look after the camp
while the others go fishing or hunting or to some nearby town for the
mail or for supplies. There is no reason why four boys of fifteen who
are resourceful and careful cannot spend a week or two in the woods in
perfect safety and come back home sounder in mind and body than when
they left. It is always better to take along some one who has "camped
out" before. If he cannot be found, then make your plans, decide what
you will do and how you will do it, take a few cooking lessons from
mother or the cook--if the latter is good-natured--and go anyway.
First elect a leader, not because he is any more important than the
rest but because if some one goes ahead and gives directions, the life
in camp will run much more smoothly and every one will have a better
time.
If it is your first experience in camping, you had better go somewhere
near home. The best place is one that can be reached by wagon. If we
have to carry our supplies on our backs or in a canoe, the amount we
can take will be much less. After you have had some experience near
home you can safely try the other way. Where you go is of
comparatively little importance. Near every large city there is some
lake or river where you can find a good camping site. Campers always
have more fun if they are near some water, but if such a place is not
easily found near where you live, go into the woods. Try to get away
from towns or villages. The wilder the place is, the better.
You had better make sure of your camping ground before you go by
writing a letter to the owner of the land. It isn't much fun after we
have pitched the tent and made everything shipshape to have some angry
landowner come along and order us off because we are trespassers.
In selecting a place to camp, there are several very important things
to look out for.
1. Be sure you are near a supply of drinking water. A spring or a
brook is best, but even the lake or river will do if the water is pure
and clean. The water at the bottom of a lake is always much colder and
cleaner than the surface water. When I was a boy, I used a simple
device for getting cold water which some of you may like to copy. I
took an old-fashioned jug and fastened a strong string to the handle
and also fastened this string to the cork of the jug as the drawing
shows. The jug was weighted so that it would sink, by means of a piece
of stone tied to the handle. We used to go out to the middle of the
lake where the water was the deepest and lower the jug over the side
of a boat. When it reached bottom we would give the string a sharp tug
and thus pull out the cork. The bubbles coming to the surface showed
us when the jug was full. We then hauled it on board and had clear,
cold, drinking water from a lake that on the surface was warm enough
for swimming.
[Illustration: The jug by which we obtained pure, cold water]
2. The next important thing in selecting a camp is being near a supply
of firewood. A week in camp will consume an amazing amount of wood,
especially if we have a camp fire at night to sit around and sing and
tell stories before turning in. In most sections there is plenty of
dead wood that we can use for camp fires. This does not mean a lot of
twigs and brush. There is no use trying to go camping unless some one
knows how to use an axe. In another chapter I will tell you something
about the proper use of axes and hatchets. For the present it is
sufficient to say that an excellent place to practise handling an axe
is on the family woodpile. You will thus combine business and
pleasure, and your efforts will be appreciated by your family, which
would not be the case if, like George Washington, you began your
lessons in woodcraft on the favourite cherry tree.
Almost any kind of wood will burn when it is dry, but it takes
experience to know the kinds of trees that will burn when they are
green. If there is no dry wood in the neighbourhood, and we are
obliged to cut a tree down to get our supply, it is very important to
pitch our camp somewhere near the right kind of a tree and not be
obliged to carry our firewood a long distance. The best "green wood"
for the campers' fire is hickory, although birch is excellent. Hickory
is also the best dry wood. Other trees that will burn well when green
are cedar, white ash, locust or white oak. There are comparatively few
places, however, where dry wood is not available and of course it is
always best to avoid such a place.
3. The camp site should be in a fairly open spot. Thick woods and
underbrush are either hot or "damp" cool. If you can find a site that
is shaded during the heat of the day so much the better. It is unwise
to pitch the tent under a tree that stands alone on account of
possible danger from lightning. If your tent is shaded by a tree be
sure there are no dead limbs to blow off and wreck it during a storm.
Be sure that the drainage is good, so that in case of heavy rains, the
water will run off and not flood the camp. It is very important if
your camp is along some river or stream to be high enough to avoid the
danger of sudden floods. This can usually be determined by talking to
some one who knows the country. You can also tell it by studying the
previous high water marks in the trees. In case of floods there are
always some wisps of straw, pieces of brush, etc., caught and held by
the limbs of trees after the water settles back to its former level.
It is a good chance to practise your woodcraft by trying to find them.
Damp locations are very bad. The higher we can get, the drier it will
be. We avoid both fogs and mosquitoes. Usually there is some prominent
place that will give us a good outlook and where the breezes can reach
us.
There are both good and bad points in pitching our tent on the site of
a former camp. As long as the former campers have not scoured the
surrounding neighbourhood for firewood nor have left a place littered
up with all sorts of rubbish and garbage to draw flies and vermin,
they may have fixed up things around the camp site to save us work and
to add to our comfort and pleasure. Each case will have to be decided
on its own merits.
[Illustration: A wall tent]
The three important things then are the water supply, the firewood
supply, and good drainage.
Next in importance to the camp site is the outfit, and the most
important thing is the tent. For a party of four boys on their first
camping trip, the best kind will be a wall tent. A tent, 11 x 14 feet
will be large enough to provide sleeping quarters and to have every
one comfortable. A simple shelter of canvas outside can be provided
as a dining-room but this is more of a luxury than a real necessity.
Canvas or duck is the common material from which tents are made. The
standard eight-ounce khaki duck used in the United States army will,
for this size tent, cost about twenty dollars. This will include a
fly, which is merely a second roof to the tent. The best material for
tents is balloon silk. It is much more waterproof than canvas and only
weighs a quarter as much. It is also much more expensive. A tent can
be made at home, which is of course the cheaper way. They can also be
hired from previous campers or from some awning maker who is also
usually a tent maker.
A canvas tent without a fly will leak in a rain storm if the roof is
touched on the inside either by our hands or our clothing. It may be
made partially waterproof by a coating of paraffine which has been
previously dissolved in turpentine. The simplest and at the same time
the warmest tent for an experienced camper who knows the tricks of the
trade is a leanto tent, one with one side entirely open, in front of
which a blazing fire may be kept burning. This is hardly adapted for
boys on their first trip, however.
Another very good and very simple tent is the "A" tent used in the
army. This looks like a "V" turned upside down. We can pitch it
without the aid of tent poles by simply hanging it be ween two trees
to which a rope has been stretched.
[Illustration: An "A" tent]
The Hudson Bay tent, trapper's tent, forester's tent, canoe tent, and
a dozen others, including an Indian tepee and wigwam, are all good
tents for special purposes. The pictures show the different styles and
all of them are designed for special uses, either for warmth or
lightness in carrying or ease in pitching. If we go camping in summer
and can have our equipment or "duffle," as the woodsmen call it,
carried by team, the wall tent will be the best one to take.
Tent pegs can always be cut in the woods, but it is far more
satisfactory to get them ready at home before we leave. If you do cut
your own pegs, select hardwood saplings to make them from and to
further harden the points, char them slightly in a fire. If you spend
a few winter evenings at home making the pegs, it will save you a lot
of time and trouble when you reach the camping ground. The best pegs
are made of iron or steel. This is especially true when the ground
where they are to be driven is hard or rocky, which is usually the
case. Steel tent pins may be bought for six cents apiece or possibly
the local blacksmith will make them for less. They should be a foot
long.
A sod cloth is a strip of canvas eight or ten inches wide fastened to
the bottom of the tent wall. Its purpose is to keep the wind and rain
from blowing under the tent. After the tent is pitched a ditch should
be dug all around it to catch the rain and carry it away. The earth
that is dug from this trench may be thrown on the sod cloth to hold it
down.
It is an excellent idea, if you are a beginner, to practise pitching
the tent at home so that you will understand it better when you are in
the woods. Besides this, you can try sleeping out a night or two to
see how you are going to like it.
[Illustration: A trapper's tent]
When you reach your camping place, the first step is to clear the
ground of all rubbish, loose stones, sticks and brush to have a clean
floor. Then unpack the tent and fit the pegs of the two upright poles
through the two holes in the ridge pole. Next raise the tent and peg
the guy ropes on the four corners first. A little practice will show
you how to do this. After all the ropes are pegged at a proper
distance from the tent, they should be tightened and the tent made
secure.
Always plan to have a full four hours of daylight to make your camp
ready. If the drive is a long one and you are obliged to get up very
early in the morning, you will have to do it, that is all. I made my
first camping trip when I was twelve years old. We had just reached
the camping ground, unloaded our kit and sent the team home that
brought us when--bang! over the mountain across the lake from where we
were going to camp, a terrific thunder shower came up and in a few
minutes it was pouring. There was our whole outfit--tent, bedding and
food--getting soaked because, instead of hurrying along during the
day, we had fooled away our time trying to catch fish in wayside
brooks that had never seen a fish and not realizing how important it
is to make haste as well as hay while the sun shines.
[Illustration: An Indian tepee]
We quickly pitched the tent, not as it should have been pitched, but
in a heap over the rest of our goods to keep out as much water as
possible and then ran for a nearby barn where we spent a cold hungry
night, wetter but wiser. The next day, out came the sun and dried our
things, but if the rain had continued we certainly should have been
obliged to go home or at least to a farmhouse to stay until the
weather cleared. We soon forgot our unpleasant experience but we have
not forgotten the lesson it taught--and that is not to waste time
along the road when there is work to be done at the journey's end.
Next to a good tent, the most important thing for the camper is a good
bed. It is even more important than good food because if we sleep
well, hunger will furnish the sauce for our grub, but if we spend the
night trying to dodge some root or rock that is boring into our back
and that we hardly felt when we turned in but which grew to an
enormous size in our imagination before morning, we will be half sick
and soon get enough of being an Indian. A canvas cot makes the best
camp bed if it can be taken along conveniently. There is one important
thing to look out for in sleeping on a cot. In my first experience of
the kind, I nearly froze. I kept piling things on me until all my
clothing, and even the camp towels and table-cloth were pressed into
service and was thinking about pulling some dry grass to pile on the
rest of the stuff. Still I shivered until I discovered that the cold
was coming up from underneath because there was nothing to keep it out
but the single thickness of canvas. When I put one of my blankets
under me, I was as warm as toast.
Very often it is impossible to carry cots on a trip, and that is
where a knowledge of woodcraft comes in. The softest, sweetest,
downiest bed in the world can be made with no other materials but
those which grow in the forest--if we know how. At least the tired
camper will think it is soft and will sleep on it like a top and wake
up refreshed in the morning. Perhaps if we had our choice we would
prefer our own bed at home, but in the woods we do not have this
choice. Most people call this a bed of "pine boughs."
[Illustration: How the bough bed is made]
Why I do not know as it never should be made of pine under any
circumstances. The best wood for the bough bed is balsam. If this does
not grow in the neighbourhood, hemlock, spruce, or even cedar will do.
To make a bough bed properly means a lot of work. The first step is to
cut four straight sticks. The side pieces should be six feet and a
half long and the end pieces three feet and a half. They should be
notched on the ends with an axe and either nailed or tied together
from saplings or from a tree that you have felled. Small balsam boughs
should be broken off with the fingers and laid one on the other until
the whole bed is filled with them. On this, the rubber blanket or
poncho should be spread and the blankets over all. All the boughs
should be shingled with the stems down to keep them in the best
condition. This kind of a bed will require remaking every day.
A better bed for the boy camper is made as follows: Take a piece of
heavy bed ticking and sew it into a bag about three feet by six feet.
When you reach camp you can make a regular mattress by filling it with
whatever material is most easily found. Dry leaves? grass, hay, even
moss or wet filler can be used if nothing dry can be found, but in
this case the rubber blanket will be an absolute necessity. Of course
it is much better to use some dry material.
Be sure to have a comfortable bed. No matter what ideas you may have
about cowboys and soldiers rolling up in their blankets and snatching
a few hours' sleep under the stars by lying on the bare ground, a boy
who is used to a good bed at home will never have much fun out of a
camping trip if he tries to sleep on the ground with a rock for his
pillow.
For a summer camping trip, one blanket is enough. You must learn to
roll up in it. Lie flat on your back and cover the blanket over you.
Then raise up your legs and tuck it under first on one side and then
the other. The rest is easy. This beats trying to "roll up" in it,
actually. The common summer blankets used at home are not much use for
the camper. These are usually all cotton. A camper's blanket should be
all wool. You can buy a standard U.S. Army blanket, size 66 x 84
inches, for five dollars. They can often be purchased in stores that
deal in second hand army supplies for much less and are just as good
as new except for some slight stain or defect.
A sleeping bag is expensive but is excellent for cold weather camping.
It is much too hot for the boy camper in summer.
Do not sleep in your clothing. Unless it is too cold, undress, about
as you do at home. If the blanket feels tickly, it would not be a
great crime, no matter what the tenderfoot says who wanted you to
sleep on the ground, to take along a sheet. I have never done this,
however.
At the end of this chapter, you will find a list of things to take
with you.
The camp fire and the cooking fire should be separate. Almost any one
can kindle a fire with dry materials. It takes a woodman to build a
fire when it has been raining and everything is wet. The boy's method
of taking a few newspapers, and a handful of brush or leaves will not
do.
First look around for an old dead top of a pine or cedar. If you
cannot find one, chop down a cedar tree. Whittle a handful of
splinters and shavings from the dry heart. Try to find the lee side of
a rock or log where the wind and rain do not beat in. First put down
the shavings or some dry birch bark if you can find it, and shelter it
as well as you can from the rain. Pile up some larger splinters of
wood over the kindling material like an Indian's wigwam. Then light it
and give it a chance to get into a good blaze before you pile on any
larger wood and put the whole fire out. It sounds easy but before you
try it in the woods I advise you to select the first rainy day and go
out near home and experiment.
To make a fire that will burn in front of the tent all night, first
drive two green stakes into the ground at a slant and about five feet
apart. Then lay two big logs one on each side of a stake to serve as
andirons. Build a fire between these logs and pile up a row of logs
above the fire and leaning against the stakes. You may have to brace
the stakes with two others which should have a forked end. When the
lower log burns out the next one will drop down in its place and
unless you have soft, poor wood the fire should burn for ten hours.
With this kind of a fire and with a leanto, it is possible to keep
warm in the woods, on the coldest, night in winter.
[Illustration: The frame for a brush leanto]
This is the way to build a brush leanto: First cut two sticks and
drive them into the ground. They should have a point on one end and a
fork on the other. Lay a stout pole across the two forks like a gypsy
fire rig. Then lean poles against the crosspiece and finally thatch
the roof with spruce, hemlock or other boughs and pile up boughs for
the sides. A brush camp is only a makeshift arrangement and is never
weather proof. It is simply a temporary shelter which with the
all-night fire burning in front will keep a man from freezing to death
in the woods. Any kind of a tent is better or even a piece of canvas
or a blanket for the roof of the leanto will be better than the roof
of boughs. Be careful not to set the leanto on fire with the sparks
from your camp fire.
Mosquitoes have probably spoiled more camping trips that any other one
thing. The best tents have mosquito net or cheese cloth fronts which
may be held close to the ground by a stick on the bottom. Perhaps the
easiest way to secure protection is for each boy to take along a few
yards of cotton mosquito netting and by means of curved sticks build a
canopy over his bed.
A smoky fire called a "smudge" will sometimes keep the pests away from
the neighbourhood of the tent or if we build it in the tent will drive
them out, but the remedy is almost as bad as the disease. As a rule
they will only be troublesome at night and the net over our bed will
enable us to sleep in peace.
The most common "dope" used in the woods to keep off mosquitoes is
called oil of citronella. It has a very pungent odour that the
mosquitoes do not like and the chances are that you will not like it
either. At the same time it may be a good plan to take a small bottle
along.
You may safely count on finding mosquitoes, no matter where you go or
what the people tell you who live there. Perhaps they have never tried
sleeping in the woods and do not know. Be sure therefore to take
along some netting or cheese cloth to protect yourself against them.
Everything that you can do at home to get ready for your camping trip
will add to your pleasure when you get out in the woods. If any part
of your kit needs fixing, fishing rods wound or varnished, your
jackknife ground, your camera fixed, or if your clothing needs any
patches or buttons, do it at home.
No one ever does half that he plans to on a trip like this unless he
does not plan to do anything. Take along a few books to read for the
rainy days and have them covered with muslin if you ever expect to put
them back into your library.
If you have been putting off a visit to the dentist, by all means do
it before you get out where there are no dentists. An aching tooth can
spoil a vacation in the woods about as easily as anything I know of.
As a final word of advice to the beginner in camping, let me tell you
a few things that my own experience has taught me.
A felt hat is better than a cap as it is sun and rain proof.
Wear a flannel shirt and take one extra one. You can wash one and wear
the other. Be sure to have a new shirt plenty loose in the neck as
camp washing in cold water will make it shrink. Do not go around in
gymnasium shirts or sleeveless jerseys. One of my companions did this
once and was so terribly sunburned that his whole trip was spoiled.
Two sets of underwear are plenty, including the one you wear.
Take along a silk handkerchief to wear around your neck.
Wear comfortable shoes. A camping trip is a poor place to break in new
hunting boots or shoes.
Take bandanna handkerchiefs and leave your linen ones at home.
If you have to choose between a coat and a sweater take the sweater
and leave the coat at home. A coat is out of place in the woods.
Khaki or canvas trousers are excellent. So are corduroy. An old pair
of woollen trousers are just as good as either.
A poncho is almost necessary to your comfort. It is merely a rubber or
oilskin piece with a slit in it to put your head through. The right
size is 66 x 90 inches. With it you can keep dry day or night, either
using it as a garment or as a cover. When you are not using it you can
cover it over your bed or food supply.
Take along a good pocket knife and compass. Better leave the revolver
home. Also always carry a waterproof box of matches.
You will require some kind of a waterproof "duffle" bag to carry your
personal things--tooth brush, extra clothing, mirror, fishing tackle,
towel, soap, medicine, in fact whatever you think you will need. If it
is your first camping trip you will come home without having had any
use whatever for more than half the things you take. That is the
experience of every one, so do not become discouraged.
If you camp within reach of a post-office, address some stamped
envelopes to your home in ink before you leave. Then you will have no
excuse for not writing a letter home.
You can make an excellent pillow by rolling up your trousers. Be sure
to take everything out of the pockets first, including your knife, and
roll them with the top inside so that the buttons or your belt buckle
will not bore into your ear.
If you fall overboard and come ashore to dry out, stuff your shoes
full of dry grass or old paper to keep them from shrinking. When they
are dry, soften them with tallow or oil. Every one who goes camping at
some time or other gets wet. The only advice I can give you is to get
dry again as soon as possible. As long as you keep moving it will
probably not injure you. Waterproof garments are of little use in the
woods. They are always too warm for summer wear and by holding the
perspiration, are more of an injury than a benefit.
Never wear rubber boots in the woods or you will surely take cold.
Better have wet feet. The best foot wear is moccasins. If you wear
them see that they are several sizes too large and wear at least two
pairs of heavy woollen stockings with them.
IV
CAMP COOKING
How to make the camp fire range--Bread bakers--Cooking utensils--The
grub list--Simple camp recipes
Most boys, and I regret to say a few girls too, nowadays, seem to
regard a knowledge of cooking as something to be ashamed of. The boy
who expects to do much camping or who ever expects to take care of
himself out in the woods had better get this idea out of his head just
as soon as possible. Cooking in a modern kitchen has been reduced to a
science, but the boy or man who can prepare a good meal with little
but nature's storehouse to draw on and who can make an oven that will
bake bread that is fit to eat, with the nearest range fifty miles
away, has learned something that his mother or sister cannot do and
something that he should be very proud of. Camp cooking is an art and
to become an expert is the principal thing in woodcraft--nothing else
is so important.
We often hear how good the things taste that have been cooked over the
camp fire. Perhaps a good healthy appetite has something to do with
it, but it is pretty hard even for a hungry boy to relish half-baked,
soggy bread or biscuits that are more suitable for fishing sinkers
than for human food. A party without a good cook is usually ready to
break camp long before the time is up, and they are lucky if the
doctor is not called in as soon as they get home.
There is really no need for poor food in the woods. Very few woodsmen
are good cooks simply because they will not learn. The camp cook
always has the best fun. Every one is ready to wait on him _"if he
will only, please get dinner ready"_
One year when I was camping at the head of Moosehead Lake in Maine, I
had a guide to whom I paid three dollars a day. He cooked and I got
the firewood, cleaned the fish and did the chores around camp. His
cooking was so poor that the food I was forced to eat was really
spoiling my trip. One day I suggested that we take turns cooking, and
in place of the black muddy coffee, greasy fish and soggy biscuit, I
made some Johnny cake, boiled a little rice and raisins and baked a
fish for a change instead of frying it. His turn to cook never came
again. He suggested himself that he would be woodchopper and scullion
and let me do the cooking. I readily agreed and found that it was
only half as much work as being the handy man.
The basis of camp cooking is the fire. It is the surest way to tell
whether the cook knows his business or not. The beginner always starts
with a fire hot enough to roast an ox and just before he begins
cooking piles on more wood. Then when everything is sizzling and
red-hot, including the handles of all his cooking utensils, he is
ready to begin the preparation of the meal. A cloud of smoke follows
him around the fire with every shift of the wind. Occasionally he will
rush in through the smoke to turn the meat or stir the porridge and
rush out again puffing and gasping for breath, his eyes watery and
blinded and his fingers scorched almost like a fireman coming out of a
burning building where he has gone to rescue some child. The chances
are, if this kind of a cook takes hold of the handle of a hot frying
pan, pan and contents will be dumped in a heap into the fire to
further add to the smoke and blaze.
When the old hand begins to cook, he first takes out of the fire the
unburned pieces and blazing sticks, leaving a bed of glowing coals to
which he can easily add a little wood, if the fire gets low and a
watched pot refuses to boil to his satisfaction. When the fire is
simply a mass of red coals he quietly goes to cooking, and if his fire
has been well made and of the right kind of wood, the embers will
continue to glow and give out heat for an hour.
Of course, if the cooking consists in boiling water for some purpose,
there is no particular objection to a hot fire, the fire above
described is for broiling, frying and working around generally.
[Illustration: A type of camp fire that will burn all night]
There are all sorts of camp fireplaces. The quickest one to build and
one of the best as well, is the "hunter's fire," All you need is an
axe. Take two green logs about six to eight inches thick and five feet
long and lay them six inches apart at one end and about fourteen
inches at the other. Be sure that the logs are straight. It is a good
plan to flatten the surface slightly on one side with the axe to
furnish a better resting place for the pots and pans. If the logs roll
or seem insecure, make a shallow trench to hold them or wedge them
with flat stones. The surest way to hold them in place is to drive
stakes at each end. Build your fire between the logs and build up a
cob house of firewood. Split wood will burn much more quickly than
round sticks. As the blazing embers fall between the logs, keep adding
more wood. Do not get the fire outside of the logs. The object is to
get a bed of glowing coals between them. When you are ready to begin
cooking, take out the smoky, burning pieces and leave a bed of red-hot
coals. If you have no axe and can find no logs, a somewhat similar
fireplace can be built up of flat stones, but be sure that your stone
fireplace will not topple over just at the critical time.
If you only have your jack-knife, the best fire is a "Gypsy Rig". Cut
two crotched sticks, drive them into the ground and lay a crosspiece
on them just as you would begin to build the leanto described in the
preceding chapter, but of course not so high above the ground. The
kettles and pots can be hung from the crossbar by means of pot hooks,
which are pieces of wood or wire shaped like a letter "S." Even
straight sticks will do with two nails driven into them. These should
be of different lengths to adjust the pots at various heights above
the fire, depending on whether you wish to boil something furiously or
merely to let it simmer. Do not suspend the kettles by running the bar
through them. This is very amateurish. With a gypsy fire, the frying
pan, coffee pot and gridiron will have to be set right on the bed of
coals.
An arrangement for camp fires that is better and less work than the
logs is obtained by using fire irons, which are two flat pieces of
iron a yard or so long resting on stones and with the fire built
underneath.
The whole object of either logs or irons is to furnish a secure
resting place for cooking utensils above the fire.
There are several kinds of ovens used for baking bread and roasting
meat in outdoor life. The simplest way is to prop a frying pan up in
front of the fire. This is not the best way but you will have to do it
if you are travelling light. A reflector, when made of sheet iron or
aluminum is the best camp oven. Tin is not so satisfactory because it
will not reflect the heat equally. Both the top and bottom of the
reflector oven are on a slope and midway between is a steel baking pan
held in place by grooves. This oven can be moved about at will to
regulate the amount of heat and furthermore it can be used in front of
a blazing fire without waiting for a bed of coals. Such a rig can
easily be made by any tinsmith. A very convenient folding reflector
oven can be bought in aluminum for three or four dollars. When not
used for baking, it makes an excellent dishpan.
[Illustration: A reflector camp oven]
The standard camp oven that has been used by generations of pioneers
and campers is the Dutch oven. It is simply an iron pot on short legs
and is provided with a heavy cover. To use it, dig a hole in the
ground large enough to hold it, build a fire and fill the hole with
embers. Then scoop out a place for the pot, cover it over with more
embers and ashes and let the contents bake.
For the boy who wants to go to the limit in depending on his own
resources, the clay oven is the nearest to real woodcraft. This is
made in the side of a bank by burrowing out a hole, with a smoke
outlet in the rear. A hot fire built inside will bake the clay and
hold it together. To use this oven, build a fire in it and when the
oven is hot, rake out the coals and put in your bread or meat on flat
stones. Close the opening with another stone and keep it closed long
enough to give the oven a chance. This method is not recommended to
beginners who are obliged to eat what they cook, but in the hands of a
real cook, will give splendid results. The reflector oven is the best
for most cases if you can carry it conveniently.
The kind of a cooking equipment that we take with us on a camping trip
will depend on what we can carry conveniently, how much we are willing
to rough it and what our stock of provisions will be. One thing is
sure--the things that we borrow from home will rarely be fit to
return. In making a raid on the family kitchen, better warn the folks
that they are _giving_ us the pots and pans instead of merely
_lending_ them. Very compact cooking outfits can be bought if one
cares to go to the expense. An aluminum cook kit for four people, so
made that the various articles nest one into the other, can be bought
for fifteen dollars. It weighs only ten pounds and takes up a space
of 10 x 12 inches. Such a kit is very convenient if we move camp
frequently or have to carry our outfit with us, but for the party of
boys going out by team it is not worth the expense. You will need
several tin pails, two iron pots, a miner's coffee pot--all in one
piece including the lip--two frying pans, possibly a double boiler for
oatmeal and other cooked cereals, iron spoon, large knife, vegetable
knife, iron fork and broiler. A number of odds and ends will come in
handy, especially tin plates to put things on. Take no crockery or
glassware. It will be sure to be broken. Do not forget a can opener.
Camp fire utensils should never be soldered. Either seamless ware or
riveted joints are the only safe kind. Solder is sure to melt over a
hot open fire.
The personal equipment for each boy should be tin cup, knife, fork,
and spoons, deep tin plate, extra plate and perhaps one extra set of
everything for company if they should happen to drop in. A lot of dish
washing can be avoided if we use paper or wooden plates and burn them
up after the meal.
The main question is "What shall we take to eat." A list of food or as
it is commonly known "the grub list" is a subject that will have to be
decided by the party themselves. I will give you a list that will
keep four hungry boys from staying hungry for a trip of two weeks and
leave something over to bring home. If the list does not suit you
exactly you can substitute or add other things. It is an excellent
plan for the party to take a few home cooked things to get started on,
a piece of roasted meat, a dish of baked beans, some crullers, cookies
or ginger snaps. We must also consider whether we shall get any fish
or game. If fishing is good, the amount of meat we take can be greatly
cut down.
This list has been calculated to supply a party who are willing to eat
camp fare and who do not expect to be able to buy bread, milk, eggs or
butter. If you can get these things nearby, then camping is but little
different from eating at home.
GRUB LIST
Ten lbs. bacon, half a ham, 4 cans corned beef, 2 lbs. cheese, 3 lbs.
lard, 8 cans condensed milk, 8 lbs. hard tack, 10 packages soda
crackers, 6 packages sweet crackers, 12-1/2 lbs. of wheat flour,
12-1/2 lbs. of yellow cornmeal, can baking powder, 1/2 bushel
potatoes, 1 peck onions, 3 lbs. ground coffee, 1/2 lb. tea, sack salt,
7 lbs. granulated sugar, 3 packages prepared griddle cake flour, 4
packages assorted cereals, including oatmeal, 4 lbs. rice, dried
fruits, canned corn, peas, beans, canned baked beans, salmon,
tomatoes, sweetmeats and whatever else you like.
Be sure to take along plenty of tin boxes or tight wooden boxes to
keep rain and vermin away from the food. Tell your grocer to pack the
stuff for a camping trip and to put the perishable things in tight
boxes as far as possible.
If you are going to move camp, have some waterproof bags for the
flour. If you can carry eggs and butter, so much the better. A tin
cracker box buried in the mud along some cold brook or spring makes an
excellent camper's refrigerator especially if it is in the shade.
Never leave the food exposed around camp. As soon as the cook is
through with it let some one put it away in its proper place where the
flies, ants, birds, sun, dust, and rain cannot get at it.
Always examine food before you cook it. Take nothing for granted. Once
when camping the camp cook for breakfast made a huge pot of a certain
brand of breakfast food. We were all tucking it away as only hungry
boys can, when some one complained that caterpillars were dropping
from the tree into his bowl. We shifted our seats--and ate some more,
and then made the astonishing discovery that the breakfast food was
full of worms. We looked at the package and found that the grocers had
palmed off some stale goods on us and that the box was fairly alive.
We all enjoy the recollection of it more than we did the actual
experience.
It is impossible in a book of this kind to say very much about how to
cook. That subject alone has filled some very large books. We can
learn some things at home provided that we can duplicate the
conditions in the woods. So many home recipes contain eggs, milk and
butter that they are not much use when we have none of the three.
There is a book in my library entitled "One Hundred Ways to Cook Eggs"
but it would not do a boy much good in the woods unless he had the
eggs. If you ask your mother or the cook to tell you how to raise
bread or make pies and cakes, be sure that you will have the same
ingredients and tools to work with that she has.
It might be well to learn a few simple things about frying and
boiling, as both of these things can be done even by a beginner over
the camp fire. There are a few general cooking rules that I will
attempt to give you and leave the rest for you to learn from
experience.
You use bacon in the woods to furnish grease in the frying pan for
the things that are not fat enough themselves to furnish their own
grease.
Condensed milk if thinned with water makes a good substitute for sweet
milk, after you get used to it.
To make coffee, allow a tablespoonful of ground coffee to each cup of
water. Better measure both things until you learn just how full of
water to fill the pot to satisfy the wants of your party. Do not boil
coffee furiously. The best way is not to boil it at all but that would
be almost like telling a boy not to go swimming. Better let it simmer
and when you are ready for it, pour in a dash of cold water to settle
the grounds and see that no one shakes the pot afterward to stir up
grounds--and trouble.
A teaspoonful of tea is enough for two people. This you must not boil
unless you want to tan your stomach. Pour boiling water on the tea and
let it steep.
Good camp bread can be made from white flour, one cup; salt, one
teaspoonful; sugar, one teaspoonful and baking powder, one
teaspoonful. Wet with water or better with diluted condensed milk.
Pour in a greased pan and bake in the reflector oven until when you
test it by sticking a wooden splinter into it, the splinter will come
out clean without any dough adhering to it.
If you want to make the kind of bread that has been the standard
ration for campers for hundreds of years you must eat johnny-cake or
pone. It is really plain corn bread. Personally I like it better than
any of the raised breads or prepared flours that are used in the
woods. It should always be eaten hot and always broken by the hands.
To cut it with a knife will make it heavy. The ingredients are simply
one quart of yellow meal, one teaspoonful of salt and three cups--one
and one-half pints--of warm water. Stir until the batter is light and
bake for a short hour. Test it with the wooden splinter the same as
wheat bread. It may be baked in an open fire on a piece of flat wood
or by rolling up balls of it, you can even roast it in the ashes. A
teaspoonful of sugar improves it somewhat and it can be converted into
cake by adding raisins or huckleberries. For your butter, you will use
bacon grease or gravy.
Indian meal, next to bacon, is the camper's stand-by. In addition to
the johnny-cake, you can boil it up as mush and eat with syrup or
condensed milk and by slicing up the cold mush, if there is any left,
you can fry it next day in a spider.
The beginner at cooking always makes the mistake of thinking that to
cook properly you must cook fast. The more the grease sputters or the
harder the pot boils, the better. As a rule, rapid boiling of meat
makes it tough. Game and fish should be put on in cold water and after
the water has boiled, be set back and allowed to simmer. Do not throw
away the water you boil meat in. It will make good soup--unless every
one in camp has taken a hand at salting the meat, as is often the
case.
All green vegetables should be crisp and firm when they are cooked. If
they have been around camp for several days and have lost their
freshness, first soak them in cold water. A piece of pork cooked with
beans and peas will give them a richer flavour. The water that is on
canned vegetables should be poured off before cooking. Canned tomatoes
are an exception to this rule, however.
Save all the leftovers. If you do not know what else to do with them,
make a stew or soup. You can make soup of almost anything. The Chinese
use birds' nests and the Eskimos can make soup of old shoes. A very
palatable soup can be made from various kinds of vegetables with a few
bones or extract of beef added for body.
The length of time to cook things is the most troublesome thing to
the beginner. Nearly everything will take longer than you think.
Oatmeal is one of the things that every beginner is apt to burn, hence
the value of the double boiler.
Rice is one of the best camp foods if well cooked. It can be used in a
great variety of ways like cornmeal. But beware! There is nothing in
the whole list of human food that has quite the swelling power of
rice. Half a teacupful will soon swell up to fill the pot. A
tablespoonful to a person will be an ample allowance and then, unless
you have a good size pot to boil it in, have some one standing by
ready with an extra pan to catch the surplus when it begins to swell.
There are certain general rules for cooking which may help the
beginner although they are not absolute.
Mutton, beef, lamb, venison, chicken, and large birds or fish will
require from ten to twenty minutes' cooking for each pound of weight.
The principal value of this is to at least be sure that you need not
test a five-pound chicken after it has been cooking fifteen minutes to
see if it is done.
Peas, beans, potatoes, corn, onions, rice, turnips, beets, cabbage,
and macaroni should, when boiled, be done in from twenty to thirty
minutes. The surest test is to taste them. They will be burned in
that many seconds, if you allow the water to boil off or put them in
the middle of a smoky fire where they cannot be watched.
Fried things are the easiest to cook because you can tell when they
are done more easily. Fried food however is always objectionable and
as little of it should be eaten as possible. You are not much of a
camp cook if a frying pan is your only tool.
A bottle of catsup or some pickles will often give just the right
taste to things that otherwise seem to be lacking in flavour.
In frying fish, always have the pan piping hot. Test the grease by
dropping in a bread crumb. It should quickly turn brown. "Piping hot"
does not mean smoking or grease on fire. Dry the fish thoroughly with
a towel before putting them into the pan. Then they will be crisp and
flaky instead of grease-soaked. The same rule is true of potatoes. If
you put the latter on brown butcher's paper when they are done, they
will be greatly improved.
Nearly every camper will start to do things away from home that he
would never think of doing under his own roof. One of these is to
drink great quantities of strong coffee three times a day. If you find
that after you turn in for the night, you are lying awake for a long
time watching the stars and listening to the fish splashing in the
lake or the hoot owl mournfully "too-hooing" far off in the woods, do
not blame your bed or commence to wonder if you are not getting sick.
Just cut out the coffee, that's all.
V
WOODCRAFT
The use of an axe and hatchet--Best woods for special purposes--What
to do when you are lost--Nature's compasses
The word "woodcraft" simply means skill in anything which pertains to
the woods. The boy who can read and understand nature's signboards,
who knows the names of the various trees and can tell which are best
adapted to certain purposes, what berries and roots are edible, the
habits of game and the best way to trap or capture them, in short the
boy that knows how to get along without the conveniences of
civilization and is self-reliant and manly, is a student of woodcraft.
No one can hope to become a master woodsman. What he learns in one
section may be of little value in some other part of the country.
A guide from Maine or Canada might be comparatively helpless in
Florida or the Tropics, where the vegetation, wild animal life, and
customs of the woods are entirely different. Most of us are hopeless
tenderfeet anywhere, just like landlubbers on shipboard. The real
masters of woodcraft--Indians, trappers, and guides--are, as a rule,
men who do not even know the meaning of the word "woodcraft."
Some people think that to know woodcraft, we must take it up with a
teacher, just as we might learn to play golf or tennis. It is quite
different from learning a game. Most of what we learn, we shall have
to teach ourselves. Of course we must profit from the experience and
observation of others, but no man's opinion can take the place of the
evidence of our own eyes. A naturalist once told me that chipmunks
never climb trees. I have seen a chipmunk on a tree so I know that he
is mistaken. As a rule the natives in any section only know enough
woods-lore or natural history to meet their absolute needs. Accurate
observation is, as a rule, rare among country people unless they are
obliged to learn from necessity. Plenty of boys born and raised in the
country are ignorant of the very simplest facts of their daily
experience. They could not give you the names of a dozen local birds
or wildflowers or tell you the difference between a mushroom and a
toadstool to save their lives.
[Illustration: The wilderness traveller]
On the other hand, some country boys who have kept their ears and eyes
open will know more about the wild life of the woods than people who
attempt to write books about it; myself, for example. I have a boy
friend up in Maine who can fell a tree as big around as his body in
ten minutes, and furthermore he can drop it in any direction that he
wants to without leaving it hanging up in the branches of some other
tree or dropping it in a soft place where the logging team cannot
possibly haul it out without miring the horses. The stump will be
almost as clean and flat as a saw-cut. This boy can also build a log
cabin, chink up the cracks with clay and moss and furnish it with
benches and tables that he has made, with no other tools than an axe
and a jackknife. He can make a rope out of a grape-vine or patch a
hole in his birch bark canoe with a piece of bark and a little spruce
gum. He can take you out in the woods and go for miles with never a
thought of getting lost, tell you the names of the different birds and
their calls, what berries are good to eat, where the partridge nests
or the moose feeds, and so on. If you could go around with him for a
month, you would learn more real woodcraft than books could tell you
in a lifetime. And this boy cannot even read or write and probably
never heard the word "woodcraft." His school has been the school of
hard knocks. He knows these things as a matter of course just as you
know your way home from school. His father is a woodchopper and has
taught him to take care of himself.
If you desire to become a good woodsman, the first and most important
thing is to learn to use an axe. Patent folding hatchets are well
enough in their way, but for real woodchopping an axe is the only
thing. One of four pounds is about the right weight for a beginner. As
it comes from the store, the edge will be far too thick and clumsy to
do good work. First have it carefully ground by an expert and watch
how he does it.
If I were a country boy I should be more proud of skilful axemanship
than to be pitcher on the village nine. With a good axe, a good rifle,
and a good knife, a man can take care of himself in the woods for
days, and the axe is more important even than the rifle.
The easiest way to learn to be an axeman is to make the acquaintance
of some woodchopper in your neighbourhood. But let me warn you. Never
ask him to lend you his axe. You would not be friends very long if you
did. You must have one of your own, and let it be like your watch or
your toothbrush, your own personal property.
A cheap axe is poor economy. The brightest paint and the gaudiest
labels do not always mean the best steel. Your friend the woodchopper
will tell you what kind to buy in your neighbourhood. The handle
should be straight-grained hickory and before buying it you will run
your eye along it to see that the helve is not warped or twisted and
that there are no knots or bad places in it. The hang of an axe is the
way the handle or helve is fitted to the head. An expert woodchopper
is rarely satisfied with the heft of an axe as it comes from the
store. He pre |
