The Book of Camp-Lore and Woodcraft

fire they sha

e; they did so enthusiastically and heaped up about a quarter of a cord of wood. There was no stick in the pile less than the thickness of one's arm, and many as thick as one's leg. A fine misty rain was falling and everything was damp. While all the other hike

le, but if he had been told that any intelligent man would try to light cord wood sticks, wet or dry, by applying a match to them, he would have branded the story as utt

tc

or on one's clothes, is too dangerous a match to take into the woods. The bird's-eye match is exceedingly unreliable on the trail, but the old-fashioned, ill-smelling Lucifer match, sometimes called sulphur match, the kind one may secure at the Hudson Bay Trading Post, the kind that comes in block

privilege to be able to labor, it is a privilege to have the vim, the pep, the desire and the ability to do things. Labor is a necessary attribut

l for the fire; one must plan the fire carefully with regard to the wind and the

he joys of a fire; he never sees a fire except when some building is burning. His body is heated by steam radiators, his food is cooked in some mysterious place beyond his

s the living, life-giving, palpitating heart of the camp; without it all is dead and lifeless. That is the reason that we of the outdoor brotherhood all love the fire

Build

, rainy day, or when the first damp snow is covering all the branches of the trees and blanketing the moist ground with a slushy mantle of white discomfort! Then it is

gots of

en, of which there are very few left, invariably bu

ter that they proceed to whittle these sticks, cutting deep shavings (Fig. 37), but using care to leave one end of the shavings adhering to the wood; they go round and round the stic

e sticks having been cut from the centre of a pine log, are dry and maybe resinous, so all that i

pine knots handy (Fig. 36). These they set up around the shaved sticks, maybe adding some hemlock bark, and by the t

the material used as fuel in the fire itself, because the heavy smoke from the p

4

is not a pleasant accompa

dling with which to start a fire; green birch bark burns like tar paper. But whether one starts

it

n starting a fire the smaller the slivers of kindling wood are made, the easier it is to obtain a flame by the use of a single match (Fig. 36), after which the adding o

e-d

use andirons on which to rest the wood, but of course in the forests we do not call them andirons. They are n

attention to the fact that every outdoor person should know how to use a pocket knif

y of my acquaintance who knows how to properly handle a knife or who can whittle a stick with any degree of skill, and yet there are few men in this world with a larger acquaintance among the boys than

Open

welve year old boy was an adept at the art. I remember with the keenest pleasure the rings, charms and knick-knacks which I carved with a pocket knife bef

il makes a very slight angle; that is, it is as near perpendicular as may be (Fig. 46), otherwise you will bend back your thumbnail until it hurts or breaks. Pull the blade away from your

during the process of opening your knife-you will open a knife properly and quickly by

to W

or '50, dying out some time after the Civil War, probably about 1870. All the old whittlers of the w

knife and cut towards their person and often are severely slashed by it, and sometimes dangerously wounded, because a big artery runs along the inside of one's leg (Fig. 41?) near

it with a

, and at the same time it will help you guide the knife blade and tend to make a straight split. Do not try to pry the stick apart with a knife

o because they are accustomed to the use of paper and naturally seek leaves or hay as a substitute for paper. But experience soon teaches them that leaves and grass make a nasty

chips and now they use cow chips, that is, the dry manure of cattle, with which to build their fires for cooking their meals and boiling their coffee. In the Zurn belt, in Tartary and Central India cattle manure is collected, piled

and Cou

form (Fig. 50) with the kindling all ready for the torch in the center of the pile, or the

etween the sticks of wood, which insure a quick and ready dr

il fire is shown by Fi

eeting

e author got the suggestion for his "torch fire." The platform is made of anything

r to the Boy Scout signal towers

f Explod

d, earth or clay on the stone as a fire bed, for the damp rock on becoming heated may generate steam and either expand with some viol

cter

od-sized pebbles around them, they then stretch themselves on the ground and sleep between the two lines of fire, and when the wood is consumed the stones continue for some time to radiate the heat they have

w F

ed by housekeepers for their open fire-places, and consis

burn all day or all night, but someone must occasionally push them so that their ends come together, when they send their heat from one to the other, backward

t. apart. Place three logs one on the other, making a log wall for the back of your fire-place. Next take two shorter logs and use them for fire-dogs, and on these lay another log and the arrangeme

al F

"wiry willows," balsam boughs, pine and cedar boughs, because such material produces great volumes of smoke and may be seen at a long distance. The Apaches have a simple code which might we

l

alarm a large section of the country in remarkably quick time. The greater the haste desired the greater the number of smokes used. These fir

ent

grass may have been consumed by the ponies, or some other cause necessitated removal, or should an enemy be reported which would require further watching before a decisi

t of a Camp,

re may be a necessity or desire for their removal, two columns of smoke are made, to inform their friends that they propose to remain at that place. Two columns

ames at night, is a signal of alarm, One smoke a signal for atte

e Si

her. By covering the fire with the blanket and suddenly removing it, a large globular puff of smoke is made to sudde

ld a Fire

ore or less frozen to the ground may be tramped down until it is hard and then covered with a corduroy of sticks for a hearth (Figs. 55 and 56) or with bark (Fig

of small wood (Fig. 58) and then start

or a bank for a back to the fire-place. When everything is covered with snow it is perfectly safe to use a l

which to build a fire. A real woodcraft knows that a fire can ruin in a few minutes a mi

ten the best of camping places in the winter time. The water freezes and falls lower and lower, leaving convenient shelves of ice (Fig. 57) f

e a Fire i

rom the center of the wood, keep the wood under cover of your tent, poncho, coat or blanket. Also hold a blanket or some similar thing over the f