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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woodcraft, by George W. Sears
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Woodcraft
+
+
+Author: George W. Sears
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 11, 2008  [eBook #24579]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joseph Gray
+
+
+
+WOODCRAFT
+
+by
+
+Nessmuk
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Woodcraft is dedicated to the Grand Army of "Outers," as a pocket
+volume of reference on woodcraft.
+
+    For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,
+With a pulse of evil that throbs and beats;
+    And men are withered before their prime
+By the curse paved in with the lanes and streets.
+
+    And lungs are poisoned and shoulders bowed,
+In the smothering reek of mill and mine;
+    And death stalks in on the struggling crowd--
+But he shuns the shadow of oak and pine.
+
+--Nessmuk
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+Overwork And Recreation--Outing And Outers--How To Do It, And Why They
+Miss It
+
+IT does not need that Herbert Spencer should cross the ocean to tell
+us that we are an over-worked nation; that our hair turns gray ten
+years earlier than the Englishman's; or, "that we have had somewhat too
+much of the gospel of work," and, "it is time to preach the gospel of
+relaxation." It is all true. But we work harder, accomplish more in a
+given time and last quite as long as slower races. As to the gray hair--
+perhaps gray hair is better than none; and it is a fact that the
+average Briton becomes bald as early as the American turns gray. There
+is, however, a sad significance in his words when he says: "In every
+circle I have met men who had themselves suffered from nervous collapse
+due to stress of business, or named friends who had either killed
+themselves by overwork, or had been permanently incapacitated, or had
+wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health." Too true. And it
+is the constant strain, without let-up or relaxation, that, in nine
+cases out of ten, snaps the cord and ends in what the doctors call
+"nervous prostration"--something akin to paralysis--from which the
+sufferer seldom wholly recovers.
+
+Mr. Spencer quotes that quaint old chronicler, Froissart, as saying,
+"The English take their pleasures sadly, after their fashion"; and
+thinks if he lived now, he would say of Americans, "they take their
+pleasures hurriedly, after their fashion." Perhaps.
+
+It is an age of hurry and worry. Anything slower than steam is apt to
+"get left." Fortunes are quickly made and freely spent. Nearly all
+busy, hard-worked Americans have an intuitive sense of the need that
+exists for at least one period of rest and relaxation during each year
+and all--or nearly all--are willing to pay liberally, too liberally in
+fact, for anything that conduces to rest, recreation and sport. I am
+sorry to say that we mostly get swindled. As an average, the summer
+outer who goes to forest, lake or stream for health and sport, gets
+about ten cents' worth for a dollar of outlay. A majority will admit--
+to themselves at least--that after a month's vacation, they return to
+work with an inward consciousness of being somewhat disappointed and
+beaten. We are free with our money when we have it. We are known
+throughout the civilized world for our lavishness in paying for our
+pleasures; but it humiliates us to know we have been beaten, and this
+is what the most of us know at the end of a summer vacation. To the man
+of millions it makes little difference. He is able to pay liberally for
+boats, buckboards and "body service," if he chooses to spend a summer
+in the North Woods. He has no need to study the questions of lightness
+and economy in a Forest and Stream outing. Let his guides take care of
+him; and unto them and the landlords he will give freely of his
+substance.
+
+I do not write for him and can do him little good. But there are
+hundreds of thousands of practical, useful men, many of them far from
+being rich; mechanics, artists, writers, merchants, clerks, business
+men--workers, so to speak--who sorely need and well deserve a season of
+rest and relaxation at least once a year. To these and for these, I
+write.
+
+Perhaps more than fifty years of devotion to "woodcraft" may enable me
+to give a few useful hints and suggestions to those whose dreams,
+during the close season of work, are of camp-life by flood, field and
+forest.
+
+I have found that nearly all who have a real love of nature and
+out-of-door camp-life, spend a good deal of time and talk in planning
+future trips, or discussing the trips and pleasures gone by, but still
+dear to memory.
+
+When the mountain streams are frozen and the Nor'land winds are out;
+when the winter winds are drifting the bitter sleet and snow; when
+winter rains are making out-of-door life unendurable; when season,
+weather and law combine to make it "close time" for beast, bird and
+man, it is well that a few congenial spirits should, at some favorite
+trysting place, gather around the glowing stove and exchange yarns,
+opinions and experiences. Perhaps no two will exactly agree on the best
+ground for an outing...or half a dozen other points that may be
+discussed. But one thing all admit. Each and every one has gone to his
+chosen ground with too much impedimenta, too much duffle; and nearly
+all have used boats at least twice as heavy as they need to have been.
+The temptation to buy this or that bit of indispensable camp-kit has
+been too strong and we have gone to the blessed woods, handicapped with
+a load fit for a pack-mule. This is not how to do it.
+
+Go light; the lighter the better, so that you have the simplest
+material for health, comfort and enjoyment.
+
+Of course, if you intend to have a permanent camp and can reach it by
+boat or wagon, lightness is not so important, though even in that case
+it is well to guard against taking a lot of stuff that is likely to
+prove of more weight than worth--only to leave it behind when you come
+out.
+
+As to clothing for the woods, a good deal of nonsense has been written
+about "strong, coarse woolen clothes." You do not want coarse woolen
+clothes. Fine woolen cassimere of medium thickness for coat, vest and
+pantaloons, with no cotton lining. Color, slate gray or dead-leaf
+(either is good). Two soft, thick woolen shirts; two pairs of fine, but
+substantial, woolen drawers; two pairs of strong woolen socks or
+stockings; these are what you need and all you need in the way of
+clothing for the woods, excepting hat and boots, or gaiters. Boots are
+best--providing you do not let yourself be inveigled into wearing a
+pair of long-legged heavy boots with thick soles, as has been often
+advised by writers who knew no better. Heavy, long legged boots are a
+weary, tiresome incumbrance on a hard tramp through rough woods. Even
+moccasins are better. Gaiters, all sorts of high shoes, in fact, are
+too bothersome about fastening and unfastening. Light boots are best.
+Not thin, unserviceable affairs, but light as to actual weight. The
+following hints will give an idea for the best footgear for the woods;
+let them be single soled, single backs and single fronts, except light,
+short foot-linings. Back of solid "country kip"; fronts of substantial
+French calf; heel one inch high, with steel nails; countered outside;
+straps narrow, of fine French calf put on "astraddle," and set down to
+the top of the back. The out-sole stout, Spanish oak and pegged rather
+than sewed, although either is good. They will weigh considerably less
+than half as much as the clumsy, costly boots usually recommended for
+the woods; and the added comfort must be tested to be understood.
+
+The hat should be fine, soft felt with moderately low crown and wide
+brim; color to match the clothing.
+
+The proper covering for head and feet is no slight affair and will be
+found worth some attention. Be careful that the boots are not too
+tight, or the hat too loose. The above rig will give the tourist one
+shirt, one pair of drawers and a pair of socks to carry as extra
+clothing. A soft, warm blanket-bag, open at the ends and just long
+enough to cover the sleeper, with an oblong square of waterproofed
+cotton cloth 6x8 feet, will give warmth and shelter by night and will
+weigh together five or six pounds. This, with the extra clothing, will
+make about eight pounds of dry goods to pack over carries, which is
+enough. Probably, also, it will be found little enough for comfort.
+
+During a canoe cruise across the Northern Wilderness in the late
+summer, I met many parties at different points in the woods and the
+amount of unnecessary duffle with which they encumbered themselves was
+simply appalling. Why a shrewd business man, who goes through with a
+guide and makes a forest hotel his camping ground nearly every night,
+should handicap himself with a five-peck pack basket full of gray
+woolen and gum blankets, extra clothing, pots, pans and kettles, with a
+9 pound 10-bore and two rods--yes, and an extra pair of heavy boots
+hanging astride of the gun-well, it is one of the things I shall never
+understand. My own load, including canoe, extra clothing, blanket-bag,
+two days' rations, pocket-axe, rod and knapsack, never exceeded 26
+pounds; and I went prepared to camp out any and every night.
+
+People who contemplate an outing in the woods are pretty apt to
+commence preparations a long way ahead and to pick up many trifling
+articles that suggest themselves as useful and handy in camp; all well
+enough in their way, but making at least a too heavy load. It is better
+to commence by studying to ascertain just how light one can go through
+without especial discomfort. A good plan is to think over the trip
+during leisure hours and make out a list of indispensable articles,
+securing them beforehand and have them stowed in handy fashion, so that
+nothing needful may be missing just when and where it cannot be
+procured. The list will be longer than one would think, but need not be
+cumbersome or heavy. As I am usually credited with making a cruise or a
+long woods tramp with exceptionally light duffle, I will give a list of
+the articles I take along--going on foot over carries or through the
+woods.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Fishing Tackle, Rods, Ditty-bag
+
+THE clothing, blanket-bag and shelter-cloth are all that need be
+described in that line. The next articles that I look after are
+knapsack (or pack basket), rod with reel, lines, flies, hooks and all
+my fishing gear, pocket-axe, knives and tinware. Firstly, the knapsack;
+as you are apt to carry it a great many miles, it is well to have it
+right and easy-fitting at the start. Don't be induced to carry a pack
+basket. I am aware that it is in high favor all through the Northern
+Wilderness and is also much used in other localities where guides and
+sportsmen most do congregate. But I do not like it. I admit that it
+will carry a loaf of bread, with tea, sugar, etc., without jamming;
+that bottles, crockery and other fragile duffle is safer from breakage
+than in an oil-cloth knapsack. But it is by no means waterproof in a
+rain or a splashing head sea, is more than twice as heavy--always
+growing heavier as it gets wetter--and I had rather have bread, tea,
+sugar, etc., a little jammed than water-soaked. Also, it may be
+remarked that man is a vertebrate animal and ought to respect his
+backbone. The loaded pack basket on a heavy carry never fails to get in
+on the most vulnerable knob of the human vertebrae. The knapsack sits
+easy and does not chafe. The one shown in the engraving is of good
+form; and the original--which I have carried for years--is satisfactory
+in every respect. It holds over half a bushel, carries blanket-bag,
+shelter-tent, hatchet, ditty-bag, tinware, fishing tackle, clothes and
+two days' rations. It weighs, empty, just twelve ounces.
+
+The hatchet and knives shown in the engraving will be found to fill
+the bill satisfactorily so far as cutlery may be required. Each is good
+and useful of its kind, the hatchet especially, being the best model I
+have ever found for a "double-barreled" pocket-axe.
+
+And just here let me digress for a little chat on the indispensable
+hatchet; for it is the most difficult piece of camp kit to obtain in
+perfection of which I have any knowledge. Before I was a dozen years
+old I came to realize that a light hatchet was a sine qua non in
+woodcraft and I also found it a most difficult thing to get. I tried
+shingling hatchets, lathing hatchets and the small hatchets to be found
+in country hardware stores, but none of them were satisfactory. I had
+quite a number made by blacksmiths who professed skill in making edged
+tools and these were the worst of all, being like nothing on the earth
+or under it--murderous-looking, clumsy and all too heavy, with no
+balance or proportion. I had hunted twelve years before I caught up
+with the pocket-axe I was looking for. It was made in Rochester, by a
+surgical instrument maker named Bushnell. It cost time and money to get
+it. I worked one rainy Saturday fashioning the pattern in wood. Spoiled
+a day going to Rochester, waited a day for the blade, paid $3.00 for it
+and lost a day coming home. Boat fare $1.00 and expenses $2.00, besides
+three days lost time, with another rainy Sunday for making leather
+sheath and hickory handle.
+
+My witty friends, always willing to help me out in figuring the cost
+of my hunting and fishing gear, made the following business-like
+estimate, which they placed where I would be certain to see it the
+first thing in the morning. Premising that of the five who assisted in
+that little joke, all stronger, bigger fellows than myself, four have
+gone "where they never see the sun," I will copy the statement as it
+stands today, on paper yellow with age. For I have kept it over forty
+years.
+
+Then they raised a horse laugh and the cost of that hatchet became a
+standing joke and a slur on my "business ability." What aggravated me
+most was, that the rascals were not so far out in their calculation.
+And was I so far wrong? That hatchet was my favorite for nearly thirty
+years. It has been "upset" twice by skilled workmen; and, if my friend
+Bero has not lost it, is still in service.
+
+Would I have gone without it any year for one or two dollars? But I
+prefer the double blade. I want one thick, stunt edge for knots, deers'
+bones, etc. and a fine, keen edge for cutting clear timber.
+
+A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity and should
+be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The "bowies" and "hunting
+knives" usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, with a sort of
+ridge along the middle of the blade, murderous-looking, but of little
+use; rather fitted to adorn a dime novel or the belt of "Billy the
+Kid," than the outfit of the hunter. The one shown in the cut is thin
+in the blade and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with. The
+strong double-bladed pocket knife is the best model I have yet found
+and, in connection with the sheath knife, is all sufficient for camp
+use. It is not necessary to take table cutlery into the woods. A good
+fork may be improvised from a beech or birch stick; and the half of a
+fresh-water mussel shell, with a split stick by way of handle, makes an
+excellent spoon.
+
+My entire outfit for cooking and eating dishes comprises five pieces
+of tinware. This is when stopping in a permanent camp. When cruising
+and tramping, I take just two pieces in the knapsack.
+
+I get a skillful tinsmith to make one dish as follows: Six inches on
+bottom, 6 3/4 inches on top, side 2 inches high. The bottom is of the
+heaviest tin procurable, the sides of lighter tin and seamed to be
+watertight without solder. The top simply turned, without wire. The
+second dish to be made the same, but small enough to nest in the first
+and also to fit into it when inverted as a cover. Two other dishes made
+from common pressed tinware, with the tops cut off and turned, also
+without wire. They are fitted so that they all nest, taking no more
+room than the largest dish alone and each of the three smaller dishes
+makes a perfect cover for the next larger. The other piece is a tin
+camp-kettle, also of the heaviest tin and seamed watertight. It holds
+two quarts and the other dishes nest in it perfectly, so that when
+packed the whole takes just as much room as the kettle alone. I should
+mention that the strong ears are set below the rim of the kettle and
+the bale falls outside, so, as none of the dishes have any handle,
+there are no aggravating "stickouts" to wear and abrade. The snug
+affair weighs, all told, two pounds. I have met parties in the North
+Woods whose one frying pan weighed more--with its handle three feet
+long. However did they get through the brush with such a culinary terror?
+
+It is only when I go into a very accessible camp that I take so much
+as five pieces of tinware along. I once made a ten days' tramp through
+an unbroken wilderness on foot and all the dish I took was a ten-cent
+tin; it was enough. I believe I will tell the story of that tramp
+before I get through. For I saw more game in the ten days than I ever
+saw before or since in a season; and I am told that the whole region is
+now a thrifty farming country, with the deer nearly all gone. They were
+plenty enough thirty-nine years ago this very month.
+
+I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
+connected with outdoor sports. The number and variety of rods and
+makers; the enthusiasm of trout and fly "cranks"; the fact that angling
+does not take precedence of all other sports with me, with the
+humiliating confession that I am not above bucktail spinners, worms and
+sinkers, minnow tails and white grubs--this and these constrain me to
+be brief.
+
+But, as I have been a fisher all my life, from my pinhook days to the
+present time; as I have run the list pretty well up, from brook minnows
+to 100 pound albacores, I may be pardoned for a few remarks on the rod
+and the use thereof.
+
+A rod may be a very high-toned, high-priced aesthetic plaything,
+costing $50 to $75, or it may be a rod. A serviceable and splendidly
+balanced rod can be obtained from first class makers for less money. By
+all means let the man of money indulge his fancy for the most costly
+rod that can be procured. He might do worse. A practical every day
+sportsman whose income is limited will find that a more modest product
+will drop his flies on the water quite as attractively to Salmo
+fontinalis. My little 8 1/2 foot, 4 1/2 ounce split bamboo which the
+editor of Forest and Stream had made for me cost $10.00. I have given
+it hard usage and at times large trout have tested it severely, but it
+has never failed me. The dimensions of my second rod are 9 1/2 feet
+long and 5 ounces in weight. This rod will handle the bucktail spinners
+which I use for trout and bass, when other things have failed. I used a
+rod of this description for several summers both in Adirondack and
+western waters. It had a hand-made reel seat, agate first guide, was
+satisfactory in every respect and I could see in balance, action and
+appearance no superiority in a rod costing $25.00, which one of my
+friends sported. Charles Dudley Warner, who writes charmingly of woods
+life, has the following in regard to trout fishing, which is so neatly
+humorous that it will bear repeating:
+
+"It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever
+kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the
+part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated trout in
+unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole
+object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in
+their primitive state for the worm. No sportsman, however, will use
+anything but a fly except he happens to be alone." Speaking of rods, he
+says:
+
+"The rod is a bamboo weighing seven ounces, which has to be spliced
+with a winding of silk thread every time it is used. This is a tedious
+process; but, by fastening the joints in this way, a uniform spring is
+secured in the rod. No one devoted to high art would think of using a
+socket joint."
+
+One summer during a seven weeks' tour in the Northern Wilderness, my
+only rod was a 7 1/2 foot Henshall. It came to hand with two bait-tips
+only; but I added a fly-tip and it made an excellent "general fishing
+rod." With it I could handle a large bass or pickerel; it was a capital
+bait-rod for brook trout; as fly-rod it has pleased me well enough. It
+is likely to go with me again. For reel casting, the 5 1/2 foot rod is
+handier. But it is not yet decided which is best and I leave every man
+his own opinion. Only, I think one rod enough, but have always had more.
+
+And don't neglect to take what sailors call a "ditty-bag." This may be
+a little sack of chamois leather about 4 inches wide by 6 inches in
+length. Mine is before me as I write. Emptying the contents, I find it
+inventories as follows: A dozen hooks, running in size from small
+minnow hooks to large Limericks; four lines of six yards each, varying
+from the finest to a size sufficient for a ten-pound fish; three
+darning needles and a few common sewing needles; a dozen buttons;
+sewing silk; thread and a small ball of strong yarn for darning socks;
+sticking salve; a bit of shoemaker's wax; beeswax; sinkers and a very
+fine file for sharpening hooks. The ditty-bag weighs, with contents, 2
+1/2 ounces; and it goes in a small buckskin bullet pouch, which I wear
+almost as constantly as my hat. The pouch has a sheath strongly sewed
+on the back side of it, where the light hunting knife is always at
+hand, and it also carries a two-ounce vial of fly medicine, a vial of
+"pain killer," and two or three gangs of hooks on brass wire snells--of
+which, more in another place. I can always go down into that pouch for
+a waterproof match safe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet
+flannel (for frogging), copper tacks and other light duffle. It is
+about as handy a piece of woods-kit as I carry.
+
+I hope no aesthetic devotee of the fly-rod will lay down the book in
+disgust when I confess to a weakness for frogging. I admit that it is
+not high-toned sport; and yet I have got a good deal of amusement out
+of it. The persistence with which a large batrachian will snap at a bit
+of red flannel after being several times hooked on the same lure and
+the comical way in which he will scuttle off with a quick succession of
+short jumps after each release; the cheerful manner in which, after
+each bout, he will tune up his deep, bass pipe--ready for another
+greedy snap at an ibis fly or red rag is rather funny. And his hind
+legs, rolled in meal and nicely browned, are preferable to trout or
+venison.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+Getting Lost--Camping Out--Roughing It Or Smoothing
+It--Insects--Camps, And How To Make Them
+
+WITH a large majority of prospective tourists and outers, "camping
+out" is a leading factor in the summer vacation. And during the long
+winter months they are prone to collect in little knots and talk much
+of camps, fishing, hunting and "roughing it." The last phrase is very
+popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a
+vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green
+woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it
+rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores,
+banks anywhere that we may be placed--with the necessity always present
+of being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent
+ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left. "Alas for the
+lifelong battle, whose bravest slogan is bread."
+
+As for the few fortunate ones who have no call to take a hand in any
+strife or struggle, who not only have all the time there is, but a
+great deal that they cannot dispose of with any satisfaction to
+themselves or anybody else--I am not writing for them; but only to
+those of the world's workers who go, or would like to go, every summer
+to the woods. And to these I would say, don't rough it; make it as
+smooth, as restful and pleasurable as you can.
+
+To this end you need pleasant days and peaceful nights. You cannot
+afford to be tormented and poisoned by insects, nor kept awake at night
+by cold and damp, nor to exhaust your strength by hard tramps and heavy
+loads. Take it easy and always keep cool. Nine men out of ten, on
+finding themselves lost in the woods, fly into a panic and quarrel with
+the compass. Never do that. The compass is always right, or nearly
+so. It is not many years since an able-bodied man--sportsman of
+course--lost his way in the North Woods and took fright, as might be
+expected. He was well armed and well found for a week in the woods.
+What ought to have been only an interesting adventure, became a
+tragedy. He tore through thickets and swamps in his senseless panic,
+until he dropped and died through fright, hunger and exhaustion.
+
+A well authenticated story is told of a guide in the Oswegatchie
+region, who perished in the same way. Guides are not infallible; I have
+known more than one to get lost. Wherefore, should you be tramping
+through a pathless forest on a cloudy day, and should the sun suddenly
+break from under a cloud in the northwest about noon, don't be scared.
+The last day is not at hand and the planets have not become mixed;
+only, you are turned. You have gradually swung around, until you are
+facing northwest when you meant to travel south. It has a muddling
+effect on the mind--this getting lost in the woods. But, if you can
+collect and arrange your gray brain matter and suppress all panicky
+feeling, it is easily got along with. For instance; it is morally
+certain that you commenced swinging to southwest, then west, to
+northwest. Had you kept on until you were heading directly north, you
+could rectify your course simply by following a true south course. But,
+as you have varied three-eighths of the circle, set your compass and
+travel by it to the southeast, until, in your judgment, you have about
+made up the deviation; then go straight south and you will not be far
+wrong. Carry the compass in your hand and look at it every few minutes;
+for the tendency to swerve from a straight course when a man is once
+lost--and nearly always to the right--is a thing past understanding.
+
+As regards poisonous insects, it may be said that, to the man with
+clean, bleached, tender skin, they are, at the start, an unendurable
+torment. No one can enjoy life with a smarting, burning, swollen face,
+while the attacks on every exposed inch of skin are persistent and
+constant. I have seen a young man after two days' exposure to these
+pests come out of the woods with one eye entirely closed and the brow
+hanging over it like a clam shell, while face and hands were almost
+hideous from inflammation and puffiness. The St. Regis and St. Francis
+Indians, although born and reared in the woods, by no means make light
+of the black fly.
+
+It took the man who could shoot Phantom Falls to find out, "Its bite
+is not severe, nor is it ordinarily poisonous. There may be an
+occasional exception to this rule; but beside the bite of the mosquito,
+it is comparatively mild and harmless." And again: "Gnats...in my way
+of thinking, are much worse than the black fly or mosquito." So says
+Murray. Our observations differ. A thousand mosquitoes and as many
+gnats can bite me without leaving a mark, or having any effect save the
+pain of the bite while they are at work. But each bite of the black fly
+makes a separate and distinct boil, that will not heal and be well in
+two months.
+
+While fishing for brook trout in July last, I ran into a swarm of them
+on Moose River and got badly bitten. I had carelessly left my medicine
+behind. On the first of October the bites had not ceased to be painful,
+and it was three months before they disappeared entirely. Frank
+Forester says, in his Fish and Fishing, page 371, that he has never
+fished for the red-fleshed trout of Hamilton county, "being deterred
+therefrom by dread of that curse of the summer angler, the black fly,
+which is to me especially venomous."
+
+"Adirondack Murray" gives extended directions for beating these little
+pests by the use of buckskin gloves with chamois gauntlets, Swiss mull,
+fine muslin, etc. Then he advises a mixture of sweet oil and tar, which
+is to be applied to face and hands; and he adds that it is easily
+washed off, leaving the skin soft and smooth as an infant's; all of
+which is true. But, more than forty years' experience in the woods has
+taught me that the following recipe is infallible anywhere that
+sancudos, moquims, or our own poisonous insects do most abound.
+
+It was published in Forest and Stream in the summer of 1880 and again
+in '83. It has been pretty widely quoted and adopted and I have never
+known it to fail: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one
+ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire and bottle
+for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a
+season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in
+thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a
+good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient.
+And don't fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good
+safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept on--and it
+is cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or
+smutty about the campfire, wet the corner of your handkerchief and rub
+it off, not forgetting to apply the varnish at once, wherever you have
+cleaned it off. Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my
+knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks' tour and never used
+either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin,
+it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with
+soap and water. When I struck a woodland hotel, I found soap and towels
+plenty enough. I found the mixture gave one's face the ruddy tanned
+look supposed to be indicative of health and hard muscle. A thorough
+ablution in the public wash basin reduced the color, but left the skin
+very soft and smooth; in fact, as a lotion for the skin it is
+excellent. It is a soothing and healing application for poisonous bites
+already received.
+
+I have given some space to the insect question, but no more than it
+deserves or requires. The venomous little wretches are quite important
+enough to spoil many a well planned trip to the woods and it is best to
+beat them from the start. You will find that immunity from insects and
+a comfortable camp are the two first and most indispensable requisites
+of an outing in the woods.
+
+And just here I will briefly tell how a young friend of mine went to
+the woods, some twenty-five years ago. He was a bank clerk and a good
+fellow withal, with a leaning toward camp-life.
+
+For months, whenever we met, he would introduce his favorite topics,
+fishing, camping out, etc. At last in the hottest of the hot months,
+the time came. He put in an appearance with a fighting cut on his hair,
+a little stiff straw hat and a soft skin, bleached by long confinement
+in a close office. I thought he looked a little tender; but he was
+sanguine. He could rough it, could sleep on the bare ground with the
+root of a tree for a pillow; as for mosquitoes and punkies, he never
+minded them.
+
+We went in a party of five--two old hunters and three youngsters, the
+latter all enthusiasm and pluck--at first. Toward the last end of a
+heavy eight-mile tramp, they grew silent and slapped and scratched
+nervously. Arriving at the camping spot, they worked fairly well, but
+were evidently weakening a little. By the time we were ready to turn in
+they were reduced pretty well to silence and suffering--especially the
+bank clerk, Jean L. The punkies were eager for his tender skin and they
+were rank poison to him. He muffled his head in a blanket and tried to
+sleep, but it was only a partial success. When, by suffocating himself,
+he obtained a little relief from insect bites, there were stubs and
+knotty roots continually poking themselves among his ribs, or digging
+into his backbone.
+
+I have often had occasion to observe that stubs, roots and small
+stones, etc., have a perverse tendency to abrade the anatomy of people
+unused to the woods. Mr. C.D. Warner has noticed the same thing, I
+believe.
+
+On the whole, Jean and the other youngsters behaved very well.
+Although they turned out in the morning with red, swollen faces and
+half closed eyes, they all went trouting and caught about 150 small
+trout between them. They did their level bravest to make a jolly thing
+of it; but Jean's attempt to watch a deerlick resulted in a wetting
+through the sudden advent of a shower; and the shower drove about all
+the punkies and mosquitoes in the neighborhood under our roof for
+shelter. I never saw them more plentiful or worse. Jean gave in and
+varnished his pelt thoroughly with my "punkie dope," as he called it;
+but, too late: the mischief was done. And the second trial was worse to
+those youngsters than the first. More insects. More stubs and knots.
+Owing to these little annoyances, they arrived at home several days
+before their friends expected them--leaving enough rations in camp to
+last Old Sile and the writer a full week. And the moral of it is, if
+they had fitted themselves for the the woods before going there, the
+trip would have been a pleasure instead of a misery.
+
+One other little annoyance I will mention, as a common occurrence
+among those who camp out; this is the lack of a pillow. I suppose I
+have camped fifty times with people, who, on turning in, were squirming
+around for a long time, trying to get a rest for the head. Boots are
+the most common resort. But, when you place a boot-leg--or two of
+them--under your head, they collapse and make a headrest less than half
+an inch thick. Just why it never occurs to people that a stuffing of
+moss, leaves, or hemlock browse, would fill out the boot-leg and make a
+passable pillow, is another conundrum I cannot answer. But there is
+another and better way of making a pillow for camp use, which I will
+describe further on.
+
+And now I wish to devote some space to one of the most important
+adjuncts of woodcraft, i.e., camps; how to make them and how to make
+them comfortable. There are camps and camps. There are camps in the
+North Woods that are really fine villas, costing thousands of dollars
+and there are log-houses and shanties and bark camps and A tents and
+walled tents, shelter-tents and shanty-tents. But, I assume that the
+camp best fitted to the wants of the average outer is the one that
+combines the essentials of dryness, lightness, portability, cheapness
+and is easily and quickly put up. Another essential is, that it must
+admit of a bright fire in front by night or day. I will give short
+descriptions of the forest shelters (camps) I have found handiest and
+most useful.
+
+Firstly, I will mention a sort of camp that was described in a
+sportsman's paper and has since been largely quoted and used. It is
+made by fastening a horizontal pole to a couple of contiguous trees and
+then putting on a heavy covering of hemlock boughs, shingling them with
+the tips downward, of course. A fire is to be made at the roots of one
+of the trees. This, with plenty of boughs, may be made to stand a
+pretty stiff rain; but it is only a damp arbor, and no camp, properly
+speaking. A forest camp should always admit of a bright fire in front,
+with a lean-to or shed roof overhead, to reflect the fire heat on the
+bedding below. Any camp that falls short of this, lacks the
+requirements of warmth, brightness and healthfulness. This is why I
+discard all close, canvas tents.
+
+The simplest and most primitive of all camps is the "Indian camp." It
+is easily and quickly made, is warm and comfortable and stands a pretty
+heavy rain when properly put up. This is how it is made: Let us say you
+are out and have slightly missed your way. The coming gloom warns you
+that night is shutting down. You are no tenderfoot. You know that a
+place of rest is essential to health and comfort through the long, cold
+November night. You dive down the first little hollow until you strike
+a rill of water, for water is a prime necessity. As you draw your
+hatchet you take in the whole situation at a glance. The little stream
+is gurgling downward in a half choked frozen way. There is a huge
+sodden hemlock lying across it. One clip of the hatchet shows it will
+peel. There is plenty of smaller timber standing around; long, slim
+poles, with a tuft of foliage on top. Five minutes suffice to drop one
+of these, cut a twelve-foot pole from it, sharpen the pole at each end,
+jam one end into the ground and the other into the rough back of a
+scraggy hemlock and there is your ridge pole. Now go--with your
+hatchet--for the bushiest and most promising young hemlocks within reach.
+Drop them and draw them to camp rapidly. Next, you need a fire. There are
+fifty hard, resinous limbs sticking up from the prone hemlock; lop off
+a few of these and split the largest into match timber; reduce the
+splinters to shavings, scrape the wet leaves from your prospective
+fireplace and strike a match on the balloon part of your trousers. If
+you are a woodsman you will strike but one. Feed the fire slowly at
+first; it will gain fast. When you have a blaze ten feet high, look at
+your watch. It is 6 P.M. You don't want to turn in before 10 o'clock
+and you have four hours to kill before bedtime. Now, tackle the old
+hemlock; take off every dry limb and then peel the bark and bring it to
+camp. You will find this takes an hour or more.
+
+Next, strip every limb from your young hemlocks and shingle them onto
+your ridge pole. This will make a sort of bear den, very well
+calculated to give you a comfortable night's rest. The bright fire will
+soon dry the ground that is to be your bed and you will have plenty of
+time to drop another small hemlock and make a bed of browse a foot
+thick. You do it. Then you make your pillow. Now, this pillow is
+essential to comfort and very simple. It is half a yard of muslin,
+sewed up as a bag and filled with moss or hemlock browse. You can empty
+it and put it in your pocket, where it takes up about as much room as a
+handkerchief. You have other little muslin bags--an' you be wise. One
+holds a couple of ounces of good tea; another, sugar; another is kept
+to put your loose duffle in: money, match safe, pocket-knife. You have
+a pat of butter and a bit of pork, with a liberal slice of brown bread;
+and before turning in you make a cup of tea, broil a slice of pork and
+indulge in a lunch.
+
+Ten o'clock comes. The time has not passed tediously. You are warm,
+dry and well-fed. Your old friends, the owls, come near the fire-light
+and salute you with their strange wild notes; a distant fox sets up for
+himself with his odd, barking cry and you turn in. Not ready to sleep
+just yet.
+
+But you drop off; and it is two bells in the morning watch when you
+waken with a sense of chill and darkness. The fire has burned low and
+snow is falling. The owls have left and a deep silence broods over the
+cold, still forest. You rouse the fire and, as the bright light shines
+to the furthest recesses of your forest den, get out the little pipe
+and reduce a bit of navy plug to its lowest denomination. The smoke
+curls lazily upward; the fire makes you warm and drowsy and again you
+lie down--to again awaken with a sense of chilliness--to find the fire
+burned low and daylight breaking. You have slept better than you would
+in your own room at home. You have slept in an "Indian camp."
+
+You have also learned the difference between such a simple shelter and
+an open air bivouac under a tree or beside an old log.
+
+Another easily made and very comfortable camp is the "brush shanty,"
+as it is usually called in Northern Pennsylvania. The frame for such a
+shanty is a cross-pole resting on two crotches about six feet high and
+enough straight poles to make a foundation for the thatch. The poles
+are laid about six inches apart, one end on the ground, the other on
+the cross-pole, and at a pretty sharp angle. The thatch is made of the
+fan-like boughs cut from the thrifty young hemlock and are to be laid
+bottom upward and feather end down. Commence to lay them from the
+ground and work up to the cross-pole, shingling them carefully as you
+go. If the thatch be laid a foot in thickness and well done, the shanty
+will stand a pretty heavy rain--better than the average bark roof,
+which is only rainproof in dry weather.
+
+A bark camp, however, may be a very neat sylvan affair, provided you
+are camping where spruce or balsam fir may be easily reached, and in
+the hot months when bark will "peel"; and you have a day in which to
+work at a camp. The best bark camps I have ever seen are in the
+Adirondacks. Some of them are rather elaborate in construction,
+requiring two or more days' hard labor by a couple of guides. When the
+stay is to be a long one and the camp permanent, perhaps it will pay.
+
+As good a camp as I have ever tried--perhaps the best--is the
+"shanty-tent" shown in the illustration. It is easily put up, is
+comfortable, neat and absolutely rain-proof. Of course, it may be of
+any required size; but, for a party of two, the following dimensions
+and directions will be found all sufficient:
+
+Firstly, the roof. This is merely a sheet of strong cotton cloth 9
+feet long by 4 or 4 1/2 feet in width. The sides, of the same material,
+to be 4 1/2 feet deep at front and 2 feet deep at the back. This gives
+7 feet along the edge of the roof, leaving 2 feet for turning down at
+the back end of the shanty. It will be seen that the sides must be "cut
+bias," to compensate for the angle of the roof, otherwise the shanty
+will not be square and shipshape when put up. Allowing for waste in
+cutting, it takes nearly 3 yards of cloth for each side. The only labor
+required in making, is to cut the sides to the proper shape and stitch
+them to the roof. No buttons, strings, or loops. The cloth does not
+even require hemming. It does, however, need a little waterproofing;
+for which the following receipt will answer very well and add little or
+nothing to the weight: To 10 quarts of water add 10 ounces of lime and
+4 ounces of alum; let it stand until clear; fold the cloth snugly and
+put it in another vessel, pour the solution on it, let it soak for 12
+hours; then rinse in luke-warm rain water, stretch and dry in the sun
+and the shanty-tent is ready for use.
+
+To put it up properly, make a neat frame as follows: Two strong stakes
+or posts for the front, driven firmly in the ground 4 feet apart; at a
+distance of 6 feet 10 inches from these, drive two other posts--these
+to be 4 feet apart--for back end of shanty. The front posts to be 4 1/2
+feet high, the back rests only two feet. The former also to incline a
+little toward each other above, so as to measure from outside of posts,
+just 4 feet at top. This gives a little more width at front end of
+shanty, adding space and warmth. No crotches are used in putting up the
+shanty-tent. Each of the four posts is fitted on the top to receive a
+flat-ended cross-pole and admit of nailing. When the posts are squarely
+ranged and driven, select two straight, hardwood rods, 2 inches in
+diameter and 7 feet in length--or a little more. Flatten the ends
+carefully and truly, lay them alongside on top from post to post and
+fasten them with a light nail at each end. Now, select two more
+straight rods of the same size, but a little over 4 feet in length;
+flatten the ends of these as you did the others, lay them crosswise
+from side to side and lapping the ends of the other rods; fasten them
+solidly by driving a sixpenny nail through the ends and into the posts
+and you have a square frame 7x4 feet. But it is not yet complete. Three
+light rods are needed for rafters. These are to be placed lengthwise of
+the roof at equal distances apart and nailed or tied to keep them in
+place. Then take two straight poles a little over 7 feet long and some
+3 inches in diameter. These are to be accurately flattened at the ends
+and nailed to the bottom of the posts, snug to the ground, on outside
+of posts. A foot-log and head-log are indispensable. These should be
+about 5 inches in diameter and of a length to just reach from outside
+to outside of posts. They should be squared at ends and the foot-log
+placed against the front post, outside and held firmly in place by two
+wooden pins. The head-log is fastened the same way, except that it goes
+against the inside of the back posts; and the frame is complete. Round
+off all sharp angles or corners with knife and hatchet and proceed to
+spread and fasten the cloth. Lay the roof on evenly and tack it truly
+to the front cross-rod, using about a dozen six-ounce tacks. Stretch
+the cloth to its bearings and tack it at the back end in the same
+manner. Stretch it sidewise and tack the sides to the side poles, fore
+and aft. Tack front and back ends of sides to the front and back posts.
+Bring down the 2 foot flap of roof at back end of shanty; stretch and
+tack it snugly to the back posts--and your sylvan house is done. It is
+rain-proof, wind-proof, warm and comfortable. The foot and head logs
+define the limits of your forest dwelling; within which you may pile
+fragrant hemlock browse as thick as you please and renew it from day to
+day. It is the perfect camp.
+
+You may put it up with less care and labor and make it do very well.
+But I have tried to explain how to do it in the best manner; to make it
+all sufficient for an entire season. And it takes longer to tell it on
+paper than to do it.
+
+When I go to the woods with a partner and we arrive at our camping
+ground, I like him to get his fishing rig together and start out for a
+half day's exercise with his favorite flies, leaving me to make the
+camp according to my own notions of woodcraft. If he will come back
+about dusk with a few pounds of trout, I will have a pleasant camp and
+a bright fire for him. And if he has enjoyed wading an icy stream more
+than I have making the camp--he has had a good day.
+
+Perhaps it may not be out of place to say that the camp, made as
+above, calls for fifteen bits of timber, posts, rods, etc., a few
+shingle nails and some sixpenny wrought nails, with a paper of
+six-ounce tacks. Nails and tacks will weigh about five ounces and are
+always useful. In tacking the cloth, turn the raw edge in until you
+have four thicknesses, as a single thickness is apt to tear. If you
+desire to strike camp, it takes about ten minutes to draw and save all
+the nails and tacks, fold the cloth smoothly and deposit the whole in
+your knapsack. If you wish to get up a shelter-tent on fifteen minutes'
+notice, cut and sharpen a twelve-foot pole as for the Indian camp,
+stick one end in the ground, the other in the rough bark of a large
+tree--hemlock is best--hang the cloth on the pole, fasten the sides to
+rods and the rods to the ground with inverted crotches, and your
+shelter-tent is ready for you to creep under.
+
+The above description of the shanty-tent may seem a trifle elaborate,
+but I hope it is plain. The affair weighs just three pounds and it
+takes a skillful woodsman about three hours of easy work to put it in
+the shape described. Leaving out some of the work and only aiming to
+get it up in square shape as quickly as possible, I can put it up in an
+hour. The shanty as it should be, is shown in the illustration very
+fairly. And the shape of the cloth when spread out, is shown in the
+diagram. On the whole, it is the best form of close-side tent I have
+found. It admits of a bright fire in front, without which a forest camp
+is just no camp at all to me. I have suffered enough in close, dark,
+cheerless, damp tents.
+
+More than thirty years ago I became disgusted with the clumsy,
+awkward, comfortless affairs that, under many different forms, went
+under the name of camps. Gradually I came to make a study of "camping
+out." It would take too much time and space, should I undertake to
+describe all the different styles and forms I have tried. But I will
+mention a few of the best and worst.
+
+The old Down East "coal cabin" embodied the principle of the Indian
+camp. The frame was simply two strong crotches set firmly in the ground
+at a distance of eight feet apart and interlocking at top. These
+supported a stiff ridge-pole fifteen feet long, the small end sharpened
+and set in the ground. Refuse boards, shooks, stakes, etc., were placed
+thickly from the ridge-pole to the ground; a thick layer of straw was
+laid over these and the whole was covered a foot thick with earth and
+sods, well beaten down. A stone wall five feet high at back and sides
+made a most excellent fireplace; and these cabins were weather-proof
+and warm, even in zero weather. But they were too cumbersome and
+included too much labor for the ordinary hunter and angler. Also, they
+were open to the objection, that while wide enough in front, they ran
+down to a dismal, cold peak at the far end. Remembering, however, the
+many pleasant winter nights I had passed with the coal-burners, I
+bought a supply of oil-cloth and rigged it on the same principle. It
+was a partial success and I used it for one season. But that cold,
+peaked, dark space was always back of my head and it seemed like an
+iceberg. It was in vain that I tied a handkerchief about my head, or
+drew a stockingleg over it. That miserable, icy angle was always there.
+And it would only shelter one man anyhow. When winter drove me out of
+the woods I gave it to an enthusiastic young friend, bought some more
+oil-cloth and commenced a shanty-tent that was meant to be perfect. A
+good many leisure hours were spent in cutting and sewing that shanty,
+which proved rather a success. It afforded a perfect shelter for a
+space 7x4 feet, but was a trifle heavy to pack and the glazing began to
+crack and peel off in a short time. I made another and larger one of
+stout drilling, soaked in lime-water and alum; and this was all that
+could be asked when put up properly on a frame. But, the sides and ends
+being sewed to the roof made it unhandy to use as a shelter, when
+shelter was needed on short notice. So I ripped the back ends of the
+sides loose from the flap, leaving it, when spread out, as shown in the
+diagram. This was better; when it was necessary to make some sort of
+shelter in short order, it could be done with a single pole as used in
+the Indian camp, laying the tent across the pole and using a few tacks
+to keep it in place at sides and center. This can be done in ten
+minutes and makes a shelter-tent that will turn a heavy rain for hours.
+
+On the whole, for all kinds of weather, the shanty-tent is perhaps the
+best style of camp to be had at equal expense and trouble.
+
+For a summer camp, however, I have finally come to prefer the simple
+lean-to or shed roof. It is the lightest, simplest and cheapest of all
+cloth devices for camping out and I have found it sufficient for all
+weathers from June until the fall of the leaves. It is only a sheet of
+strong cotton cloth 9x7 feet and soaked in lime and alum-water as the
+other. The only labor in making it is sewing two breadths of sheeting
+together. It needs no hemming, binding, loops or buttons, but is to be
+stretched on a frame as described for the brush shanty and held in
+place with tacks. The one I have used for two seasons cost sixty cents
+and weighs 2 1/4 pounds. It makes a good shelter for a party of three;
+and if it be found a little too breezy for cool nights, a sufficient
+windbreak can be made by driving light stakes at the sides and weaving
+in a siding of hemlock boughs.
+
+Lastly, whatever cloth structure you may elect to use for a camp, do
+not fail to cover the roof with a screen of green boughs before
+building your campfire. Because there will usually be one fellow in
+camp who has a penchant for feeding the fire with old mulchy deadwood
+and brush, for the fun of watching the blaze and the sparks that are
+prone to fly upward; forgetting that the blazing cinders are also prone
+to drop downward on the roof of the tent, burning holes in it.
+
+I have spoken of some of the best camps I know. The worst ones are the
+A and wall tents, with all closed camps in which one is required to
+seclude himself through the hours of sleep in damp and darkness,
+utterly cut off from the cheerful, healthful light and warmth of the
+campfire.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+Campfires And Their Importance--The Wasteful Wrong Way They Are
+Usually Made, And The Right Way To Make Them
+
+HARDLY second in importance to a warm, dry camp, is the campfire. In
+point of fact, the warmth, dryness and healthfulness of a forest camp
+are mainly dependent on the way the fire is managed and kept up. No
+asthmatic or consumptive patient ever regained health by dwelling in a
+close, damp tent. I once camped for a week in a wall tent, with a
+Philadelphia party, and in cold weather. We had a little sheet iron
+fiend, called a camp-stove. When well fed with bark, knots and chips,
+it would get red hot and, heaven knows, give out heat enough. By the
+time we were sound asleep, it would subside; and we would presently
+awake with chattering teeth to kindle her up again, take a smoke and a
+nip, turn in for another nap--to awaken again half frozen. It was a
+poor substitute for the open camp and bright fire. An experience of
+fifty years convinces me that a large percentage of the benefit
+obtained by invalids from camp life is attributable to the open camp
+and well-managed campfire. And the latter is usually handled in a way
+that is too sad, too wasteful; in short, badly botched. For instance:
+
+It happened in the summer of '81 that I was making a canoe trip in the
+Northern Wilderness, and as Raquette Lake is the largest and about the
+most interesting lake in the North Woods, I spent about a week
+paddling, fishing, etc. I made my headquarters at Ed Bennett's woodland
+hostelry, "Under the Hemlocks." As the hotel was filled with men, women
+and crying children, bitten to agony by punkies and mosquitoes, I chose
+to spread my blanket in a well-made bark shanty, which a signboard in
+black and white said was the "Guides' Camp."
+
+And this camp was a very popular institution. Here it was that every
+evening, when night had settled down on forest and lake, the guests of
+the hotel would gather to lounge on the bed of fresh balsam browse,
+chat, sing and enjoy the huge campfire.
+
+No woodland hotel will long remain popular that does not keep up a
+bright, cheery, out o'door fire. And the fun of it--to an old
+woodsman--is in noting how like a lot of school children they all act
+about the fire. Ed Bennett had a man, a North Woods trapper, in his
+employ, whose chief business was to furnish plenty of wood for the
+guides' camp and start a good fire every evening by sundown. As it grew
+dark and the blaze shone high and bright, the guests would begin to
+straggle in; and every man, woman and child seemed to view it as a
+religious duty to pause by the fire and add a stick or two, before
+passing into camp. The wood was thrown on endwise, crosswise, or any
+way, so that it would burn, precisely as a crowd of boys make a bonfire
+on the village green. The object being, apparently, to get rid of the
+wood in the shortest possible time.
+
+When the fire burnt low, toward midnight, the guests would saunter off
+to the hotel; and the guides, who had been waiting impatiently, would
+organize what was left of the fire, roll themselves in their blankets
+and turn in. I suggested to the trapper that he and I make one fire as
+it should be and maybe they would follow suit--which would save half
+the fuel, with a better fire. But he said, "No; they like to build
+bonfires and Ed can stand the wood, because it is best to let them have
+their own way. Time seems to hang heavy on their hands--and they pay
+well." Summer boarders, tourists and sportsmen, are not the only men
+who know how to build a campfire all wrong.
+
+When I first came to Northern Pennsylvania, thirty-five years ago, I
+found game fairly abundant; and, as I wanted to learn the country where
+deer most abounded, I naturally cottoned to the local hunters. Good
+fellows enough, and conceited, as all local hunters and anglers are apt
+to be. Strong, good hunters and axe-men, to the manner born and prone
+to look on any outsider as a tenderfoot. Their mode of building
+campfires was a constant vexation to me. They made it a point to always
+have a heavy sharp axe in camp, and toward night some sturdy chopper
+would cut eight or ten logs as heavy as the whole party could lug to
+camp with hand-spikes. The size of the logs was proportioned to the
+muscular force in camp. If there was a party of six or eight, the logs
+would be twice as heavy as when we were three or four. Just at dark,
+there would be a log heap built in front of the camp, well chinked with
+bark, knots and small sticks; and, for the next two hours, one could
+hardly get at the fire to light a pipe. But the fire was sure though
+slow. By 10 or 11 P.M. it would work its way to the front and the camp
+would be warm and light. The party would turn in and deep sleep would
+fall on a lot of tired hunters--for two or three hours. By which time
+some fellow near the middle was sure to throw his blanket off with a
+spiteful jerk and dash out of camp with, "Holly Moses! I can't stand
+this; it's an oven."
+
+Another Snorer (partially waking).--"N-r-r-rm, gu-r-r, ugh. Can't
+you--deaden--fire--a little?"
+
+First Speaker.--"Deaden hell. If you want the fire deadened, get up
+and help throw off some of these logs."
+
+Another (in coldest corner of shanty)--"What's 'er matter with a-you
+fellows? Better dig out--an' cool off in the snow. Shanty's comfor'ble
+enough."
+
+His minority report goes unheeded. The camp is roasted out. Strong
+hands and hand-spikes pry a couple of glowing logs from the front and
+replace them with two cold, green logs; the camp cools off and the
+party takes to blankets once more--to turn out again at 5 A.M. and
+inaugurate breakfast.
+
+The fire is not in favorable shape for culinary operations, the heat
+is mainly on the back side, just where it isn't wanted. The few places
+level enough to set a pot or pan are too hot; and, in short, where
+there is any fire, there is too much. One man sees, with intense
+disgust, the nozzle of his coffeepot drop into the fire. He makes a
+rash grab to save his coffee and gets away--with the handle, which
+hangs on just enough to upset the pot.
+
+"Old Al," who is frying a slice of pork over a bed of coals that would
+melt a gun barrel, starts a hoarse laugh, that is cut short by a blue
+flash and an explosion of pork fat, which nearly blinds him. And the
+writer, taking in these mishaps in the very spirit of fun and frolic,
+is suddenly sobered and silenced by seeing his venison steak drop from
+the end of the "frizzling stick," and disappear between two glowing
+logs. The party manages, however, to get off on the hunt at daylight,
+with full stomachs; and perhaps the hearty fun and laughter more than
+compensate for these little mishaps.
+
+This is a digression. But I am led to it by the recollection of many
+nights spent in camps and around campfires, pretty much as described
+above. I can smile today at the remembrance of the calm, superior way
+in which the old hunters of that day would look down on me, as from the
+upper branches of a tall hemlock, when I ventured to suggest that a
+better fire could be made with half the fuel and less than half the
+labor. They would kindly remark, "Oh, you are a Boston boy. You are
+used to paying $8.00 a cord for wood. We have no call to save wood
+here. We can afford to burn it by the acre." Which was more true than
+logical. Most of these men had commenced life with a stern declaration
+of war against the forest; and, although the men usually won at last,
+the battle was a long and hard one. Small wonder that they came to look
+upon a forest tree as a natural enemy. The campfire question came to a
+crisis, however, with two or three of these old settlers. And, as the
+story well illustrates my point, I will venture to tell it.
+
+It was in the "dark days before Christmas" that a party of four
+started from W., bound for a camp on Second Fork, in the deepest part
+of the wilderness that lies between Wellsboro and the Block House. The
+party consisted of Sile J., Old Al, Eli J. and the writer. The two
+first were gray-haired men, the others past thirty; all the same, they
+called us "the boys." The weather was not inviting and there was small
+danger of our camp being invaded by summer outers or tenderfeet. It
+cost twelve miles of hard travel to reach that camp; and, though we
+started at daylight, it was past noon when we arrived. The first seven
+miles could be made on wheels, the balance by hard tramping. The road
+was execrable; no one cared to ride; but it was necessary to have our
+loads carried as far as possible. The clearings looked dreary enough
+and the woods forbidding to a degree, but our old camp was the picture
+of desolation. There was six inches of damp snow on the leafless brush
+roof, the blackened brands of our last fire were sticking their charred
+ends out of the snow, the hemlocks were bending sadly under their loads
+of wet snow and the entire surroundings had a cold, cheerless, slushy
+look, very little like the ideal hunter's camp. We placed our knapsacks
+in the shanty, Eli got out his nail hatchet, I drew my little pocket-axe
+and we proceeded to start a fire, while the two older men went up
+stream a few rods to unearth a full-grown axe and a bottle of old rye,
+which they had cached under a log three months before. They never
+fooled with pocket-axes. They were gone so long that we sauntered up
+the band, thinking it might be the rye that detained them. We found
+them with their coats off, working like beavers, each with a stout,
+sharpened stick. There had been an October freshet and a flood-jam at
+the bend had sent the mad stream over its banks, washing the log out of
+position and piling a gravel bar two feet deep over the spot where the
+axe and flask should have been. About the only thing left to do was to
+cut a couple of stout sticks, organize a mining company, limited and go
+in; which they did. Sile was drifting into the side of the sandbar
+savagely, trying to strike the axe-helve and Old Al was sinking
+numberless miniature shafts from the surface in a vain attempt to
+strike whisky. The company failed in about half an hour. Sile resumed
+his coat and sat down on a log--which was one of his best holds, by the
+way. He looked at Al; Al looked at him; then both looked at us and Sile
+remarked that, if one of the boys wanted to go out to the clearings and
+"borry" an axe and come back in the morning, he thought the others
+could pick up wood enough to tough it out one night. Of course nobody
+could stay in an open winter camp without an axe.
+
+It was my time to come to the front. I said: "You two just go at the
+camp; clean the snow off and slick up the inside. Put my shelter-cloth
+with Eli's and cover the roof with them; and if you don't have just as
+good a fire tonight as you ever had, you can tie me to a beech and
+leave me here. Come on, Eli." And Eli did come on. And this is how we
+did it: We first felled a thrifty butternut tree ten inches in
+diameter, cut off three lengths at five feet each and carried them to
+camp. These were the back logs. Two stout stakes were driven at the
+back of the fire and the logs, on top of each other, were laid firmly
+against the stakes. The latter were slanted a little back and the
+largest log placed at bottom, the smallest on top, to prevent tipping
+forward. A couple of short, thick sticks were laid with the ends
+against the bottom log by way of fire dogs; a fore stick, five feet
+long and five inches in diameter; a well built pyramid of bark, knots
+and small logs completed the campfire, which sent a pleasant glow of
+warmth and heat to the furthest corner of the shanty. For "night-wood,"
+we cut a dozen birch and ash poles from four to six inches across,
+trimmed them to the tips and dragged them to camp. Then we denuded a
+dry hemlock of its bark; and, by the aid of ten foot poles, flattened
+at one end, packed the bark to camp. We had a bright, cheery fire from
+the early evening until morning, and four tired hunters never slept
+more soundly.
+
+We stayed in that camp a week; and, though the weather was rough and
+cold, the little pocket-axes kept us well in firewood. We selected
+butternut for backlogs, because, when green, it burns very slowly and
+lasts a long time. And we dragged our smaller wood to camp in lengths
+of twenty to thirty feet, because it was easier to lay them on the fire
+and burn them in two than to cut them shorter with light hatchets. With
+a heavy axe, we should have cut them to lengths of five or six feet.
+
+Our luck, I may mention, was good--as good as we desired. Not that
+four smallish deer are anything to brag about for a week's hunt by four
+men and two dogs. I have known a pot-hunter to kill nine in a single
+day. But we had enough.
+
+As it was, we were obliged to "double trip it" in order to get our
+deer and duffle down to "Babb's." And we gave away more than half our
+venison. For the rest, the illustration shows the campfire--all but the
+fire--as it should be made.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+Fishing, With And Without Flies--Some Tackle And Lures--Discursive
+Remarks On The Gentle Art--The Headlight--Frogging
+
+THERE is probably no subject connected with outdoor sport so
+thoroughly and exhaustively written up as Fly-fishing and all that
+pertains thereto. Fly-fishing for speckled trout always, and
+deservedly, takes the lead. Bass fishing usually comes next, though
+some writers accord second place to the lake trout, salmon trout or
+land-locked salmon. The mascalonge, as a game fish, is scarcely behind
+the small-mouthed bass and is certainly more gamy than the lake trout.
+The large-mouthed bass and pickerel are usually ranked about with the
+yellow perch, I don't know why: they are certainly gamy enough. Perhaps
+it is because they do not leap out of water when hooked. Both are good
+on the table.
+
+A dozen able and interesting authors have written books wherein trout,
+flies and fly-fishing are treated in a manner that leaves an old
+backwoodsman little to say. Rods, reels, casting lines, flies and fish
+are described and descanted on in a way and in a language, the reading
+whereof reduces me to temporary insanity. And yet I seem to recollect
+some bygone incidents concerning fish and fishing. I have a
+well-defined notion that I once stood on Flat Rock, in Big Pine Creek
+and caught over 350 fine trout in a short day's fishing. Also that many
+times I left home on a bright May or June morning, walked eight miles,
+caught a twelve-pound creel of trout and walked home before bedtime.
+
+I remember that once, in Michigan, on the advice of local fishermen, I
+dragged a spoon around High Bank Lake two days, with little result save
+half a dozen blisters on my hands; and that on the next morning, taking
+a long tamarack pole and my own way of fishing, I caught, before 10
+A.M., fifty pounds of bass and pickerel, weighing from two to ten pounds
+each.
+
+Gibson, whose spoon, line and skiff I had been using and who was the
+fishing oracle of that region, could hardly believe his eyes. I kept
+that country inn, and the neighborhood as well, supplied with fish for
+the next two weeks.
+
+It is truth to say that I have never struck salt or fresh waters,
+where edible fish were at all plentiful, without being able to take, in
+some way, all that I needed. Notably and preferably with the fly if
+that might be; if not, then with worms, grubs, minnows, grasshoppers,
+crickets, or any sort of doodle bug their highnesses might affect. When
+a plump, two-pound trout refuses to eat a tinseled, feathered fraud, I
+am not the man to refuse him something more edible.
+
+That I may not be misunderstood, let me say that I recognized the
+speckled brook trout as the very emperor of all game fish, and angling
+for him with the fly as the neatest, most fascinating sport attainable
+by the angler. But there are thousands of outers who, from choice or
+necessity, take their summer vacations where Salmo fontinalis is not to
+be had. They would prefer him, either on the leader or the table; but
+he is not there; "And a man has got a stomach and we live by what we
+eat."
+
+Wherefore, they go a-fishing for other fish. So that they are
+successful and sufficiently fed, the difference is not so material. I
+have enjoyed myself hugely catching catties on a dark night from a
+skiff with a hand-line.
+
+I can add nothing in a scientific way to the literature of fly-fishing;
+but I can give a few hints that may be conducive to practical
+success, as well with trout as with less noble fish, In fly-fishing,
+one serviceable four-ounce rod is enough; and a plain click reel, of
+small size, is just as satisfactory as a more costly affair. Twenty
+yards of tapered, waterproof line, with a six-foot leader, and a cost
+of two flies, complete the rig, and will be found sufficient. In common
+with most fly-fishers, I have mostly thrown a cast of three flies, but
+have found two just as effective, and handier.
+
+We all carry too many flies, Some of my friends have more than sixty
+dozen and will never use a tenth of them. In the summer of '88, finding
+I had more than seemed needful, I left all but four dozen behind me. I
+wet only fifteen of them in a seven weeks' outing. And they filled the
+bill. I have no time or space for a dissertation on the hundreds of
+different flies made and sold at the present day. Abler pens have done
+that. I will, however, name a few that I have found good in widely
+different localities, i.e., the Northern Wilderness of New York and the
+upper waters of Northern Pennsylvania. For the Northern Wilderness:
+Scarlet ibis, split ibis, Romeyn, white-winged coachman, royal
+coachman, red hackle, red-bodied ashy and gray-bodied ashy. The ashies
+were good for black bass also. For Northern Pennsylvania: Queen of the
+waters, professor, red fox, coachman, black may, white-winged coachman,
+wasp, brown hackle, Seth Green. Ibis flies are worthless here. Using
+the dark flies in bright water and clear weather and the brighter
+colors for evening, the list was long enough.
+
+At the commencement of the open season and until the young maple
+leaves are half grown, bait will be found far more successful than the
+fly. At this time the trout are pretty evenly distributed along lake
+shores and streams, choosing to lie quietly in rather deep pools and
+avoiding swift water. A few may rise to the fly in a logy, indifferent
+way; but the best way to take them is bait-fishing with well-cleansed
+angle-worms or white grubs, the latter being the best bait I have ever
+tried. They take the bait sluggishly at this season, but, on feeling
+the hook, wake up to their normal activity and fight gamely to the
+last. When young, newborn insects begin to drop freely on the water
+about the 20th of May, trout leave the pools and take to the riffles.
+And from this time until the latter part of June the fly-fisherman is
+in his glory. It may be true that the skillful bait-fisherman will
+rather beat his creel. He cares not for that. He can take enough; and
+he had rather take ten trout with the fly, than a score with bait. As
+for the man who goes a-fishing simply to catch fish, the fly-fisher
+does not recognize him as an angler at all.
+
+When the sun is hot and the weather grows warm, trout leave the
+ripples and take to cold springs and spring-holes; the largest fish, of
+course, monopolizing the deepest and coolest places, while the smaller
+ones hover around, or content themselves with shallower water. As the
+weather gets hotter, the fly-fishing falls off badly. A few trout of
+four to eight ounces in weight may still be raised, but the larger ones
+are lying on the bottom and are not to be fooled with feathers. They
+will take a tempting bait when held before their noses--sometimes; at
+other times, not. As to raising them with a fly--as well attempt to
+raise a sick Indian with the temperance pledge. And yet, they may be
+taken in bright daylight by a ruse that I learned long ago, of a
+youngster less than half my age, a little, freckled, thin-visaged young
+man, whose health was evidently affected by a daily struggle with a
+pair of tow-colored side whiskers and a light mustache. There was
+hardly enough of the whole affair to make a door mat for a bee hive.
+But he seemed so proud of the plant, that I forebore to rig him. He was
+better than he looked--as often happens. The landlord said, "He brings
+in large trout every day, when our best fly-fishermen fail." One night,
+around an outdoor fire, we got acquainted and I found him a witty,
+pleasant companion. Before turning in I ventured to ask him how he
+succeeded in taking large trout, while the experts only caught small
+ones, or failed altogether.
+
+"Go with me tomorrow morning to a spring-hole three miles up the river
+and I'll show you," he said.
+
+Of course, we went. He, rowing a light skiff and I paddling a still
+lighter canoe. The spring-hole was in a narrow bay that set back from
+the river and at the mouth of a cold, clear brook; it was ten to twelve
+feet deep and at the lower end a large balsam had fallen in with the
+top in just the right place for getting away with large fish, or
+tangling lines and leaders. We moored some twenty feet above the
+spring-hole and commenced fishing, I with my favorite cast of flies, my
+friend with the tail of a minnow, He caught a 1 1/2 pound trout almost
+at the outset, but I got no rise; did not expect it. Then I went above,
+where the water was shallower and raised a couple of half-pounders, but
+could get no more, I thought he had better go to the hotel with what he
+had, but my friend said "wait"; he went ashore and picked up a long pole
+with a bushy tip; it had evidently been used before. Dropping down to
+the spring-hole, he thrust the tip to the bottom and slashed it around
+in a way to scare and scatter every trout within a hundred feet.
+
+"And what does all that mean?" I asked.
+
+"Well," he said, "every trout will be back in less than an hour; and
+when they first come back, they take the bait greedily. Better take off
+your leader and try bait."
+
+Which I did. Dropping our hooks to the bottom, we waited some twenty
+minutes, when he had a bite, and having strong tackle, soon took in a
+trout that turned the scale at 2 1/4 pounds. Then my turn came and I
+saved one weighing 1 1/2 pounds. He caught another of 1 1/4 pounds and
+I took one of 1 pound. Then they ceased biting altogether.
+
+"And now," said my friend, "if you will work your canoe carefully
+around to that old balsam top and get the light where you can see the
+bottom, you may see some large trout."
+
+I did as directed, and making a telescope of my hand, looked intently
+for the bottom of the spring-hole. At first I could see nothing but
+water; then I made out some dead sticks and finally began to dimly
+trace the outlines of large fish. There they were, more than forty of
+them, lying quietly on the bottom like suckers, but genuine brook
+trout, every one of them.
+
+"This," said he, "makes the fifth time I have brushed them out of here
+and I have never missed taking from two to five large trout. I have two
+other places where I always get one or two, but this is the best."
+
+At the hotel we found two fly-fishers who had been out all the
+morning. They each had three or four small trout. During the next week
+we worked the spring-holes daily in the same way and always with
+success. I have also had good success by building a bright fire on the
+bank and fishing a spring-hole by the light--a mode of fishing
+especially successful with catties and perch.
+
+A bright, bull's-eye headlight, strapped on a stiff hat, so that the
+light can be thrown where it is wanted, is an excellent device for
+night fishing. And during the heated term, when fish are slow and
+sluggish, I have found the following plan works well: Bake a hard, well
+salted, water Johnnycake, break it into pieces the size at a hen's egg
+and drop the pieces into a spring-hole. This calls a host of minnows
+and the larger fish follow the minnows. It will prove more successful
+on perch, catties, chubs, etc., than on trout, however. By this plan, I
+have kept a camp of five men well supplied with fish when their best
+flies failed--as they mostly do in very hot weather.
+
+Fishing for mascalonge, pickerel and bass, is quite another thing,
+though by many valued as a sport scarcely inferior to fly-fishing for
+trout. I claim no especial skill with the fly-rod. It is a good day
+when I get my tail fly more than fifteen yards beyond the reel, with
+any degree of accuracy.
+
+My success lies mainly with the tribes of Esox and Micropterus. Among
+these, I have seldom or never failed during the last thirty-six years,
+when the water was free of ice; and I have had just as good luck when
+big-mouthed bass and pickerel were in the "off season," as at any time.
+For in many waters there comes a time--in late August and September
+when neither bass nor pickerel will notice the spoon, be it handled
+never so wisely. Even the mascalonge looks on the flashing cheat with
+indifference; though a very hungry specimen may occasionally immolate
+himself. It was at such a season that I fished High Bank Lake--as
+before mentioned--catching from twenty to fifty pounds of fine fish
+every morning for nearly two weeks, after the best local fishermen had
+assured me that not a decent sized fish could be taken at that season.
+Perhaps a brief description of the modes and means that have proved
+invariably successful for many years may afford a few useful hints,
+even to old anglers.
+
+To begin with, I utterly discard all modern "gangs" and "trains,"
+carrying from seven to thirteen hooks each. They are all too small and
+all too many; better calculated to scratch and tear, than to catch and
+hold, Three hooks are enough at the end of any line and better than
+more. These should be fined or honed to a perfect point and the abrupt
+part of the barb filed down one-half. All hooks, as usually made, have
+twice as much barb as they should have; and the sharp bend of the barb
+prevents the entering of the hook in hard bony structures, wherefore
+the fish only stays hooked so long as there is a taut pull on the line.
+A little loosening of the line and shake of the head sets him free. But
+no fish can shake out a hook well sunken in mouth or gills, though
+two-thirds of the barb be filed away.
+
+For mascalonge or pickerel I invariably use wire snells made as
+follows: Lay off four or more strands of fine brass wire 13 inches
+long; turn one end of the wires smoothly over a No. 1 iron wire and
+work the ends in between the strands below. Now, with a pair of pincers
+hold the ends, and using No. 1 as a handle, twist the ends and body of
+the snell firmly together; this gives the loop; next, twist the snell
+evenly and strongly from end to end. Wax the end of the snell
+thoroughly for two or three inches and wax the tapers of two strong
+Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hooks and wind the lower hook on with strong,
+waxed silk, to the end of the taper; then lay the second hook at right
+angles with the first and one inch above it; wind this as the other and
+then fasten a third and smaller hook above that for a lip hook. This
+gives the snell about one foot in length, with the two lower hooks
+standing at right angles, one above the other and a third and smaller
+hook in line with the second.
+
+The bait is the element of success; it is made as follows: Slice off a
+clean, white pork rind, four or five inches long by an inch and a half
+wide; lay it on a board and with a sharp knife cut it as nearly to the
+shape of a frog as your ingenuity permits. Prick a slight gash in the
+head to admit the lip hook, which should be an inch and a half above
+the second one and see that the back of the bait rests securely in the
+barb of the middle hook.
+
+Use a stout bait-rod and a strong line. Fish from a boat, with a
+second man to handle the oars, if convenient. Let the oarsman lay the
+boat ten feet inside the edge of the lily-pads and make your cast, say,
+with thirty feet of line; land the bait neatly to the right, at the
+edge of the lily-pads, let it sink a few inches, and then with the tip
+well lowered, bring the bait around on a slight curve by a quick
+succession of draws, with a momentary pause between each; the object
+being to imitate as nearly as possible a swimming frog. If this be
+neatly done and if the bait be made as it should be, at every short
+halt the legs will spread naturally and the imitation is perfect enough
+to deceive the most experienced bass or pickerel. When half a dozen
+casts to right and left have been made without success, it is best to
+move on, still keeping inside and casting outside the lily-pads.
+
+A pickerel of three pounds or more will take in all three hooks at the
+first snap; and, as he closes his mouth tightly and starts for the
+bottom, strike quickly, but not too hard, and let the boatman put you
+out into deep water at once, where you are safe from the strong roots
+of the yellow lily.
+
+It is logically certain your fish is well hooked. You cannot pull two
+strong, sharp hooks through that tightly closed mouth without fastening
+at least one of them where it will do most good. Oftener both will
+catch and it frequently happens that one hook will catch each lip,
+holding the mouth nearly closed and shortening the struggles of a large
+fish very materially. On taking off a fish and before casting again,
+see that the two lower hooks stand at right angles. If they have got
+turned in the struggle you can turn them at any angle you like; the
+twisted wire is stiff enough to hold them in place. Every angler knows
+the bold, determined manner in which the mascalonge strikes his prey.
+He will take in bait and hooks at the first dash, and if the rod be
+held stiffly usually hooks himself. Barring large trout, he is the king
+of game fish. The big-mouthed bass is less savage in his attacks, but
+is a free biter. He is apt to come up behind and seize the bait about
+two-thirds of its length, turn and bore down for the bottom. He will
+mostly take in the lower hooks however, and is certain to get fastened.
+His large mouth is excellent for retaining the hook. As for the
+small-mouthed (Micropterus dolomieu, if you want to be scientific), I
+have found him more capricious than any game fish on the list. One day
+he will take only dobsons, or crawfish; the next, he may prefer minnows,
+and again, he will rise to the fly or a bucktail spinner.
+
+On the whole, I have found the pork frog the most successful lure in
+his case; but the hooks and bait must be arranged differently. Three
+strands of fine wire will make a snell strong enough and the hooks
+should be strong, sharp and rather small, the lower hooks placed only
+half an inch apart and a small lip hook two and a quarter inches above
+the middle one. As the fork of the bait will not reach the bend of the
+middle hook, it must be fastened to the snell by a few stitches taken
+with stout thread and the lower end of the bait should not reach more
+than a quarter of an inch beyond the bottom of the hook, because the
+small-mouth has a villainous trick of giving his prey a stern chase,
+nipping constantly and viciously at the tail, and the above arrangement
+will be apt to hook him at the first snap. Owing to this trait, some
+artificial minnows with one or two hooks at the caudal end, are very
+killing--when he will take them.
+
+Lake, or salmon trout, may be trolled for successfully with the above
+lure; but I do not much affect fishing for them. Excellent sport may be
+had with them, however, early in the season, when they are working near
+the shore, but they soon retire to water from fifty to seventy feet
+deep and can only be caught by deep trolling or buoy-fishing. I have no
+fancy for sitting in a slow-moving boat for hours, dragging three or
+four hundred feet of line in deep water, a four pound sinker tied by
+six feet of lighter line some twenty feet above the hooks. The sinker
+is supposed to go bumping along the bottom, while the bait follows
+three or four feet above it. The drag of the line and the constant
+joggling of the sinker on rocks and snags, make it difficult to tell
+when one has a strike--and it is always too long between bites.
+
+Sitting for hours at a baited buoy with a hand-line and without taking
+a fish, is still worse, as more than once I have been compelled to
+acknowledge in very weariness of soul. There are enthusiastic anglers,
+however, whose specialty is trolling for lake trout. A gentleman by the
+name of Thatcher, who has a fine residence on Raquette Lake--which he
+calls a camp makes this his leading sport and keeps a log of his
+fishing, putting nothing on record of less than ten pounds weight. His
+largest fish was booked at twenty-eight pounds, and he added that a
+well-conditioned salmon trout was superior to a brook trout on the
+table; in which I quite agree with him. But he seemed quite disgusted
+when I ventured to suggest that a well-conditioned cattie or bullhead,
+caught in the same waters was better than either.
+
+"Do you call the cattie a game fish?" he asked.
+
+Yes; I call any fish a "game fish" that is taken for sport with hook
+and line. I can no more explain the common prejudice against the
+catfish and eel than I can tell why an experienced angler should drag a
+gang of thirteen hooks through the water--ten of them being wane than
+superfluous. Frank Forester gives five hooks as the number for a
+trolling gang. We mostly use hooks too small and do not look after
+points and barbs closely enough. A pair of No. 1 O'Shaughnessy, or 1
+1/2 Sproat, or five tapered blackfish hooks, will make a killing rig
+for small-mouthed bass using No. 4 Sproat for lip hook. Larger hooks
+are better for the big-mouthed, a four-pound specimen of which will
+easily take in one's fist. A pair of 5-0 O'Shaughnessy's, or Sproat's
+will be found none too large; and as for the mascalonge and pickerel,
+if I must err, let it be on the side of large hooks and strong lines.
+
+It is idle to talk of playing the fish in water where the giving of a
+few yards insures a hopeless tangle among roots, tree-tops, etc. I was
+once fishing in Western waters where the pickerel ran very large, and I
+used a pair of the largest salmon hooks with tackle strong enough to
+hold a fish of fifteen pounds, without any playing; notwithstanding
+which, I had five trains of three hooks each taken off in as many
+days by monster pickerel. An expert mascalonge fisherman--Davis by
+name--happened to take board at the farm house where I was staying, and
+he had a notion that he could "beat some of them big fellows;" and he
+did it; with three large cod hooks, a bit of fine, strong chain, twelve
+yards of cod-line, an eighteen-foot tamarack pole and a twelve inch
+sucker for bait. I thought it the most outlandish rig I had ever seen,
+but went with him in the early gray of the morning to see it tried,
+just where I had lost my hooks and fish.
+
+Raising the heavy bait in the air, he would give it a whirl to gather
+headway and launch it forty feet away with a splash that might have
+been heard thirty rods. It looked more likely to scare than catch, but
+was a success. At the third or fourth cast we plainly saw a huge
+pickerel rise, shut his immense mouth over bait, hooks and a few inches
+of chain, turn lazily and head for the bottom, where Mr. D. let him
+rest a minute, and then struck steadily but strongly. The subsequent
+struggle depended largely on main strength, though there was a good
+deal of skill and cool judgment shown in the handling and landing of
+the fish. A pickerel of forty pounds or more is not to be snatched out
+of the water on his first mad rush: something must be yielded--and with
+no reel there is little chance of giving line. It struck me my friend
+managed his fish remarkably well, towing him back and forth with a
+strong pull, never giving him a rest and finally sliding him out on a
+low muddy bank, as though he were a smooth log. We took him up to the
+house and tested the size of his mouth by putting a quart cup in it,
+which went in easily. Then we weighed him and he turned the scales at
+forty-four pounds. It was some consolation to find three of my hooks
+sticking in his mouth. Lastly, we had a large section of him stuffed
+and baked. It was good; but a ten-pound fish would have been better,
+The moral of all this--if it has any moral--is, use hooks according to
+the size of fish you expect to catch.
+
+And, when you are in a permanent camp, and fishing is very poor, try
+frogging. It is not a sport of a high order, though it may be called
+angling--and it can be made amusing, with hook and line. I have seen
+educated ladies in the wilderness, fishing for frogs with all eagerness
+and enthusiasm not surpassed by the most devoted angler with his
+favorite cast of flies.
+
+There are several modes of taking the festive batrachian. He is
+speared with a frog-spear; caught under the chin with snatch-hooks;
+taken with hook and line, or picked up from a canoe with the aid of a
+headlight, or jack-lamp. The two latter modes are best.
+
+To take him with hook and line: a light rod, six to eight feet of
+line, a snell of single gut with a 1-0 Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hook and
+a bit of bright scarlet flannel for bait; this is the rig. To use it,
+paddle up behind him silently and drop the rag just in front of his
+nose. He is pretty certain to take it on the instant. Knock him on the
+head before cutting off his legs. It is unpleasant to see him squirm
+and hear him cry like a child while you are sawing at his thigh joints.
+
+By far the most effective manner of frogging is by the headlight on
+dark nights. To do this most successfully, one man in a light canoe, a
+good headlight and a light, one-handed paddle are the requirements. The
+frog is easily located, either by his croaking, or by his peculiar
+shape. Paddle up to him silently and throw the light in his eyes; you
+may then pick him up as you would a potato. I have known a North Woods
+guide to pick up a five-quart pail of frogs in an hour, on a dark
+evening. On the table, frogs' legs are usually conceded first place for
+delicacy and flavor, For an appetizing breakfast in camp, they have no
+equal, in my judgment. The high price they bring at the best hotels,
+and their growing scarcity, attest the value placed on them by men who
+know how and what to eat. And, not many years ago, an old pork-gobbling
+backwoodsman threw his frying pan into the river because I had cooked
+frogs' legs in it. While another, equally intelligent, refused to use
+my frying pan, because I had cooked eels in it; remarking
+sententiously, "Eels is snakes, an' I know it."
+
+It may be well, just here and now, to say a word on the importance of
+the headlight. I know of no more pleasant and satisfactory adjunct of a
+camp than a good light that can be adjusted to the head, used as a jack
+in floating, carried in the hand, or fastened up inside the shanty.
+Once fairly tried, it will never be ignored or forgotten. Not that it
+will show a deer's head seventeen rods distant with sufficient
+clearness for a shot--or your sights with distinctness enough to make
+it. (See Murray's Adirondacks, page 174.)
+
+A headlight that will show a deer plainly at six rods, while lighting
+the sights of a rifle with clearness, is an exceptionally good light.
+More deer are killed in floating under than over four rods. There are
+various styles of headlights, jack-lamps, etc. in use. They are bright,
+easily adjusted and will show rifle sights, or a deer, up to 100
+feet--which is enough. They are also convenient in camp and better than
+a lantern on a dim forest path.
+
+Before leaving the subject of bait-fishing, I have a point or two I
+wish to make. I have attempted to explain the frog-bait and the manner
+of using it, and I shall probably never have occasion to change my
+belief that it is, all the whole, the most killing lure for the entire
+tribes of bass and pickerel. There is however, another, which, if
+properly handled, is almost as good. It is as follows:
+
+Take a bass, pickerel, or yellow perch, of one pound or less; scrape
+the scales clean on the under side from the caudal fin to a point just
+forward of the vent.
+
+Next, with a sharp knife, cut up toward the backbone, commencing just
+behind the vent with a slant toward the tail. Run the knife smoothly
+along just under the backbone and out through the caudal fin, taking
+about one-third of the latter and making a clean, white bait, with the
+anal and part of the caudal by way of fins. It looks very like a white
+minnow in the water; but is better, in that it is more showy and
+infinitely tougher. A minnow soon drags to pieces. To use it, two
+strong hooks are tied on a wire snell at right angles, the upper one an
+inch above the lower, and the upper hook is passed through the bait,
+leaving it to draw without turning or spinning. The casting and
+handling is the same as with the frog-bait and is very killing for
+bass, pickerel and mascalonge, It is a good lure for salmon trout also;
+but, for him it was found better to fasten the bait with the lower hook
+in a way to give it a spinning motion; and this necessitates the use of
+a swivel, which I do not like; because, "a rope is as strong as its
+weakest part"; and I have more than once found that weakest part the
+swivel. If, however, a swivel has been tested by a dead lift of twenty
+to twenty-five pounds, it will do to trust.
+
+I have spoken only of brass or copper wire for snells, and for
+pickerel or mascalonge of large size nothing else is to be depended on.
+But for trout and bass; strong gut or gimp is safe enough. The
+possibilities as to size of the mascalonge and Northern pickerel no man
+knows. Frank Forester thinks it probable that the former attains to the
+weight of sixty to eighty pounds, while he only accords the pickerel a
+weight of seventeen to eighteen pounds. I have seen several pickerel of
+over forty pounds and one that turned the scale at fifty-three. And I
+saw a mascalonge on Georgian Bay that was longer than the Canuck guide
+who was toting the fish over his shoulder by a stick thrust in the
+mouth and gills. The snout reached to the top of the guide's head,
+while the caudal fin dragged on the ground. There was no chance for
+weighing the fish, but I hefted him several times, carefully, and am
+certain he weighed more than a bushel of wheat. Just what tackle would
+be proper for such a powerful fellow I am not prepared to say, having
+lost the largest specimens I ever hooked. My best mascalonge weighed
+less than twenty pounds. My largest pickerel still less.
+
+I will close this discursive chapter by offering a bit of advice.
+
+Do not go into the woods on a fishing tour without a stock of well
+cleansed angle-worms. Keep them in a tin can partly filled with damp
+moss and in a cool moist place. There is no one variety of bait that
+the angler finds so constantly useful as the worm. Izaak Walton by no
+means despised worm or bait-fishing.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+Camp Cookery--How It Is Usually Done, With A Few Simple Hints On Plain
+Cooking--Cooking Fire And Outdoor Range
+
+THE way in which an average party of summer outers will contrive to
+manage--or mismanage--the camp and campfire so as to get the greatest
+amount of smoke and discontent at the least outlay of time and force,
+is something past all understanding and somewhat aggravating to an old
+woodsman who knows some better. But it is just as good fun as the
+cynical O.W. can ask, to see a party of three or four enthusiastic
+youngsters organize the camp on the first day in, and proceed to cook
+the first meal. Of course, every man is boss, and every one is bound to
+build the fire, which every one proceeds to do. There are no back logs,
+no fore sticks, and no arrangement for level solid bases on which to
+place frying pans, coffee pots, etc. But, there is a sufficiency of
+knots, dry sticks, bark and chunks, with some kindling at the bottom,
+and a heavy volume of smoke working its way through the awkward-looking
+pile. Presently thin tongues of blue flame begin to shoot up through
+the interstices, and four brand new coffee pots are wriggled into level
+positions at as many different points on the bonfire. Four hungry
+youngsters commence slicing ham and pork, four frying pans are brought
+out from as many hinged and lidded soap boxes--when one man yells out
+hurriedly, "Look out, Joe, there's your coffee pot handle coming off."
+And he drops his frying pan to save his coffee pot, which he does,
+minus the spout and handle. Then it is seen that the flames have
+increased rapidly, and all the pots are in danger. A short, sharp
+skirmish rescues them, at the expense of some burned fingers, and
+culinary operations are the order of the hour.
+
+Coffee and tea are brewed with the loss of a handle or two, and the
+frying pans succeed in scorching the pork and ham to an unwholesome
+black mess. The potato kettle does better. It is not easy to spoil
+potatoes by cooking them in plenty of boiling water; and, as there is
+plenty of bread with fresh butter, not to mention canned goods, the
+hungry party feed sufficiently, but not satisfactorily. Everything
+seems pervaded with smoke. The meat is scorched bitter, and the tea is
+of the sort described by Charles Dudley Warner, in his humorous
+description of "camping out": "The sort of tea that takes hold, lifts
+the hair, and disposes the drinker to hilariousness. There is no
+deception about it, it tastes of tannin, and spruce, and creosote." Of
+the cooking he says: "Everything has been cooked in a tin pail and a
+skillet--potatoes, tea, pork, mutton, slapjacks. You wonder how
+everything would have been prepared in so few utensils. When you eat,
+the wonder ceases, everything might have been cooked in one pail. It is
+a noble meal...The slapjacks are a solid job of work, made to last, and
+not go to pieces in a person's stomach like a trivial bun."
+
+I have before me a copy of Forest and Stream, in which the canoe
+editor, under the heading of "The Galley Fire," has some remarks well
+worth quoting. He says: "The question of camp cookery is one of the
+greatest importance to all readers of Forest and Stream, but most of
+all to the canoeists. From ignorance of what to carry the canoeist
+falls back on canned goods, never healthy as a steady diet, Brunswick
+soup and eggs...The misery of that first campfire, who has forgotten
+it? Tired, hungry, perhaps cold and wet, the smoke everywhere, the
+coffee pot melted down, the can of soup upset in the fire, the fiendish
+conduct of frying pan and kettle, the final surrender of the exhausted
+victim, sliding off to sleep with a piece of hardtack in one hand and a
+slice of canned beef in the other, only to dream of mother's hot
+biscuits, juicy steaks, etc., etc." It is very well put, and so true to
+the life. And again: "Frying, baking, making coffee, stews, plain
+biscuits, the neat and speedy preparation of a healthy 'square meal'
+can be easily learned." Aye, and should be learned by every man who
+goes to the woods with or without a canoe.
+
+But I was describing a first day's camping out, the party being four
+young men and one old woodsman, the latter going along in a double
+character of invited guest and amateur guide. When the boys are through
+with their late dinner, they hustle the greasy frying pans and
+demoralized tinware into a corner of the shanty, and get out their rods
+for an evening's fishing. They do it hurriedly, almost feverishly, as
+youngsters are apt to do at the start. The O.W. has taken no part in
+the dinner, and has said nothing save in response to direct questions,
+nor has he done anything to keep up his reputation as a woodsman,
+except to see that the shelter roof is properly put up and fastened.
+Having seen to this, he reverts to his favorite pastime, sitting on a
+log and smoking navy plug. Long experience has taught him that it is
+best to let the boys effervesce a little. They will slop over a trifle
+at first, but twenty-four hours will settle them. When they are fairly
+out of hearing, he takes the old knapsack from the clipped limb where
+it has been hung, cuts a slice of ham, butters a slice of bread,
+spreads the live coals and embers, makes a pot of strong green tea,
+broils the ham on a three-pronged birch fork, and has a clean, well
+cooked plain dinner. Then he takes the sharp three-pound camp axe, and
+fells a dozen small birch and ash trees, cutting them into proper
+lengths and leaving them for the boys to tote into camp. Next, a bushy,
+heavy-topped hemlock is felled, and the O.W. proceeds leisurely to pick
+a heap of fine hemlock browse. A few handfuls suffice to stuff the
+muslin pillow bag, and the rest is carefully spread on the port side of
+the shanty for a bed. The pillow is placed at the head, and the old
+Mackinac blanket-bag is spread neatly over all, as a token of ownership
+and possession. If the youngsters want beds of fine, elastic browse,
+let 'em make their own beds.
+
+No campfire should be without poker and tongs. The poker is a beech
+stick four feet long by two inches thick, flattened at one end, with a
+notch cut in it for lifting kettles, etc. To make the tongs, take a
+tough beech or hickory stick, one inch thick by two feet in length,
+shave it down nearly one-half for a foot in the center, thrust this
+part into hot embers until it bends freely, bring the ends together and
+whittle them smoothly to a fit on the inside, cross checking them also
+to give them a grip; finish off by chamfering the ends neatly from the
+outside. They will be found exceedingly handy in rescuing a bit of
+tinware, a slice of steak or ham, or any small article that happens to
+get dropped in a hot fire.
+
+And don't neglect the camp broom. It is made by laying bushy hemlock
+twigs around a light handle, winding them firmly with strong twine or
+moose wood bark, and chopping off the ends of the twigs evenly. It can
+be made in ten minutes. Use it to brush any leaves, sticks, and any
+litter from about the camp or fire. Neatness is quite as pleasant and
+wholesome around the forest camp as in the home kitchen. These little
+details may seem trivial to the reader. But remember, if there is a
+spot on earth where trifles make up the sum of human enjoyment, it is
+to be found in a woodland camp. All of which the O.W. fully
+appreciates, as he finishes the above little jobs; after which he
+proceeds to spread the fire to a broad level bed of glowing embers,
+nearly covering the same with small pieces of hemlock bark, that the
+boys may have a decent cooking fire on their return.
+
+About sundown they come straggling in, not jubilant and hilarious,
+footsore rather and a little cross. The effervescence is subsiding, and
+the noise is pretty well knocked out of them. They have caught and
+dressed some three score of small brook trout, which they deposit
+beside the shanty, and proceed at once to move on the fire, with
+evident intent of raising a conflagration, but are checked by the O.W.,
+who calls their attention to the fact that for all culinary purposes,
+the fire is about as near the right thing as they are likely to get it.
+Better defer the bonfire until after supper. Listening to the voice of
+enlightened woodcraft, they manage to fry trout and make tea without
+scorch or creosote, and the supper is a decided improvement on the
+dinner. But the dishes are piled away as before, without washing.
+
+Then follows an hour of busy work, bringing wood to camp and packing
+browse. The wood is sufficient; but the browse is picked, or cut, all
+too coarse, and there is only enough of it to make the camp look green
+and pleasant--not enough to rest weary shoulders and backs. But, they
+are sound on the bonfire. They pile on the wood in the usual way,
+criss-cross and haphazard. It makes a grand fire, and lights up the
+forest for fifty yards around, and the tired youngsters turn in. Having
+the advantage of driving a team to the camping ground, they are well
+supplied with blankets and robes. They ought to sleep soundly, but they
+don't. The usual drawbacks of a first night in camp are soon manifested
+in uneasy twistings and turnings, grumbling at stubs, nots, and sticks,
+that utterly ignore conformity with the angles of the human frame. But
+at last, tired nature asserts her supremacy, and they sleep. Sleep
+soundly, for a couple of hours; when the bonfire, having reached the
+point of disintegration, suddenly collapses with a sputtering and
+crackling that brings them to their head's antipodes, and four dazed,
+sleepy faces look out with a bewildered air, to see what has caused the
+rumpus. All take a hand in putting the brands together and rearranging
+the fire, which burns better than at first; some sleepy talk, one or
+two feeble attempts at a smoke, and they turn in again. But, there is
+not an hour during the remainder of the night in which some one is not
+pottering about the fire.
+
+The O.W., who has abided by his blanket-bag all night quietly taking
+in the fun--rouses out the party at 4 A.M. For two of them are to fish
+Asaph Run with bait, and the other two are to try the riffles of Marsh
+Creek with the fly. As the wood is all burned to cinders and glowing
+coals, there is no chance for a smoky fire; and, substituting coffee
+for tea, the breakfast is a repetition of the supper.
+
+By sunrise the boys are off, and the O.W. has the camp to himself. He
+takes it leisurely, gets up a neat breakfast of trout, bread, butter,
+and coffee, cleans and puts away his dishes, has a smoke, and picks up
+the camp axe. Selecting a bushy hemlock fifteen inches across, he lets
+it down in as many minutes, trims it to the very tip, piles the limbs
+in a heap, and cuts three lengths of six feet each from the butt. This
+insures browse and back logs for some time ahead. Two strong stakes are
+cut and sharpened.
+
+Four small logs, two of eight and two of nine feet in length, are
+prepared, plenty of night wood is made ready, a supply of bright, dry
+hemlock bark is carried to camp, and the O.W. rests from his labors,
+resuming his favorite pastime of sitting on a log and smoking navy plug.
+
+Finally it occurs to him that he is there partly as guide and mentor
+to the younger men, and that they need a lesson on cleanliness. He
+brings out the frying pans and finds a filthy looking mess of grease in
+each one, wherein ants, flies, and other insects have contrived to get
+mixed. Does he heat some water, and clean and scour the pans? Not if he
+knows himself. If he did it once he might keep on doing it. He is
+cautious about establishing precedents, and he has a taste for
+entomology. He places the pans in the sun where the grease will soften
+and goes skirmishing for ants and doodle bugs. They are not far to
+seek, and he soon has a score of large black ants, with a few bugs and
+spiders, pretty equally distributed among the frying pans. To give
+the thing a plausible look a few flies are added, and the two largest
+pans are finished off, one with a large earwig, the other with a
+thousand-legged worm. The pans are replaced in the shanty, the embers
+are leveled and nearly covered with bits of dry hemlock bark, and the
+O.W. resumes his pipe and log.
+
+With such a face of Christian satisfaction, as good men wear, who have
+done a virtuous action.
+
+Before noon the boys are all in, and as the catch is twice as numerous
+and twice as large as on the previous evening, and as the weather is
+all that could be asked of the longest days in June, they are in
+excellent spirits. The boxes are brought out, pork is sliced, a can of
+Indian meal comes to the front, and they go for the frying pans.
+
+"Holy Moses! Look here. Just see the ants and bugs."
+
+Second Man.--"Well, I should say! I can see your ants and bugs, and go
+you an earwig better."
+
+Third Man (inverting his pan spitefully over the fire).--"Damn 'em.
+I'll roast the beggars."
+
+Bush D. (who is something of a cook and woodsman) "Boys, I'll take the
+pot. I've got a thousand-legged worm at the head of a pismire flush,
+and it serves us right, for a lot of slovens. Dishes should be cleaned
+as often as they are used. Now let's scour our pans and commence right."
+
+Hot water, ashes, and soap soon restore the pans to pristine
+brightness; three frying pans are filled with trout well rolled in
+meal; a fourth is used for cooking a can of tomatoes; the coffee is
+strong, and everything comes out without being smoked or scorched. The
+trout are browned to a turn, and even the O.W. admits that the dinner
+is a success. When it is over and the dishes are cleaned and put away,
+and the camp slicked up, there comes the usual two hours of lounging,
+smoking, and story telling, so dear to the hearts of those who love to
+go a-fishing and camping. At length there is a lull in the
+conversation, and Bush D. turns to the old woodsman with, "I thought,
+Uncle Mart, you were going to show us fellows such a lot of kinks about
+camping out, campfires, cooking, and all that sort of thing, isn't it
+about time to begin? Strikes me you have spent most of the last
+twenty-four hours holding down that log." "Except cutting some night
+wood and tending the fire," adds number two.
+
+The old woodsman, who has been rather silent up to this time, knocks
+the ashes leisurely from his pipe, and gets on his feet for a few
+remarks. He says, "Boys, a bumblebee is biggest when it's first born.
+You've learned more than you think in the last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Well, as how? Explain yourself," says Bush D.
+
+O.W.--"In the first place, you have learned better than to stick your
+cooking-kit into a tumbled down heap of knots, mulch and wet bark, only
+to upset and melt down the pots, and scorch or smoke everything in the
+pans, until a starving hound wouldn't eat the mess. And you have found
+that it doesn't take a log heap to boil a pot of coffee or fry a pan of
+trout. Also, that a level bed of live coals makes an excellent cooking
+fire, though I will show you a better. Yesterday you cooked the worst
+meal I ever saw in the woods. Today you get up a really good, plain
+dinner; you have learned that much in one day. Oh, you improve some.
+And I think you have taken a lesson in cleanliness today."
+
+"Yes; but we learned that of the ant--and bug," says number two.
+
+O.W.--"Just so. And did you think all the ants and doodle-bugs
+blundered into that grease in one morning? I put 'em in myself--to give
+you a 'kink.'"
+
+Bush D. (disgusted).--"You blasted, dirty old sinner."
+
+Second Man.--"Oh, you miserable old swamp savage; I shan't get over
+that earwig in a month."
+
+Third Man (plaintively).--"This life in the woods isn't what it's
+cracked up to be; I don't relish bugs and spiders. I wish I were home.
+I'm all bitten up with punkies, and--"
+
+Fourth Man (savagely).--"Dashed old woods-loafer; let's tie his hands
+and fire him in the creek."
+
+O.W. (placidly).--"Exactly, boys. Your remarks are terse, and to the
+point. Only, as I am going to show you a trick or two on woodcraft this
+afternoon, you can afford to wait a little. Now, quit smoking, and get
+out your hatchets; we'll go to work."
+
+Three hatchets are brought to light; one of them a two-pound clumsy
+hand-axe, the others of an old time, Mt. Vernon, G.W. pattern. "And
+now," says good-natured Bush, "you give directions and we'll do the
+work."
+
+Under directions, the coarse browse of the previous night is placed
+outside the shanty; three active youngsters, on hands and knees, feel
+out and cut off every offending stub and root inside the shanty, until
+it is smooth as a floor. The four small logs are brought to camp; the
+two longest are laid at the sides and staked in place; the others are
+placed, one at the head, the other at the foot, also staked; and the
+camp has acquired definite outlines, and a measurable size of eight by
+nine feet. Three hemlock logs and two sharpened stakes are toted to
+camp; the stakes driven firmly, and the logs laid against them, one
+above the other. Fire-dogs, forestick, etc., complete the arrangement,
+and the campfire is in shape for the coming night, precisely as shown
+in the engraving.
+
+"And now," says the O.W., "if three of you will go down to the flat
+and pick the browse clean from the two hemlock tops, Bush and I will
+fix a cooking-range."
+
+"A--what?" asks one.
+
+"Going to start a boarding-house?" says another.
+
+"Notion of going into the hardware business?" suggests a third.
+
+"Never mind, sonny; just 'tend to that browse, and when you see a
+smoke raising on the flat by the spring, come over and see the range."
+And the boys, taking a couple of blankets in which to carry the browse,
+saunter away to the flat below.
+
+A very leisurely aesthetic, fragrant occupation is this picking
+browse. It should never be cut, but pulled, stripped or broken. I have
+seen a Senator, ex-Governor, and a wealthy banker enjoying themselves
+hugely at it, varying the occupation by hacking small timber with their
+G.W. hatchets, like so many boys let loose from school. It may have
+looked a trifle undignified, but I dare say they found their account in
+it. Newport or Long Branch would have been more expensive, and much
+less healthful.
+
+For an hour and a half tongues and fingers are busy around the hemlock
+tops; then a thin, long volume of blue smoke rises near the spring, and
+the boys walk over to inspect the range. They find it made as follows:
+Two logs six feet long and eight inches thick are laid parallel, but
+seven inches apart at one end and only four at the other. They are
+bedded firmly and flattened a little on the inside. On the upper sides
+the logs are carefully hewed and leveled until pots, pans and kettles
+will sit firmly and evenly on them. A strong forked stake is driven at
+each end of the space, and a cross-pole, two or three inches thick,
+laid on, for hanging kettles. This completes the range; simple, but
+effective. (See illustration.) The broad end of the space is for frying
+pans, and the potato kettle. The narrow end, for coffee pots and
+utensils of lesser diameter. From six to eight dishes can be cooked at
+the same time. Soups, stews, and beans are to be cooked in closely
+covered kettles hung from the cross-pole, the bottoms of the kettles
+reaching within some two inches of the logs. With a moderate fire they
+may be left to simmer for hours without care or attention.
+
+The fire is of the first importance. Start it with fine kindling and
+clean, dry, hemlock bark. When you have a bright, even fire from end to
+end of the space, keep it up with small fagots of the sweetest and most
+wholesome woods in the forest. These are, in the order named, black
+birch, hickory, sugar maple, yellow birch, and red beech. The sticks
+should be short, and not over two inches across. Split wood is better
+than round. The outdoor range can be made by one man in little more
+than an hour, and the camper-out, who once tries it, will never wish to
+see a "portable camp-stove" again.
+
+When the sun leaves the valley in the shade of Asaph Mountain, the
+boys have a fragrant bed of elastic browse a foot deep in the shanty,
+with pillows improvised from stuffed boot legs, cotton handkerchiefs,
+etc. They cook their suppers on the range, and vote it perfect, no
+melting or heating handles too hot for use, and no smoking of dishes,
+or faces.
+
+Just at dark--which means 9 P.M. in the last week of June--the fire is
+carefully made and chinked. An hour later it is throwing its grateful
+warmth and light directly into camp, and nowhere else. The camp turns
+in. Not to wriggle and quarrel with obdurate stubs, but to sleep. And
+sleep they do. The sound, deep, restful sleep of healthy young manhood,
+inhaling pure mountain air on the healthiest bed yet known to man.
+
+When it is past midnight, and the fire burns low, and the chill night
+breeze drifts into camp, they still do not rouse up, but only spoon
+closer, and sleep right on. Only the O.W. turns out sleepily, at two
+bells in the middle watch, after the manner of hunters, trappers, and
+sailors, the world over. He quietly rebuilds the fire, reduces a bit of
+navy plug to its lowest denomination, and takes a solitary smoke--still
+holding down his favorite log. Quizzically and quietly he regards the
+sleeping youngsters, and wonders if among them all there is one who
+will do as he has done, i.e., relinquish all of what the world reckons
+as success, for the love of nature and a free forest life. He hopes
+not. And yet, as he glances at the calm yellow moon overhead, and
+listens to the low murmur of the little waterfall below the spring, he
+has a faint notion that it is not all loss and dross.
+
+Knocking the ashes from his pipe he prepares to turn in, murmuring to
+himself, half sadly, half humorously, "I have been young, and now I am
+old; yet have I never seen the true woodsman forsaken, or his seed
+begging bread--or anything else, so to speak--unless it might be a
+little tobacco or a nip of whisky." And he creeps into his blanket-bag,
+backs softly out to the outside man, and joins the snorers.
+
+It is broad daylight when he again turns out, leaving the rest still
+sleeping soundly. He starts a lively fire in the range, treats two
+coffee pots to a double handful of coffee and three pints of water
+each, sets on the potato kettle, washes the potatoes, then sticks his
+head into the camp, and rouses the party with a regular second mate's
+hail. "Star-a-ar-bo'lin's aho-o-o-y. Turn out, you beggars. Come on
+deck and see it rain." And the boys do turn out. Not with wakeful
+alacrity, but in a dazed, dreamy, sleepy way. They open wide eyes, when
+they see that the sun is turning the sombre tops of pines and hemlocks
+to a soft orange yellow.
+
+"I'd have sworn," says one, "that I hadn't slept over fifteen minutes
+by the watch."
+
+"And I," says another, "was just watching the fire, when I dropped off
+in a doze. In about five minutes I opened my eyes, and I'll be shot if
+it wasn't sunrise."
+
+"As for me," says a third, "I don't know as I've slept at all. I
+remember seeing somebody poking the fire last night. Next thing I knew,
+some lunatic was yelling around camp about 'starbolin's,' and 'turning
+out.' Guess I'll lay down and have my nap out."
+
+"Yes," says the O.W., "I would. If I was a healthy youngster, and
+couldn't get along with seven hours and a half of solid sleep, I'd take
+the next forenoon for it. Just at present, I want to remark that I've
+got the coffee and potato business underway, and I'll attend to them.
+If you want anything else for breakfast, you'll have to cook it."
+
+And the boys, rising to the occasion, go about the breakfast with
+willing hands. It is noticeable, however, that only one pan of trout is
+cooked, two of the youngsters preferring to fall back on broiled ham,
+remarking that brook trout is too rich and cloying for a steady diet.
+Which is true. The appetite for trout has very sensibly subsided, and
+the boyish eagerness for trout fishing has fallen off immensely. Only
+two of the party show any interest in the riffles. They stroll down
+stream leisurely, to try their flies for an hour or two. The others
+elect to amuse themselves about the camp, cutting small timber with
+their little hatchets, picking fresh browse, or skirmishing the
+mountain side for wintergreen berries and sassafras. The fishermen
+return in a couple of hours, with a score of fair-sized trout. They
+remark apologetically that it is blazing hot--and there are plenty of
+trout ahead. Then they lean their rods against the shanty, and lounge
+on the blankets, and smoke and doze.
+
+It is less than forty-eight hours since the cross-pole was laid; and,
+using a little common sense woodcraft, the camp has already attained to
+a systematic no-system of rest, freedom and idleness. Every man is free
+to "loaf, and invite his soul." There is good trouting within an hour's
+walk for those who choose, and there is some interest, with a little
+exercise, in cooking and cutting night wood, slicking up, etc. But the
+whole party is stricken with "camp-fever," "Indian laziness," the dolce
+far niente. It is over and around every man, enveloping him as with a
+roseate blanket from the Castle of Indolence. It is the perfect summer
+camp.
+
+And it is no myth; but a literal resumé of a five days' outing at
+Poplar Spring, on Marsh Creek, in Pennsylvania. Alas, for the beautiful
+valley, that once afforded the finest camping grounds I have ever known.
+
+Never any more
+    Can it be
+    Unto me (or anybody else)
+As before.
+
+A huge tannery, six miles above Poplar Spring, poisons and blackens
+the stream with chemicals, bark and ooze. The land has been brought
+into market, and every acre eagerly bought up by actual settlers. The
+once fine covers and thickets are converted into fields thickly dotted
+with blackened stumps. And, to crown the desolation, heavy laden trains
+of "The Pine Creek and Jersey Shore R.R." go thundering almost hourly
+over the very spot where stood our camp by Poplar Spring.
+
+Of course, this is progress; but, whether backward or forward, had
+better be decided sixty years hence. And, just what has happened to the
+obscure valley of Marsh Creek, is happening today, on a larger scale,
+all over the land. It is the same old story of grab and greed. Let us
+go on the "make" today, and "whack up" tomorrow; cheating each other
+as villainously as we may, and posterity be damned. "What's all the
+w-u-u-rld to a man when his wife is a widdy?"
+
+This is the moral: From Maine to Montana; from the Adirondacks to
+Alaska; from the Yosemite to the Yellowstone, the trout-hog, the
+deer-wolf, the netter, the skin-hunter, each and all have it their own
+way; and the law is a farce--only to be enforced where the game has
+vanished forever. Perhaps the man-child is born who will live to write
+the moral of all this--when it is too late.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+More Hints On Cooking, With Some Simple Receipts--Bread, Potatoes,
+Soups, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison
+
+We may live without friends, we may live without books,
+But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
+
+IT is probably true that nothing connected with outdoor life in camp
+is so badly botched as the cooking. It is not through any lack of the
+raw material, which may be had of excellent quality in any country
+village. It is not from lack of intelligence or education, for the men
+you meet in the woods, as outers or sportsmen, are rather over than
+under the average in these respects. Perhaps it is because it has been
+dinned into our ears from early childhood, that an appetite, a healthy
+longing for something good to eat, a tickling of the palate with
+wholesome, appetizing food, is beneath the attention of an aesthetic,
+intellectual man. Forgetting that the entire man, mental and physical,
+depends on proper aliment and the healthy assimilation thereof; and
+that a thin, dyspeptic man can no more keep up in the struggle of life,
+than the lightning express can make connections, drawn by a worn out
+locomotive.
+
+I have never been able to get much help from cook-books, or the scores
+of recipes published in various works on outdoor span. Take, for
+example, Frank Forester's Fish and Fishing. He has more than seventy
+recipes for cooking fish, over forty of which contain terms or names in
+French. I dare say they are good--for a first-class hotel. I neither
+cook nor converse in French and I have come to know that the plainest
+cooking is the best, so that it be well done and wholesome. In making
+up the rations for camping out, the first thing usually attended to is
+bread. And if this be light, well-made bread, enough may be taken along
+to last four or five days and this may be eked out with Boston
+crackers, or the best hardtack, for a couple or three days more,
+without the least hardship. Also, there are few camps in which some one
+is not going out to the clearings every few days for mail, small
+stores, etc. and a supply of bread can be arranged for, with less
+trouble than it can be made. There are times however, when this is not
+feasible, and there are men who prefer warm bread all the time. In this
+case the usual resort, from Maine to Alaska, is the universal flapjack.
+I do not like it; I seldom make it; it is not good. But it may be
+eaten, with maple syrup or sugar and butter. I prefer a plain water
+Johnnycake, made as follows (supposing your tins are something like
+those described in Chapter II): Put a little more than a pint of water
+in your kettle and bring it to a sharp boil, adding a small teaspoon
+full of salt and two of sugar. Stir in slowly enough good corn meal to
+make a rather stiff mush, let it cook a few minutes and set it off the
+fire; then grease your largest tin dish and put the mush in it,
+smoothing it on top. Set the dish on the outdoor range described in the
+previous chapter, with a lively bed of coal beneath--but no blaze.
+Invert the second sized tin over the cake and cover the dish with
+bright live coals, that bottom and top may bake evenly and give it from
+thirty-five to forty minutes for baking. It makes wholesome, palatable
+bread, which gains on the taste with use.
+
+Those who prefer wheat bread can make a passable article by using the
+best wheat flour with baking powders, mixing three tablespoonfuls of
+the powders to a quart of flour. Mix and knead thoroughly with warm
+water to a rather thin dough and bake as above. Use the same
+proportions for pancake batter. When stopping in a permanent camp with
+plenty of time to cook, excellent light bread may be made by using dry
+yeast cakes, though it is not necessary to "set" the sponge as directed
+on the papers. Scrape and dissolve half a cake of the yeast in a gill
+of warm water and mix it with the flour. Add warm water enough to make
+it pliable and not too stiff: set in a warm place until it rises
+sufficiently and bake as directed above. It takes several hours to rise.
+
+I am afraid I shall discount my credit on camp cooking when I admit
+that--if I must use fine flour--I prefer unleavened bread; what my
+friends irreverently call "club bread." Not that it was ever made or
+endorsed by any club of men that I know of, but because it is baked on
+a veritable club; sassafras or black birch. This is how to make it: Cut
+a club two feet long and three inches thick at the broadest end; peel
+or shave off the bark smoothly and sharpen the smaller end neatly. Then
+stick the sharpened end in the ground near the fire, leaning the broad
+end toward a bed of live coals, where it will get screeching hot. While
+it is heating, mix rather more than a half pint of best Minnesota flour
+with enough warm water to make a dough. Add a half teaspoon full of
+salt and a teaspoon full of sugar and mould and pull the dough until it
+becomes lively. Now, work it into a ribbon two inches wide and half an
+inch thick, wind the ribbon spirally around the broad end of the club,
+stick the latter in front of the fire so that the bread will bake
+evenly and quickly to a light brown and turn frequently until done,
+which will be in about thirty minutes. When done take it from the fire,
+stand the club firmly upright and pick the bread off in pieces as you
+want it to eat. It will keep hot a long time and one soon becomes fond
+of it.
+
+To make perfect coffee, just two ingredients are necessary, and only
+two. These are water and coffee. It is owing to the bad management of
+the latter that we drink poor coffee.
+
+Mocha is generally considered to be the best type of coffee, with Java
+a close second. It is the fashion at present to mix the two in
+proportions to suit, some taking two pans Java to one of Mocha, others
+reversing these proportions. Either way is good, or the Mocha is quite
+as good alone. But there is a better berry than either for the genuine
+coffee toper. This is the small, dark green berry that comes to market
+under the generic name of Rio, that name covering half a dozen grades
+of coffee raised in different provinces of Brazil, throughout a country
+extending north and south for more than 1,200 miles. The berry alluded
+to is produced along the range of high hills to the westward of Bahia
+and extending north toward the Parnahiba. It has never arrested
+attention as a distinct grade of the article, but it contains more
+coffee or caffein to the pound than any berry known to commerce. It is
+the smallest, heaviest and darkest green of any coffee that comes to
+our market from Brazil and may be known by these traits. I have tested
+it in the land where it is grown and also at home, for the past sixteen
+years and I place it at the head of the list, with Mocha next. Either
+will make perfect coffee, if treated as follows: of the berry, browned
+and ground, take six heaping tablespoonfuls and add three pints of cold
+water; place the kettle over the fire and bring to a sharp boil; set it
+a little aside where it will bubble and simmer until wanted, and just
+before pouring, drip in a half gill of cold water to settle it. That is
+all there is to it. The quantity of berry is about twice as much as
+usually given in recipes: but if you want coffee, you had better add
+two spoonfuls than cut off one.
+
+In 1867 and again in 1870, I had occasion to visit the West India
+Islands and Brazil. In common with most coffee topers, I had heard much
+of the super-excellence ascribed to "West India coffee" and "Brazilian
+coffee." I concluded to investigate, I had rooms at the Hotel d'Europe,
+Para, North Brazil. There were six of us, English and American
+boarders. Every morning, before we were out of our hammocks, a
+barefooted, half naked Mina negress came around and served each of us
+with a small cup of strong, black coffee and sugar ad libitum. There
+was not enough of it for a drink; it was rather in the nature of a
+medicine, and so intended--"To kill the biscos," they said. The coffee
+was above criticism.
+
+I went, in the dark of a tropical morning with Señor João, to the
+coffee factory where they browned the berry and saw him buy a pound,
+smoking hot, for which he paid twenty-five cents, or quite as much as
+it would cost in New York. In ten minutes the coffee was at the hotel
+and ground. This is the way they brewed it: A round-bottomed kettle was
+sitting on the brick range, with a half gallon of boiling water in it.
+Over the kettle a square piece of white flannel was suspended, caught
+up at the corners like a dip net. In this the coffee was placed and a
+small darky put in his time steadily with a soup ladle, dipping the
+boiling water from the kettle and pouring it on the coffee. There was a
+constant stream percolating through coffee and cloth, which, in the
+course of half an hour, became almost black, and clear as brandy. This
+was "Brazilian coffee." As the cups used were very small, and as none
+but the Northerners drank more than one cup, I found that the hotel did
+not use over two quarts of coffee each morning. It struck me that a
+pound of fresh Rio coffee berry ought to make a half gallon of rather
+powerful coffee.
+
+On my arrival home--not having any small darky or any convenient
+arrangement for the dip net--I had a sack made of light, white flannel,
+holding about one pint. In this I put one quarter pound of freshly
+ground berry, with water enough for five large cups. It was boiled
+thoroughly and proved just as good as the Brazilian article, but too
+strong for any of the family except the writer. Those who have a fancy
+for clear, strong "Brazilian coffee," will see how easily and simply it
+can be made.
+
+But, on a heavy knapsack-and-rifle tramp among the mountains, or a
+lone canoe cruise in a strange wilderness, I do not carry coffee. I
+prefer tea. Often, when too utterly tired and beaten for further
+travel, I have tried coffee, whisky or brandy, and a long experience
+convinces me that there is nothing so restful and refreshing to an
+exhausted man as a dish of strong, green tea. To make it as it should
+be made, bring the water to a high boil and let it continue to boil for
+a full minute. Set it off the fire and it will cease boiling; put in a
+handful of tea and it will instantly boil up again; then set it near
+the fire, where it will simmer for a few minutes, when it will be ready
+for use. Buy the best green tea you can find and use it freely on a
+hard tramp. Black, or Oolong tea, is excellent in camp. It should be
+put in the pot with cold water and brought to the boiling point.
+
+Almost any man can cook potatoes, but few cook them well. Most people
+think them best boiled in their jackets, and to cook them perfectly in
+this manner is so simple and easy, that the wonder is how anyone can
+fail. A kettle of screeching hot water with a small handful of salt in
+it, good potatoes of nearly equal size, washed clean and clipped at the
+ends, these are the requisites. Put the potatoes in the boiling water,
+cover closely and keep the water at high boiling pitch until you can
+thrust a sharp sliver through the largest potato. Then drain off the
+water and set the kettle in a hot place with the lid partly off. Take
+them out only as they are wanted; lukewarm potatoes are not good, They
+will be found about as good as potatoes can be, when cooked in their
+jackets. But there is a better way, as thus: Select enough for a mess
+of smooth, sound tubers; pare them carefully, taking off as little as
+possible, because the best of the potato lies nearest the skin, and
+cook as above. When done, pour the water off to the last drop; sprinkle
+a spoonful of salt and fine cracker crumbs over them; then shake, roll
+and rattle them in the kettle until the outsides are white and floury.
+Keep them piping hot until wanted, It is the way to have perfect boiled
+potatoes.
+
+Many outers are fond of roast potatoes in camp; and they mostly spoil
+them in the roasting, although there is no better place than the
+campfire in which to do it. To cook them aright, scoop out a basin-like
+depression under the fore-stick, three or four inches deep and large
+enough to hold the tubers when laid side by side; fill it with bright,
+hardwood coals and keep up a strong heat for half an hour or more.
+Next, clean out the hollow, place the potatoes in it and cover them
+with hot sand or ashes, topped with a heap of glowing coals, and keep
+up all the heat you like. In about twenty minutes commence to try them
+with a sharpened hardwood sliver; when this will pass through them they
+are done and should be raked out at once. Run the sliver through them
+from end to end, to let the steam escape and use immediately, as a
+roast potato quickly becomes soggy and bitter. I will add that, in
+selecting a supply of potatoes for camp, only the finest and smoothest
+should be taken.
+
+A man may be a trout-crank, he may have been looking forward for ten
+weary months to the time when he is to strike the much dreamed of
+mountain stream, where trout may be taken and eaten without stint.
+Occasionally--not often--his dream is realized, For two or three days
+he revels in fly-fishing and eating brook trout. Then his enthusiasm
+begins to subside. He talks less of his favorite flies and hints that
+wading hour after hour in ice-water gives him cramps in the calves of
+his legs. Also, he finds that brook trout, eaten for days in
+succession, pall on the appetite. He hankers for the flesh-pots of the
+restaurant and his soul yearns for the bean-pot of home.
+
+Luckily, some one has brought a sack of white beans, and the expert--
+there is always an expert in camp--is deputed to cook them. He accepts
+the trust and proceeds to do it. He puts a quart of dry beans and a
+liberal chunk of pork in a two-quart kettle, covers the mess with water
+and brings it to a rapid boil. Presently the beans begin to swell and
+lift the lid of the kettle: their conduct is simply demoniacal. They
+lift up the lid of the kettle, they tumble out over the rim in a way to
+provoke a saint, and they have scarcely begun to cook. The expert is
+not to be beaten. As they rise, he spoons them out and throws them
+away, until half of the best beans being wasted, the rest settle to
+business. He fills the kettle with water and watches it for an hour.
+When bean-skins and scum arise he uses the spoon; and when a ring of
+greasy salt forms around the rim of the kettle, he carefully scrapes it
+off, but most of it drops back into the pot, When the beans seem cooked
+to the point of disintegration, he lifts off the kettle and announces
+dinner. It is not a success. The largest beans are granulated rather
+than cooked, while the mealy portion of them has fallen to the bottom
+of the kettle and become scorched thereon, and the smaller beans are
+too hard to be eatable. The liquid, that should be palatable bean soup,
+is greasy salt water, and the pork is half raw. The party falls back,
+hungry and disgusted. Even if the mess were well cooked, it is too
+salty for eating. And why should this be so? Why should any sensible
+man spend years in acquiring an education that shall fit him for the
+struggle of life, yet refuse to spend a single day in learning how to
+cook the food that must sustain the life? It is one of the conundrums
+no one will ever find out.
+
+There is no article of food more easily carried, and none that
+contains more nourishment to the pound, than the bean. Limas are
+usually preferred, but the large white marrow is just as good. It will
+pay to select them carefully. Keep an eye on grocery stocks and when
+you strike a lot of extra large, clean beans, buy twice as many as you
+need for camp use. Spread them on a table, a quart at a time and
+separate the largest and best from the others. Fully one-half will go
+to the side of the largest and finest, and these may be put in a muslin
+bag and kept till wanted. Select the expeditionary pork with equal
+care, buying nothing but thick, solid, "clear," with a pink tinge.
+Reject that which is white and lardy. With such material, if you cannot
+lay over Boston baked beans, you had better sweep the cook out of camp.
+
+This is how to cook them: Put a pound or a little more of clean pork
+in the kettle, with water enough to cover it. Let it boil slowly half
+an hour. In the meantime, wash and parboil one pint of beans. Drain the
+water from the pork and place the beans around it; add two quarts of
+water and hang the kettle where it will boil steadily, but not rapidly,
+for two hours. Pare neatly and thinly five or six medium sized potatoes
+and allow them from thirty to forty minutes (according to size and
+variety), in which to cook. They must be pressed down among the beans
+so as to be entirely covered. If the beans be fresh and fine they will
+probably fall to pieces before time is up. This, if they are not
+allowed to scorch, makes them all the better. If a portion of pork be
+left over, it is excellent sliced very thin when cold and eaten with
+bread. The above is a dinner for three or four hungry men.
+
+It is usually the case that some of the party prefer baked beans. To
+have these in perfection, add one gill of raw beans and a piece of pork
+three inches square to the foregoing proportions. Boil as above, until
+the beans begin to crack open; then fork out the smaller piece of pork,
+place it in the center of your largest cooking tin, take beans enough
+from the kettle to nearly fill the tin, set it over a bright fire on
+the range, invert the second sized tin for a cover, place live,
+hardwood coals on top and bake precisely as directed for bread--only,
+when the coals on top become dull and black, brush them off, raise the
+cover and take a look. If the beans are getting too dry, add three or
+four spoonfuls of liquor from the kettle, replace cover and coals, and
+let them bake until they are of a rich light brown on top. Then serve.
+It is a good dish. If Boston can beat it, I don't want to lay up
+anything for old age.
+
+Brown bread and baked beans have a natural connection in the average
+American mind, and rightly. They supplement each other, even as spring
+lamb and green peas with our transatlantic cousins. But there is a
+better recipe for brown bread than is known to the dwellers of the Hub--
+one that has captured first prizes at country fairs and won the
+approval of epicures from Maine to Minnesota; the one that brought
+honest old Greeley down, on his strictures anent "country bread." And
+here is the recipe; take it for what it is worth and try it fairly
+before condemning it. It is for home use: One quart of sweet milk, one
+quart of sour, two quarts of Indian meal and one quart of flour and a
+cupful of dark, thin Porto Rico molasses. Use one teaspoon full of soda
+only. Bake in a steady, moderate oven, for four hours. Knead thoroughly
+before baking.
+
+Soup is, or should be, a leading food element in every woodland camp.
+I am sorry to say that nothing is, as a rule, more badly botched, while
+nothing is more easily or simply cooked as it should be. Soup requires
+time and a solid basis of the right material. Venison is the basis, and
+the best material is the bloody part of the deer, where the bullet went
+through. We used to throw this away; we have learned better. Cut about
+four pounds of the bloody meat into convenient pieces and wipe them as
+clean as possible with leaves or a damp cloth, but don't wash them. Put
+the meat into a five-quart kettle nearly filled with water and raise it
+to a lively boiling pitch. Let it boil for two hours. Have ready a
+three-tined fork made from a branch of birch or beech and with this,
+test the meat from time to time; when it parts readily from the bones,
+slice in a large onion. Pare six large, smooth potatoes, cut five of
+them into quarters and drop them into the kettle; scrape the sixth one
+into the soup for thickening. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
+
+When, by skirmishing with the wooden fork, you can fish up bones with
+no meat on them, the soup is cooked and the kettle may be set aside to
+cool. Any hungry sportsman can order the next motion. Squirrels--red,
+black, gray or fox--make nearly as good a soup as venison, and better
+stew. Hares, rabbits, grouse, quail, or any of the smaller game birds,
+may be used in making soup; but all small game is better in a stew.
+
+To make a stew, proceed for the first two hours precisely as directed
+for soup; then slice in a couple of good-sized onions and six medium
+potatoes. When the meat begins to fall from the bones, make a
+thickening by rubbing three tablespoonfuls of flour and two spoonfuls
+of melted butter together; thin to the consistency of cream with liquor
+from the kettle and drip slowly into the stew, stirring briskly
+meanwhile. Allow all soups and stews to boil two hours before seasoning
+and use only the best table salt and white (or black) pepper. Season
+sparingly; it is easier to put salt in than to get it out. Cayenne
+pepper adds zest to a soup or stew, but, as some dislike it, let each
+man season his plate to his own cheek.
+
+Fried squirrels are excellent for a change, but are mostly spoiled by
+poor cooks, who put tough old he's and tender young squirrels together,
+treating all alike. To dress and cook them properly, chop off heads,
+tails and feet with the hatchet; cut the skin on the back crosswise;
+and, inserting the two middle fingers, pull the skin off in two parts,
+(head and tail). Clean and cut them in halves, leaving two ribs on the
+hindquarters. Put hind and fore quarters into the kettle and parboil
+until tender. This will take about twenty minutes for young ones and
+twice as long for the old.
+
+When a sharpened sliver will pass easily through the flesh, take the
+hindquarters from the kettle, drain and place them in the frying pan
+with pork fat hissing hot. Fry to a light, rich brown. It is the only
+proper way to cook squirrels. The forequarters are to be left in the
+kettle for a stew.
+
+It sometimes happens that pigeons are very plentiful and the camp is
+tempted into over-shooting and over-cooking, until every one is
+thoroughly sick of pigeons. This is all wrong. No party is, or can be,
+justified in wanton slaughter, just because birds happen to be
+plentiful; they will soon be scarce enough. Pigeons are hardly game,
+and they are not a first-class bird; but a good deal may be got out of
+them by the following method: Dress them, at the rate of two birds to
+one man; save the giblets; place in the kettle and boil until the
+sliver will easily pierce the breast; fork them out, cut the thick meat
+from each side of the breast bone, roll slightly in flour and put the
+pieces in the pan, frying them in the same way as directed for
+squirrels. Put the remainder of the birds in the kettle for a stew.
+
+Quail are good cooked in the same manner, but are better roasted or
+broiled. To roast them, parboil for fifteen minutes, and in the
+meantime cut a thin hardwood stick, eighteen inches long for each bird.
+Sharpen the sticks neatly at both ends; impale the birds on one end and
+thrust the sticks into the ground near the fire, leaning them so that
+the heat will strike strongly and evenly. Hang a strip of pork between
+the legs of each bird and turn frequently until they are a rich brown.
+When the sharpened sliver will pass easily through the breast they are
+done.
+
+Woodcock are to be plucked, but not drawn. Suspend the bird in a
+bright, clear heat, hang a ribbon of fat pork between the legs and
+roast until well done; do not parboil him.
+
+Ruffed grouse are excellent roasted in the same manner, but should
+first be parboiled. Mallards, teal, butterballs, all edible ducks, are
+to be treated the same as grouse. If you are ever lucky enough to feast
+on a canvas-back roasted as above, you will be apt to borrow a leaf
+from Oliver Twist.
+
+Venison steak should be pounded to tenderness, pressed and worked into
+shape with the hunting-knife and broiled over a bed of clean hardwood
+coals. A three-pronged birch fork makes the best broiler. For roast
+venison, the best portion is the forward part of the saddle. Trim off
+the flanky parts and ends of the ribs; split the backbone lengthwise,
+that the inner surface may be well exposed; hang it by a strong cord or
+bark string in a powerful, even heat; lay thin strips of pork along the
+upper edge and turn from time to time until done. It had better be left
+a little rare than overdone. Next to the saddle for roasting, comes the
+shoulder. Peel this smoothly from the side, using the hunting knife;
+trim neatly and cut off the leg at the knee; gash the thickest part of
+the flesh and press shreds of pork into the gashes, with two or three
+thin slices skewered to the upper part. Treat it in the roasting as
+described above. It is not equal to the saddle when warm, but sliced
+and eaten cold, is quite as good.
+
+And do not despise the fretful porcupine; he is better than he looks.
+If you happen on a healthy young specimen when you are needing meat,
+give him a show before condemning him. Shoot him humanely in the head
+and dress him. It is easily done; there are no quills on the belly and
+the skin peels as freely as a rabbit's. Take him to camp, parboil him
+for thirty minutes and roast or broil him to a rich brown over a bed of
+glowing coals. He will need no pork to make him juicy, and you will
+find him very like spring lamb, only better.
+
+I do not accept the decision that ranks the little gray rabbit as a
+hare, simply because he has a slit in his lip; at all events I shall
+call him a rabbit for convenience, to distinguish him from his
+longlegged cousin, who turns white in winter, never takes to a hole and
+can keep ahead of hounds nearly all day, affording a game, musical
+chase that is seldom out of hearing. He never by any chance has an
+ounce of fat on him and is not very good eating. He can, however, be
+worked into a good stew or a passable soup--provided he has not been
+feeding on laurel. The rabbit is an animal of different habits and
+different attributes. When jumped from his form, he is apt to "dig out"
+for a hole or the nearest stone heap. Sometimes an old one will potter
+around a thicket, ahead of a slow dog, but his tendency is always to
+hole. But he affords some sport, and as an article of food, beats the
+long-legged hare out of sight. He is excellent in stews or soups, while
+the after half of him, flattened down with the hatchet, parboiled and
+fried brown in butter or pork fat, is equal to spring chicken.
+
+In the cooking of fish, as of flesh and fowl, the plainest and
+simplest methods are best; and for anything under two pounds, it is not
+necessary to go beyond the frying pan. Trout of over a pound should be
+split down the back, that they may lie well in the pan and cook evenly.
+Roll well in meal, or a mixture of meal and flour, and fry to a rich
+brown in pork fat, piping hot. Larger fish may just as well be fried,
+but are also adapted to other methods, and there are people who like
+fish broiled and buttered, or boiled. To boil a fish, split him on the
+back and broil him four minutes, flesh side down, turn and broil the
+other side an equal time. Butter and season to taste. To boil, the
+fish should weigh three pounds or more. Clean and crimp him by gashing
+the sides deeply with a sharp knife. Put him in a kettle of boiling
+water, strongly salted and boil twenty-five minutes. For each
+additional pound above three, add five minutes. For gravy, rub together
+two tablespoonfuls of flour and one of melted butter, add one heaping
+teaspoon full of evaporated milk and thin with liquor from the kettle.
+When done, it should have the consistency of cream. Take the fish from
+the kettle, drain, pour the gravy over it and eat only with wheat bread
+or hardtack, with butter. The simplest is best, healthiest and most
+appetizing.
+
+As a rule, on a mountain in tramp or a canoe cruise, I do not tote
+canned goods. I carry my duffle in a light, pliable knapsack, and there
+is an aggravating antagonism between the uncompromising rims of a
+fruit-can and the knobs of my vertebrae, that twenty years of practice
+have utterly failed to reconcile. And yet, I have found my account
+in a can of condensed milk, not for tea or coffee, but on bread as a
+substitute for butter. And I have found a small can of Boston baked
+beans a most helpful lunch, with a nine-mile carry ahead. It was not
+epicurean, but had staying qualities.
+
+I often have a call to pilot some muscular young friend into the deep
+forest and he usually carries a large pack-basket, with a full supply
+of quart cans of salmon, tomatoes, peaches, etc. As in duty bound, I
+admonish him kindly, but firmly, on the folly of loading his young
+shoulders with such effeminate luxuries; often, I fear, hurting his
+young feelings by brusque advice. But at night, when the campfire burns
+brightly and he begins to fish out his tins, the heart of the Old
+Woodsman relents, and I make amends by allowing him to divide the
+groceries.
+
+There is a method at cooking usually called "mudding up," which I have
+found to preserve the flavor and juiciness of ducks, grouse, etc.,
+better than any other method. I described the method in Forest and
+Stream more than a year ago, but a brief repetition may not be out of
+place here. Suppose the bird to be cooked is a mallard, or better
+still, a canvas-back. Cut off the head and most part of the neck; cut
+off the pinions and pull out the tail feathers, make a plastic cake of
+clay or tenacious earth an inch thick and large enough to envelop
+the bird and cover him with it snugly. Dig an oval pit under the
+fore-stick, large enough to hold him, and fill it with hot coals,
+keeping up a strong heat. Just before turning in for the night, clean
+out the pit, put in the bird, cover with hot embers and coals, keeping
+up a brisk fire over it all night. When taken out in the morning you
+will have an oval, oblong mass of baked clay, with a well roasted bird
+inside. Let the mass cool until it can be handled, break off the clay,
+and feathers and skin will come with it, leaving the bird clean and
+skinless. Season it as you eat, with salt, pepper and a squeeze of
+lemon if you like, nothing else.
+
+In selecting salt, choose that which has a gritty feel when rubbed
+between the thumb and finger, and use white pepper rather than black,
+grinding the berry yourself. Procure a common tin pepper-box and fill
+it with a mixture of fine salt and Cayenne pepper--ten spoonsfuls of
+the former and one of the latter. Have it always where you can lay your
+hand on it; you will come to use it daily in camp, and if you ever get
+lost, you will find it of value. Fish and game leave a flat, flashy
+taste eaten without salt, and are also unwholesome.
+
+Do not carry any of the one hundred and one condiments, sauces,
+garnishes, etc., laid down in the books. Salt, pepper and lemons fill
+the bill in that line. Lobster-sauce, shrimp-sauce, marjoram, celery,
+parsley, thyme, anchovies, etc., may be left at the hotels.
+
+It may be expected that a pocket volume on woodcraft should contain a
+liberal chapter of instruction on hunting. It would be quite useless.
+Hunters, like poets, are born, not made. The art cannot be taught on
+paper. A few simple hints, however, may not be misplaced. To start
+aright, have your clothes fitted for hunting. Select good cassimere of
+a sort of dull, no colored, neutral tint, like a decayed stump; and
+have coat, pants and cap made of it. For foot-gear, two pairs of heavy
+yarn socks, with rubber shoes or buckskin moccasins. In hunting,
+"silence is gold." Go quietly, slowly and silently. Remember that the
+bright-eyed, sharp-eared woodfolk can see, hear and smell, with a
+keenness that throws our dull faculties quite in the shade. As you go
+lumbering and stick-breaking through the woods, you will never know how
+many of these quietly leave your path to right and left, allowing you
+to pass, while they glide away, unseen, unknown. It is easily seen that
+a sharp-sensed, light bodied denizen of the woods can detect the
+approach of a heavy, bifurcated, booted animal, a long way ahead and
+avoid him accordingly.
+
+But there is an art, little known and practiced, that invariably
+succeeds in out-thinking most wild animals; an art, simple in conception
+and execution, but requiring patience: a species, so to speak, of high
+art in forestry--the art of "sitting on a log." I could enlarge on
+this. I might say that the only writer of any note who has mentioned
+this phase of woodcraft is Mr. Charles D. Warner; and he only speaks of
+it in painting the character of that lazy old guide, "Old Phelps."
+
+Sitting on a log includes a deal of patience, with oftentimes cold
+feet and chattering teeth; but, attended to faithfully and patiently,
+is quite as successful as chasing a deer all day on tracking snow,
+while it can be practiced when the leaves are dry and no other mode of
+still hunting offers the ghost of a chance. When a man is moving
+through the woods, wary, watchful animals are pretty certain to catch
+sight of him. But let him keep perfectly quiet and the conditions are
+reversed. I have had my best luck and killed my best deer, by
+practically waiting hour after hour on runways. But the time when a
+hunter could get four or five fair shots in a day by watching a runway
+has passed away forever. Never any more will buffalo be seen in solid
+masses covering square miles in one pack. The immense bands of elk and
+droves of deer are things of the past, and "The game must go."
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+A Ten Days' Trip In The Wilderness--Going It Alone
+
+ABOUT the only inducements I can think of for making a ten days'
+journey through a strong wilderness, solitary and alone, were a liking
+for adventure, intense love of nature in her wildest dress, and a
+strange fondness for being in deep forests by myself. The choice of
+route was determined by the fact that two old friends and school-mates
+had chosen to cast their lots in Michigan, one near Saginaw Bay, the
+other among the pines of the Muskegon. And both were a little homesick,
+and both wrote frequent letters, in which, knowing my weak point, they
+exhausted their adjectives and adverbs in describing the abundance of
+game and the marvelous fishing. Now, the Muskegon friend--Davis--was
+pretty well out of reach. But Pete Williams, only a few miles out of
+Saginaw, was easily accessible. And so it happened, on a bright October
+morning, when there came a frost that cut from Maine to Missouri, that
+a sudden fancy took me to use my new Billinghurst on something larger
+than squirrels. It took about one minute to decide and an hour to pack
+such duffle as I needed for a few weeks in the woods.
+
+Remembering Pete's two brown-eyed "kids," and knowing that they were
+ague-stricken and homesick, I made place for a few apples and peaches,
+with a ripe melon. For Pete and I had been chums in Rochester and I had
+bunked in his attic on Galusha Street, for two years. Also, his babies
+thought as much of me as of their father. The trip to Saginaw was easy
+and pleasant. A "Redbird" packet to Buffalo, the old propeller Globe to
+Lower Saginaw and a ride of half a day on a buckboard, brought me to
+Pete Williams' clearing. Were they glad to see me? Well, I think so.
+Pete and his wife cried like children, while the two little homesick
+"kids" laid their silken heads on my knees and sobbed for very joy.
+When I brought out the apples and peaches, assuring them that these
+came from the little garden of their old home--liar that I was--their
+delight was boundless. And the fact that their favorite tree was a
+"sour bough," while these were sweet, did not shake their faith in the
+least.
+
+I stayed ten days or more with the Williams family and the fishing and
+hunting were all that he had said--all that could be asked. The woods
+swarmed with pigeons and squirrels; grouse, quail, ducks and wild
+turkeys were too plentiful, while a good hunter could scarcely fail of
+getting a standing shot at a deer in a morning's hunt. But, what use
+could be made of fish or game in such a place? They were all half sick
+and had little appetite. Mrs. Williams could not endure the smell of
+fish; they had been cloyed on small game and were surfeited on venison.
+
+My sporting ardor sank to zero. I had the decency not to slaughter
+game for the love of killing, and leave it to rot, or hook large fish
+that could not be used. I soon grew restless and began to think often
+about the lumber camp on the Muskegon. By surveyors' lines it was
+hardly more than sixty miles from Pete Williams' clearing to the Joe
+Davis camp on the Muskegon. "But practically," said Pete, "Joe and I
+are a thousand miles apart. White men, as a rule, don't undertake to
+cross this wilderness. The only one I know who has tried it is old Bill
+Hance; he can tell you all about it."
+
+Hance was the hunting and trapping genius of Saginaw Bay--a man who
+dwelt in the woods summer and winter, and never trimmed his hair or
+wore any other covering on his head. Not a misanthrope, or taciturn,
+but friendly and talkative rather; liking best to live alone, but fond
+of tramping across the woods to gossip with neighbors; a very tall man
+withal and so thin that, as he went rapidly winding and turning among
+fallen logs, you looked to see him tangle up and tumble in a loose
+coil, like a wet rope, but he was better than he looked. He had a high
+reputation as trailer, guide, or trapper and was mentioned as a "bad
+man in a racket." I had met him several times, and as he was decidedly
+a character, had rather laid myself out to cultivate him. And now that
+I began to have a strong notion of crossing the woods alone, I took
+counsel of Bill Hance. Unlike Williams, he thought it perfectly
+feasible and rather a neat, gamey thing for a youngster to do. He had
+crossed the woods several times with surveying parties and once alone.
+He knew an Indian trail which led to an old camp within ten miles of
+the Muskegon and thought the trail could be followed. It took him a
+little less than three days to go through; "but," he added, "I
+nat'rally travel a little faster in the woods than most men. If you can
+follow the trail, you ought to get through in a little more'n three
+days--if you keep moggin'."
+
+One afternoon I carefully packed the knapsack and organized for a long
+woods tramp. I took little stock in that trail, or the three days'
+notion as to time. I made calculations on losing the trail the first
+day and being out a full week. The outfit consisted of rifle, hatchet,
+compass, blanket-bag, knapsack and knife. For rations, one loaf of
+bread, two quarts of meal, two pounds of pork, one pound of sugar, with
+tea, salt, etc. and a supply of jerked venison. One tin dish, twelve
+rounds of ammunition and the bullet-molds, filled the list, and did not
+make a heavy load.
+
+Early on a crisp, bright October morning I kissed the little fellows
+goodbye and started out with Hance, who was to put me on the trail. I
+left the children with sorrow and pity at heart. I am glad now that my
+visit was a golden hiatus in the sick monotony of their young lives and
+that I was able to brighten a few days of their dreary existence. They
+had begged for the privilege of sleeping with me on a shake-down from
+the first; and when, as often happened, a pair of little feverish lips
+would murmur timidly and pleadingly, "I'm so dry; can I have a drink?"
+I am thankful that I did not put the pleader off with a sip of tepid
+water, but always brought it from the spring, sparkling and cold. For,
+a twelve-month later, there were two little graves in a corner of the
+stump-blackened garden, and two sore hearts in Pete Williams' cabin.
+
+Hance found the trail easily, but the Indians had been gone a long
+time and it was filled with leaves, dim and not easy to follow. It
+ended as nearly all trails do; it branched off to right and left, grew
+dimmer and slimmer, degenerated to a deer path, petered out to a
+squirrel track, ran up a tree and ended in a knot hole. I was not
+sorry. It left me free to follow my nose, my inclination and the compass.
+
+There are men who, on finding themselves alone in a pathless forest,
+become appalled, almost panic stricken. The vastness of an unbroken
+wilderness subdues them and they quail before the relentless, untamed
+forces of nature. These are the men who grow enthusiastic--at home--
+about sylvan life, outdoor sports, but always strike camp and come home
+rather sooner than they intended. And there be some who plunge into an
+unbroken forest with a feeling of fresh, free, invigorating delight, as
+they might dash into a crisp ocean surf on a hot day. These know that
+nature is stern, hard, immovable and terrible in unrelenting cruelty.
+When wintry winds are out and the mercury far below zero, she will
+allow her most ardent lover to freeze on her snowy breast without
+waving a leaf in pity, or offering him a match; and scores of her
+devotees may starve to death in as many different languages before she
+will offer a loaf of bread. She does not deal in matches and loaves;
+rather in thunderbolts and granite mountains. And the ashes of her
+campfires bury proud cities. But, like all tyrants, she yields to force
+and gives the more, the more she is beaten. She may starve or freeze
+the poet, the scholar, the scientist; all the same, she has in store
+food, fuel and shelter, which the skillful, self-reliant woodsman can
+wring from her savage hand with axe and rifle.
+
+Only to him whose coat of rags
+    Has pressed at night her regal feet,
+    Shall come the secrets, strange and sweet,
+Of century pines and beetling crags.
+
+For him the goddess shall unlock
+    The golden secrets which have lain
+    Ten thousand years, through frost and rain,
+Deep in the bosom of the rock.
+
+The trip was a long and tiresome one, considering the distance. There
+were no hairbreadth escapes; I was not tackled by bears, treed by
+wolves, or nearly killed by a hand-to-claw "racket" with a panther; and
+there were no Indians to come sneak-hunting around after hair. Animal
+life was abundant, exuberant, even. But the bright-eyed woodfolk seemed
+tame, nay, almost friendly, and quite intent on minding their own
+business. It was a "pigeon year," a "squirrel year," and also a
+marvelous year for shack or mast. Every nut-bearing tree was loaded
+with sweet well-filled nuts; and this, coupled with the fact that the
+Indians had left and the whites had not yet got in, probably accounted
+for the plentitude of game.
+
+I do not think there was an hour of daylight on the trip when
+squirrels were not too numerous to be counted, while pigeons were a
+constant quantity from start to finish. Grouse in the thickets and
+quail in the high oak openings, or small prairies, with droves of wild
+turkeys among heavy timber, were met with almost hourly, and there was
+scarcely a day on which I could not have had a standing shot at a bear.
+But the most interesting point about the game was--to me, at least--the
+marvelous abundance of deer. They were everywhere, on all sorts of
+ground and among all varieties of timber; very tame they were, too,
+often stopping to look at the stranger, offering easy shots at short
+range, and finally going off quite leisurely.
+
+No ardent lover of forest life could be lonely in such company and in
+such weather. The only drawback was the harassing and vexatious manner
+in which lakes, streams, swamps and marshes constantly persisted in
+getting across the way, compelling long detours to the north or south,
+when the true course was nearly due west. I think there were days on
+which ten hours of pretty faithful tramping did not result in more than
+three or four miles of direct headway. The headwaters of the Salt and
+Chippewa rivers were especially obstructive; and, when more than half
+the distance was covered, I ran into a tangle of small lakes, marshes
+and swamps, not marked on the map, which cost a hard day's work to
+leave behind.
+
+While there were no startling adventures and no danger connected with
+the trip, there was a constant succession of incidents, that made the
+lonely tramp far from monotonous. Some of these occurrences were
+intensely interesting, and a little exciting. Perhaps the brief recital
+of a few may not be uninteresting at the present day, when game is so
+rapidly disappearing.
+
+My rifle was a neat, hair-triggered Billinghurst, carrying sixty round
+balls to the pound, a muzzle-loader, of course, and a nail-driver. I
+made just three shots in ten days, and each shot stood for a plump
+young deer in the "short blue." It seemed wicked to murder such a
+bright, graceful animal, when no more than the loins and a couple of
+slices from the ham could be used, leaving the balance to the wolves,
+who never failed to take possession before I was out of ear shot. But I
+condoned the excess, if excess it were, by the many chances I allowed
+to pass, not only on deer but bear, and once on a big brute of a wild
+hog, the wickedest and most formidable looking animal I ever met in the
+woods. The meeting happened in this wise. I had been bothered and
+wearied for half a day by a bad piece of low, marshy ground and had at
+length struck a dry, rolling oak opening where I sat down at the foot
+of a small oak to rest. I had scarcely been resting ten minutes, when I
+caught sight of a large, dirty-white animal, slowly working its way in
+my direction through the low bushes, evidently nosing around for
+acorns. I was puzzled to say what it was. It looked like a hog, but
+stood too high on its legs; and how would such a beast get there
+anyhow? Nearer and nearer he came and at last walked out into an open
+spot less than twenty yards distant. It was a wild hog of the ugliest
+and largest description; tall as a yearling, with an unnaturally large
+head and dangerous looking tusks, that curved above his savage snout
+like small horns. There was promise of magnificent power in his immense
+shoulders, while flanks and hams were disproportionately light. He came
+out to the open leisurely munching his acorns, or amusing himself by
+ploughing deep furrows with his nose, and not until within ten yards
+did he appear to note the presence of a stranger. Suddenly he raised
+his head and became rigid as though frozen to stone; he was taking an
+observation. For a few seconds he remained immovable, then his bristles
+became erect and with a deep guttural, grunting noise, he commenced
+hitching himself along in my direction, sidewise. My hair raised and in
+an instant I was on my feet with the cocked rifle to my shoulder--
+meaning to shoot before his charge and then make good time up the tree.
+But there was no need. As I sprang to my feet he sprang for the hazel
+bushes and went tearing through them with the speed of a deer, keeping
+up a succession of snorts and grunts that could be heard long after he
+had passed out of sight. I am not subject to buck fever and was
+disgusted to find myself so badly "rattled" that I could scarcely
+handle the rifle. At first I was provoked at myself for not getting a
+good ready and shooting him in the head, as he came out of the bushes;
+but it was better to let him live. He was not carnivorous, or a beast
+of prey, and ugly as he was, certainly looked better alive than he
+would as a porcine corpse. No doubt he relished his acorns as well as
+though he had been less ugly, and he was a savage power in the forest.
+Bears love pork; and the fact that the hog was picking up a comfortable
+living in that wilderness, is presumptive evidence that he was a match
+for the largest bear, or he would have been eaten long before.
+
+Another little incident, in which Bruin played a leading part, rises
+vividly to memory. It was hardly an adventure; only the meeting of man
+and bear, and they parted on good terms, with no hardness on either side.
+
+The meeting occurred, as usually was the case with large game, on dry,
+oak lands, where the undergrowth was hazel, sasafras and wild
+grapevine. As before, I had paused for a rest, when I began to catch
+glimpses of a very black animal working its way among the hazel bushes,
+under the scattering oaks, and toward me. With no definite intention of
+shooting, but just to see how easy it might be to kill him, I got a
+good ready, and waited. Slowly and lazily he nuzzled his way among the
+trees, sitting up occasionally to crunch acorns, until he was within
+twenty-five yards of me, with the bright bead neatly showing at the
+butt of his ear, and he sitting on his haunches, calmly chewing his
+acorns, oblivious of danger. He was the shortest-legged, blackest and
+glossiest bear I had ever seen; and such a fair shot. But I could not
+use either skin or meat, and he was a splendid picture just as he sat.
+Shot down and left to taint the blessed air, he would not look as
+wholesome, let alone that it would be unwarrantable murder. And so,
+when he came nosing under the very tree where I was sitting, I suddenly
+jumped up, threw my hat at him and gave a Comanche yell. He tumbled
+over in a limp heap, grunting and whining for very terror, gathered
+himself up, got up headway and disappeared with wonderful speed--
+considering the length of his legs.
+
+On another occasion--and this was in heavy timber--I was resting on a
+log, partially concealed by spice bushes, when I noticed a large flock
+of turkeys coming in my direction. As they rapidly advanced with their
+quick, gliding walk, the flock grew to a drove, the drove became a
+swarm--an army. To right and on the left, as far as I could see in
+front, a legion of turkeys were marching, steadily marching to the
+eastward. Among them were some of the grandest gobblers I had ever
+seen, and one magnificent fellow came straight toward me. Never before
+or since have I seen such a splendid wild bird. His thick, glossy black
+beard nearly reached the ground, his bronze uniform was of the richest,
+and he was decidedly the largest I have ever seen. When within fifty
+feet of the spot where I was nearly hidden, his wary eye caught
+something suspicious; and he raised his superb head for an instant in
+an attitude of motionless attention. Then, with lowered head and
+drooping tail, he turned right about, gave the note of alarm, put the
+trunk of a large tree quickly between himself and the enemy, and went
+away like the wind. With the speed of thought the warning note was
+sounded along the whole line and in a moment the woods seemed alive
+with turkeys, running for dear life. In less time than it takes to tell
+it, that gallinaceous army had passed out of sight, forever. And the
+like of it will never again be possible on this continent.
+
+And again, on the morning of the sixth day out, I blundered on to such
+an aggregation of deer as a man sees but once in a lifetime. I had
+camped over night on low land, among heavy timber, but soon after
+striking camp, came to a place where the timber was scattering and the
+land had a gentle rise to the westward. Scarcely had I left the low
+land behind, when a few deer got out of their beds and commenced lazily
+bounding away. They were soon joined by others; on the right flank, on
+the left and ahead, they continued to rise and canter off leisurely,
+stopping at a distance of one or two hundred yards to look back. It
+struck me finally that I had started something rather unusual and I
+began counting the deer in sight. It was useless to attempt it; their
+white flags were flying in front and on both flanks, as far as one
+could see, and new ones seemed constantly joining the procession. Among
+them were several very large bucks with superb antlers, and these
+seemed very little afraid of the small, quiet biped in leaf-colored
+rig. They often paused to gaze back with bold, fearless front, as
+though inclined to call a halt and face the music; but when within a
+hundred yards, would turn and canter leisurely away. As the herd neared
+the summit of the low-lying ridge, I tried to make a reasonable guess
+at their numbers, by counting a part and estimating the rest, but could
+come to no satisfactory conclusion. As they passed the summit and loped
+down the gentle decline toward heavy timber, they began to scatter, and
+soon not a flag was in sight. It was a magnificent cervine army with
+white banners, and I shall never look upon its like again. The largest
+drove of deer I have seen in twenty years consisted of seven only.
+
+And with much of interest, much of tramping, and not a little
+vexatious delay, I came at length to a stream that I knew must be the
+south branch of the Muskegon. The main river could scarcely be more
+than ten miles to the westward and might be easily reached in one day.
+
+It was time. The meal and pork were nearly gone, sugar and tea were at
+low ebb and I was tired of venison; tired anyhow; ready for human
+speech and human companionship.
+
+It was in the afternoon of the ninth day that I crossed the South
+Muskegon and laid a course west by north. The traveling was not bad;
+and in less than an hour I ran on to the ruins of a camp that I knew to
+be the work of Indians. It had evidently been a permanent winter camp
+and was almost certainly the Indian camp spoken of by Bill Hance.
+Pausing a short time to look over the ruins, with the lonely feeling
+always induced by a decayed, rotting camp, I struck due west and made
+several miles before sundown.
+
+I camped on a little rill, near a huge dry stub that would peel, made
+the last of the meal into a Johnnycake, broiled the last slice of pork
+and lay down with the notion that a ten days' tramp, where it took an
+average of fifteen miles to make six, ought to end on the morrow. At
+sunrise I was again on foot, and after three hours of steady tramping,
+saw a smoky opening ahead. In five minutes I was standing on the left
+bank of the Muskegon.
+
+And the Joe Davis camp--was it up stream or down? I decided on the
+latter, and started slowly down stream, keeping an eye out for signs.
+In less than an hour I struck a dim log road which led to the river and
+there was a "landing," with the usual debris of skids, loose bark,
+chocks and some pieces of broken boards. It did not take long to
+construct an efficient log raft from the dry skids, and as I drifted
+placidly down the deep, wild river, munching the last bit of
+Johnnycake, I inwardly swore that my next wilderness cruise should be
+by water.
+
+It was in late afternoon that I heard--blessed sound--the eager clank,
+clank, clank of the old-fashioned sawmill. It grew nearer and more
+distinct; presently I could distinguish the rumble of machinery as the
+carriage gigged back; then the raft rounded a gentle bend, and a mill,
+with its long, log boarding-house, came full in sight.
+
+As the raft swung into the landing the mill became silent; a
+brown-bearded, red-shirted fellow came down to welcome me, a pair of
+strong hands grasped both my own and the voice of Joe Davis said
+earnestly, "Why, George! I never was so damned glad to see a man in
+my life!"
+
+The ten days' tramp was ended. It had been wearisome to a degree, but
+interesting and instructive. I had seen more game birds and animals in
+the time than I ever saw before or since in a whole season; and, though
+I came out with clothes pretty well worn and torn off my back and legs,
+I was a little disposed to plume myself on the achievement. Even at
+this day I am a little proud of the fact that, with so many temptations
+to slaughter, I only fired three shots on the route. Nothing but the
+exceptionally fine, dry weather rendered such a trip possible in a
+wilderness so cut up with swamps, lakes, marshes and streams. A week of
+steady rain or a premature snow storm--either likely enough at that
+season--would have been most disastrous; while a forest fire like that
+of '56 and later ones, would simply have proved fatal.
+
+Reader, if ever you are tempted to make a similar thoughtless,
+reckless trip--don't do it.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+The Light Canoe And Double Blade--Various Canoes For Various
+Canoeists--Reasons For Preferring The Clinker-Built Cedar
+
+THE canoe is coming to the front and canoeing is gaining rapidly in
+popular favor, in spite of the disparaging remark that "a canoe is a
+poor man's yacht." The canoe editor of Forest and Stream pertinently
+says, "we may as properly call a bicycle 'the poor man's express
+train'." But, suppose it is the poor man's yacht? Are we to be debarred
+from aquatic sports because we are not rich? And are we such weak
+flunkies as to be ashamed of poverty? Or to attempt shams and
+subterfuges to hide it? For myself, I freely accept the imputation. In
+common with nine-tenths of my fellow citizens I am poor--and the canoe
+is my yacht, as it would be were I a millionaire. We are a nation of
+many millions and comparatively few of us are rich enough to support a
+yacht, let alone the fact that not one man in fifty lives near enough
+to yachting waters to make such an acquisition desirable--or feasible,
+even. It is different with the canoe. A man like myself can live in the
+backwoods, a hundred miles from a decent sized inland lake and much
+further from the sea coast, and yet be an enthusiastic canoeist. For
+instance.
+
+Last July I made my preparations for a canoe cruise and spun out with
+as little delay as possible. I had pitched on the Adirondacks as
+cruising ground and had more than 250 miles of railroads and buckboards
+to take, before launching the canoe on Moose River. She was carried
+thirteen miles over the Brown's Tract road on the head of her skipper,
+cruised from the western side of the Wilderness to the Lower St. Regis
+on the east side, cruised back again by a somewhat different route, was
+taken home to Pennsylvania on the cars, 250 miles, sent back to her
+builder, St. Lawrence County, N.Y., over 300 miles, thence by rail to
+New York City, where, the last I heard of her, she was on exhibition at
+the Forest and Stream office. She took her chances in the baggage car,
+with no special care and is today, so far as I know, staunch and tight,
+with not a check in her frail siding.
+
+Such cruising can only be made in a very light canoe and with a very
+light outfit. It was sometimes necessary to make several carries in one
+day, aggregating as much as ten miles, besides from fifteen to twenty
+miles under paddle. No heavy, decked, paddling or sailing canoe would
+have been available for such a trip with a man of ordinary muscle.
+
+The difference between a lone, independent cruise through an almost
+unbroken wilderness and cruising along civilized routes, where the
+canoeist can interview farm houses and village groceries for supplies,
+getting gratuitous stonings from the small boy and much reviling from
+ye ancient mariner of the towpath--I say, the difference is just
+immense. Whence it comes that I always prefer a very light, open canoe;
+one that I can carry almost as easily as my hat, and yet that will
+float me easily, buoyantly and safely. And such a canoe was my last
+cruiser. She only weighed ten and one-half pounds when first launched,
+and after an all summer rattling by land and water had only gained half
+a pound. I do not therefore advise anyone to buy a ten and a half pound
+canoe; although she would prove competent for a skilful lightweight.
+She was built to order, as a test of lightness and was the third
+experiment in that line.
+
+I have nothing to say against the really fine canoes that are in
+highest favor today. Were I fond of sailing and satisfied to cruise on
+routes where clearings are more plentiful than carries, I dare say I
+should run a Shadow, or Stella Maris, at a cost of considerably more
+than $100--though I should hardly call it a "poor man's yacht."
+
+Much is being said and written at the present day as to the "perfect
+canoe." One writer decides in favor of a Pearl 15 x 31 1/2 inches. In
+the same column another says, "the perfect canoe does not exist." I
+should rather say there are several types of the modern canoe, each
+nearly perfect in its way and for the use to which it is best adapted.
+The perfect paddling canoe is by no means perfect under canvas and vice
+versa. The best cruiser is not a perfect racer, while neither of them
+is at all perfect as a paddling cruiser where much carrying is to be
+done. And the most perfect canoe for fishing and gunning around
+shallow, marshy waters, would be a very imperfect canoe for a rough and
+ready cruise of one hundred miles through a strange wilderness, where a
+day's cruise will sometimes include a dozen miles of carrying.
+
+Believing, as I do, that the light, single canoe with double-bladed
+paddle is bound to soon become a leading--if not the leading--feature
+in summer recreation, and having been a light canoeist for nearly fifty
+years, during the last twenty of which I experimented much with the
+view of reducing weight, perhaps I can give some hints that may help a
+younger man in the selection of a canoe which shall be safe, pleasant
+to ride and not burdensome to carry.
+
+Let me promise that, up to four years ago, I was never able to get a
+canoe that entirely satisfied me as to weight and model. I bought the
+smallest birches I could find; procured a tiny Chippewa dugout from
+North Michigan and once owned a kayak. They were all too heavy and they
+were cranky to a degree.
+
+About twenty years ago I commenced making my own canoes. The
+construction was of the simplest; a 22 inch pine board for the bottom,
+planed to 3/4 of an inch thickness; two wide 1/2 inch boards for the
+sides and two light oak stems; five pieces of wood in all. I found that
+the bend of the siding gave too much shear; for instance, if the siding
+was 12 inches wide, she would have a rise of 12 inches at stems and
+less than 5 inches at center. But the flat bottom made her very stiff,
+and for river work she was better than anything I had yet tried. She
+was too heavy, however, always weighing from 45 to 50 pounds and
+awkward to carry.
+
+My last canoe of this style went down the Susquehanna with an ice jam
+in the spring of '79, and in the meantime canoeing began to loom up.
+The best paper in the country which makes outdoor sport its specially,
+devoted liberal space to canoeing, and skilled boatbuilders were
+advertising canoes of various models and widely different material. I
+commenced interviewing the builders by letter and studying catalogues
+carefully. There was a wide margin of choice. You could have lapstreak,
+smooth skin, paper, veneer, or canvas. What I wanted was light weight
+and good model. I liked the Peterboro canoes; they were decidedly
+canoey. Also, the veneered Racines: but neither of them talked of a 20
+pound canoe. The "Osgood folding canvas" did. But I had some knowledge
+of canvas boats. I knew they could make her down to 20 pounds. How much
+would she weigh after being in the water a week and how would she
+behave when swamped in the middle of a lake, were questions to be
+asked, for I always get swamped. One builder of cedar canoes thought he
+could make me the boat I wanted, inside of 20 pounds, clinker-built and
+at my own risk, as he hardly believed in so light a boat. I sent him
+the order and he turned out what is pretty well known in Brown's Tract
+as the "Nessmuk canoe." She weighed just 17 pounds 13 3/4 ounces and
+was thought to be the lightest working canoe in existence. Her builder
+gave me some advice about stiffening her with braces, etc., if I found
+her too frail, "and he never expected another like her."
+
+"He builded better than he knew." She needed no bracing; and she was,
+and is, a staunch, seaworthy little model. I fell in love with her from
+the start. I had at last found the canoe that I could ride in rough
+water, sleep in afloat, and carry with ease for miles. I paddled her
+early and late, mainly on the Fulton Chain; but I also cruised her on
+Raquette Lake, Eagle, Utowana, Blue Mountain and Forked Lakes, I
+paddled her until there were black and blue streaks along the muscles
+from wrist to elbow. Thank Heaven, I had found something that made me a
+boy again. Her log shows a cruise for 1880 of over 550 miles.
+
+As regards her capacity (she is now on Third Lake, Brown's Tract),
+James P. Fifield, a muscular young Forge House guide of 6 feet 2 inches
+and 185 pounds weight, took her through the Fulton Chain to Raquette
+Lake last summer; and, happening on his camp, Seventh Lake, last July,
+I asked him how she performed under his weight. He said, "I never made
+the trip to Raquette so lightly and easily in my life." And as to the
+opinion of her builder, he wrote me, under date of Nov. 18, '83: "I
+thought when I built the Nessmuk, no one else would ever want one. But
+I now build about a dozen of them a year. Great big men, ladies, and
+two, aye, three schoolboys ride in them. Tis wonderful how few pounds
+of cedar, rightly modeled and properly put together, it takes to float
+a man," Just so, Mr. Builder. That's what I said when I ordered her.
+But few seemed to see it then.
+
+The Nessmuk was by no means the ultimatum of lightness and I ordered
+another six inches longer, two inches wider, and to weigh about 15
+pounds. When she came to hand she was a beauty, finished in oil and
+shellac. But she weighed 16 pounds and would not only carry me and my
+duffle, but I could easily carry a passenger of my weight. I cruised
+her in the summer of '81 over the Fulton Chain, Raquette Lake, Forked
+Lake, down the Raquette River, and on Long Lake. But her log only
+showed a record of 206 miles. The cruise that had been mapped for 600
+miles was cut short by sickness and I went into quarantine at the
+hostelry of Mitchell Sabattis. Slowly and feebly I crept back to the
+Fulton Chain, hung up at the Forge House, and the cruise of the Susan
+Nipper was ended. Later in the season, I sent for her and she was
+forwarded by express, coming out over the fearful Brown's Tract road to
+Boonville (25 1/2 miles) by buckboard, From Boonville home, she took
+her chances in the baggage car without protection and reached her
+destination without a check or scratch. She hangs in her slings under
+the porch, a thing of beauty--and, like many beauties, a trifle frail--
+but staunch as the day I took her. Her proper lading is about 200
+pounds. She can float 300 pounds.
+
+Of my last and lightest venture, the Sairy Camp, little more need be
+said. I will only add that a Mr. Dutton, of Philadelphia, got into her
+at the Forge House and paddled her like an old canoeist, though it
+was his first experience with the double blade. He gave his age as
+sixty-four years and weight, 140 pounds. Billy Cornell, a bright young
+guide, cruised her on Raquette Lake quite as well as her owner could do
+it, and I thought she trimmed better with him. He paddled at 141 1/2
+pounds, which is just about her right lading. And she was only an
+experiment, anyhow. I wanted to find out how light a canoe it took to
+drown her skipper, and I do not yet know. I never shall. But, most of
+all, I desired to settle the question approximately at least, of weight,
+as regards canoe and canoeist.
+
+Many years ago, I became convinced that we were all, as canoeists,
+carrying and paddling just twice as much wood as was at all needful,
+and something more than a year since, I advanced the opinion in Forest
+and Stream, that ten pounds of well made cedar ought to carry one
+hundred pounds of man. The past season has more than proved it; but, as
+I may be a little exceptional, I leave myself out of the question and
+have ordered my next canoe on lines and dimensions that, in my
+judgment, will be found nearly perfect for the average canoeist of 150
+to 160 pounds. She will be much stronger than either of any other
+canoes, because few men would like a canoe so frail and limber that she
+can be sprung inward by hand pressure on the gunwales, as easily as a
+hat-box. And many men are clumsy or careless with a boat, while others
+are lubberly by nature. Her dimensions are: Length, 10 1/2 feet; beam,
+26 inches; rise at center, 9 inches: at seams, 15 inches; oval red elm
+ribs, 1 inch apart; an inch home tumble; stems, plumb and sharp; oak
+keel and keelson; clinker-built, of white cedar.
+
+Such a canoe will weigh about 22 pounds and will do just as well for
+the man of 140 or 170 pounds, while even a light weight of 110 pounds
+ought to take her over a portage with a light, elastic carrying frame,
+without distress. She will trim best, however, at about 160 pounds. For
+a welter, say of some 200 pounds, add 6 inches to her length, 2 inches
+to her beam and 1 inch rise at center. The light weight canoeist will
+find that either of these two canoes will prove satisfactory, that is
+10 feet in length, weight 16 pounds, or 10 1/2 feet length, weight 18
+pounds. Either is capable of 160 pounds and they are very steady and
+buoyant, as I happen to know. I dare say any first class manufacturers
+will build canoes of these dimensions.
+
+Provide your canoe with a flooring of oilcloth 3 1/2 feet long by 15
+inches wide; punch holes in it and tie it neatly to the ribbing, just
+where it will best protect the bottom from wear and danger. Use only a
+cushion for a seat and do not buy a fancy one with permanent stuffing,
+but get sixpence worth of good, unbleached cotton cloth and have it
+sewed into bag shape. Stuff the bag with fine browse, dry grass or
+leaves, settle it well together and fasten the open end by turning it
+flatly back and using two or three pins, You can empty it if you like
+when going over a carry, and it makes a good pillow at night.
+
+Select a canoe that fits you, just as you would a coat or hat. A 16
+pound canoe may fit me exactly, but would be a bad misfit for a man of
+180 pounds. And don't neglect the auxiliary paddle, or "pudding stick,"
+as my friends call it. The notion may be new to most canoeists, but
+will be found exceedingly handy and useful. It is simply a little
+one-handed paddle weighing 5 to 7 ounces, 20 to 22 inches long, with a
+blade 3 1/2 inches wide. Work it out of half-inch cherry or maple and
+fine the blade down thin. Tie it to a rib with a slip-knot, having the
+handle in easy reach, and when you come to a narrow, tortuous channel,
+where shrubs and weeds crowd you on both sides, take the double-blade
+inboard, use the pudding stick, and you can go almost anywhere that a
+muskrat can.
+
+In fishing for trout or floating deer, remember you are dealing with
+the wary, and that the broad blades are very showy in motion.
+Therefore, on approaching a spring-hole, lay the double-blade on the
+lily-pads where you can pick it up when wanted and handle your canoe
+with the auxiliary. On hooking a large fish, handle the rod with one
+hand and with the other lay the canoe out into deep water, away from
+all entangling alliances. You may be surprised to find how easily, with
+a little practice, you can make a two-pound trout or bass tow the canoe
+the way you want it to go.
+
+In floating for deer, use the double-blade only in making the passage
+to the ground; then take it apart and lay it inboard, using only the
+little paddle to float with, tying it to a rib with a yard and a half
+of linen line. On approaching a deer near enough to shoot, let go the
+paddle, leaving it to drift alongside while you attend to venison.
+
+Beneath a hemlock grim and dark,
+    Where shrub and vine are intertwining,
+Our shany stands, well roofed with bark,
+    On which the cheerful blaze is shining.
+The smoke ascends in spiral wreath,
+    With upward curve the sparks are trending;
+The coffee kettle sings beneath
+    Where sparks and smoke with leaves are blending.
+
+And on the stream a light canoe
+    Floats like a freshly fallen feather,
+A fairy thing, that will not do
+    For broader seas and stormy weather.
+Her sides no thicker than the shell
+    Of Ole Bull's Cremona fiddle,
+The mall who rides her will do well
+    To part his scalp-lock in the middle.
+
+Forest Runes  --Nessmuk
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+Odds And Ends--Where To Go For An Outing--Why A Clinker?--Boughs And
+Browse
+
+THE oft-recurring question as to where to go for the outing, can
+hardly be answered at all satisfactorily. In a general way, any place
+may, and ought to be, satisfactory, where there are fresh green woods,
+pleasant scenery, and fish and game plenty enough to supply the camp
+abundantly, with boating facilities and pure water.
+
+"It's more in the man than it is in the land," and there are thousands
+of such places on the waters of the Susquehanna, the Delaware, the
+rivers and lakes of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada.
+
+Among the lakes of Central New York one may easily select a camping
+ground, healthy, pleasant, easily reached and with the advantage of
+cheapness. A little too much civilization, perhaps; but the farmers are
+friendly and kindly disposed to all summer outers who behave like
+gentlemen.
+
+For fine forest scenery and unequaled canoeing facilities, it must be
+admitted that the Adirondack region stands at the head. There is also
+fine fishing and good hunting, for those who know the right places to
+go for deer and trout. But it is a tedious, expensive job getting into
+the heart of the Wilderness, and it is the most costly woodland resort
+I know of when you are there. You can keep expenses down (and also have
+a much better sport) by avoiding the hotels and going into camp at once
+and staying there. The best way is for two men to hire a guide, live in
+camp altogether and divide the expense.
+
+All along the Allegheny range, from Maine to Michigan and from
+Pennsylvania to the Provinces, numberless resorts exist as pleasant, as
+healthy, as prolific of sport, as the famed Adirondacks, and at half
+the cost. But, for an all-summer canoe cruise, with more than 600
+accessible lakes and ponds, the Northern Wilderness stands alone. And,
+as a wealthy cockney once remarked to me in Brown's Tract, "It's no
+place for a poor man."
+
+And now I will give my reasons for preferring the clinker-built cedar
+boat, or canoe, to any other. First, as to material. Cedar is stronger,
+more elastic, more enduring and shrinks less than pine or any other
+light wood used as boat siding. As one of the best builders in the
+country says, "It has been thoroughly demonstrated that a cedar canoe
+will stand more hard knocks than an oak one; for where it only receives
+bruises, the oak streaks will split." And he might add, the pine will
+break. But I suppose it is settled beyond dispute that white cedar
+stands at the head for boat streaks. I prefer it then, because it is
+the best. And I prefer the clinker, because it is the strongest,
+simplest, most enduring and most easily repaired in case of accident.
+To prove the strength theory, take a cedar (or pine) strip eight feet
+long and six inches wide. Bend it to a certain point by an equal strain
+on each end and carefully note the result. Next strip it lengthwise
+with the rip saw, lap the two halves an inch and nail the lap as in
+boat building. Test it again and you will find it has gained in
+strength about twenty per cent. That is the clinker of it.
+
+Now work the laps down until the strip is of uniform thickness its
+entire length and test it once more; you will find it much weaker than
+on first trial. That is the smooth skin, sometimes called lapstreak.
+They, the clinker canoes, are easily tightened when they spring a leak
+through being rattled over stones in rapids. It is only to hunt a
+smooth pebble for a clinch head and settle the nails that have started
+with the hatchet, putting in a few new ones if needed. And they are put
+together, at least by the best builders, without any cement or white
+lead, naked wood to wood, and depending only on close work for
+waterproofing. And each pair of strips is cut to fit and lie in its
+proper place without strain, no two pairs being alike, but each pair,
+from garboards to upper streak, having easy, natural form for its
+destined position.
+
+The veneered canoes are very fine, for deep water; but a few cuts on
+sharp stones will be found ruinous; and if exposed much to weather they
+are liable to warp. The builders understand this and plainly say that
+they prefer not to build fine boats for those who will neglect the
+proper care of them.
+
+The paper boat, also, will not stand much cutting on sharp stones, and
+it is not buoyant when swamped, unless fitted with watertight
+compartments, which I abhor.
+
+The canvas is rather a logy, limp son of craft, to my thinking and
+liable to drown her crew if swamped.
+
+But each and all have their admirers, and purchasers as well, while
+each is good in its way and I only mention a few reasons for my
+preference of the cedar.
+
+When running an ugly rapid or crossing a stormy lake, I like to feel
+that I have enough light, seasoned wood under me to keep my mouth and
+nose above water all day, besides saving the rifle and knapsack, which,
+when running into danger, I always tie to the ribbing with strong linen
+line, as I do the paddle also, giving it about line enough to just
+allow free play.
+
+I am not--to use a little modern slang--going to "give myself away" on
+canoeing, or talk of startling adventure. But, for the possible
+advantage of some future canoeist, I will briefly relate what happened
+to me on a certain windy morning one summer. It was on one of the
+larger lakes--no matter which--between Paul Smith's and the Fulton
+Chain. I had camped over night in a spot that did not suit me in the
+least, but it seemed the best I could do then and there. The night was
+rough and the early morning threatening. However, I managed a cup of
+coffee, "tied in," and made a slippery carry of two miles a little
+after sunrise. Arrived on the shore of the lake, things did not look
+promising. The whirling, twirling clouds were black and dangerous
+looking, the crisp, dark waves were crested with spume, and I had a
+notion of just making a comfortable camp and waiting for better
+weather. But the commissary department was reduced to six Boston
+crackers, with a single slice of pork, and it was twelve miles of
+wilderness to the nearest point of supplies, four miles of it carries,
+included. Such weather might last a week, and I decided to go. For half
+an hour I sat on the beach, taking weather notes. The wind was
+northeast; my course was due west, giving me four points free. Taking
+five feet of strong line, I tied one end under a rib next the keelson
+and the other around the paddle. Stripping to shirt and drawers, I
+stowed everything in the knapsack and tied that safely in the fore
+peak. Then I swung out. Before I was a half mile out, I fervently
+wished myself back. But it was too late. How that little, corky, light
+canoe did bound and snap, with a constant tendency to come up in the
+wind'e eye, that kept me on the qui vive every instant. She shipped no
+water; she was too buoyant for that. But she was all the time in danger
+of pitching her crew overboard. It soon came to a crisis. About the
+middle of the lake, on the north side, there is a sharp, low gulch that
+runs away back through the hills, looking like a level cut through a
+railroad embankment. And down this gulch came a fierce thunder gust
+that was like a small cyclone. It knocked down trees, swept over the
+lake and caught the little canoe on the crest of a wave, right under
+the garboard streak. I went overboard like a shot; but I kept my grip
+on the paddle. That grip was worth a thousand dollars to the
+"Travelers' Accidental" and another thousand to the "Equitable
+Company" because the paddle, with its line, enabled me to keep the
+canoe in hand and prevent her from going away to leeward like a dry
+leaf. When I once got my nose above water and my hand on her after
+stem, I knew I had the whole business under control. Pressing the stem
+down, I took a look inboard. The little jilt! She had not shipped a
+quart of water. And there was the knapsack, the rod, the little
+auxiliary paddle, all just as I had tied them in; only the crew and the
+double-blade had gone overboard. As I am elderly and out of practice in
+the swimming line, and it was nearly half a mile to a lee shore, and as
+I was out of breath and water logged, it is quite possible that a
+little forethought and four cents' worth of fishline saved the
+insurance companies two thousand dollars.
+
+How I slowly kicked that canoe ashore; how the sun came out bright and
+hot; how, instead of making the remaining eleven miles, I raised a
+conflagration and a comfortable camp, dried out and had a pleasant
+night of it; all this is neither here nor there. The point I wish to
+make is, keep your duffle safe to float and your paddle and canoe
+sufficiently in hand to always hold your breathing works above water
+level. So shall your children look confidently for your safe return,
+while the "Accidentals" arise and call you a good investment.
+
+There is only one objection to the clinker-built canoe that occurs to
+me as at all plausible. This is, that the ridge-like projections of her
+clinker laps offer resistance to the water and retard her speed.
+Theoretically, this is correct. Practically, it is not proven. Her
+streaks are so nearly on her water line that the resistance, if any,
+must be infinitesimal. It is possible, however, that this element might
+lessen her speed one or two minutes in a mile race. I am not racing,
+but taking leisurely recreation. I can wait two or three minutes as
+well as not. Three or four knots an hour will take me through to the
+last carry quite as soon as I care to make the landing.
+
+A few words of explanation and advice may not be out of place. I have
+used the words "boughs" and "browse" quite frequently. I am sorry they
+are not more in use. The first settlers in the unbroken forest knew how
+to diagnose a tree. They came to the "Holland Purchase" from the
+Eastern States, with their families, in a covered wagon, drawn by a
+yoke of oxen, and the favorite cow patiently leading behind. They could
+not start until the ground was settled, some time in May, and nothing
+could be done in late summer, save to erect a log cabin and clear a few
+acres for the next season. To this end the oxen were indispensable and
+a cow was of first necessity, where there were children. And cows and
+oxen must have hay. But there was not a lot of hay in the country. A
+few hundred pounds of coarse wild grass was gleaned from the margins of
+streams and small marshes; but the main reliance was "browse." Through
+the warm months the cattle could take care of themselves; but, when
+winter settled down in earnest, a large part of the settler's work
+consisted in providing browse for his cattle. First and best was the
+basswood (linden): then came maple, beech, birch and hemlock. Some of
+the trees would be nearly three feet in diameter, and when felled, much
+of the browse would be twenty feet above the reach of cattle, on the
+ends of huge limbs. Then the boughs were lopped off and the cattle
+could get at the browse. The settlers divided the tree into log, limbs,
+boughs and browse. Anything small enough for a cow or deer to masticate
+was browse. And that is just what you want for a camp in the forest.
+Not twigs that may come from a thorn, or boughs that may be as thick as
+your wrist, but browse, which may be used for a mattress, the
+healthiest in the world.
+
+And now for a little useless advice. In going into the woods, don't
+take a medicine chest or a set of surgical instruments with you. A bit
+of sticking salve, a wooden vial of anti-pain tablets and another of
+rhubarb regulars, your fly medicine and a pair of tweezers will be
+enough. Of course you have needles and thread.
+
+If you go before the open season for shooting, take no gun. It will
+simply be a useless incumbrance and a nuisance.
+
+If you go to hunt, take a solemn oath never to point the shooting end
+of your gun toward yourself or any other human being.
+
+In still-hunting, swear yourself black in the face never to shoot at a
+dim, moving object in the woods for a deer, unless you have seen that
+it is a deer. In these days there are quite as many hunters as deer in
+the woods; and it is a heavy, wearisome job to pack a dead or wounded
+man ten or twelve miles out to a clearing, let alone that it spoils all
+the pleasure of the hunt and is apt to raise hard feelings among his
+relations.
+
+In a word, act coolly and rationally. So shall your outing be a
+delight in conception and the fulfillment thereof; while the memory of
+it shall come back to you in pleasant dreams, when legs and shoulders
+are too stiff and old for knapsack and rifle.
+
+That is me. That is why I sit here tonight with the north wind and
+sleet rattling the one window of my little den, writing what I hope
+younger and stronger men will like to take into the woods with them and
+read. Not that I am so very old. The youngsters are still not anxious
+to buck against the muzzleloader in off-hand shooting. But, in common
+with a thousand other old graybeards, I feel that the fire, the fervor,
+the steel, that once carried me over the trail from dawn until dark, is
+dulled and deadened within me.
+
+We had our day of youth and May;
+    We may have grown a trifle sober;
+But life may reach a wintry way,
+    And we are only in October.
+
+Wherefore, let us be thankful that there are still thousands of cool,
+green nooks beside crystal springs, where the weary soul may hide for a
+time, away from debts, duns and deviltries, and a while commune with
+nature in her undress.
+
+And with kindness to all true woodsmen; and with malice toward none,
+save the trout-hog, the netter, the cruster and skin-butcher, let us
+
+PREPARE TO TURN IN.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT***
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woodcraft, by George W. Sears
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Woodcraft
+
+
+Author: George W. Sears
+
+
+
+Release Date: February 11, 2008  [eBook #24579]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Joseph Gray
+
+
+
+WOODCRAFT
+
+by
+
+Nessmuk
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+Woodcraft is dedicated to the Grand Army of "Outers," as a pocket
+volume of reference on woodcraft.
+
+    For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,
+With a pulse of evil that throbs and beats;
+    And men are withered before their prime
+By the curse paved in with the lanes and streets.
+
+    And lungs are poisoned and shoulders bowed,
+In the smothering reek of mill and mine;
+    And death stalks in on the struggling crowd--
+But he shuns the shadow of oak and pine.
+
+--Nessmuk
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+Overwork And Recreation--Outing And Outers--How To Do It, And Why They
+Miss It
+
+IT does not need that Herbert Spencer should cross the ocean to tell
+us that we are an over-worked nation; that our hair turns gray ten
+years earlier than the Englishman's; or, "that we have had somewhat too
+much of the gospel of work," and, "it is time to preach the gospel of
+relaxation." It is all true. But we work harder, accomplish more in a
+given time and last quite as long as slower races. As to the gray hair--
+perhaps gray hair is better than none; and it is a fact that the
+average Briton becomes bald as early as the American turns gray. There
+is, however, a sad significance in his words when he says: "In every
+circle I have met men who had themselves suffered from nervous collapse
+due to stress of business, or named friends who had either killed
+themselves by overwork, or had been permanently incapacitated, or had
+wasted long periods in endeavors to recover health." Too true. And it
+is the constant strain, without let-up or relaxation, that, in nine
+cases out of ten, snaps the cord and ends in what the doctors call
+"nervous prostration"--something akin to paralysis--from which the
+sufferer seldom wholly recovers.
+
+Mr. Spencer quotes that quaint old chronicler, Froissart, as saying,
+"The English take their pleasures sadly, after their fashion"; and
+thinks if he lived now, he would say of Americans, "they take their
+pleasures hurriedly, after their fashion." Perhaps.
+
+It is an age of hurry and worry. Anything slower than steam is apt to
+"get left." Fortunes are quickly made and freely spent. Nearly all
+busy, hard-worked Americans have an intuitive sense of the need that
+exists for at least one period of rest and relaxation during each year
+and all--or nearly all--are willing to pay liberally, too liberally in
+fact, for anything that conduces to rest, recreation and sport. I am
+sorry to say that we mostly get swindled. As an average, the summer
+outer who goes to forest, lake or stream for health and sport, gets
+about ten cents' worth for a dollar of outlay. A majority will admit--
+to themselves at least--that after a month's vacation, they return to
+work with an inward consciousness of being somewhat disappointed and
+beaten. We are free with our money when we have it. We are known
+throughout the civilized world for our lavishness in paying for our
+pleasures; but it humiliates us to know we have been beaten, and this
+is what the most of us know at the end of a summer vacation. To the man
+of millions it makes little difference. He is able to pay liberally for
+boats, buckboards and "body service," if he chooses to spend a summer
+in the North Woods. He has no need to study the questions of lightness
+and economy in a Forest and Stream outing. Let his guides take care of
+him; and unto them and the landlords he will give freely of his
+substance.
+
+I do not write for him and can do him little good. But there are
+hundreds of thousands of practical, useful men, many of them far from
+being rich; mechanics, artists, writers, merchants, clerks, business
+men--workers, so to speak--who sorely need and well deserve a season of
+rest and relaxation at least once a year. To these and for these, I
+write.
+
+Perhaps more than fifty years of devotion to "woodcraft" may enable me
+to give a few useful hints and suggestions to those whose dreams,
+during the close season of work, are of camp-life by flood, field and
+forest.
+
+I have found that nearly all who have a real love of nature and
+out-of-door camp-life, spend a good deal of time and talk in planning
+future trips, or discussing the trips and pleasures gone by, but still
+dear to memory.
+
+When the mountain streams are frozen and the Nor'land winds are out;
+when the winter winds are drifting the bitter sleet and snow; when
+winter rains are making out-of-door life unendurable; when season,
+weather and law combine to make it "close time" for beast, bird and
+man, it is well that a few congenial spirits should, at some favorite
+trysting place, gather around the glowing stove and exchange yarns,
+opinions and experiences. Perhaps no two will exactly agree on the best
+ground for an outing...or half a dozen other points that may be
+discussed. But one thing all admit. Each and every one has gone to his
+chosen ground with too much impedimenta, too much duffle; and nearly
+all have used boats at least twice as heavy as they need to have been.
+The temptation to buy this or that bit of indispensable camp-kit has
+been too strong and we have gone to the blessed woods, handicapped with
+a load fit for a pack-mule. This is not how to do it.
+
+Go light; the lighter the better, so that you have the simplest
+material for health, comfort and enjoyment.
+
+Of course, if you intend to have a permanent camp and can reach it by
+boat or wagon, lightness is not so important, though even in that case
+it is well to guard against taking a lot of stuff that is likely to
+prove of more weight than worth--only to leave it behind when you come
+out.
+
+As to clothing for the woods, a good deal of nonsense has been written
+about "strong, coarse woolen clothes." You do not want coarse woolen
+clothes. Fine woolen cassimere of medium thickness for coat, vest and
+pantaloons, with no cotton lining. Color, slate gray or dead-leaf
+(either is good). Two soft, thick woolen shirts; two pairs of fine, but
+substantial, woolen drawers; two pairs of strong woolen socks or
+stockings; these are what you need and all you need in the way of
+clothing for the woods, excepting hat and boots, or gaiters. Boots are
+best--providing you do not let yourself be inveigled into wearing a
+pair of long-legged heavy boots with thick soles, as has been often
+advised by writers who knew no better. Heavy, long legged boots are a
+weary, tiresome incumbrance on a hard tramp through rough woods. Even
+moccasins are better. Gaiters, all sorts of high shoes, in fact, are
+too bothersome about fastening and unfastening. Light boots are best.
+Not thin, unserviceable affairs, but light as to actual weight. The
+following hints will give an idea for the best footgear for the woods;
+let them be single soled, single backs and single fronts, except light,
+short foot-linings. Back of solid "country kip"; fronts of substantial
+French calf; heel one inch high, with steel nails; countered outside;
+straps narrow, of fine French calf put on "astraddle," and set down to
+the top of the back. The out-sole stout, Spanish oak and pegged rather
+than sewed, although either is good. They will weigh considerably less
+than half as much as the clumsy, costly boots usually recommended for
+the woods; and the added comfort must be tested to be understood.
+
+The hat should be fine, soft felt with moderately low crown and wide
+brim; color to match the clothing.
+
+The proper covering for head and feet is no slight affair and will be
+found worth some attention. Be careful that the boots are not too
+tight, or the hat too loose. The above rig will give the tourist one
+shirt, one pair of drawers and a pair of socks to carry as extra
+clothing. A soft, warm blanket-bag, open at the ends and just long
+enough to cover the sleeper, with an oblong square of waterproofed
+cotton cloth 6x8 feet, will give warmth and shelter by night and will
+weigh together five or six pounds. This, with the extra clothing, will
+make about eight pounds of dry goods to pack over carries, which is
+enough. Probably, also, it will be found little enough for comfort.
+
+During a canoe cruise across the Northern Wilderness in the late
+summer, I met many parties at different points in the woods and the
+amount of unnecessary duffle with which they encumbered themselves was
+simply appalling. Why a shrewd business man, who goes through with a
+guide and makes a forest hotel his camping ground nearly every night,
+should handicap himself with a five-peck pack basket full of gray
+woolen and gum blankets, extra clothing, pots, pans and kettles, with a
+9 pound 10-bore and two rods--yes, and an extra pair of heavy boots
+hanging astride of the gun-well, it is one of the things I shall never
+understand. My own load, including canoe, extra clothing, blanket-bag,
+two days' rations, pocket-axe, rod and knapsack, never exceeded 26
+pounds; and I went prepared to camp out any and every night.
+
+People who contemplate an outing in the woods are pretty apt to
+commence preparations a long way ahead and to pick up many trifling
+articles that suggest themselves as useful and handy in camp; all well
+enough in their way, but making at least a too heavy load. It is better
+to commence by studying to ascertain just how light one can go through
+without especial discomfort. A good plan is to think over the trip
+during leisure hours and make out a list of indispensable articles,
+securing them beforehand and have them stowed in handy fashion, so that
+nothing needful may be missing just when and where it cannot be
+procured. The list will be longer than one would think, but need not be
+cumbersome or heavy. As I am usually credited with making a cruise or a
+long woods tramp with exceptionally light duffle, I will give a list of
+the articles I take along--going on foot over carries or through the
+woods.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Fishing Tackle, Rods, Ditty-bag
+
+THE clothing, blanket-bag and shelter-cloth are all that need be
+described in that line. The next articles that I look after are
+knapsack (or pack basket), rod with reel, lines, flies, hooks and all
+my fishing gear, pocket-axe, knives and tinware. Firstly, the knapsack;
+as you are apt to carry it a great many miles, it is well to have it
+right and easy-fitting at the start. Don't be induced to carry a pack
+basket. I am aware that it is in high favor all through the Northern
+Wilderness and is also much used in other localities where guides and
+sportsmen most do congregate. But I do not like it. I admit that it
+will carry a loaf of bread, with tea, sugar, etc., without jamming;
+that bottles, crockery and other fragile duffle is safer from breakage
+than in an oil-cloth knapsack. But it is by no means waterproof in a
+rain or a splashing head sea, is more than twice as heavy--always
+growing heavier as it gets wetter--and I had rather have bread, tea,
+sugar, etc., a little jammed than water-soaked. Also, it may be
+remarked that man is a vertebrate animal and ought to respect his
+backbone. The loaded pack basket on a heavy carry never fails to get in
+on the most vulnerable knob of the human vertebrae. The knapsack sits
+easy and does not chafe. The one shown in the engraving is of good
+form; and the original--which I have carried for years--is satisfactory
+in every respect. It holds over half a bushel, carries blanket-bag,
+shelter-tent, hatchet, ditty-bag, tinware, fishing tackle, clothes and
+two days' rations. It weighs, empty, just twelve ounces.
+
+The hatchet and knives shown in the engraving will be found to fill
+the bill satisfactorily so far as cutlery may be required. Each is good
+and useful of its kind, the hatchet especially, being the best model I
+have ever found for a "double-barreled" pocket-axe.
+
+And just here let me digress for a little chat on the indispensable
+hatchet; for it is the most difficult piece of camp kit to obtain in
+perfection of which I have any knowledge. Before I was a dozen years
+old I came to realize that a light hatchet was a sine qua non in
+woodcraft and I also found it a most difficult thing to get. I tried
+shingling hatchets, lathing hatchets and the small hatchets to be found
+in country hardware stores, but none of them were satisfactory. I had
+quite a number made by blacksmiths who professed skill in making edged
+tools and these were the worst of all, being like nothing on the earth
+or under it--murderous-looking, clumsy and all too heavy, with no
+balance or proportion. I had hunted twelve years before I caught up
+with the pocket-axe I was looking for. It was made in Rochester, by a
+surgical instrument maker named Bushnell. It cost time and money to get
+it. I worked one rainy Saturday fashioning the pattern in wood. Spoiled
+a day going to Rochester, waited a day for the blade, paid $3.00 for it
+and lost a day coming home. Boat fare $1.00 and expenses $2.00, besides
+three days lost time, with another rainy Sunday for making leather
+sheath and hickory handle.
+
+My witty friends, always willing to help me out in figuring the cost
+of my hunting and fishing gear, made the following business-like
+estimate, which they placed where I would be certain to see it the
+first thing in the morning. Premising that of the five who assisted in
+that little joke, all stronger, bigger fellows than myself, four have
+gone "where they never see the sun," I will copy the statement as it
+stands today, on paper yellow with age. For I have kept it over forty
+years.
+
+Then they raised a horse laugh and the cost of that hatchet became a
+standing joke and a slur on my "business ability." What aggravated me
+most was, that the rascals were not so far out in their calculation.
+And was I so far wrong? That hatchet was my favorite for nearly thirty
+years. It has been "upset" twice by skilled workmen; and, if my friend
+Bero has not lost it, is still in service.
+
+Would I have gone without it any year for one or two dollars? But I
+prefer the double blade. I want one thick, stunt edge for knots, deers'
+bones, etc. and a fine, keen edge for cutting clear timber.
+
+A word as to knife, or knives. These are of prime necessity and should
+be of the best, both as to shape and temper. The "bowies" and "hunting
+knives" usually kept on sale, are thick, clumsy affairs, with a sort of
+ridge along the middle of the blade, murderous-looking, but of little
+use; rather fitted to adorn a dime novel or the belt of "Billy the
+Kid," than the outfit of the hunter. The one shown in the cut is thin
+in the blade and handy for skinning, cutting meat, or eating with. The
+strong double-bladed pocket knife is the best model I have yet found
+and, in connection with the sheath knife, is all sufficient for camp
+use. It is not necessary to take table cutlery into the woods. A good
+fork may be improvised from a beech or birch stick; and the half of a
+fresh-water mussel shell, with a split stick by way of handle, makes an
+excellent spoon.
+
+My entire outfit for cooking and eating dishes comprises five pieces
+of tinware. This is when stopping in a permanent camp. When cruising
+and tramping, I take just two pieces in the knapsack.
+
+I get a skillful tinsmith to make one dish as follows: Six inches on
+bottom, 6 3/4 inches on top, side 2 inches high. The bottom is of the
+heaviest tin procurable, the sides of lighter tin and seamed to be
+watertight without solder. The top simply turned, without wire. The
+second dish to be made the same, but small enough to nest in the first
+and also to fit into it when inverted as a cover. Two other dishes made
+from common pressed tinware, with the tops cut off and turned, also
+without wire. They are fitted so that they all nest, taking no more
+room than the largest dish alone and each of the three smaller dishes
+makes a perfect cover for the next larger. The other piece is a tin
+camp-kettle, also of the heaviest tin and seamed watertight. It holds
+two quarts and the other dishes nest in it perfectly, so that when
+packed the whole takes just as much room as the kettle alone. I should
+mention that the strong ears are set below the rim of the kettle and
+the bale falls outside, so, as none of the dishes have any handle,
+there are no aggravating "stickouts" to wear and abrade. The snug
+affair weighs, all told, two pounds. I have met parties in the North
+Woods whose one frying pan weighed more--with its handle three feet
+long. However did they get through the brush with such a culinary terror?
+
+It is only when I go into a very accessible camp that I take so much
+as five pieces of tinware along. I once made a ten days' tramp through
+an unbroken wilderness on foot and all the dish I took was a ten-cent
+tin; it was enough. I believe I will tell the story of that tramp
+before I get through. For I saw more game in the ten days than I ever
+saw before or since in a season; and I am told that the whole region is
+now a thrifty farming country, with the deer nearly all gone. They were
+plenty enough thirty-nine years ago this very month.
+
+I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
+connected with outdoor sports. The number and variety of rods and
+makers; the enthusiasm of trout and fly "cranks"; the fact that angling
+does not take precedence of all other sports with me, with the
+humiliating confession that I am not above bucktail spinners, worms and
+sinkers, minnow tails and white grubs--this and these constrain me to
+be brief.
+
+But, as I have been a fisher all my life, from my pinhook days to the
+present time; as I have run the list pretty well up, from brook minnows
+to 100 pound albacores, I may be pardoned for a few remarks on the rod
+and the use thereof.
+
+A rod may be a very high-toned, high-priced aesthetic plaything,
+costing $50 to $75, or it may be a rod. A serviceable and splendidly
+balanced rod can be obtained from first class makers for less money. By
+all means let the man of money indulge his fancy for the most costly
+rod that can be procured. He might do worse. A practical every day
+sportsman whose income is limited will find that a more modest product
+will drop his flies on the water quite as attractively to Salmo
+fontinalis. My little 8 1/2 foot, 4 1/2 ounce split bamboo which the
+editor of Forest and Stream had made for me cost $10.00. I have given
+it hard usage and at times large trout have tested it severely, but it
+has never failed me. The dimensions of my second rod are 9 1/2 feet
+long and 5 ounces in weight. This rod will handle the bucktail spinners
+which I use for trout and bass, when other things have failed. I used a
+rod of this description for several summers both in Adirondack and
+western waters. It had a hand-made reel seat, agate first guide, was
+satisfactory in every respect and I could see in balance, action and
+appearance no superiority in a rod costing $25.00, which one of my
+friends sported. Charles Dudley Warner, who writes charmingly of woods
+life, has the following in regard to trout fishing, which is so neatly
+humorous that it will bear repeating:
+
+"It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever
+kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the
+part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated trout in
+unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole
+object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in
+their primitive state for the worm. No sportsman, however, will use
+anything but a fly except he happens to be alone." Speaking of rods, he
+says:
+
+"The rod is a bamboo weighing seven ounces, which has to be spliced
+with a winding of silk thread every time it is used. This is a tedious
+process; but, by fastening the joints in this way, a uniform spring is
+secured in the rod. No one devoted to high art would think of using a
+socket joint."
+
+One summer during a seven weeks' tour in the Northern Wilderness, my
+only rod was a 7 1/2 foot Henshall. It came to hand with two bait-tips
+only; but I added a fly-tip and it made an excellent "general fishing
+rod." With it I could handle a large bass or pickerel; it was a capital
+bait-rod for brook trout; as fly-rod it has pleased me well enough. It
+is likely to go with me again. For reel casting, the 5 1/2 foot rod is
+handier. But it is not yet decided which is best and I leave every man
+his own opinion. Only, I think one rod enough, but have always had more.
+
+And don't neglect to take what sailors call a "ditty-bag." This may be
+a little sack of chamois leather about 4 inches wide by 6 inches in
+length. Mine is before me as I write. Emptying the contents, I find it
+inventories as follows: A dozen hooks, running in size from small
+minnow hooks to large Limericks; four lines of six yards each, varying
+from the finest to a size sufficient for a ten-pound fish; three
+darning needles and a few common sewing needles; a dozen buttons;
+sewing silk; thread and a small ball of strong yarn for darning socks;
+sticking salve; a bit of shoemaker's wax; beeswax; sinkers and a very
+fine file for sharpening hooks. The ditty-bag weighs, with contents, 2
+1/2 ounces; and it goes in a small buckskin bullet pouch, which I wear
+almost as constantly as my hat. The pouch has a sheath strongly sewed
+on the back side of it, where the light hunting knife is always at
+hand, and it also carries a two-ounce vial of fly medicine, a vial of
+"pain killer," and two or three gangs of hooks on brass wire snells--of
+which, more in another place. I can always go down into that pouch for
+a waterproof match safe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet
+flannel (for frogging), copper tacks and other light duffle. It is
+about as handy a piece of woods-kit as I carry.
+
+I hope no aesthetic devotee of the fly-rod will lay down the book in
+disgust when I confess to a weakness for frogging. I admit that it is
+not high-toned sport; and yet I have got a good deal of amusement out
+of it. The persistence with which a large batrachian will snap at a bit
+of red flannel after being several times hooked on the same lure and
+the comical way in which he will scuttle off with a quick succession of
+short jumps after each release; the cheerful manner in which, after
+each bout, he will tune up his deep, bass pipe--ready for another
+greedy snap at an ibis fly or red rag is rather funny. And his hind
+legs, rolled in meal and nicely browned, are preferable to trout or
+venison.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+Getting Lost--Camping Out--Roughing It Or Smoothing
+It--Insects--Camps, And How To Make Them
+
+WITH a large majority of prospective tourists and outers, "camping
+out" is a leading factor in the summer vacation. And during the long
+winter months they are prone to collect in little knots and talk much
+of camps, fishing, hunting and "roughing it." The last phrase is very
+popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a
+vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green
+woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it
+rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores,
+banks anywhere that we may be placed--with the necessity always present
+of being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent
+ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left. "Alas for the
+lifelong battle, whose bravest slogan is bread."
+
+As for the few fortunate ones who have no call to take a hand in any
+strife or struggle, who not only have all the time there is, but a
+great deal that they cannot dispose of with any satisfaction to
+themselves or anybody else--I am not writing for them; but only to
+those of the world's workers who go, or would like to go, every summer
+to the woods. And to these I would say, don't rough it; make it as
+smooth, as restful and pleasurable as you can.
+
+To this end you need pleasant days and peaceful nights. You cannot
+afford to be tormented and poisoned by insects, nor kept awake at night
+by cold and damp, nor to exhaust your strength by hard tramps and heavy
+loads. Take it easy and always keep cool. Nine men out of ten, on
+finding themselves lost in the woods, fly into a panic and quarrel with
+the compass. Never do that. The compass is always right, or nearly
+so. It is not many years since an able-bodied man--sportsman of
+course--lost his way in the North Woods and took fright, as might be
+expected. He was well armed and well found for a week in the woods.
+What ought to have been only an interesting adventure, became a
+tragedy. He tore through thickets and swamps in his senseless panic,
+until he dropped and died through fright, hunger and exhaustion.
+
+A well authenticated story is told of a guide in the Oswegatchie
+region, who perished in the same way. Guides are not infallible; I have
+known more than one to get lost. Wherefore, should you be tramping
+through a pathless forest on a cloudy day, and should the sun suddenly
+break from under a cloud in the northwest about noon, don't be scared.
+The last day is not at hand and the planets have not become mixed;
+only, you are turned. You have gradually swung around, until you are
+facing northwest when you meant to travel south. It has a muddling
+effect on the mind--this getting lost in the woods. But, if you can
+collect and arrange your gray brain matter and suppress all panicky
+feeling, it is easily got along with. For instance; it is morally
+certain that you commenced swinging to southwest, then west, to
+northwest. Had you kept on until you were heading directly north, you
+could rectify your course simply by following a true south course. But,
+as you have varied three-eighths of the circle, set your compass and
+travel by it to the southeast, until, in your judgment, you have about
+made up the deviation; then go straight south and you will not be far
+wrong. Carry the compass in your hand and look at it every few minutes;
+for the tendency to swerve from a straight course when a man is once
+lost--and nearly always to the right--is a thing past understanding.
+
+As regards poisonous insects, it may be said that, to the man with
+clean, bleached, tender skin, they are, at the start, an unendurable
+torment. No one can enjoy life with a smarting, burning, swollen face,
+while the attacks on every exposed inch of skin are persistent and
+constant. I have seen a young man after two days' exposure to these
+pests come out of the woods with one eye entirely closed and the brow
+hanging over it like a clam shell, while face and hands were almost
+hideous from inflammation and puffiness. The St. Regis and St. Francis
+Indians, although born and reared in the woods, by no means make light
+of the black fly.
+
+It took the man who could shoot Phantom Falls to find out, "Its bite
+is not severe, nor is it ordinarily poisonous. There may be an
+occasional exception to this rule; but beside the bite of the mosquito,
+it is comparatively mild and harmless." And again: "Gnats...in my way
+of thinking, are much worse than the black fly or mosquito." So says
+Murray. Our observations differ. A thousand mosquitoes and as many
+gnats can bite me without leaving a mark, or having any effect save the
+pain of the bite while they are at work. But each bite of the black fly
+makes a separate and distinct boil, that will not heal and be well in
+two months.
+
+While fishing for brook trout in July last, I ran into a swarm of them
+on Moose River and got badly bitten. I had carelessly left my medicine
+behind. On the first of October the bites had not ceased to be painful,
+and it was three months before they disappeared entirely. Frank
+Forester says, in his Fish and Fishing, page 371, that he has never
+fished for the red-fleshed trout of Hamilton county, "being deterred
+therefrom by dread of that curse of the summer angler, the black fly,
+which is to me especially venomous."
+
+"Adirondack Murray" gives extended directions for beating these little
+pests by the use of buckskin gloves with chamois gauntlets, Swiss mull,
+fine muslin, etc. Then he advises a mixture of sweet oil and tar, which
+is to be applied to face and hands; and he adds that it is easily
+washed off, leaving the skin soft and smooth as an infant's; all of
+which is true. But, more than forty years' experience in the woods has
+taught me that the following recipe is infallible anywhere that
+sancudos, moquims, or our own poisonous insects do most abound.
+
+It was published in Forest and Stream in the summer of 1880 and again
+in '83. It has been pretty widely quoted and adopted and I have never
+known it to fail: Three ounces pine tar, two ounces castor oil, one
+ounce pennyroyal oil. Simmer all together over a slow fire and bottle
+for use. You will hardly need more than a two-ounce vial full in a
+season. One ounce has lasted me six weeks in the woods. Rub it in
+thoroughly and liberally at first, and after you have established a
+good glaze, a little replenishing from day to day will be sufficient.
+And don't fool with soap and towels where insects are plenty. A good
+safe coat of this varnish grows better the longer it is kept on--and it
+is cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or
+smutty about the campfire, wet the corner of your handkerchief and rub
+it off, not forgetting to apply the varnish at once, wherever you have
+cleaned it off. Last summer I carried a cake of soap and a towel in my
+knapsack through the North Woods for a seven weeks' tour and never used
+either a single time. When I had established a good glaze on the skin,
+it was too valuable to be sacrificed for any weak whim connected with
+soap and water. When I struck a woodland hotel, I found soap and towels
+plenty enough. I found the mixture gave one's face the ruddy tanned
+look supposed to be indicative of health and hard muscle. A thorough
+ablution in the public wash basin reduced the color, but left the skin
+very soft and smooth; in fact, as a lotion for the skin it is
+excellent. It is a soothing and healing application for poisonous bites
+already received.
+
+I have given some space to the insect question, but no more than it
+deserves or requires. The venomous little wretches are quite important
+enough to spoil many a well planned trip to the woods and it is best to
+beat them from the start. You will find that immunity from insects and
+a comfortable camp are the two first and most indispensable requisites
+of an outing in the woods.
+
+And just here I will briefly tell how a young friend of mine went to
+the woods, some twenty-five years ago. He was a bank clerk and a good
+fellow withal, with a leaning toward camp-life.
+
+For months, whenever we met, he would introduce his favorite topics,
+fishing, camping out, etc. At last in the hottest of the hot months,
+the time came. He put in an appearance with a fighting cut on his hair,
+a little stiff straw hat and a soft skin, bleached by long confinement
+in a close office. I thought he looked a little tender; but he was
+sanguine. He could rough it, could sleep on the bare ground with the
+root of a tree for a pillow; as for mosquitoes and punkies, he never
+minded them.
+
+We went in a party of five--two old hunters and three youngsters, the
+latter all enthusiasm and pluck--at first. Toward the last end of a
+heavy eight-mile tramp, they grew silent and slapped and scratched
+nervously. Arriving at the camping spot, they worked fairly well, but
+were evidently weakening a little. By the time we were ready to turn in
+they were reduced pretty well to silence and suffering--especially the
+bank clerk, Jean L. The punkies were eager for his tender skin and they
+were rank poison to him. He muffled his head in a blanket and tried to
+sleep, but it was only a partial success. When, by suffocating himself,
+he obtained a little relief from insect bites, there were stubs and
+knotty roots continually poking themselves among his ribs, or digging
+into his backbone.
+
+I have often had occasion to observe that stubs, roots and small
+stones, etc., have a perverse tendency to abrade the anatomy of people
+unused to the woods. Mr. C.D. Warner has noticed the same thing, I
+believe.
+
+On the whole, Jean and the other youngsters behaved very well.
+Although they turned out in the morning with red, swollen faces and
+half closed eyes, they all went trouting and caught about 150 small
+trout between them. They did their level bravest to make a jolly thing
+of it; but Jean's attempt to watch a deerlick resulted in a wetting
+through the sudden advent of a shower; and the shower drove about all
+the punkies and mosquitoes in the neighborhood under our roof for
+shelter. I never saw them more plentiful or worse. Jean gave in and
+varnished his pelt thoroughly with my "punkie dope," as he called it;
+but, too late: the mischief was done. And the second trial was worse to
+those youngsters than the first. More insects. More stubs and knots.
+Owing to these little annoyances, they arrived at home several days
+before their friends expected them--leaving enough rations in camp to
+last Old Sile and the writer a full week. And the moral of it is, if
+they had fitted themselves for the the woods before going there, the
+trip would have been a pleasure instead of a misery.
+
+One other little annoyance I will mention, as a common occurrence
+among those who camp out; this is the lack of a pillow. I suppose I
+have camped fifty times with people, who, on turning in, were squirming
+around for a long time, trying to get a rest for the head. Boots are
+the most common resort. But, when you place a boot-leg--or two of
+them--under your head, they collapse and make a headrest less than half
+an inch thick. Just why it never occurs to people that a stuffing of
+moss, leaves, or hemlock browse, would fill out the boot-leg and make a
+passable pillow, is another conundrum I cannot answer. But there is
+another and better way of making a pillow for camp use, which I will
+describe further on.
+
+And now I wish to devote some space to one of the most important
+adjuncts of woodcraft, i.e., camps; how to make them and how to make
+them comfortable. There are camps and camps. There are camps in the
+North Woods that are really fine villas, costing thousands of dollars
+and there are log-houses and shanties and bark camps and A tents and
+walled tents, shelter-tents and shanty-tents. But, I assume that the
+camp best fitted to the wants of the average outer is the one that
+combines the essentials of dryness, lightness, portability, cheapness
+and is easily and quickly put up. Another essential is, that it must
+admit of a bright fire in front by night or day. I will give short
+descriptions of the forest shelters (camps) I have found handiest and
+most useful.
+
+Firstly, I will mention a sort of camp that was described in a
+sportsman's paper and has since been largely quoted and used. It is
+made by fastening a horizontal pole to a couple of contiguous trees and
+then putting on a heavy covering of hemlock boughs, shingling them with
+the tips downward, of course. A fire is to be made at the roots of one
+of the trees. This, with plenty of boughs, may be made to stand a
+pretty stiff rain; but it is only a damp arbor, and no camp, properly
+speaking. A forest camp should always admit of a bright fire in front,
+with a lean-to or shed roof overhead, to reflect the fire heat on the
+bedding below. Any camp that falls short of this, lacks the
+requirements of warmth, brightness and healthfulness. This is why I
+discard all close, canvas tents.
+
+The simplest and most primitive of all camps is the "Indian camp." It
+is easily and quickly made, is warm and comfortable and stands a pretty
+heavy rain when properly put up. This is how it is made: Let us say you
+are out and have slightly missed your way. The coming gloom warns you
+that night is shutting down. You are no tenderfoot. You know that a
+place of rest is essential to health and comfort through the long, cold
+November night. You dive down the first little hollow until you strike
+a rill of water, for water is a prime necessity. As you draw your
+hatchet you take in the whole situation at a glance. The little stream
+is gurgling downward in a half choked frozen way. There is a huge
+sodden hemlock lying across it. One clip of the hatchet shows it will
+peel. There is plenty of smaller timber standing around; long, slim
+poles, with a tuft of foliage on top. Five minutes suffice to drop one
+of these, cut a twelve-foot pole from it, sharpen the pole at each end,
+jam one end into the ground and the other into the rough back of a
+scraggy hemlock and there is your ridge pole. Now go--with your
+hatchet--for the bushiest and most promising young hemlocks within reach.
+Drop them and draw them to camp rapidly. Next, you need a fire. There are
+fifty hard, resinous limbs sticking up from the prone hemlock; lop off
+a few of these and split the largest into match timber; reduce the
+splinters to shavings, scrape the wet leaves from your prospective
+fireplace and strike a match on the balloon part of your trousers. If
+you are a woodsman you will strike but one. Feed the fire slowly at
+first; it will gain fast. When you have a blaze ten feet high, look at
+your watch. It is 6 P.M. You don't want to turn in before 10 o'clock
+and you have four hours to kill before bedtime. Now, tackle the old
+hemlock; take off every dry limb and then peel the bark and bring it to
+camp. You will find this takes an hour or more.
+
+Next, strip every limb from your young hemlocks and shingle them onto
+your ridge pole. This will make a sort of bear den, very well
+calculated to give you a comfortable night's rest. The bright fire will
+soon dry the ground that is to be your bed and you will have plenty of
+time to drop another small hemlock and make a bed of browse a foot
+thick. You do it. Then you make your pillow. Now, this pillow is
+essential to comfort and very simple. It is half a yard of muslin,
+sewed up as a bag and filled with moss or hemlock browse. You can empty
+it and put it in your pocket, where it takes up about as much room as a
+handkerchief. You have other little muslin bags--an' you be wise. One
+holds a couple of ounces of good tea; another, sugar; another is kept
+to put your loose duffle in: money, match safe, pocket-knife. You have
+a pat of butter and a bit of pork, with a liberal slice of brown bread;
+and before turning in you make a cup of tea, broil a slice of pork and
+indulge in a lunch.
+
+Ten o'clock comes. The time has not passed tediously. You are warm,
+dry and well-fed. Your old friends, the owls, come near the fire-light
+and salute you with their strange wild notes; a distant fox sets up for
+himself with his odd, barking cry and you turn in. Not ready to sleep
+just yet.
+
+But you drop off; and it is two bells in the morning watch when you
+waken with a sense of chill and darkness. The fire has burned low and
+snow is falling. The owls have left and a deep silence broods over the
+cold, still forest. You rouse the fire and, as the bright light shines
+to the furthest recesses of your forest den, get out the little pipe
+and reduce a bit of navy plug to its lowest denomination. The smoke
+curls lazily upward; the fire makes you warm and drowsy and again you
+lie down--to again awaken with a sense of chilliness--to find the fire
+burned low and daylight breaking. You have slept better than you would
+in your own room at home. You have slept in an "Indian camp."
+
+You have also learned the difference between such a simple shelter and
+an open air bivouac under a tree or beside an old log.
+
+Another easily made and very comfortable camp is the "brush shanty,"
+as it is usually called in Northern Pennsylvania. The frame for such a
+shanty is a cross-pole resting on two crotches about six feet high and
+enough straight poles to make a foundation for the thatch. The poles
+are laid about six inches apart, one end on the ground, the other on
+the cross-pole, and at a pretty sharp angle. The thatch is made of the
+fan-like boughs cut from the thrifty young hemlock and are to be laid
+bottom upward and feather end down. Commence to lay them from the
+ground and work up to the cross-pole, shingling them carefully as you
+go. If the thatch be laid a foot in thickness and well done, the shanty
+will stand a pretty heavy rain--better than the average bark roof,
+which is only rainproof in dry weather.
+
+A bark camp, however, may be a very neat sylvan affair, provided you
+are camping where spruce or balsam fir may be easily reached, and in
+the hot months when bark will "peel"; and you have a day in which to
+work at a camp. The best bark camps I have ever seen are in the
+Adirondacks. Some of them are rather elaborate in construction,
+requiring two or more days' hard labor by a couple of guides. When the
+stay is to be a long one and the camp permanent, perhaps it will pay.
+
+As good a camp as I have ever tried--perhaps the best--is the
+"shanty-tent" shown in the illustration. It is easily put up, is
+comfortable, neat and absolutely rain-proof. Of course, it may be of
+any required size; but, for a party of two, the following dimensions
+and directions will be found all sufficient:
+
+Firstly, the roof. This is merely a sheet of strong cotton cloth 9
+feet long by 4 or 4 1/2 feet in width. The sides, of the same material,
+to be 4 1/2 feet deep at front and 2 feet deep at the back. This gives
+7 feet along the edge of the roof, leaving 2 feet for turning down at
+the back end of the shanty. It will be seen that the sides must be "cut
+bias," to compensate for the angle of the roof, otherwise the shanty
+will not be square and shipshape when put up. Allowing for waste in
+cutting, it takes nearly 3 yards of cloth for each side. The only labor
+required in making, is to cut the sides to the proper shape and stitch
+them to the roof. No buttons, strings, or loops. The cloth does not
+even require hemming. It does, however, need a little waterproofing;
+for which the following receipt will answer very well and add little or
+nothing to the weight: To 10 quarts of water add 10 ounces of lime and
+4 ounces of alum; let it stand until clear; fold the cloth snugly and
+put it in another vessel, pour the solution on it, let it soak for 12
+hours; then rinse in luke-warm rain water, stretch and dry in the sun
+and the shanty-tent is ready for use.
+
+To put it up properly, make a neat frame as follows: Two strong stakes
+or posts for the front, driven firmly in the ground 4 feet apart; at a
+distance of 6 feet 10 inches from these, drive two other posts--these
+to be 4 feet apart--for back end of shanty. The front posts to be 4 1/2
+feet high, the back rests only two feet. The former also to incline a
+little toward each other above, so as to measure from outside of posts,
+just 4 feet at top. This gives a little more width at front end of
+shanty, adding space and warmth. No crotches are used in putting up the
+shanty-tent. Each of the four posts is fitted on the top to receive a
+flat-ended cross-pole and admit of nailing. When the posts are squarely
+ranged and driven, select two straight, hardwood rods, 2 inches in
+diameter and 7 feet in length--or a little more. Flatten the ends
+carefully and truly, lay them alongside on top from post to post and
+fasten them with a light nail at each end. Now, select two more
+straight rods of the same size, but a little over 4 feet in length;
+flatten the ends of these as you did the others, lay them crosswise
+from side to side and lapping the ends of the other rods; fasten them
+solidly by driving a sixpenny nail through the ends and into the posts
+and you have a square frame 7x4 feet. But it is not yet complete. Three
+light rods are needed for rafters. These are to be placed lengthwise of
+the roof at equal distances apart and nailed or tied to keep them in
+place. Then take two straight poles a little over 7 feet long and some
+3 inches in diameter. These are to be accurately flattened at the ends
+and nailed to the bottom of the posts, snug to the ground, on outside
+of posts. A foot-log and head-log are indispensable. These should be
+about 5 inches in diameter and of a length to just reach from outside
+to outside of posts. They should be squared at ends and the foot-log
+placed against the front post, outside and held firmly in place by two
+wooden pins. The head-log is fastened the same way, except that it goes
+against the inside of the back posts; and the frame is complete. Round
+off all sharp angles or corners with knife and hatchet and proceed to
+spread and fasten the cloth. Lay the roof on evenly and tack it truly
+to the front cross-rod, using about a dozen six-ounce tacks. Stretch
+the cloth to its bearings and tack it at the back end in the same
+manner. Stretch it sidewise and tack the sides to the side poles, fore
+and aft. Tack front and back ends of sides to the front and back posts.
+Bring down the 2 foot flap of roof at back end of shanty; stretch and
+tack it snugly to the back posts--and your sylvan house is done. It is
+rain-proof, wind-proof, warm and comfortable. The foot and head logs
+define the limits of your forest dwelling; within which you may pile
+fragrant hemlock browse as thick as you please and renew it from day to
+day. It is the perfect camp.
+
+You may put it up with less care and labor and make it do very well.
+But I have tried to explain how to do it in the best manner; to make it
+all sufficient for an entire season. And it takes longer to tell it on
+paper than to do it.
+
+When I go to the woods with a partner and we arrive at our camping
+ground, I like him to get his fishing rig together and start out for a
+half day's exercise with his favorite flies, leaving me to make the
+camp according to my own notions of woodcraft. If he will come back
+about dusk with a few pounds of trout, I will have a pleasant camp and
+a bright fire for him. And if he has enjoyed wading an icy stream more
+than I have making the camp--he has had a good day.
+
+Perhaps it may not be out of place to say that the camp, made as
+above, calls for fifteen bits of timber, posts, rods, etc., a few
+shingle nails and some sixpenny wrought nails, with a paper of
+six-ounce tacks. Nails and tacks will weigh about five ounces and are
+always useful. In tacking the cloth, turn the raw edge in until you
+have four thicknesses, as a single thickness is apt to tear. If you
+desire to strike camp, it takes about ten minutes to draw and save all
+the nails and tacks, fold the cloth smoothly and deposit the whole in
+your knapsack. If you wish to get up a shelter-tent on fifteen minutes'
+notice, cut and sharpen a twelve-foot pole as for the Indian camp,
+stick one end in the ground, the other in the rough bark of a large
+tree--hemlock is best--hang the cloth on the pole, fasten the sides to
+rods and the rods to the ground with inverted crotches, and your
+shelter-tent is ready for you to creep under.
+
+The above description of the shanty-tent may seem a trifle elaborate,
+but I hope it is plain. The affair weighs just three pounds and it
+takes a skillful woodsman about three hours of easy work to put it in
+the shape described. Leaving out some of the work and only aiming to
+get it up in square shape as quickly as possible, I can put it up in an
+hour. The shanty as it should be, is shown in the illustration very
+fairly. And the shape of the cloth when spread out, is shown in the
+diagram. On the whole, it is the best form of close-side tent I have
+found. It admits of a bright fire in front, without which a forest camp
+is just no camp at all to me. I have suffered enough in close, dark,
+cheerless, damp tents.
+
+More than thirty years ago I became disgusted with the clumsy,
+awkward, comfortless affairs that, under many different forms, went
+under the name of camps. Gradually I came to make a study of "camping
+out." It would take too much time and space, should I undertake to
+describe all the different styles and forms I have tried. But I will
+mention a few of the best and worst.
+
+The old Down East "coal cabin" embodied the principle of the Indian
+camp. The frame was simply two strong crotches set firmly in the ground
+at a distance of eight feet apart and interlocking at top. These
+supported a stiff ridge-pole fifteen feet long, the small end sharpened
+and set in the ground. Refuse boards, shooks, stakes, etc., were placed
+thickly from the ridge-pole to the ground; a thick layer of straw was
+laid over these and the whole was covered a foot thick with earth and
+sods, well beaten down. A stone wall five feet high at back and sides
+made a most excellent fireplace; and these cabins were weather-proof
+and warm, even in zero weather. But they were too cumbersome and
+included too much labor for the ordinary hunter and angler. Also, they
+were open to the objection, that while wide enough in front, they ran
+down to a dismal, cold peak at the far end. Remembering, however, the
+many pleasant winter nights I had passed with the coal-burners, I
+bought a supply of oil-cloth and rigged it on the same principle. It
+was a partial success and I used it for one season. But that cold,
+peaked, dark space was always back of my head and it seemed like an
+iceberg. It was in vain that I tied a handkerchief about my head, or
+drew a stockingleg over it. That miserable, icy angle was always there.
+And it would only shelter one man anyhow. When winter drove me out of
+the woods I gave it to an enthusiastic young friend, bought some more
+oil-cloth and commenced a shanty-tent that was meant to be perfect. A
+good many leisure hours were spent in cutting and sewing that shanty,
+which proved rather a success. It afforded a perfect shelter for a
+space 7x4 feet, but was a trifle heavy to pack and the glazing began to
+crack and peel off in a short time. I made another and larger one of
+stout drilling, soaked in lime-water and alum; and this was all that
+could be asked when put up properly on a frame. But, the sides and ends
+being sewed to the roof made it unhandy to use as a shelter, when
+shelter was needed on short notice. So I ripped the back ends of the
+sides loose from the flap, leaving it, when spread out, as shown in the
+diagram. This was better; when it was necessary to make some sort of
+shelter in short order, it could be done with a single pole as used in
+the Indian camp, laying the tent across the pole and using a few tacks
+to keep it in place at sides and center. This can be done in ten
+minutes and makes a shelter-tent that will turn a heavy rain for hours.
+
+On the whole, for all kinds of weather, the shanty-tent is perhaps the
+best style of camp to be had at equal expense and trouble.
+
+For a summer camp, however, I have finally come to prefer the simple
+lean-to or shed roof. It is the lightest, simplest and cheapest of all
+cloth devices for camping out and I have found it sufficient for all
+weathers from June until the fall of the leaves. It is only a sheet of
+strong cotton cloth 9x7 feet and soaked in lime and alum-water as the
+other. The only labor in making it is sewing two breadths of sheeting
+together. It needs no hemming, binding, loops or buttons, but is to be
+stretched on a frame as described for the brush shanty and held in
+place with tacks. The one I have used for two seasons cost sixty cents
+and weighs 2 1/4 pounds. It makes a good shelter for a party of three;
+and if it be found a little too breezy for cool nights, a sufficient
+windbreak can be made by driving light stakes at the sides and weaving
+in a siding of hemlock boughs.
+
+Lastly, whatever cloth structure you may elect to use for a camp, do
+not fail to cover the roof with a screen of green boughs before
+building your campfire. Because there will usually be one fellow in
+camp who has a penchant for feeding the fire with old mulchy deadwood
+and brush, for the fun of watching the blaze and the sparks that are
+prone to fly upward; forgetting that the blazing cinders are also prone
+to drop downward on the roof of the tent, burning holes in it.
+
+I have spoken of some of the best camps I know. The worst ones are the
+A and wall tents, with all closed camps in which one is required to
+seclude himself through the hours of sleep in damp and darkness,
+utterly cut off from the cheerful, healthful light and warmth of the
+campfire.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+Campfires And Their Importance--The Wasteful Wrong Way They Are
+Usually Made, And The Right Way To Make Them
+
+HARDLY second in importance to a warm, dry camp, is the campfire. In
+point of fact, the warmth, dryness and healthfulness of a forest camp
+are mainly dependent on the way the fire is managed and kept up. No
+asthmatic or consumptive patient ever regained health by dwelling in a
+close, damp tent. I once camped for a week in a wall tent, with a
+Philadelphia party, and in cold weather. We had a little sheet iron
+fiend, called a camp-stove. When well fed with bark, knots and chips,
+it would get red hot and, heaven knows, give out heat enough. By the
+time we were sound asleep, it would subside; and we would presently
+awake with chattering teeth to kindle her up again, take a smoke and a
+nip, turn in for another nap--to awaken again half frozen. It was a
+poor substitute for the open camp and bright fire. An experience of
+fifty years convinces me that a large percentage of the benefit
+obtained by invalids from camp life is attributable to the open camp
+and well-managed campfire. And the latter is usually handled in a way
+that is too sad, too wasteful; in short, badly botched. For instance:
+
+It happened in the summer of '81 that I was making a canoe trip in the
+Northern Wilderness, and as Raquette Lake is the largest and about the
+most interesting lake in the North Woods, I spent about a week
+paddling, fishing, etc. I made my headquarters at Ed Bennett's woodland
+hostelry, "Under the Hemlocks." As the hotel was filled with men, women
+and crying children, bitten to agony by punkies and mosquitoes, I chose
+to spread my blanket in a well-made bark shanty, which a signboard in
+black and white said was the "Guides' Camp."
+
+And this camp was a very popular institution. Here it was that every
+evening, when night had settled down on forest and lake, the guests of
+the hotel would gather to lounge on the bed of fresh balsam browse,
+chat, sing and enjoy the huge campfire.
+
+No woodland hotel will long remain popular that does not keep up a
+bright, cheery, out o'door fire. And the fun of it--to an old
+woodsman--is in noting how like a lot of school children they all act
+about the fire. Ed Bennett had a man, a North Woods trapper, in his
+employ, whose chief business was to furnish plenty of wood for the
+guides' camp and start a good fire every evening by sundown. As it grew
+dark and the blaze shone high and bright, the guests would begin to
+straggle in; and every man, woman and child seemed to view it as a
+religious duty to pause by the fire and add a stick or two, before
+passing into camp. The wood was thrown on endwise, crosswise, or any
+way, so that it would burn, precisely as a crowd of boys make a bonfire
+on the village green. The object being, apparently, to get rid of the
+wood in the shortest possible time.
+
+When the fire burnt low, toward midnight, the guests would saunter off
+to the hotel; and the guides, who had been waiting impatiently, would
+organize what was left of the fire, roll themselves in their blankets
+and turn in. I suggested to the trapper that he and I make one fire as
+it should be and maybe they would follow suit--which would save half
+the fuel, with a better fire. But he said, "No; they like to build
+bonfires and Ed can stand the wood, because it is best to let them have
+their own way. Time seems to hang heavy on their hands--and they pay
+well." Summer boarders, tourists and sportsmen, are not the only men
+who know how to build a campfire all wrong.
+
+When I first came to Northern Pennsylvania, thirty-five years ago, I
+found game fairly abundant; and, as I wanted to learn the country where
+deer most abounded, I naturally cottoned to the local hunters. Good
+fellows enough, and conceited, as all local hunters and anglers are apt
+to be. Strong, good hunters and axe-men, to the manner born and prone
+to look on any outsider as a tenderfoot. Their mode of building
+campfires was a constant vexation to me. They made it a point to always
+have a heavy sharp axe in camp, and toward night some sturdy chopper
+would cut eight or ten logs as heavy as the whole party could lug to
+camp with hand-spikes. The size of the logs was proportioned to the
+muscular force in camp. If there was a party of six or eight, the logs
+would be twice as heavy as when we were three or four. Just at dark,
+there would be a log heap built in front of the camp, well chinked with
+bark, knots and small sticks; and, for the next two hours, one could
+hardly get at the fire to light a pipe. But the fire was sure though
+slow. By 10 or 11 P.M. it would work its way to the front and the camp
+would be warm and light. The party would turn in and deep sleep would
+fall on a lot of tired hunters--for two or three hours. By which time
+some fellow near the middle was sure to throw his blanket off with a
+spiteful jerk and dash out of camp with, "Holly Moses! I can't stand
+this; it's an oven."
+
+Another Snorer (partially waking).--"N-r-r-rm, gu-r-r, ugh. Can't
+you--deaden--fire--a little?"
+
+First Speaker.--"Deaden hell. If you want the fire deadened, get up
+and help throw off some of these logs."
+
+Another (in coldest corner of shanty)--"What's 'er matter with a-you
+fellows? Better dig out--an' cool off in the snow. Shanty's comfor'ble
+enough."
+
+His minority report goes unheeded. The camp is roasted out. Strong
+hands and hand-spikes pry a couple of glowing logs from the front and
+replace them with two cold, green logs; the camp cools off and the
+party takes to blankets once more--to turn out again at 5 A.M. and
+inaugurate breakfast.
+
+The fire is not in favorable shape for culinary operations, the heat
+is mainly on the back side, just where it isn't wanted. The few places
+level enough to set a pot or pan are too hot; and, in short, where
+there is any fire, there is too much. One man sees, with intense
+disgust, the nozzle of his coffeepot drop into the fire. He makes a
+rash grab to save his coffee and gets away--with the handle, which
+hangs on just enough to upset the pot.
+
+"Old Al," who is frying a slice of pork over a bed of coals that would
+melt a gun barrel, starts a hoarse laugh, that is cut short by a blue
+flash and an explosion of pork fat, which nearly blinds him. And the
+writer, taking in these mishaps in the very spirit of fun and frolic,
+is suddenly sobered and silenced by seeing his venison steak drop from
+the end of the "frizzling stick," and disappear between two glowing
+logs. The party manages, however, to get off on the hunt at daylight,
+with full stomachs; and perhaps the hearty fun and laughter more than
+compensate for these little mishaps.
+
+This is a digression. But I am led to it by the recollection of many
+nights spent in camps and around campfires, pretty much as described
+above. I can smile today at the remembrance of the calm, superior way
+in which the old hunters of that day would look down on me, as from the
+upper branches of a tall hemlock, when I ventured to suggest that a
+better fire could be made with half the fuel and less than half the
+labor. They would kindly remark, "Oh, you are a Boston boy. You are
+used to paying $8.00 a cord for wood. We have no call to save wood
+here. We can afford to burn it by the acre." Which was more true than
+logical. Most of these men had commenced life with a stern declaration
+of war against the forest; and, although the men usually won at last,
+the battle was a long and hard one. Small wonder that they came to look
+upon a forest tree as a natural enemy. The campfire question came to a
+crisis, however, with two or three of these old settlers. And, as the
+story well illustrates my point, I will venture to tell it.
+
+It was in the "dark days before Christmas" that a party of four
+started from W., bound for a camp on Second Fork, in the deepest part
+of the wilderness that lies between Wellsboro and the Block House. The
+party consisted of Sile J., Old Al, Eli J. and the writer. The two
+first were gray-haired men, the others past thirty; all the same, they
+called us "the boys." The weather was not inviting and there was small
+danger of our camp being invaded by summer outers or tenderfeet. It
+cost twelve miles of hard travel to reach that camp; and, though we
+started at daylight, it was past noon when we arrived. The first seven
+miles could be made on wheels, the balance by hard tramping. The road
+was execrable; no one cared to ride; but it was necessary to have our
+loads carried as far as possible. The clearings looked dreary enough
+and the woods forbidding to a degree, but our old camp was the picture
+of desolation. There was six inches of damp snow on the leafless brush
+roof, the blackened brands of our last fire were sticking their charred
+ends out of the snow, the hemlocks were bending sadly under their loads
+of wet snow and the entire surroundings had a cold, cheerless, slushy
+look, very little like the ideal hunter's camp. We placed our knapsacks
+in the shanty, Eli got out his nail hatchet, I drew my little pocket-axe
+and we proceeded to start a fire, while the two older men went up
+stream a few rods to unearth a full-grown axe and a bottle of old rye,
+which they had cached under a log three months before. They never
+fooled with pocket-axes. They were gone so long that we sauntered up
+the band, thinking it might be the rye that detained them. We found
+them with their coats off, working like beavers, each with a stout,
+sharpened stick. There had been an October freshet and a flood-jam at
+the bend had sent the mad stream over its banks, washing the log out of
+position and piling a gravel bar two feet deep over the spot where the
+axe and flask should have been. About the only thing left to do was to
+cut a couple of stout sticks, organize a mining company, limited and go
+in; which they did. Sile was drifting into the side of the sandbar
+savagely, trying to strike the axe-helve and Old Al was sinking
+numberless miniature shafts from the surface in a vain attempt to
+strike whisky. The company failed in about half an hour. Sile resumed
+his coat and sat down on a log--which was one of his best holds, by the
+way. He looked at Al; Al looked at him; then both looked at us and Sile
+remarked that, if one of the boys wanted to go out to the clearings and
+"borry" an axe and come back in the morning, he thought the others
+could pick up wood enough to tough it out one night. Of course nobody
+could stay in an open winter camp without an axe.
+
+It was my time to come to the front. I said: "You two just go at the
+camp; clean the snow off and slick up the inside. Put my shelter-cloth
+with Eli's and cover the roof with them; and if you don't have just as
+good a fire tonight as you ever had, you can tie me to a beech and
+leave me here. Come on, Eli." And Eli did come on. And this is how we
+did it: We first felled a thrifty butternut tree ten inches in
+diameter, cut off three lengths at five feet each and carried them to
+camp. These were the back logs. Two stout stakes were driven at the
+back of the fire and the logs, on top of each other, were laid firmly
+against the stakes. The latter were slanted a little back and the
+largest log placed at bottom, the smallest on top, to prevent tipping
+forward. A couple of short, thick sticks were laid with the ends
+against the bottom log by way of fire dogs; a fore stick, five feet
+long and five inches in diameter; a well built pyramid of bark, knots
+and small logs completed the campfire, which sent a pleasant glow of
+warmth and heat to the furthest corner of the shanty. For "night-wood,"
+we cut a dozen birch and ash poles from four to six inches across,
+trimmed them to the tips and dragged them to camp. Then we denuded a
+dry hemlock of its bark; and, by the aid of ten foot poles, flattened
+at one end, packed the bark to camp. We had a bright, cheery fire from
+the early evening until morning, and four tired hunters never slept
+more soundly.
+
+We stayed in that camp a week; and, though the weather was rough and
+cold, the little pocket-axes kept us well in firewood. We selected
+butternut for backlogs, because, when green, it burns very slowly and
+lasts a long time. And we dragged our smaller wood to camp in lengths
+of twenty to thirty feet, because it was easier to lay them on the fire
+and burn them in two than to cut them shorter with light hatchets. With
+a heavy axe, we should have cut them to lengths of five or six feet.
+
+Our luck, I may mention, was good--as good as we desired. Not that
+four smallish deer are anything to brag about for a week's hunt by four
+men and two dogs. I have known a pot-hunter to kill nine in a single
+day. But we had enough.
+
+As it was, we were obliged to "double trip it" in order to get our
+deer and duffle down to "Babb's." And we gave away more than half our
+venison. For the rest, the illustration shows the campfire--all but the
+fire--as it should be made.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+Fishing, With And Without Flies--Some Tackle And Lures--Discursive
+Remarks On The Gentle Art--The Headlight--Frogging
+
+THERE is probably no subject connected with outdoor sport so
+thoroughly and exhaustively written up as Fly-fishing and all that
+pertains thereto. Fly-fishing for speckled trout always, and
+deservedly, takes the lead. Bass fishing usually comes next, though
+some writers accord second place to the lake trout, salmon trout or
+land-locked salmon. The mascalonge, as a game fish, is scarcely behind
+the small-mouthed bass and is certainly more gamy than the lake trout.
+The large-mouthed bass and pickerel are usually ranked about with the
+yellow perch, I don't know why: they are certainly gamy enough. Perhaps
+it is because they do not leap out of water when hooked. Both are good
+on the table.
+
+A dozen able and interesting authors have written books wherein trout,
+flies and fly-fishing are treated in a manner that leaves an old
+backwoodsman little to say. Rods, reels, casting lines, flies and fish
+are described and descanted on in a way and in a language, the reading
+whereof reduces me to temporary insanity. And yet I seem to recollect
+some bygone incidents concerning fish and fishing. I have a
+well-defined notion that I once stood on Flat Rock, in Big Pine Creek
+and caught over 350 fine trout in a short day's fishing. Also that many
+times I left home on a bright May or June morning, walked eight miles,
+caught a twelve-pound creel of trout and walked home before bedtime.
+
+I remember that once, in Michigan, on the advice of local fishermen, I
+dragged a spoon around High Bank Lake two days, with little result save
+half a dozen blisters on my hands; and that on the next morning, taking
+a long tamarack pole and my own way of fishing, I caught, before 10
+A.M., fifty pounds of bass and pickerel, weighing from two to ten pounds
+each.
+
+Gibson, whose spoon, line and skiff I had been using and who was the
+fishing oracle of that region, could hardly believe his eyes. I kept
+that country inn, and the neighborhood as well, supplied with fish for
+the next two weeks.
+
+It is truth to say that I have never struck salt or fresh waters,
+where edible fish were at all plentiful, without being able to take, in
+some way, all that I needed. Notably and preferably with the fly if
+that might be; if not, then with worms, grubs, minnows, grasshoppers,
+crickets, or any sort of doodle bug their highnesses might affect. When
+a plump, two-pound trout refuses to eat a tinseled, feathered fraud, I
+am not the man to refuse him something more edible.
+
+That I may not be misunderstood, let me say that I recognized the
+speckled brook trout as the very emperor of all game fish, and angling
+for him with the fly as the neatest, most fascinating sport attainable
+by the angler. But there are thousands of outers who, from choice or
+necessity, take their summer vacations where Salmo fontinalis is not to
+be had. They would prefer him, either on the leader or the table; but
+he is not there; "And a man has got a stomach and we live by what we
+eat."
+
+Wherefore, they go a-fishing for other fish. So that they are
+successful and sufficiently fed, the difference is not so material. I
+have enjoyed myself hugely catching catties on a dark night from a
+skiff with a hand-line.
+
+I can add nothing in a scientific way to the literature of fly-fishing;
+but I can give a few hints that may be conducive to practical
+success, as well with trout as with less noble fish, In fly-fishing,
+one serviceable four-ounce rod is enough; and a plain click reel, of
+small size, is just as satisfactory as a more costly affair. Twenty
+yards of tapered, waterproof line, with a six-foot leader, and a cost
+of two flies, complete the rig, and will be found sufficient. In common
+with most fly-fishers, I have mostly thrown a cast of three flies, but
+have found two just as effective, and handier.
+
+We all carry too many flies, Some of my friends have more than sixty
+dozen and will never use a tenth of them. In the summer of '88, finding
+I had more than seemed needful, I left all but four dozen behind me. I
+wet only fifteen of them in a seven weeks' outing. And they filled the
+bill. I have no time or space for a dissertation on the hundreds of
+different flies made and sold at the present day. Abler pens have done
+that. I will, however, name a few that I have found good in widely
+different localities, i.e., the Northern Wilderness of New York and the
+upper waters of Northern Pennsylvania. For the Northern Wilderness:
+Scarlet ibis, split ibis, Romeyn, white-winged coachman, royal
+coachman, red hackle, red-bodied ashy and gray-bodied ashy. The ashies
+were good for black bass also. For Northern Pennsylvania: Queen of the
+waters, professor, red fox, coachman, black may, white-winged coachman,
+wasp, brown hackle, Seth Green. Ibis flies are worthless here. Using
+the dark flies in bright water and clear weather and the brighter
+colors for evening, the list was long enough.
+
+At the commencement of the open season and until the young maple
+leaves are half grown, bait will be found far more successful than the
+fly. At this time the trout are pretty evenly distributed along lake
+shores and streams, choosing to lie quietly in rather deep pools and
+avoiding swift water. A few may rise to the fly in a logy, indifferent
+way; but the best way to take them is bait-fishing with well-cleansed
+angle-worms or white grubs, the latter being the best bait I have ever
+tried. They take the bait sluggishly at this season, but, on feeling
+the hook, wake up to their normal activity and fight gamely to the
+last. When young, newborn insects begin to drop freely on the water
+about the 20th of May, trout leave the pools and take to the riffles.
+And from this time until the latter part of June the fly-fisherman is
+in his glory. It may be true that the skillful bait-fisherman will
+rather beat his creel. He cares not for that. He can take enough; and
+he had rather take ten trout with the fly, than a score with bait. As
+for the man who goes a-fishing simply to catch fish, the fly-fisher
+does not recognize him as an angler at all.
+
+When the sun is hot and the weather grows warm, trout leave the
+ripples and take to cold springs and spring-holes; the largest fish, of
+course, monopolizing the deepest and coolest places, while the smaller
+ones hover around, or content themselves with shallower water. As the
+weather gets hotter, the fly-fishing falls off badly. A few trout of
+four to eight ounces in weight may still be raised, but the larger ones
+are lying on the bottom and are not to be fooled with feathers. They
+will take a tempting bait when held before their noses--sometimes; at
+other times, not. As to raising them with a fly--as well attempt to
+raise a sick Indian with the temperance pledge. And yet, they may be
+taken in bright daylight by a ruse that I learned long ago, of a
+youngster less than half my age, a little, freckled, thin-visaged young
+man, whose health was evidently affected by a daily struggle with a
+pair of tow-colored side whiskers and a light mustache. There was
+hardly enough of the whole affair to make a door mat for a bee hive.
+But he seemed so proud of the plant, that I forebore to rig him. He was
+better than he looked--as often happens. The landlord said, "He brings
+in large trout every day, when our best fly-fishermen fail." One night,
+around an outdoor fire, we got acquainted and I found him a witty,
+pleasant companion. Before turning in I ventured to ask him how he
+succeeded in taking large trout, while the experts only caught small
+ones, or failed altogether.
+
+"Go with me tomorrow morning to a spring-hole three miles up the river
+and I'll show you," he said.
+
+Of course, we went. He, rowing a light skiff and I paddling a still
+lighter canoe. The spring-hole was in a narrow bay that set back from
+the river and at the mouth of a cold, clear brook; it was ten to twelve
+feet deep and at the lower end a large balsam had fallen in with the
+top in just the right place for getting away with large fish, or
+tangling lines and leaders. We moored some twenty feet above the
+spring-hole and commenced fishing, I with my favorite cast of flies, my
+friend with the tail of a minnow, He caught a 1 1/2 pound trout almost
+at the outset, but I got no rise; did not expect it. Then I went above,
+where the water was shallower and raised a couple of half-pounders, but
+could get no more, I thought he had better go to the hotel with what he
+had, but my friend said "wait"; he went ashore and picked up a long pole
+with a bushy tip; it had evidently been used before. Dropping down to
+the spring-hole, he thrust the tip to the bottom and slashed it around
+in a way to scare and scatter every trout within a hundred feet.
+
+"And what does all that mean?" I asked.
+
+"Well," he said, "every trout will be back in less than an hour; and
+when they first come back, they take the bait greedily. Better take off
+your leader and try bait."
+
+Which I did. Dropping our hooks to the bottom, we waited some twenty
+minutes, when he had a bite, and having strong tackle, soon took in a
+trout that turned the scale at 2 1/4 pounds. Then my turn came and I
+saved one weighing 1 1/2 pounds. He caught another of 1 1/4 pounds and
+I took one of 1 pound. Then they ceased biting altogether.
+
+"And now," said my friend, "if you will work your canoe carefully
+around to that old balsam top and get the light where you can see the
+bottom, you may see some large trout."
+
+I did as directed, and making a telescope of my hand, looked intently
+for the bottom of the spring-hole. At first I could see nothing but
+water; then I made out some dead sticks and finally began to dimly
+trace the outlines of large fish. There they were, more than forty of
+them, lying quietly on the bottom like suckers, but genuine brook
+trout, every one of them.
+
+"This," said he, "makes the fifth time I have brushed them out of here
+and I have never missed taking from two to five large trout. I have two
+other places where I always get one or two, but this is the best."
+
+At the hotel we found two fly-fishers who had been out all the
+morning. They each had three or four small trout. During the next week
+we worked the spring-holes daily in the same way and always with
+success. I have also had good success by building a bright fire on the
+bank and fishing a spring-hole by the light--a mode of fishing
+especially successful with catties and perch.
+
+A bright, bull's-eye headlight, strapped on a stiff hat, so that the
+light can be thrown where it is wanted, is an excellent device for
+night fishing. And during the heated term, when fish are slow and
+sluggish, I have found the following plan works well: Bake a hard, well
+salted, water Johnnycake, break it into pieces the size at a hen's egg
+and drop the pieces into a spring-hole. This calls a host of minnows
+and the larger fish follow the minnows. It will prove more successful
+on perch, catties, chubs, etc., than on trout, however. By this plan, I
+have kept a camp of five men well supplied with fish when their best
+flies failed--as they mostly do in very hot weather.
+
+Fishing for mascalonge, pickerel and bass, is quite another thing,
+though by many valued as a sport scarcely inferior to fly-fishing for
+trout. I claim no especial skill with the fly-rod. It is a good day
+when I get my tail fly more than fifteen yards beyond the reel, with
+any degree of accuracy.
+
+My success lies mainly with the tribes of Esox and Micropterus. Among
+these, I have seldom or never failed during the last thirty-six years,
+when the water was free of ice; and I have had just as good luck when
+big-mouthed bass and pickerel were in the "off season," as at any time.
+For in many waters there comes a time--in late August and September
+when neither bass nor pickerel will notice the spoon, be it handled
+never so wisely. Even the mascalonge looks on the flashing cheat with
+indifference; though a very hungry specimen may occasionally immolate
+himself. It was at such a season that I fished High Bank Lake--as
+before mentioned--catching from twenty to fifty pounds of fine fish
+every morning for nearly two weeks, after the best local fishermen had
+assured me that not a decent sized fish could be taken at that season.
+Perhaps a brief description of the modes and means that have proved
+invariably successful for many years may afford a few useful hints,
+even to old anglers.
+
+To begin with, I utterly discard all modern "gangs" and "trains,"
+carrying from seven to thirteen hooks each. They are all too small and
+all too many; better calculated to scratch and tear, than to catch and
+hold, Three hooks are enough at the end of any line and better than
+more. These should be fined or honed to a perfect point and the abrupt
+part of the barb filed down one-half. All hooks, as usually made, have
+twice as much barb as they should have; and the sharp bend of the barb
+prevents the entering of the hook in hard bony structures, wherefore
+the fish only stays hooked so long as there is a taut pull on the line.
+A little loosening of the line and shake of the head sets him free. But
+no fish can shake out a hook well sunken in mouth or gills, though
+two-thirds of the barb be filed away.
+
+For mascalonge or pickerel I invariably use wire snells made as
+follows: Lay off four or more strands of fine brass wire 13 inches
+long; turn one end of the wires smoothly over a No. 1 iron wire and
+work the ends in between the strands below. Now, with a pair of pincers
+hold the ends, and using No. 1 as a handle, twist the ends and body of
+the snell firmly together; this gives the loop; next, twist the snell
+evenly and strongly from end to end. Wax the end of the snell
+thoroughly for two or three inches and wax the tapers of two strong
+Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hooks and wind the lower hook on with strong,
+waxed silk, to the end of the taper; then lay the second hook at right
+angles with the first and one inch above it; wind this as the other and
+then fasten a third and smaller hook above that for a lip hook. This
+gives the snell about one foot in length, with the two lower hooks
+standing at right angles, one above the other and a third and smaller
+hook in line with the second.
+
+The bait is the element of success; it is made as follows: Slice off a
+clean, white pork rind, four or five inches long by an inch and a half
+wide; lay it on a board and with a sharp knife cut it as nearly to the
+shape of a frog as your ingenuity permits. Prick a slight gash in the
+head to admit the lip hook, which should be an inch and a half above
+the second one and see that the back of the bait rests securely in the
+barb of the middle hook.
+
+Use a stout bait-rod and a strong line. Fish from a boat, with a
+second man to handle the oars, if convenient. Let the oarsman lay the
+boat ten feet inside the edge of the lily-pads and make your cast, say,
+with thirty feet of line; land the bait neatly to the right, at the
+edge of the lily-pads, let it sink a few inches, and then with the tip
+well lowered, bring the bait around on a slight curve by a quick
+succession of draws, with a momentary pause between each; the object
+being to imitate as nearly as possible a swimming frog. If this be
+neatly done and if the bait be made as it should be, at every short
+halt the legs will spread naturally and the imitation is perfect enough
+to deceive the most experienced bass or pickerel. When half a dozen
+casts to right and left have been made without success, it is best to
+move on, still keeping inside and casting outside the lily-pads.
+
+A pickerel of three pounds or more will take in all three hooks at the
+first snap; and, as he closes his mouth tightly and starts for the
+bottom, strike quickly, but not too hard, and let the boatman put you
+out into deep water at once, where you are safe from the strong roots
+of the yellow lily.
+
+It is logically certain your fish is well hooked. You cannot pull two
+strong, sharp hooks through that tightly closed mouth without fastening
+at least one of them where it will do most good. Oftener both will
+catch and it frequently happens that one hook will catch each lip,
+holding the mouth nearly closed and shortening the struggles of a large
+fish very materially. On taking off a fish and before casting again,
+see that the two lower hooks stand at right angles. If they have got
+turned in the struggle you can turn them at any angle you like; the
+twisted wire is stiff enough to hold them in place. Every angler knows
+the bold, determined manner in which the mascalonge strikes his prey.
+He will take in bait and hooks at the first dash, and if the rod be
+held stiffly usually hooks himself. Barring large trout, he is the king
+of game fish. The big-mouthed bass is less savage in his attacks, but
+is a free biter. He is apt to come up behind and seize the bait about
+two-thirds of its length, turn and bore down for the bottom. He will
+mostly take in the lower hooks however, and is certain to get fastened.
+His large mouth is excellent for retaining the hook. As for the
+small-mouthed (Micropterus dolomieu, if you want to be scientific), I
+have found him more capricious than any game fish on the list. One day
+he will take only dobsons, or crawfish; the next, he may prefer minnows,
+and again, he will rise to the fly or a bucktail spinner.
+
+On the whole, I have found the pork frog the most successful lure in
+his case; but the hooks and bait must be arranged differently. Three
+strands of fine wire will make a snell strong enough and the hooks
+should be strong, sharp and rather small, the lower hooks placed only
+half an inch apart and a small lip hook two and a quarter inches above
+the middle one. As the fork of the bait will not reach the bend of the
+middle hook, it must be fastened to the snell by a few stitches taken
+with stout thread and the lower end of the bait should not reach more
+than a quarter of an inch beyond the bottom of the hook, because the
+small-mouth has a villainous trick of giving his prey a stern chase,
+nipping constantly and viciously at the tail, and the above arrangement
+will be apt to hook him at the first snap. Owing to this trait, some
+artificial minnows with one or two hooks at the caudal end, are very
+killing--when he will take them.
+
+Lake, or salmon trout, may be trolled for successfully with the above
+lure; but I do not much affect fishing for them. Excellent sport may be
+had with them, however, early in the season, when they are working near
+the shore, but they soon retire to water from fifty to seventy feet
+deep and can only be caught by deep trolling or buoy-fishing. I have no
+fancy for sitting in a slow-moving boat for hours, dragging three or
+four hundred feet of line in deep water, a four pound sinker tied by
+six feet of lighter line some twenty feet above the hooks. The sinker
+is supposed to go bumping along the bottom, while the bait follows
+three or four feet above it. The drag of the line and the constant
+joggling of the sinker on rocks and snags, make it difficult to tell
+when one has a strike--and it is always too long between bites.
+
+Sitting for hours at a baited buoy with a hand-line and without taking
+a fish, is still worse, as more than once I have been compelled to
+acknowledge in very weariness of soul. There are enthusiastic anglers,
+however, whose specialty is trolling for lake trout. A gentleman by the
+name of Thatcher, who has a fine residence on Raquette Lake--which he
+calls a camp makes this his leading sport and keeps a log of his
+fishing, putting nothing on record of less than ten pounds weight. His
+largest fish was booked at twenty-eight pounds, and he added that a
+well-conditioned salmon trout was superior to a brook trout on the
+table; in which I quite agree with him. But he seemed quite disgusted
+when I ventured to suggest that a well-conditioned cattie or bullhead,
+caught in the same waters was better than either.
+
+"Do you call the cattie a game fish?" he asked.
+
+Yes; I call any fish a "game fish" that is taken for sport with hook
+and line. I can no more explain the common prejudice against the
+catfish and eel than I can tell why an experienced angler should drag a
+gang of thirteen hooks through the water--ten of them being wane than
+superfluous. Frank Forester gives five hooks as the number for a
+trolling gang. We mostly use hooks too small and do not look after
+points and barbs closely enough. A pair of No. 1 O'Shaughnessy, or 1
+1/2 Sproat, or five tapered blackfish hooks, will make a killing rig
+for small-mouthed bass using No. 4 Sproat for lip hook. Larger hooks
+are better for the big-mouthed, a four-pound specimen of which will
+easily take in one's fist. A pair of 5-0 O'Shaughnessy's, or Sproat's
+will be found none too large; and as for the mascalonge and pickerel,
+if I must err, let it be on the side of large hooks and strong lines.
+
+It is idle to talk of playing the fish in water where the giving of a
+few yards insures a hopeless tangle among roots, tree-tops, etc. I was
+once fishing in Western waters where the pickerel ran very large, and I
+used a pair of the largest salmon hooks with tackle strong enough to
+hold a fish of fifteen pounds, without any playing; notwithstanding
+which, I had five trains of three hooks each taken off in as many
+days by monster pickerel. An expert mascalonge fisherman--Davis by
+name--happened to take board at the farm house where I was staying, and
+he had a notion that he could "beat some of them big fellows;" and he
+did it; with three large cod hooks, a bit of fine, strong chain, twelve
+yards of cod-line, an eighteen-foot tamarack pole and a twelve inch
+sucker for bait. I thought it the most outlandish rig I had ever seen,
+but went with him in the early gray of the morning to see it tried,
+just where I had lost my hooks and fish.
+
+Raising the heavy bait in the air, he would give it a whirl to gather
+headway and launch it forty feet away with a splash that might have
+been heard thirty rods. It looked more likely to scare than catch, but
+was a success. At the third or fourth cast we plainly saw a huge
+pickerel rise, shut his immense mouth over bait, hooks and a few inches
+of chain, turn lazily and head for the bottom, where Mr. D. let him
+rest a minute, and then struck steadily but strongly. The subsequent
+struggle depended largely on main strength, though there was a good
+deal of skill and cool judgment shown in the handling and landing of
+the fish. A pickerel of forty pounds or more is not to be snatched out
+of the water on his first mad rush: something must be yielded--and with
+no reel there is little chance of giving line. It struck me my friend
+managed his fish remarkably well, towing him back and forth with a
+strong pull, never giving him a rest and finally sliding him out on a
+low muddy bank, as though he were a smooth log. We took him up to the
+house and tested the size of his mouth by putting a quart cup in it,
+which went in easily. Then we weighed him and he turned the scales at
+forty-four pounds. It was some consolation to find three of my hooks
+sticking in his mouth. Lastly, we had a large section of him stuffed
+and baked. It was good; but a ten-pound fish would have been better,
+The moral of all this--if it has any moral--is, use hooks according to
+the size of fish you expect to catch.
+
+And, when you are in a permanent camp, and fishing is very poor, try
+frogging. It is not a sport of a high order, though it may be called
+angling--and it can be made amusing, with hook and line. I have seen
+educated ladies in the wilderness, fishing for frogs with all eagerness
+and enthusiasm not surpassed by the most devoted angler with his
+favorite cast of flies.
+
+There are several modes of taking the festive batrachian. He is
+speared with a frog-spear; caught under the chin with snatch-hooks;
+taken with hook and line, or picked up from a canoe with the aid of a
+headlight, or jack-lamp. The two latter modes are best.
+
+To take him with hook and line: a light rod, six to eight feet of
+line, a snell of single gut with a 1-0 Sproat or O'Shaughnessy hook and
+a bit of bright scarlet flannel for bait; this is the rig. To use it,
+paddle up behind him silently and drop the rag just in front of his
+nose. He is pretty certain to take it on the instant. Knock him on the
+head before cutting off his legs. It is unpleasant to see him squirm
+and hear him cry like a child while you are sawing at his thigh joints.
+
+By far the most effective manner of frogging is by the headlight on
+dark nights. To do this most successfully, one man in a light canoe, a
+good headlight and a light, one-handed paddle are the requirements. The
+frog is easily located, either by his croaking, or by his peculiar
+shape. Paddle up to him silently and throw the light in his eyes; you
+may then pick him up as you would a potato. I have known a North Woods
+guide to pick up a five-quart pail of frogs in an hour, on a dark
+evening. On the table, frogs' legs are usually conceded first place for
+delicacy and flavor, For an appetizing breakfast in camp, they have no
+equal, in my judgment. The high price they bring at the best hotels,
+and their growing scarcity, attest the value placed on them by men who
+know how and what to eat. And, not many years ago, an old pork-gobbling
+backwoodsman threw his frying pan into the river because I had cooked
+frogs' legs in it. While another, equally intelligent, refused to use
+my frying pan, because I had cooked eels in it; remarking
+sententiously, "Eels is snakes, an' I know it."
+
+It may be well, just here and now, to say a word on the importance of
+the headlight. I know of no more pleasant and satisfactory adjunct of a
+camp than a good light that can be adjusted to the head, used as a jack
+in floating, carried in the hand, or fastened up inside the shanty.
+Once fairly tried, it will never be ignored or forgotten. Not that it
+will show a deer's head seventeen rods distant with sufficient
+clearness for a shot--or your sights with distinctness enough to make
+it. (See Murray's Adirondacks, page 174.)
+
+A headlight that will show a deer plainly at six rods, while lighting
+the sights of a rifle with clearness, is an exceptionally good light.
+More deer are killed in floating under than over four rods. There are
+various styles of headlights, jack-lamps, etc. in use. They are bright,
+easily adjusted and will show rifle sights, or a deer, up to 100
+feet--which is enough. They are also convenient in camp and better than
+a lantern on a dim forest path.
+
+Before leaving the subject of bait-fishing, I have a point or two I
+wish to make. I have attempted to explain the frog-bait and the manner
+of using it, and I shall probably never have occasion to change my
+belief that it is, all the whole, the most killing lure for the entire
+tribes of bass and pickerel. There is however, another, which, if
+properly handled, is almost as good. It is as follows:
+
+Take a bass, pickerel, or yellow perch, of one pound or less; scrape
+the scales clean on the under side from the caudal fin to a point just
+forward of the vent.
+
+Next, with a sharp knife, cut up toward the backbone, commencing just
+behind the vent with a slant toward the tail. Run the knife smoothly
+along just under the backbone and out through the caudal fin, taking
+about one-third of the latter and making a clean, white bait, with the
+anal and part of the caudal by way of fins. It looks very like a white
+minnow in the water; but is better, in that it is more showy and
+infinitely tougher. A minnow soon drags to pieces. To use it, two
+strong hooks are tied on a wire snell at right angles, the upper one an
+inch above the lower, and the upper hook is passed through the bait,
+leaving it to draw without turning or spinning. The casting and
+handling is the same as with the frog-bait and is very killing for
+bass, pickerel and mascalonge, It is a good lure for salmon trout also;
+but, for him it was found better to fasten the bait with the lower hook
+in a way to give it a spinning motion; and this necessitates the use of
+a swivel, which I do not like; because, "a rope is as strong as its
+weakest part"; and I have more than once found that weakest part the
+swivel. If, however, a swivel has been tested by a dead lift of twenty
+to twenty-five pounds, it will do to trust.
+
+I have spoken only of brass or copper wire for snells, and for
+pickerel or mascalonge of large size nothing else is to be depended on.
+But for trout and bass; strong gut or gimp is safe enough. The
+possibilities as to size of the mascalonge and Northern pickerel no man
+knows. Frank Forester thinks it probable that the former attains to the
+weight of sixty to eighty pounds, while he only accords the pickerel a
+weight of seventeen to eighteen pounds. I have seen several pickerel of
+over forty pounds and one that turned the scale at fifty-three. And I
+saw a mascalonge on Georgian Bay that was longer than the Canuck guide
+who was toting the fish over his shoulder by a stick thrust in the
+mouth and gills. The snout reached to the top of the guide's head,
+while the caudal fin dragged on the ground. There was no chance for
+weighing the fish, but I hefted him several times, carefully, and am
+certain he weighed more than a bushel of wheat. Just what tackle would
+be proper for such a powerful fellow I am not prepared to say, having
+lost the largest specimens I ever hooked. My best mascalonge weighed
+less than twenty pounds. My largest pickerel still less.
+
+I will close this discursive chapter by offering a bit of advice.
+
+Do not go into the woods on a fishing tour without a stock of well
+cleansed angle-worms. Keep them in a tin can partly filled with damp
+moss and in a cool moist place. There is no one variety of bait that
+the angler finds so constantly useful as the worm. Izaak Walton by no
+means despised worm or bait-fishing.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+Camp Cookery--How It Is Usually Done, With A Few Simple Hints On Plain
+Cooking--Cooking Fire And Outdoor Range
+
+THE way in which an average party of summer outers will contrive to
+manage--or mismanage--the camp and campfire so as to get the greatest
+amount of smoke and discontent at the least outlay of time and force,
+is something past all understanding and somewhat aggravating to an old
+woodsman who knows some better. But it is just as good fun as the
+cynical O.W. can ask, to see a party of three or four enthusiastic
+youngsters organize the camp on the first day in, and proceed to cook
+the first meal. Of course, every man is boss, and every one is bound to
+build the fire, which every one proceeds to do. There are no back logs,
+no fore sticks, and no arrangement for level solid bases on which to
+place frying pans, coffee pots, etc. But, there is a sufficiency of
+knots, dry sticks, bark and chunks, with some kindling at the bottom,
+and a heavy volume of smoke working its way through the awkward-looking
+pile. Presently thin tongues of blue flame begin to shoot up through
+the interstices, and four brand new coffee pots are wriggled into level
+positions at as many different points on the bonfire. Four hungry
+youngsters commence slicing ham and pork, four frying pans are brought
+out from as many hinged and lidded soap boxes--when one man yells out
+hurriedly, "Look out, Joe, there's your coffee pot handle coming off."
+And he drops his frying pan to save his coffee pot, which he does,
+minus the spout and handle. Then it is seen that the flames have
+increased rapidly, and all the pots are in danger. A short, sharp
+skirmish rescues them, at the expense of some burned fingers, and
+culinary operations are the order of the hour.
+
+Coffee and tea are brewed with the loss of a handle or two, and the
+frying pans succeed in scorching the pork and ham to an unwholesome
+black mess. The potato kettle does better. It is not easy to spoil
+potatoes by cooking them in plenty of boiling water; and, as there is
+plenty of bread with fresh butter, not to mention canned goods, the
+hungry party feed sufficiently, but not satisfactorily. Everything
+seems pervaded with smoke. The meat is scorched bitter, and the tea is
+of the sort described by Charles Dudley Warner, in his humorous
+description of "camping out": "The sort of tea that takes hold, lifts
+the hair, and disposes the drinker to hilariousness. There is no
+deception about it, it tastes of tannin, and spruce, and creosote." Of
+the cooking he says: "Everything has been cooked in a tin pail and a
+skillet--potatoes, tea, pork, mutton, slapjacks. You wonder how
+everything would have been prepared in so few utensils. When you eat,
+the wonder ceases, everything might have been cooked in one pail. It is
+a noble meal...The slapjacks are a solid job of work, made to last, and
+not go to pieces in a person's stomach like a trivial bun."
+
+I have before me a copy of Forest and Stream, in which the canoe
+editor, under the heading of "The Galley Fire," has some remarks well
+worth quoting. He says: "The question of camp cookery is one of the
+greatest importance to all readers of Forest and Stream, but most of
+all to the canoeists. From ignorance of what to carry the canoeist
+falls back on canned goods, never healthy as a steady diet, Brunswick
+soup and eggs...The misery of that first campfire, who has forgotten
+it? Tired, hungry, perhaps cold and wet, the smoke everywhere, the
+coffee pot melted down, the can of soup upset in the fire, the fiendish
+conduct of frying pan and kettle, the final surrender of the exhausted
+victim, sliding off to sleep with a piece of hardtack in one hand and a
+slice of canned beef in the other, only to dream of mother's hot
+biscuits, juicy steaks, etc., etc." It is very well put, and so true to
+the life. And again: "Frying, baking, making coffee, stews, plain
+biscuits, the neat and speedy preparation of a healthy 'square meal'
+can be easily learned." Aye, and should be learned by every man who
+goes to the woods with or without a canoe.
+
+But I was describing a first day's camping out, the party being four
+young men and one old woodsman, the latter going along in a double
+character of invited guest and amateur guide. When the boys are through
+with their late dinner, they hustle the greasy frying pans and
+demoralized tinware into a corner of the shanty, and get out their rods
+for an evening's fishing. They do it hurriedly, almost feverishly, as
+youngsters are apt to do at the start. The O.W. has taken no part in
+the dinner, and has said nothing save in response to direct questions,
+nor has he done anything to keep up his reputation as a woodsman,
+except to see that the shelter roof is properly put up and fastened.
+Having seen to this, he reverts to his favorite pastime, sitting on a
+log and smoking navy plug. Long experience has taught him that it is
+best to let the boys effervesce a little. They will slop over a trifle
+at first, but twenty-four hours will settle them. When they are fairly
+out of hearing, he takes the old knapsack from the clipped limb where
+it has been hung, cuts a slice of ham, butters a slice of bread,
+spreads the live coals and embers, makes a pot of strong green tea,
+broils the ham on a three-pronged birch fork, and has a clean, well
+cooked plain dinner. Then he takes the sharp three-pound camp axe, and
+fells a dozen small birch and ash trees, cutting them into proper
+lengths and leaving them for the boys to tote into camp. Next, a bushy,
+heavy-topped hemlock is felled, and the O.W. proceeds leisurely to pick
+a heap of fine hemlock browse. A few handfuls suffice to stuff the
+muslin pillow bag, and the rest is carefully spread on the port side of
+the shanty for a bed. The pillow is placed at the head, and the old
+Mackinac blanket-bag is spread neatly over all, as a token of ownership
+and possession. If the youngsters want beds of fine, elastic browse,
+let 'em make their own beds.
+
+No campfire should be without poker and tongs. The poker is a beech
+stick four feet long by two inches thick, flattened at one end, with a
+notch cut in it for lifting kettles, etc. To make the tongs, take a
+tough beech or hickory stick, one inch thick by two feet in length,
+shave it down nearly one-half for a foot in the center, thrust this
+part into hot embers until it bends freely, bring the ends together and
+whittle them smoothly to a fit on the inside, cross checking them also
+to give them a grip; finish off by chamfering the ends neatly from the
+outside. They will be found exceedingly handy in rescuing a bit of
+tinware, a slice of steak or ham, or any small article that happens to
+get dropped in a hot fire.
+
+And don't neglect the camp broom. It is made by laying bushy hemlock
+twigs around a light handle, winding them firmly with strong twine or
+moose wood bark, and chopping off the ends of the twigs evenly. It can
+be made in ten minutes. Use it to brush any leaves, sticks, and any
+litter from about the camp or fire. Neatness is quite as pleasant and
+wholesome around the forest camp as in the home kitchen. These little
+details may seem trivial to the reader. But remember, if there is a
+spot on earth where trifles make up the sum of human enjoyment, it is
+to be found in a woodland camp. All of which the O.W. fully
+appreciates, as he finishes the above little jobs; after which he
+proceeds to spread the fire to a broad level bed of glowing embers,
+nearly covering the same with small pieces of hemlock bark, that the
+boys may have a decent cooking fire on their return.
+
+About sundown they come straggling in, not jubilant and hilarious,
+footsore rather and a little cross. The effervescence is subsiding, and
+the noise is pretty well knocked out of them. They have caught and
+dressed some three score of small brook trout, which they deposit
+beside the shanty, and proceed at once to move on the fire, with
+evident intent of raising a conflagration, but are checked by the O.W.,
+who calls their attention to the fact that for all culinary purposes,
+the fire is about as near the right thing as they are likely to get it.
+Better defer the bonfire until after supper. Listening to the voice of
+enlightened woodcraft, they manage to fry trout and make tea without
+scorch or creosote, and the supper is a decided improvement on the
+dinner. But the dishes are piled away as before, without washing.
+
+Then follows an hour of busy work, bringing wood to camp and packing
+browse. The wood is sufficient; but the browse is picked, or cut, all
+too coarse, and there is only enough of it to make the camp look green
+and pleasant--not enough to rest weary shoulders and backs. But, they
+are sound on the bonfire. They pile on the wood in the usual way,
+criss-cross and haphazard. It makes a grand fire, and lights up the
+forest for fifty yards around, and the tired youngsters turn in. Having
+the advantage of driving a team to the camping ground, they are well
+supplied with blankets and robes. They ought to sleep soundly, but they
+don't. The usual drawbacks of a first night in camp are soon manifested
+in uneasy twistings and turnings, grumbling at stubs, nots, and sticks,
+that utterly ignore conformity with the angles of the human frame. But
+at last, tired nature asserts her supremacy, and they sleep. Sleep
+soundly, for a couple of hours; when the bonfire, having reached the
+point of disintegration, suddenly collapses with a sputtering and
+crackling that brings them to their head's antipodes, and four dazed,
+sleepy faces look out with a bewildered air, to see what has caused the
+rumpus. All take a hand in putting the brands together and rearranging
+the fire, which burns better than at first; some sleepy talk, one or
+two feeble attempts at a smoke, and they turn in again. But, there is
+not an hour during the remainder of the night in which some one is not
+pottering about the fire.
+
+The O.W., who has abided by his blanket-bag all night quietly taking
+in the fun--rouses out the party at 4 A.M. For two of them are to fish
+Asaph Run with bait, and the other two are to try the riffles of Marsh
+Creek with the fly. As the wood is all burned to cinders and glowing
+coals, there is no chance for a smoky fire; and, substituting coffee
+for tea, the breakfast is a repetition of the supper.
+
+By sunrise the boys are off, and the O.W. has the camp to himself. He
+takes it leisurely, gets up a neat breakfast of trout, bread, butter,
+and coffee, cleans and puts away his dishes, has a smoke, and picks up
+the camp axe. Selecting a bushy hemlock fifteen inches across, he lets
+it down in as many minutes, trims it to the very tip, piles the limbs
+in a heap, and cuts three lengths of six feet each from the butt. This
+insures browse and back logs for some time ahead. Two strong stakes are
+cut and sharpened.
+
+Four small logs, two of eight and two of nine feet in length, are
+prepared, plenty of night wood is made ready, a supply of bright, dry
+hemlock bark is carried to camp, and the O.W. rests from his labors,
+resuming his favorite pastime of sitting on a log and smoking navy plug.
+
+Finally it occurs to him that he is there partly as guide and mentor
+to the younger men, and that they need a lesson on cleanliness. He
+brings out the frying pans and finds a filthy looking mess of grease in
+each one, wherein ants, flies, and other insects have contrived to get
+mixed. Does he heat some water, and clean and scour the pans? Not if he
+knows himself. If he did it once he might keep on doing it. He is
+cautious about establishing precedents, and he has a taste for
+entomology. He places the pans in the sun where the grease will soften
+and goes skirmishing for ants and doodle bugs. They are not far to
+seek, and he soon has a score of large black ants, with a few bugs and
+spiders, pretty equally distributed among the frying pans. To give
+the thing a plausible look a few flies are added, and the two largest
+pans are finished off, one with a large earwig, the other with a
+thousand-legged worm. The pans are replaced in the shanty, the embers
+are leveled and nearly covered with bits of dry hemlock bark, and the
+O.W. resumes his pipe and log.
+
+With such a face of Christian satisfaction, as good men wear, who have
+done a virtuous action.
+
+Before noon the boys are all in, and as the catch is twice as numerous
+and twice as large as on the previous evening, and as the weather is
+all that could be asked of the longest days in June, they are in
+excellent spirits. The boxes are brought out, pork is sliced, a can of
+Indian meal comes to the front, and they go for the frying pans.
+
+"Holy Moses! Look here. Just see the ants and bugs."
+
+Second Man.--"Well, I should say! I can see your ants and bugs, and go
+you an earwig better."
+
+Third Man (inverting his pan spitefully over the fire).--"Damn 'em.
+I'll roast the beggars."
+
+Bush D. (who is something of a cook and woodsman) "Boys, I'll take the
+pot. I've got a thousand-legged worm at the head of a pismire flush,
+and it serves us right, for a lot of slovens. Dishes should be cleaned
+as often as they are used. Now let's scour our pans and commence right."
+
+Hot water, ashes, and soap soon restore the pans to pristine
+brightness; three frying pans are filled with trout well rolled in
+meal; a fourth is used for cooking a can of tomatoes; the coffee is
+strong, and everything comes out without being smoked or scorched. The
+trout are browned to a turn, and even the O.W. admits that the dinner
+is a success. When it is over and the dishes are cleaned and put away,
+and the camp slicked up, there comes the usual two hours of lounging,
+smoking, and story telling, so dear to the hearts of those who love to
+go a-fishing and camping. At length there is a lull in the
+conversation, and Bush D. turns to the old woodsman with, "I thought,
+Uncle Mart, you were going to show us fellows such a lot of kinks about
+camping out, campfires, cooking, and all that sort of thing, isn't it
+about time to begin? Strikes me you have spent most of the last
+twenty-four hours holding down that log." "Except cutting some night
+wood and tending the fire," adds number two.
+
+The old woodsman, who has been rather silent up to this time, knocks
+the ashes leisurely from his pipe, and gets on his feet for a few
+remarks. He says, "Boys, a bumblebee is biggest when it's first born.
+You've learned more than you think in the last twenty-four hours."
+
+"Well, as how? Explain yourself," says Bush D.
+
+O.W.--"In the first place, you have learned better than to stick your
+cooking-kit into a tumbled down heap of knots, mulch and wet bark, only
+to upset and melt down the pots, and scorch or smoke everything in the
+pans, until a starving hound wouldn't eat the mess. And you have found
+that it doesn't take a log heap to boil a pot of coffee or fry a pan of
+trout. Also, that a level bed of live coals makes an excellent cooking
+fire, though I will show you a better. Yesterday you cooked the worst
+meal I ever saw in the woods. Today you get up a really good, plain
+dinner; you have learned that much in one day. Oh, you improve some.
+And I think you have taken a lesson in cleanliness today."
+
+"Yes; but we learned that of the ant--and bug," says number two.
+
+O.W.--"Just so. And did you think all the ants and doodle-bugs
+blundered into that grease in one morning? I put 'em in myself--to give
+you a 'kink.'"
+
+Bush D. (disgusted).--"You blasted, dirty old sinner."
+
+Second Man.--"Oh, you miserable old swamp savage; I shan't get over
+that earwig in a month."
+
+Third Man (plaintively).--"This life in the woods isn't what it's
+cracked up to be; I don't relish bugs and spiders. I wish I were home.
+I'm all bitten up with punkies, and--"
+
+Fourth Man (savagely).--"Dashed old woods-loafer; let's tie his hands
+and fire him in the creek."
+
+O.W. (placidly).--"Exactly, boys. Your remarks are terse, and to the
+point. Only, as I am going to show you a trick or two on woodcraft this
+afternoon, you can afford to wait a little. Now, quit smoking, and get
+out your hatchets; we'll go to work."
+
+Three hatchets are brought to light; one of them a two-pound clumsy
+hand-axe, the others of an old time, Mt. Vernon, G.W. pattern. "And
+now," says good-natured Bush, "you give directions and we'll do the
+work."
+
+Under directions, the coarse browse of the previous night is placed
+outside the shanty; three active youngsters, on hands and knees, feel
+out and cut off every offending stub and root inside the shanty, until
+it is smooth as a floor. The four small logs are brought to camp; the
+two longest are laid at the sides and staked in place; the others are
+placed, one at the head, the other at the foot, also staked; and the
+camp has acquired definite outlines, and a measurable size of eight by
+nine feet. Three hemlock logs and two sharpened stakes are toted to
+camp; the stakes driven firmly, and the logs laid against them, one
+above the other. Fire-dogs, forestick, etc., complete the arrangement,
+and the campfire is in shape for the coming night, precisely as shown
+in the engraving.
+
+"And now," says the O.W., "if three of you will go down to the flat
+and pick the browse clean from the two hemlock tops, Bush and I will
+fix a cooking-range."
+
+"A--what?" asks one.
+
+"Going to start a boarding-house?" says another.
+
+"Notion of going into the hardware business?" suggests a third.
+
+"Never mind, sonny; just 'tend to that browse, and when you see a
+smoke raising on the flat by the spring, come over and see the range."
+And the boys, taking a couple of blankets in which to carry the browse,
+saunter away to the flat below.
+
+A very leisurely aesthetic, fragrant occupation is this picking
+browse. It should never be cut, but pulled, stripped or broken. I have
+seen a Senator, ex-Governor, and a wealthy banker enjoying themselves
+hugely at it, varying the occupation by hacking small timber with their
+G.W. hatchets, like so many boys let loose from school. It may have
+looked a trifle undignified, but I dare say they found their account in
+it. Newport or Long Branch would have been more expensive, and much
+less healthful.
+
+For an hour and a half tongues and fingers are busy around the hemlock
+tops; then a thin, long volume of blue smoke rises near the spring, and
+the boys walk over to inspect the range. They find it made as follows:
+Two logs six feet long and eight inches thick are laid parallel, but
+seven inches apart at one end and only four at the other. They are
+bedded firmly and flattened a little on the inside. On the upper sides
+the logs are carefully hewed and leveled until pots, pans and kettles
+will sit firmly and evenly on them. A strong forked stake is driven at
+each end of the space, and a cross-pole, two or three inches thick,
+laid on, for hanging kettles. This completes the range; simple, but
+effective. (See illustration.) The broad end of the space is for frying
+pans, and the potato kettle. The narrow end, for coffee pots and
+utensils of lesser diameter. From six to eight dishes can be cooked at
+the same time. Soups, stews, and beans are to be cooked in closely
+covered kettles hung from the cross-pole, the bottoms of the kettles
+reaching within some two inches of the logs. With a moderate fire they
+may be left to simmer for hours without care or attention.
+
+The fire is of the first importance. Start it with fine kindling and
+clean, dry, hemlock bark. When you have a bright, even fire from end to
+end of the space, keep it up with small fagots of the sweetest and most
+wholesome woods in the forest. These are, in the order named, black
+birch, hickory, sugar maple, yellow birch, and red beech. The sticks
+should be short, and not over two inches across. Split wood is better
+than round. The outdoor range can be made by one man in little more
+than an hour, and the camper-out, who once tries it, will never wish to
+see a "portable camp-stove" again.
+
+When the sun leaves the valley in the shade of Asaph Mountain, the
+boys have a fragrant bed of elastic browse a foot deep in the shanty,
+with pillows improvised from stuffed boot legs, cotton handkerchiefs,
+etc. They cook their suppers on the range, and vote it perfect, no
+melting or heating handles too hot for use, and no smoking of dishes,
+or faces.
+
+Just at dark--which means 9 P.M. in the last week of June--the fire is
+carefully made and chinked. An hour later it is throwing its grateful
+warmth and light directly into camp, and nowhere else. The camp turns
+in. Not to wriggle and quarrel with obdurate stubs, but to sleep. And
+sleep they do. The sound, deep, restful sleep of healthy young manhood,
+inhaling pure mountain air on the healthiest bed yet known to man.
+
+When it is past midnight, and the fire burns low, and the chill night
+breeze drifts into camp, they still do not rouse up, but only spoon
+closer, and sleep right on. Only the O.W. turns out sleepily, at two
+bells in the middle watch, after the manner of hunters, trappers, and
+sailors, the world over. He quietly rebuilds the fire, reduces a bit of
+navy plug to its lowest denomination, and takes a solitary smoke--still
+holding down his favorite log. Quizzically and quietly he regards the
+sleeping youngsters, and wonders if among them all there is one who
+will do as he has done, i.e., relinquish all of what the world reckons
+as success, for the love of nature and a free forest life. He hopes
+not. And yet, as he glances at the calm yellow moon overhead, and
+listens to the low murmur of the little waterfall below the spring, he
+has a faint notion that it is not all loss and dross.
+
+Knocking the ashes from his pipe he prepares to turn in, murmuring to
+himself, half sadly, half humorously, "I have been young, and now I am
+old; yet have I never seen the true woodsman forsaken, or his seed
+begging bread--or anything else, so to speak--unless it might be a
+little tobacco or a nip of whisky." And he creeps into his blanket-bag,
+backs softly out to the outside man, and joins the snorers.
+
+It is broad daylight when he again turns out, leaving the rest still
+sleeping soundly. He starts a lively fire in the range, treats two
+coffee pots to a double handful of coffee and three pints of water
+each, sets on the potato kettle, washes the potatoes, then sticks his
+head into the camp, and rouses the party with a regular second mate's
+hail. "Star-a-ar-bo'lin's aho-o-o-y. Turn out, you beggars. Come on
+deck and see it rain." And the boys do turn out. Not with wakeful
+alacrity, but in a dazed, dreamy, sleepy way. They open wide eyes, when
+they see that the sun is turning the sombre tops of pines and hemlocks
+to a soft orange yellow.
+
+"I'd have sworn," says one, "that I hadn't slept over fifteen minutes
+by the watch."
+
+"And I," says another, "was just watching the fire, when I dropped off
+in a doze. In about five minutes I opened my eyes, and I'll be shot if
+it wasn't sunrise."
+
+"As for me," says a third, "I don't know as I've slept at all. I
+remember seeing somebody poking the fire last night. Next thing I knew,
+some lunatic was yelling around camp about 'starbolin's,' and 'turning
+out.' Guess I'll lay down and have my nap out."
+
+"Yes," says the O.W., "I would. If I was a healthy youngster, and
+couldn't get along with seven hours and a half of solid sleep, I'd take
+the next forenoon for it. Just at present, I want to remark that I've
+got the coffee and potato business underway, and I'll attend to them.
+If you want anything else for breakfast, you'll have to cook it."
+
+And the boys, rising to the occasion, go about the breakfast with
+willing hands. It is noticeable, however, that only one pan of trout is
+cooked, two of the youngsters preferring to fall back on broiled ham,
+remarking that brook trout is too rich and cloying for a steady diet.
+Which is true. The appetite for trout has very sensibly subsided, and
+the boyish eagerness for trout fishing has fallen off immensely. Only
+two of the party show any interest in the riffles. They stroll down
+stream leisurely, to try their flies for an hour or two. The others
+elect to amuse themselves about the camp, cutting small timber with
+their little hatchets, picking fresh browse, or skirmishing the
+mountain side for wintergreen berries and sassafras. The fishermen
+return in a couple of hours, with a score of fair-sized trout. They
+remark apologetically that it is blazing hot--and there are plenty of
+trout ahead. Then they lean their rods against the shanty, and lounge
+on the blankets, and smoke and doze.
+
+It is less than forty-eight hours since the cross-pole was laid; and,
+using a little common sense woodcraft, the camp has already attained to
+a systematic no-system of rest, freedom and idleness. Every man is free
+to "loaf, and invite his soul." There is good trouting within an hour's
+walk for those who choose, and there is some interest, with a little
+exercise, in cooking and cutting night wood, slicking up, etc. But the
+whole party is stricken with "camp-fever," "Indian laziness," the dolce
+far niente. It is over and around every man, enveloping him as with a
+roseate blanket from the Castle of Indolence. It is the perfect summer
+camp.
+
+And it is no myth; but a literal resume of a five days' outing at
+Poplar Spring, on Marsh Creek, in Pennsylvania. Alas, for the beautiful
+valley, that once afforded the finest camping grounds I have ever known.
+
+Never any more
+    Can it be
+    Unto me (or anybody else)
+As before.
+
+A huge tannery, six miles above Poplar Spring, poisons and blackens
+the stream with chemicals, bark and ooze. The land has been brought
+into market, and every acre eagerly bought up by actual settlers. The
+once fine covers and thickets are converted into fields thickly dotted
+with blackened stumps. And, to crown the desolation, heavy laden trains
+of "The Pine Creek and Jersey Shore R.R." go thundering almost hourly
+over the very spot where stood our camp by Poplar Spring.
+
+Of course, this is progress; but, whether backward or forward, had
+better be decided sixty years hence. And, just what has happened to the
+obscure valley of Marsh Creek, is happening today, on a larger scale,
+all over the land. It is the same old story of grab and greed. Let us
+go on the "make" today, and "whack up" tomorrow; cheating each other
+as villainously as we may, and posterity be damned. "What's all the
+w-u-u-rld to a man when his wife is a widdy?"
+
+This is the moral: From Maine to Montana; from the Adirondacks to
+Alaska; from the Yosemite to the Yellowstone, the trout-hog, the
+deer-wolf, the netter, the skin-hunter, each and all have it their own
+way; and the law is a farce--only to be enforced where the game has
+vanished forever. Perhaps the man-child is born who will live to write
+the moral of all this--when it is too late.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+More Hints On Cooking, With Some Simple Receipts--Bread, Potatoes,
+Soups, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison
+
+We may live without friends, we may live without books,
+But civilized man cannot live without cooks.
+
+IT is probably true that nothing connected with outdoor life in camp
+is so badly botched as the cooking. It is not through any lack of the
+raw material, which may be had of excellent quality in any country
+village. It is not from lack of intelligence or education, for the men
+you meet in the woods, as outers or sportsmen, are rather over than
+under the average in these respects. Perhaps it is because it has been
+dinned into our ears from early childhood, that an appetite, a healthy
+longing for something good to eat, a tickling of the palate with
+wholesome, appetizing food, is beneath the attention of an aesthetic,
+intellectual man. Forgetting that the entire man, mental and physical,
+depends on proper aliment and the healthy assimilation thereof; and
+that a thin, dyspeptic man can no more keep up in the struggle of life,
+than the lightning express can make connections, drawn by a worn out
+locomotive.
+
+I have never been able to get much help from cook-books, or the scores
+of recipes published in various works on outdoor span. Take, for
+example, Frank Forester's Fish and Fishing. He has more than seventy
+recipes for cooking fish, over forty of which contain terms or names in
+French. I dare say they are good--for a first-class hotel. I neither
+cook nor converse in French and I have come to know that the plainest
+cooking is the best, so that it be well done and wholesome. In making
+up the rations for camping out, the first thing usually attended to is
+bread. And if this be light, well-made bread, enough may be taken along
+to last four or five days and this may be eked out with Boston
+crackers, or the best hardtack, for a couple or three days more,
+without the least hardship. Also, there are few camps in which some one
+is not going out to the clearings every few days for mail, small
+stores, etc. and a supply of bread can be arranged for, with less
+trouble than it can be made. There are times however, when this is not
+feasible, and there are men who prefer warm bread all the time. In this
+case the usual resort, from Maine to Alaska, is the universal flapjack.
+I do not like it; I seldom make it; it is not good. But it may be
+eaten, with maple syrup or sugar and butter. I prefer a plain water
+Johnnycake, made as follows (supposing your tins are something like
+those described in Chapter II): Put a little more than a pint of water
+in your kettle and bring it to a sharp boil, adding a small teaspoon
+full of salt and two of sugar. Stir in slowly enough good corn meal to
+make a rather stiff mush, let it cook a few minutes and set it off the
+fire; then grease your largest tin dish and put the mush in it,
+smoothing it on top. Set the dish on the outdoor range described in the
+previous chapter, with a lively bed of coal beneath--but no blaze.
+Invert the second sized tin over the cake and cover the dish with
+bright live coals, that bottom and top may bake evenly and give it from
+thirty-five to forty minutes for baking. It makes wholesome, palatable
+bread, which gains on the taste with use.
+
+Those who prefer wheat bread can make a passable article by using the
+best wheat flour with baking powders, mixing three tablespoonfuls of
+the powders to a quart of flour. Mix and knead thoroughly with warm
+water to a rather thin dough and bake as above. Use the same
+proportions for pancake batter. When stopping in a permanent camp with
+plenty of time to cook, excellent light bread may be made by using dry
+yeast cakes, though it is not necessary to "set" the sponge as directed
+on the papers. Scrape and dissolve half a cake of the yeast in a gill
+of warm water and mix it with the flour. Add warm water enough to make
+it pliable and not too stiff: set in a warm place until it rises
+sufficiently and bake as directed above. It takes several hours to rise.
+
+I am afraid I shall discount my credit on camp cooking when I admit
+that--if I must use fine flour--I prefer unleavened bread; what my
+friends irreverently call "club bread." Not that it was ever made or
+endorsed by any club of men that I know of, but because it is baked on
+a veritable club; sassafras or black birch. This is how to make it: Cut
+a club two feet long and three inches thick at the broadest end; peel
+or shave off the bark smoothly and sharpen the smaller end neatly. Then
+stick the sharpened end in the ground near the fire, leaning the broad
+end toward a bed of live coals, where it will get screeching hot. While
+it is heating, mix rather more than a half pint of best Minnesota flour
+with enough warm water to make a dough. Add a half teaspoon full of
+salt and a teaspoon full of sugar and mould and pull the dough until it
+becomes lively. Now, work it into a ribbon two inches wide and half an
+inch thick, wind the ribbon spirally around the broad end of the club,
+stick the latter in front of the fire so that the bread will bake
+evenly and quickly to a light brown and turn frequently until done,
+which will be in about thirty minutes. When done take it from the fire,
+stand the club firmly upright and pick the bread off in pieces as you
+want it to eat. It will keep hot a long time and one soon becomes fond
+of it.
+
+To make perfect coffee, just two ingredients are necessary, and only
+two. These are water and coffee. It is owing to the bad management of
+the latter that we drink poor coffee.
+
+Mocha is generally considered to be the best type of coffee, with Java
+a close second. It is the fashion at present to mix the two in
+proportions to suit, some taking two pans Java to one of Mocha, others
+reversing these proportions. Either way is good, or the Mocha is quite
+as good alone. But there is a better berry than either for the genuine
+coffee toper. This is the small, dark green berry that comes to market
+under the generic name of Rio, that name covering half a dozen grades
+of coffee raised in different provinces of Brazil, throughout a country
+extending north and south for more than 1,200 miles. The berry alluded
+to is produced along the range of high hills to the westward of Bahia
+and extending north toward the Parnahiba. It has never arrested
+attention as a distinct grade of the article, but it contains more
+coffee or caffein to the pound than any berry known to commerce. It is
+the smallest, heaviest and darkest green of any coffee that comes to
+our market from Brazil and may be known by these traits. I have tested
+it in the land where it is grown and also at home, for the past sixteen
+years and I place it at the head of the list, with Mocha next. Either
+will make perfect coffee, if treated as follows: of the berry, browned
+and ground, take six heaping tablespoonfuls and add three pints of cold
+water; place the kettle over the fire and bring to a sharp boil; set it
+a little aside where it will bubble and simmer until wanted, and just
+before pouring, drip in a half gill of cold water to settle it. That is
+all there is to it. The quantity of berry is about twice as much as
+usually given in recipes: but if you want coffee, you had better add
+two spoonfuls than cut off one.
+
+In 1867 and again in 1870, I had occasion to visit the West India
+Islands and Brazil. In common with most coffee topers, I had heard much
+of the super-excellence ascribed to "West India coffee" and "Brazilian
+coffee." I concluded to investigate, I had rooms at the Hotel d'Europe,
+Para, North Brazil. There were six of us, English and American
+boarders. Every morning, before we were out of our hammocks, a
+barefooted, half naked Mina negress came around and served each of us
+with a small cup of strong, black coffee and sugar ad libitum. There
+was not enough of it for a drink; it was rather in the nature of a
+medicine, and so intended--"To kill the biscos," they said. The coffee
+was above criticism.
+
+I went, in the dark of a tropical morning with Senor Joao, to the
+coffee factory where they browned the berry and saw him buy a pound,
+smoking hot, for which he paid twenty-five cents, or quite as much as
+it would cost in New York. In ten minutes the coffee was at the hotel
+and ground. This is the way they brewed it: A round-bottomed kettle was
+sitting on the brick range, with a half gallon of boiling water in it.
+Over the kettle a square piece of white flannel was suspended, caught
+up at the corners like a dip net. In this the coffee was placed and a
+small darky put in his time steadily with a soup ladle, dipping the
+boiling water from the kettle and pouring it on the coffee. There was a
+constant stream percolating through coffee and cloth, which, in the
+course of half an hour, became almost black, and clear as brandy. This
+was "Brazilian coffee." As the cups used were very small, and as none
+but the Northerners drank more than one cup, I found that the hotel did
+not use over two quarts of coffee each morning. It struck me that a
+pound of fresh Rio coffee berry ought to make a half gallon of rather
+powerful coffee.
+
+On my arrival home--not having any small darky or any convenient
+arrangement for the dip net--I had a sack made of light, white flannel,
+holding about one pint. In this I put one quarter pound of freshly
+ground berry, with water enough for five large cups. It was boiled
+thoroughly and proved just as good as the Brazilian article, but too
+strong for any of the family except the writer. Those who have a fancy
+for clear, strong "Brazilian coffee," will see how easily and simply it
+can be made.
+
+But, on a heavy knapsack-and-rifle tramp among the mountains, or a
+lone canoe cruise in a strange wilderness, I do not carry coffee. I
+prefer tea. Often, when too utterly tired and beaten for further
+travel, I have tried coffee, whisky or brandy, and a long experience
+convinces me that there is nothing so restful and refreshing to an
+exhausted man as a dish of strong, green tea. To make it as it should
+be made, bring the water to a high boil and let it continue to boil for
+a full minute. Set it off the fire and it will cease boiling; put in a
+handful of tea and it will instantly boil up again; then set it near
+the fire, where it will simmer for a few minutes, when it will be ready
+for use. Buy the best green tea you can find and use it freely on a
+hard tramp. Black, or Oolong tea, is excellent in camp. It should be
+put in the pot with cold water and brought to the boiling point.
+
+Almost any man can cook potatoes, but few cook them well. Most people
+think them best boiled in their jackets, and to cook them perfectly in
+this manner is so simple and easy, that the wonder is how anyone can
+fail. A kettle of screeching hot water with a small handful of salt in
+it, good potatoes of nearly equal size, washed clean and clipped at the
+ends, these are the requisites. Put the potatoes in the boiling water,
+cover closely and keep the water at high boiling pitch until you can
+thrust a sharp sliver through the largest potato. Then drain off the
+water and set the kettle in a hot place with the lid partly off. Take
+them out only as they are wanted; lukewarm potatoes are not good, They
+will be found about as good as potatoes can be, when cooked in their
+jackets. But there is a better way, as thus: Select enough for a mess
+of smooth, sound tubers; pare them carefully, taking off as little as
+possible, because the best of the potato lies nearest the skin, and
+cook as above. When done, pour the water off to the last drop; sprinkle
+a spoonful of salt and fine cracker crumbs over them; then shake, roll
+and rattle them in the kettle until the outsides are white and floury.
+Keep them piping hot until wanted, It is the way to have perfect boiled
+potatoes.
+
+Many outers are fond of roast potatoes in camp; and they mostly spoil
+them in the roasting, although there is no better place than the
+campfire in which to do it. To cook them aright, scoop out a basin-like
+depression under the fore-stick, three or four inches deep and large
+enough to hold the tubers when laid side by side; fill it with bright,
+hardwood coals and keep up a strong heat for half an hour or more.
+Next, clean out the hollow, place the potatoes in it and cover them
+with hot sand or ashes, topped with a heap of glowing coals, and keep
+up all the heat you like. In about twenty minutes commence to try them
+with a sharpened hardwood sliver; when this will pass through them they
+are done and should be raked out at once. Run the sliver through them
+from end to end, to let the steam escape and use immediately, as a
+roast potato quickly becomes soggy and bitter. I will add that, in
+selecting a supply of potatoes for camp, only the finest and smoothest
+should be taken.
+
+A man may be a trout-crank, he may have been looking forward for ten
+weary months to the time when he is to strike the much dreamed of
+mountain stream, where trout may be taken and eaten without stint.
+Occasionally--not often--his dream is realized, For two or three days
+he revels in fly-fishing and eating brook trout. Then his enthusiasm
+begins to subside. He talks less of his favorite flies and hints that
+wading hour after hour in ice-water gives him cramps in the calves of
+his legs. Also, he finds that brook trout, eaten for days in
+succession, pall on the appetite. He hankers for the flesh-pots of the
+restaurant and his soul yearns for the bean-pot of home.
+
+Luckily, some one has brought a sack of white beans, and the expert--
+there is always an expert in camp--is deputed to cook them. He accepts
+the trust and proceeds to do it. He puts a quart of dry beans and a
+liberal chunk of pork in a two-quart kettle, covers the mess with water
+and brings it to a rapid boil. Presently the beans begin to swell and
+lift the lid of the kettle: their conduct is simply demoniacal. They
+lift up the lid of the kettle, they tumble out over the rim in a way to
+provoke a saint, and they have scarcely begun to cook. The expert is
+not to be beaten. As they rise, he spoons them out and throws them
+away, until half of the best beans being wasted, the rest settle to
+business. He fills the kettle with water and watches it for an hour.
+When bean-skins and scum arise he uses the spoon; and when a ring of
+greasy salt forms around the rim of the kettle, he carefully scrapes it
+off, but most of it drops back into the pot, When the beans seem cooked
+to the point of disintegration, he lifts off the kettle and announces
+dinner. It is not a success. The largest beans are granulated rather
+than cooked, while the mealy portion of them has fallen to the bottom
+of the kettle and become scorched thereon, and the smaller beans are
+too hard to be eatable. The liquid, that should be palatable bean soup,
+is greasy salt water, and the pork is half raw. The party falls back,
+hungry and disgusted. Even if the mess were well cooked, it is too
+salty for eating. And why should this be so? Why should any sensible
+man spend years in acquiring an education that shall fit him for the
+struggle of life, yet refuse to spend a single day in learning how to
+cook the food that must sustain the life? It is one of the conundrums
+no one will ever find out.
+
+There is no article of food more easily carried, and none that
+contains more nourishment to the pound, than the bean. Limas are
+usually preferred, but the large white marrow is just as good. It will
+pay to select them carefully. Keep an eye on grocery stocks and when
+you strike a lot of extra large, clean beans, buy twice as many as you
+need for camp use. Spread them on a table, a quart at a time and
+separate the largest and best from the others. Fully one-half will go
+to the side of the largest and finest, and these may be put in a muslin
+bag and kept till wanted. Select the expeditionary pork with equal
+care, buying nothing but thick, solid, "clear," with a pink tinge.
+Reject that which is white and lardy. With such material, if you cannot
+lay over Boston baked beans, you had better sweep the cook out of camp.
+
+This is how to cook them: Put a pound or a little more of clean pork
+in the kettle, with water enough to cover it. Let it boil slowly half
+an hour. In the meantime, wash and parboil one pint of beans. Drain the
+water from the pork and place the beans around it; add two quarts of
+water and hang the kettle where it will boil steadily, but not rapidly,
+for two hours. Pare neatly and thinly five or six medium sized potatoes
+and allow them from thirty to forty minutes (according to size and
+variety), in which to cook. They must be pressed down among the beans
+so as to be entirely covered. If the beans be fresh and fine they will
+probably fall to pieces before time is up. This, if they are not
+allowed to scorch, makes them all the better. If a portion of pork be
+left over, it is excellent sliced very thin when cold and eaten with
+bread. The above is a dinner for three or four hungry men.
+
+It is usually the case that some of the party prefer baked beans. To
+have these in perfection, add one gill of raw beans and a piece of pork
+three inches square to the foregoing proportions. Boil as above, until
+the beans begin to crack open; then fork out the smaller piece of pork,
+place it in the center of your largest cooking tin, take beans enough
+from the kettle to nearly fill the tin, set it over a bright fire on
+the range, invert the second sized tin for a cover, place live,
+hardwood coals on top and bake precisely as directed for bread--only,
+when the coals on top become dull and black, brush them off, raise the
+cover and take a look. If the beans are getting too dry, add three or
+four spoonfuls of liquor from the kettle, replace cover and coals, and
+let them bake until they are of a rich light brown on top. Then serve.
+It is a good dish. If Boston can beat it, I don't want to lay up
+anything for old age.
+
+Brown bread and baked beans have a natural connection in the average
+American mind, and rightly. They supplement each other, even as spring
+lamb and green peas with our transatlantic cousins. But there is a
+better recipe for brown bread than is known to the dwellers of the Hub--
+one that has captured first prizes at country fairs and won the
+approval of epicures from Maine to Minnesota; the one that brought
+honest old Greeley down, on his strictures anent "country bread." And
+here is the recipe; take it for what it is worth and try it fairly
+before condemning it. It is for home use: One quart of sweet milk, one
+quart of sour, two quarts of Indian meal and one quart of flour and a
+cupful of dark, thin Porto Rico molasses. Use one teaspoon full of soda
+only. Bake in a steady, moderate oven, for four hours. Knead thoroughly
+before baking.
+
+Soup is, or should be, a leading food element in every woodland camp.
+I am sorry to say that nothing is, as a rule, more badly botched, while
+nothing is more easily or simply cooked as it should be. Soup requires
+time and a solid basis of the right material. Venison is the basis, and
+the best material is the bloody part of the deer, where the bullet went
+through. We used to throw this away; we have learned better. Cut about
+four pounds of the bloody meat into convenient pieces and wipe them as
+clean as possible with leaves or a damp cloth, but don't wash them. Put
+the meat into a five-quart kettle nearly filled with water and raise it
+to a lively boiling pitch. Let it boil for two hours. Have ready a
+three-tined fork made from a branch of birch or beech and with this,
+test the meat from time to time; when it parts readily from the bones,
+slice in a large onion. Pare six large, smooth potatoes, cut five of
+them into quarters and drop them into the kettle; scrape the sixth one
+into the soup for thickening. Season with salt and white pepper to taste.
+
+When, by skirmishing with the wooden fork, you can fish up bones with
+no meat on them, the soup is cooked and the kettle may be set aside to
+cool. Any hungry sportsman can order the next motion. Squirrels--red,
+black, gray or fox--make nearly as good a soup as venison, and better
+stew. Hares, rabbits, grouse, quail, or any of the smaller game birds,
+may be used in making soup; but all small game is better in a stew.
+
+To make a stew, proceed for the first two hours precisely as directed
+for soup; then slice in a couple of good-sized onions and six medium
+potatoes. When the meat begins to fall from the bones, make a
+thickening by rubbing three tablespoonfuls of flour and two spoonfuls
+of melted butter together; thin to the consistency of cream with liquor
+from the kettle and drip slowly into the stew, stirring briskly
+meanwhile. Allow all soups and stews to boil two hours before seasoning
+and use only the best table salt and white (or black) pepper. Season
+sparingly; it is easier to put salt in than to get it out. Cayenne
+pepper adds zest to a soup or stew, but, as some dislike it, let each
+man season his plate to his own cheek.
+
+Fried squirrels are excellent for a change, but are mostly spoiled by
+poor cooks, who put tough old he's and tender young squirrels together,
+treating all alike. To dress and cook them properly, chop off heads,
+tails and feet with the hatchet; cut the skin on the back crosswise;
+and, inserting the two middle fingers, pull the skin off in two parts,
+(head and tail). Clean and cut them in halves, leaving two ribs on the
+hindquarters. Put hind and fore quarters into the kettle and parboil
+until tender. This will take about twenty minutes for young ones and
+twice as long for the old.
+
+When a sharpened sliver will pass easily through the flesh, take the
+hindquarters from the kettle, drain and place them in the frying pan
+with pork fat hissing hot. Fry to a light, rich brown. It is the only
+proper way to cook squirrels. The forequarters are to be left in the
+kettle for a stew.
+
+It sometimes happens that pigeons are very plentiful and the camp is
+tempted into over-shooting and over-cooking, until every one is
+thoroughly sick of pigeons. This is all wrong. No party is, or can be,
+justified in wanton slaughter, just because birds happen to be
+plentiful; they will soon be scarce enough. Pigeons are hardly game,
+and they are not a first-class bird; but a good deal may be got out of
+them by the following method: Dress them, at the rate of two birds to
+one man; save the giblets; place in the kettle and boil until the
+sliver will easily pierce the breast; fork them out, cut the thick meat
+from each side of the breast bone, roll slightly in flour and put the
+pieces in the pan, frying them in the same way as directed for
+squirrels. Put the remainder of the birds in the kettle for a stew.
+
+Quail are good cooked in the same manner, but are better roasted or
+broiled. To roast them, parboil for fifteen minutes, and in the
+meantime cut a thin hardwood stick, eighteen inches long for each bird.
+Sharpen the sticks neatly at both ends; impale the birds on one end and
+thrust the sticks into the ground near the fire, leaning them so that
+the heat will strike strongly and evenly. Hang a strip of pork between
+the legs of each bird and turn frequently until they are a rich brown.
+When the sharpened sliver will pass easily through the breast they are
+done.
+
+Woodcock are to be plucked, but not drawn. Suspend the bird in a
+bright, clear heat, hang a ribbon of fat pork between the legs and
+roast until well done; do not parboil him.
+
+Ruffed grouse are excellent roasted in the same manner, but should
+first be parboiled. Mallards, teal, butterballs, all edible ducks, are
+to be treated the same as grouse. If you are ever lucky enough to feast
+on a canvas-back roasted as above, you will be apt to borrow a leaf
+from Oliver Twist.
+
+Venison steak should be pounded to tenderness, pressed and worked into
+shape with the hunting-knife and broiled over a bed of clean hardwood
+coals. A three-pronged birch fork makes the best broiler. For roast
+venison, the best portion is the forward part of the saddle. Trim off
+the flanky parts and ends of the ribs; split the backbone lengthwise,
+that the inner surface may be well exposed; hang it by a strong cord or
+bark string in a powerful, even heat; lay thin strips of pork along the
+upper edge and turn from time to time until done. It had better be left
+a little rare than overdone. Next to the saddle for roasting, comes the
+shoulder. Peel this smoothly from the side, using the hunting knife;
+trim neatly and cut off the leg at the knee; gash the thickest part of
+the flesh and press shreds of pork into the gashes, with two or three
+thin slices skewered to the upper part. Treat it in the roasting as
+described above. It is not equal to the saddle when warm, but sliced
+and eaten cold, is quite as good.
+
+And do not despise the fretful porcupine; he is better than he looks.
+If you happen on a healthy young specimen when you are needing meat,
+give him a show before condemning him. Shoot him humanely in the head
+and dress him. It is easily done; there are no quills on the belly and
+the skin peels as freely as a rabbit's. Take him to camp, parboil him
+for thirty minutes and roast or broil him to a rich brown over a bed of
+glowing coals. He will need no pork to make him juicy, and you will
+find him very like spring lamb, only better.
+
+I do not accept the decision that ranks the little gray rabbit as a
+hare, simply because he has a slit in his lip; at all events I shall
+call him a rabbit for convenience, to distinguish him from his
+longlegged cousin, who turns white in winter, never takes to a hole and
+can keep ahead of hounds nearly all day, affording a game, musical
+chase that is seldom out of hearing. He never by any chance has an
+ounce of fat on him and is not very good eating. He can, however, be
+worked into a good stew or a passable soup--provided he has not been
+feeding on laurel. The rabbit is an animal of different habits and
+different attributes. When jumped from his form, he is apt to "dig out"
+for a hole or the nearest stone heap. Sometimes an old one will potter
+around a thicket, ahead of a slow dog, but his tendency is always to
+hole. But he affords some sport, and as an article of food, beats the
+long-legged hare out of sight. He is excellent in stews or soups, while
+the after half of him, flattened down with the hatchet, parboiled and
+fried brown in butter or pork fat, is equal to spring chicken.
+
+In the cooking of fish, as of flesh and fowl, the plainest and
+simplest methods are best; and for anything under two pounds, it is not
+necessary to go beyond the frying pan. Trout of over a pound should be
+split down the back, that they may lie well in the pan and cook evenly.
+Roll well in meal, or a mixture of meal and flour, and fry to a rich
+brown in pork fat, piping hot. Larger fish may just as well be fried,
+but are also adapted to other methods, and there are people who like
+fish broiled and buttered, or boiled. To boil a fish, split him on the
+back and broil him four minutes, flesh side down, turn and broil the
+other side an equal time. Butter and season to taste. To boil, the
+fish should weigh three pounds or more. Clean and crimp him by gashing
+the sides deeply with a sharp knife. Put him in a kettle of boiling
+water, strongly salted and boil twenty-five minutes. For each
+additional pound above three, add five minutes. For gravy, rub together
+two tablespoonfuls of flour and one of melted butter, add one heaping
+teaspoon full of evaporated milk and thin with liquor from the kettle.
+When done, it should have the consistency of cream. Take the fish from
+the kettle, drain, pour the gravy over it and eat only with wheat bread
+or hardtack, with butter. The simplest is best, healthiest and most
+appetizing.
+
+As a rule, on a mountain in tramp or a canoe cruise, I do not tote
+canned goods. I carry my duffle in a light, pliable knapsack, and there
+is an aggravating antagonism between the uncompromising rims of a
+fruit-can and the knobs of my vertebrae, that twenty years of practice
+have utterly failed to reconcile. And yet, I have found my account
+in a can of condensed milk, not for tea or coffee, but on bread as a
+substitute for butter. And I have found a small can of Boston baked
+beans a most helpful lunch, with a nine-mile carry ahead. It was not
+epicurean, but had staying qualities.
+
+I often have a call to pilot some muscular young friend into the deep
+forest and he usually carries a large pack-basket, with a full supply
+of quart cans of salmon, tomatoes, peaches, etc. As in duty bound, I
+admonish him kindly, but firmly, on the folly of loading his young
+shoulders with such effeminate luxuries; often, I fear, hurting his
+young feelings by brusque advice. But at night, when the campfire burns
+brightly and he begins to fish out his tins, the heart of the Old
+Woodsman relents, and I make amends by allowing him to divide the
+groceries.
+
+There is a method at cooking usually called "mudding up," which I have
+found to preserve the flavor and juiciness of ducks, grouse, etc.,
+better than any other method. I described the method in Forest and
+Stream more than a year ago, but a brief repetition may not be out of
+place here. Suppose the bird to be cooked is a mallard, or better
+still, a canvas-back. Cut off the head and most part of the neck; cut
+off the pinions and pull out the tail feathers, make a plastic cake of
+clay or tenacious earth an inch thick and large enough to envelop
+the bird and cover him with it snugly. Dig an oval pit under the
+fore-stick, large enough to hold him, and fill it with hot coals,
+keeping up a strong heat. Just before turning in for the night, clean
+out the pit, put in the bird, cover with hot embers and coals, keeping
+up a brisk fire over it all night. When taken out in the morning you
+will have an oval, oblong mass of baked clay, with a well roasted bird
+inside. Let the mass cool until it can be handled, break off the clay,
+and feathers and skin will come with it, leaving the bird clean and
+skinless. Season it as you eat, with salt, pepper and a squeeze of
+lemon if you like, nothing else.
+
+In selecting salt, choose that which has a gritty feel when rubbed
+between the thumb and finger, and use white pepper rather than black,
+grinding the berry yourself. Procure a common tin pepper-box and fill
+it with a mixture of fine salt and Cayenne pepper--ten spoonsfuls of
+the former and one of the latter. Have it always where you can lay your
+hand on it; you will come to use it daily in camp, and if you ever get
+lost, you will find it of value. Fish and game leave a flat, flashy
+taste eaten without salt, and are also unwholesome.
+
+Do not carry any of the one hundred and one condiments, sauces,
+garnishes, etc., laid down in the books. Salt, pepper and lemons fill
+the bill in that line. Lobster-sauce, shrimp-sauce, marjoram, celery,
+parsley, thyme, anchovies, etc., may be left at the hotels.
+
+It may be expected that a pocket volume on woodcraft should contain a
+liberal chapter of instruction on hunting. It would be quite useless.
+Hunters, like poets, are born, not made. The art cannot be taught on
+paper. A few simple hints, however, may not be misplaced. To start
+aright, have your clothes fitted for hunting. Select good cassimere of
+a sort of dull, no colored, neutral tint, like a decayed stump; and
+have coat, pants and cap made of it. For foot-gear, two pairs of heavy
+yarn socks, with rubber shoes or buckskin moccasins. In hunting,
+"silence is gold." Go quietly, slowly and silently. Remember that the
+bright-eyed, sharp-eared woodfolk can see, hear and smell, with a
+keenness that throws our dull faculties quite in the shade. As you go
+lumbering and stick-breaking through the woods, you will never know how
+many of these quietly leave your path to right and left, allowing you
+to pass, while they glide away, unseen, unknown. It is easily seen that
+a sharp-sensed, light bodied denizen of the woods can detect the
+approach of a heavy, bifurcated, booted animal, a long way ahead and
+avoid him accordingly.
+
+But there is an art, little known and practiced, that invariably
+succeeds in out-thinking most wild animals; an art, simple in conception
+and execution, but requiring patience: a species, so to speak, of high
+art in forestry--the art of "sitting on a log." I could enlarge on
+this. I might say that the only writer of any note who has mentioned
+this phase of woodcraft is Mr. Charles D. Warner; and he only speaks of
+it in painting the character of that lazy old guide, "Old Phelps."
+
+Sitting on a log includes a deal of patience, with oftentimes cold
+feet and chattering teeth; but, attended to faithfully and patiently,
+is quite as successful as chasing a deer all day on tracking snow,
+while it can be practiced when the leaves are dry and no other mode of
+still hunting offers the ghost of a chance. When a man is moving
+through the woods, wary, watchful animals are pretty certain to catch
+sight of him. But let him keep perfectly quiet and the conditions are
+reversed. I have had my best luck and killed my best deer, by
+practically waiting hour after hour on runways. But the time when a
+hunter could get four or five fair shots in a day by watching a runway
+has passed away forever. Never any more will buffalo be seen in solid
+masses covering square miles in one pack. The immense bands of elk and
+droves of deer are things of the past, and "The game must go."
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+A Ten Days' Trip In The Wilderness--Going It Alone
+
+ABOUT the only inducements I can think of for making a ten days'
+journey through a strong wilderness, solitary and alone, were a liking
+for adventure, intense love of nature in her wildest dress, and a
+strange fondness for being in deep forests by myself. The choice of
+route was determined by the fact that two old friends and school-mates
+had chosen to cast their lots in Michigan, one near Saginaw Bay, the
+other among the pines of the Muskegon. And both were a little homesick,
+and both wrote frequent letters, in which, knowing my weak point, they
+exhausted their adjectives and adverbs in describing the abundance of
+game and the marvelous fishing. Now, the Muskegon friend--Davis--was
+pretty well out of reach. But Pete Williams, only a few miles out of
+Saginaw, was easily accessible. And so it happened, on a bright October
+morning, when there came a frost that cut from Maine to Missouri, that
+a sudden fancy took me to use my new Billinghurst on something larger
+than squirrels. It took about one minute to decide and an hour to pack
+such duffle as I needed for a few weeks in the woods.
+
+Remembering Pete's two brown-eyed "kids," and knowing that they were
+ague-stricken and homesick, I made place for a few apples and peaches,
+with a ripe melon. For Pete and I had been chums in Rochester and I had
+bunked in his attic on Galusha Street, for two years. Also, his babies
+thought as much of me as of their father. The trip to Saginaw was easy
+and pleasant. A "Redbird" packet to Buffalo, the old propeller Globe to
+Lower Saginaw and a ride of half a day on a buckboard, brought me to
+Pete Williams' clearing. Were they glad to see me? Well, I think so.
+Pete and his wife cried like children, while the two little homesick
+"kids" laid their silken heads on my knees and sobbed for very joy.
+When I brought out the apples and peaches, assuring them that these
+came from the little garden of their old home--liar that I was--their
+delight was boundless. And the fact that their favorite tree was a
+"sour bough," while these were sweet, did not shake their faith in the
+least.
+
+I stayed ten days or more with the Williams family and the fishing and
+hunting were all that he had said--all that could be asked. The woods
+swarmed with pigeons and squirrels; grouse, quail, ducks and wild
+turkeys were too plentiful, while a good hunter could scarcely fail of
+getting a standing shot at a deer in a morning's hunt. But, what use
+could be made of fish or game in such a place? They were all half sick
+and had little appetite. Mrs. Williams could not endure the smell of
+fish; they had been cloyed on small game and were surfeited on venison.
+
+My sporting ardor sank to zero. I had the decency not to slaughter
+game for the love of killing, and leave it to rot, or hook large fish
+that could not be used. I soon grew restless and began to think often
+about the lumber camp on the Muskegon. By surveyors' lines it was
+hardly more than sixty miles from Pete Williams' clearing to the Joe
+Davis camp on the Muskegon. "But practically," said Pete, "Joe and I
+are a thousand miles apart. White men, as a rule, don't undertake to
+cross this wilderness. The only one I know who has tried it is old Bill
+Hance; he can tell you all about it."
+
+Hance was the hunting and trapping genius of Saginaw Bay--a man who
+dwelt in the woods summer and winter, and never trimmed his hair or
+wore any other covering on his head. Not a misanthrope, or taciturn,
+but friendly and talkative rather; liking best to live alone, but fond
+of tramping across the woods to gossip with neighbors; a very tall man
+withal and so thin that, as he went rapidly winding and turning among
+fallen logs, you looked to see him tangle up and tumble in a loose
+coil, like a wet rope, but he was better than he looked. He had a high
+reputation as trailer, guide, or trapper and was mentioned as a "bad
+man in a racket." I had met him several times, and as he was decidedly
+a character, had rather laid myself out to cultivate him. And now that
+I began to have a strong notion of crossing the woods alone, I took
+counsel of Bill Hance. Unlike Williams, he thought it perfectly
+feasible and rather a neat, gamey thing for a youngster to do. He had
+crossed the woods several times with surveying parties and once alone.
+He knew an Indian trail which led to an old camp within ten miles of
+the Muskegon and thought the trail could be followed. It took him a
+little less than three days to go through; "but," he added, "I
+nat'rally travel a little faster in the woods than most men. If you can
+follow the trail, you ought to get through in a little more'n three
+days--if you keep moggin'."
+
+One afternoon I carefully packed the knapsack and organized for a long
+woods tramp. I took little stock in that trail, or the three days'
+notion as to time. I made calculations on losing the trail the first
+day and being out a full week. The outfit consisted of rifle, hatchet,
+compass, blanket-bag, knapsack and knife. For rations, one loaf of
+bread, two quarts of meal, two pounds of pork, one pound of sugar, with
+tea, salt, etc. and a supply of jerked venison. One tin dish, twelve
+rounds of ammunition and the bullet-molds, filled the list, and did not
+make a heavy load.
+
+Early on a crisp, bright October morning I kissed the little fellows
+goodbye and started out with Hance, who was to put me on the trail. I
+left the children with sorrow and pity at heart. I am glad now that my
+visit was a golden hiatus in the sick monotony of their young lives and
+that I was able to brighten a few days of their dreary existence. They
+had begged for the privilege of sleeping with me on a shake-down from
+the first; and when, as often happened, a pair of little feverish lips
+would murmur timidly and pleadingly, "I'm so dry; can I have a drink?"
+I am thankful that I did not put the pleader off with a sip of tepid
+water, but always brought it from the spring, sparkling and cold. For,
+a twelve-month later, there were two little graves in a corner of the
+stump-blackened garden, and two sore hearts in Pete Williams' cabin.
+
+Hance found the trail easily, but the Indians had been gone a long
+time and it was filled with leaves, dim and not easy to follow. It
+ended as nearly all trails do; it branched off to right and left, grew
+dimmer and slimmer, degenerated to a deer path, petered out to a
+squirrel track, ran up a tree and ended in a knot hole. I was not
+sorry. It left me free to follow my nose, my inclination and the compass.
+
+There are men who, on finding themselves alone in a pathless forest,
+become appalled, almost panic stricken. The vastness of an unbroken
+wilderness subdues them and they quail before the relentless, untamed
+forces of nature. These are the men who grow enthusiastic--at home--
+about sylvan life, outdoor sports, but always strike camp and come home
+rather sooner than they intended. And there be some who plunge into an
+unbroken forest with a feeling of fresh, free, invigorating delight, as
+they might dash into a crisp ocean surf on a hot day. These know that
+nature is stern, hard, immovable and terrible in unrelenting cruelty.
+When wintry winds are out and the mercury far below zero, she will
+allow her most ardent lover to freeze on her snowy breast without
+waving a leaf in pity, or offering him a match; and scores of her
+devotees may starve to death in as many different languages before she
+will offer a loaf of bread. She does not deal in matches and loaves;
+rather in thunderbolts and granite mountains. And the ashes of her
+campfires bury proud cities. But, like all tyrants, she yields to force
+and gives the more, the more she is beaten. She may starve or freeze
+the poet, the scholar, the scientist; all the same, she has in store
+food, fuel and shelter, which the skillful, self-reliant woodsman can
+wring from her savage hand with axe and rifle.
+
+Only to him whose coat of rags
+    Has pressed at night her regal feet,
+    Shall come the secrets, strange and sweet,
+Of century pines and beetling crags.
+
+For him the goddess shall unlock
+    The golden secrets which have lain
+    Ten thousand years, through frost and rain,
+Deep in the bosom of the rock.
+
+The trip was a long and tiresome one, considering the distance. There
+were no hairbreadth escapes; I was not tackled by bears, treed by
+wolves, or nearly killed by a hand-to-claw "racket" with a panther; and
+there were no Indians to come sneak-hunting around after hair. Animal
+life was abundant, exuberant, even. But the bright-eyed woodfolk seemed
+tame, nay, almost friendly, and quite intent on minding their own
+business. It was a "pigeon year," a "squirrel year," and also a
+marvelous year for shack or mast. Every nut-bearing tree was loaded
+with sweet well-filled nuts; and this, coupled with the fact that the
+Indians had left and the whites had not yet got in, probably accounted
+for the plentitude of game.
+
+I do not think there was an hour of daylight on the trip when
+squirrels were not too numerous to be counted, while pigeons were a
+constant quantity from start to finish. Grouse in the thickets and
+quail in the high oak openings, or small prairies, with droves of wild
+turkeys among heavy timber, were met with almost hourly, and there was
+scarcely a day on which I could not have had a standing shot at a bear.
+But the most interesting point about the game was--to me, at least--the
+marvelous abundance of deer. They were everywhere, on all sorts of
+ground and among all varieties of timber; very tame they were, too,
+often stopping to look at the stranger, offering easy shots at short
+range, and finally going off quite leisurely.
+
+No ardent lover of forest life could be lonely in such company and in
+such weather. The only drawback was the harassing and vexatious manner
+in which lakes, streams, swamps and marshes constantly persisted in
+getting across the way, compelling long detours to the north or south,
+when the true course was nearly due west. I think there were days on
+which ten hours of pretty faithful tramping did not result in more than
+three or four miles of direct headway. The headwaters of the Salt and
+Chippewa rivers were especially obstructive; and, when more than half
+the distance was covered, I ran into a tangle of small lakes, marshes
+and swamps, not marked on the map, which cost a hard day's work to
+leave behind.
+
+While there were no startling adventures and no danger connected with
+the trip, there was a constant succession of incidents, that made the
+lonely tramp far from monotonous. Some of these occurrences were
+intensely interesting, and a little exciting. Perhaps the brief recital
+of a few may not be uninteresting at the present day, when game is so
+rapidly disappearing.
+
+My rifle was a neat, hair-triggered Billinghurst, carrying sixty round
+balls to the pound, a muzzle-loader, of course, and a nail-driver. I
+made just three shots in ten days, and each shot stood for a plump
+young deer in the "short blue." It seemed wicked to murder such a
+bright, graceful animal, when no more than the loins and a couple of
+slices from the ham could be used, leaving the balance to the wolves,
+who never failed to take possession before I was out of ear shot. But I
+condoned the excess, if excess it were, by the many chances I allowed
+to pass, not only on deer but bear, and once on a big brute of a wild
+hog, the wickedest and most formidable looking animal I ever met in the
+woods. The meeting happened in this wise. I had been bothered and
+wearied for half a day by a bad piece of low, marshy ground and had at
+length struck a dry, rolling oak opening where I sat down at the foot
+of a small oak to rest. I had scarcely been resting ten minutes, when I
+caught sight of a large, dirty-white animal, slowly working its way in
+my direction through the low bushes, evidently nosing around for
+acorns. I was puzzled to say what it was. It looked like a hog, but
+stood too high on its legs; and how would such a beast get there
+anyhow? Nearer and nearer he came and at last walked out into an open
+spot less than twenty yards distant. It was a wild hog of the ugliest
+and largest description; tall as a yearling, with an unnaturally large
+head and dangerous looking tusks, that curved above his savage snout
+like small horns. There was promise of magnificent power in his immense
+shoulders, while flanks and hams were disproportionately light. He came
+out to the open leisurely munching his acorns, or amusing himself by
+ploughing deep furrows with his nose, and not until within ten yards
+did he appear to note the presence of a stranger. Suddenly he raised
+his head and became rigid as though frozen to stone; he was taking an
+observation. For a few seconds he remained immovable, then his bristles
+became erect and with a deep guttural, grunting noise, he commenced
+hitching himself along in my direction, sidewise. My hair raised and in
+an instant I was on my feet with the cocked rifle to my shoulder--
+meaning to shoot before his charge and then make good time up the tree.
+But there was no need. As I sprang to my feet he sprang for the hazel
+bushes and went tearing through them with the speed of a deer, keeping
+up a succession of snorts and grunts that could be heard long after he
+had passed out of sight. I am not subject to buck fever and was
+disgusted to find myself so badly "rattled" that I could scarcely
+handle the rifle. At first I was provoked at myself for not getting a
+good ready and shooting him in the head, as he came out of the bushes;
+but it was better to let him live. He was not carnivorous, or a beast
+of prey, and ugly as he was, certainly looked better alive than he
+would as a porcine corpse. No doubt he relished his acorns as well as
+though he had been less ugly, and he was a savage power in the forest.
+Bears love pork; and the fact that the hog was picking up a comfortable
+living in that wilderness, is presumptive evidence that he was a match
+for the largest bear, or he would have been eaten long before.
+
+Another little incident, in which Bruin played a leading part, rises
+vividly to memory. It was hardly an adventure; only the meeting of man
+and bear, and they parted on good terms, with no hardness on either side.
+
+The meeting occurred, as usually was the case with large game, on dry,
+oak lands, where the undergrowth was hazel, sasafras and wild
+grapevine. As before, I had paused for a rest, when I began to catch
+glimpses of a very black animal working its way among the hazel bushes,
+under the scattering oaks, and toward me. With no definite intention of
+shooting, but just to see how easy it might be to kill him, I got a
+good ready, and waited. Slowly and lazily he nuzzled his way among the
+trees, sitting up occasionally to crunch acorns, until he was within
+twenty-five yards of me, with the bright bead neatly showing at the
+butt of his ear, and he sitting on his haunches, calmly chewing his
+acorns, oblivious of danger. He was the shortest-legged, blackest and
+glossiest bear I had ever seen; and such a fair shot. But I could not
+use either skin or meat, and he was a splendid picture just as he sat.
+Shot down and left to taint the blessed air, he would not look as
+wholesome, let alone that it would be unwarrantable murder. And so,
+when he came nosing under the very tree where I was sitting, I suddenly
+jumped up, threw my hat at him and gave a Comanche yell. He tumbled
+over in a limp heap, grunting and whining for very terror, gathered
+himself up, got up headway and disappeared with wonderful speed--
+considering the length of his legs.
+
+On another occasion--and this was in heavy timber--I was resting on a
+log, partially concealed by spice bushes, when I noticed a large flock
+of turkeys coming in my direction. As they rapidly advanced with their
+quick, gliding walk, the flock grew to a drove, the drove became a
+swarm--an army. To right and on the left, as far as I could see in
+front, a legion of turkeys were marching, steadily marching to the
+eastward. Among them were some of the grandest gobblers I had ever
+seen, and one magnificent fellow came straight toward me. Never before
+or since have I seen such a splendid wild bird. His thick, glossy black
+beard nearly reached the ground, his bronze uniform was of the richest,
+and he was decidedly the largest I have ever seen. When within fifty
+feet of the spot where I was nearly hidden, his wary eye caught
+something suspicious; and he raised his superb head for an instant in
+an attitude of motionless attention. Then, with lowered head and
+drooping tail, he turned right about, gave the note of alarm, put the
+trunk of a large tree quickly between himself and the enemy, and went
+away like the wind. With the speed of thought the warning note was
+sounded along the whole line and in a moment the woods seemed alive
+with turkeys, running for dear life. In less time than it takes to tell
+it, that gallinaceous army had passed out of sight, forever. And the
+like of it will never again be possible on this continent.
+
+And again, on the morning of the sixth day out, I blundered on to such
+an aggregation of deer as a man sees but once in a lifetime. I had
+camped over night on low land, among heavy timber, but soon after
+striking camp, came to a place where the timber was scattering and the
+land had a gentle rise to the westward. Scarcely had I left the low
+land behind, when a few deer got out of their beds and commenced lazily
+bounding away. They were soon joined by others; on the right flank, on
+the left and ahead, they continued to rise and canter off leisurely,
+stopping at a distance of one or two hundred yards to look back. It
+struck me finally that I had started something rather unusual and I
+began counting the deer in sight. It was useless to attempt it; their
+white flags were flying in front and on both flanks, as far as one
+could see, and new ones seemed constantly joining the procession. Among
+them were several very large bucks with superb antlers, and these
+seemed very little afraid of the small, quiet biped in leaf-colored
+rig. They often paused to gaze back with bold, fearless front, as
+though inclined to call a halt and face the music; but when within a
+hundred yards, would turn and canter leisurely away. As the herd neared
+the summit of the low-lying ridge, I tried to make a reasonable guess
+at their numbers, by counting a part and estimating the rest, but could
+come to no satisfactory conclusion. As they passed the summit and loped
+down the gentle decline toward heavy timber, they began to scatter, and
+soon not a flag was in sight. It was a magnificent cervine army with
+white banners, and I shall never look upon its like again. The largest
+drove of deer I have seen in twenty years consisted of seven only.
+
+And with much of interest, much of tramping, and not a little
+vexatious delay, I came at length to a stream that I knew must be the
+south branch of the Muskegon. The main river could scarcely be more
+than ten miles to the westward and might be easily reached in one day.
+
+It was time. The meal and pork were nearly gone, sugar and tea were at
+low ebb and I was tired of venison; tired anyhow; ready for human
+speech and human companionship.
+
+It was in the afternoon of the ninth day that I crossed the South
+Muskegon and laid a course west by north. The traveling was not bad;
+and in less than an hour I ran on to the ruins of a camp that I knew to
+be the work of Indians. It had evidently been a permanent winter camp
+and was almost certainly the Indian camp spoken of by Bill Hance.
+Pausing a short time to look over the ruins, with the lonely feeling
+always induced by a decayed, rotting camp, I struck due west and made
+several miles before sundown.
+
+I camped on a little rill, near a huge dry stub that would peel, made
+the last of the meal into a Johnnycake, broiled the last slice of pork
+and lay down with the notion that a ten days' tramp, where it took an
+average of fifteen miles to make six, ought to end on the morrow. At
+sunrise I was again on foot, and after three hours of steady tramping,
+saw a smoky opening ahead. In five minutes I was standing on the left
+bank of the Muskegon.
+
+And the Joe Davis camp--was it up stream or down? I decided on the
+latter, and started slowly down stream, keeping an eye out for signs.
+In less than an hour I struck a dim log road which led to the river and
+there was a "landing," with the usual debris of skids, loose bark,
+chocks and some pieces of broken boards. It did not take long to
+construct an efficient log raft from the dry skids, and as I drifted
+placidly down the deep, wild river, munching the last bit of
+Johnnycake, I inwardly swore that my next wilderness cruise should be
+by water.
+
+It was in late afternoon that I heard--blessed sound--the eager clank,
+clank, clank of the old-fashioned sawmill. It grew nearer and more
+distinct; presently I could distinguish the rumble of machinery as the
+carriage gigged back; then the raft rounded a gentle bend, and a mill,
+with its long, log boarding-house, came full in sight.
+
+As the raft swung into the landing the mill became silent; a
+brown-bearded, red-shirted fellow came down to welcome me, a pair of
+strong hands grasped both my own and the voice of Joe Davis said
+earnestly, "Why, George! I never was so damned glad to see a man in
+my life!"
+
+The ten days' tramp was ended. It had been wearisome to a degree, but
+interesting and instructive. I had seen more game birds and animals in
+the time than I ever saw before or since in a whole season; and, though
+I came out with clothes pretty well worn and torn off my back and legs,
+I was a little disposed to plume myself on the achievement. Even at
+this day I am a little proud of the fact that, with so many temptations
+to slaughter, I only fired three shots on the route. Nothing but the
+exceptionally fine, dry weather rendered such a trip possible in a
+wilderness so cut up with swamps, lakes, marshes and streams. A week of
+steady rain or a premature snow storm--either likely enough at that
+season--would have been most disastrous; while a forest fire like that
+of '56 and later ones, would simply have proved fatal.
+
+Reader, if ever you are tempted to make a similar thoughtless,
+reckless trip--don't do it.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+The Light Canoe And Double Blade--Various Canoes For Various
+Canoeists--Reasons For Preferring The Clinker-Built Cedar
+
+THE canoe is coming to the front and canoeing is gaining rapidly in
+popular favor, in spite of the disparaging remark that "a canoe is a
+poor man's yacht." The canoe editor of Forest and Stream pertinently
+says, "we may as properly call a bicycle 'the poor man's express
+train'." But, suppose it is the poor man's yacht? Are we to be debarred
+from aquatic sports because we are not rich? And are we such weak
+flunkies as to be ashamed of poverty? Or to attempt shams and
+subterfuges to hide it? For myself, I freely accept the imputation. In
+common with nine-tenths of my fellow citizens I am poor--and the canoe
+is my yacht, as it would be were I a millionaire. We are a nation of
+many millions and comparatively few of us are rich enough to support a
+yacht, let alone the fact that not one man in fifty lives near enough
+to yachting waters to make such an acquisition desirable--or feasible,
+even. It is different with the canoe. A man like myself can live in the
+backwoods, a hundred miles from a decent sized inland lake and much
+further from the sea coast, and yet be an enthusiastic canoeist. For
+instance.
+
+Last July I made my preparations for a canoe cruise and spun out with
+as little delay as possible. I had pitched on the Adirondacks as
+cruising ground and had more than 250 miles of railroads and buckboards
+to take, before launching the canoe on Moose River. She was carried
+thirteen miles over the Brown's Tract road on the head of her skipper,
+cruised from the western side of the Wilderness to the Lower St. Regis
+on the east side, cruised back again by a somewhat different route, was
+taken home to Pennsylvania on the cars, 250 miles, sent back to her
+builder, St. Lawrence County, N.Y., over 300 miles, thence by rail to
+New York City, where, the last I heard of her, she was on exhibition at
+the Forest and Stream office. She took her chances in the baggage car,
+with no special care and is today, so far as I know, staunch and tight,
+with not a check in her frail siding.
+
+Such cruising can only be made in a very light canoe and with a very
+light outfit. It was sometimes necessary to make several carries in one
+day, aggregating as much as ten miles, besides from fifteen to twenty
+miles under paddle. No heavy, decked, paddling or sailing canoe would
+have been available for such a trip with a man of ordinary muscle.
+
+The difference between a lone, independent cruise through an almost
+unbroken wilderness and cruising along civilized routes, where the
+canoeist can interview farm houses and village groceries for supplies,
+getting gratuitous stonings from the small boy and much reviling from
+ye ancient mariner of the towpath--I say, the difference is just
+immense. Whence it comes that I always prefer a very light, open canoe;
+one that I can carry almost as easily as my hat, and yet that will
+float me easily, buoyantly and safely. And such a canoe was my last
+cruiser. She only weighed ten and one-half pounds when first launched,
+and after an all summer rattling by land and water had only gained half
+a pound. I do not therefore advise anyone to buy a ten and a half pound
+canoe; although she would prove competent for a skilful lightweight.
+She was built to order, as a test of lightness and was the third
+experiment in that line.
+
+I have nothing to say against the really fine canoes that are in
+highest favor today. Were I fond of sailing and satisfied to cruise on
+routes where clearings are more plentiful than carries, I dare say I
+should run a Shadow, or Stella Maris, at a cost of considerably more
+than $100--though I should hardly call it a "poor man's yacht."
+
+Much is being said and written at the present day as to the "perfect
+canoe." One writer decides in favor of a Pearl 15 x 31 1/2 inches. In
+the same column another says, "the perfect canoe does not exist." I
+should rather say there are several types of the modern canoe, each
+nearly perfect in its way and for the use to which it is best adapted.
+The perfect paddling canoe is by no means perfect under canvas and vice
+versa. The best cruiser is not a perfect racer, while neither of them
+is at all perfect as a paddling cruiser where much carrying is to be
+done. And the most perfect canoe for fishing and gunning around
+shallow, marshy waters, would be a very imperfect canoe for a rough and
+ready cruise of one hundred miles through a strange wilderness, where a
+day's cruise will sometimes include a dozen miles of carrying.
+
+Believing, as I do, that the light, single canoe with double-bladed
+paddle is bound to soon become a leading--if not the leading--feature
+in summer recreation, and having been a light canoeist for nearly fifty
+years, during the last twenty of which I experimented much with the
+view of reducing weight, perhaps I can give some hints that may help a
+younger man in the selection of a canoe which shall be safe, pleasant
+to ride and not burdensome to carry.
+
+Let me promise that, up to four years ago, I was never able to get a
+canoe that entirely satisfied me as to weight and model. I bought the
+smallest birches I could find; procured a tiny Chippewa dugout from
+North Michigan and once owned a kayak. They were all too heavy and they
+were cranky to a degree.
+
+About twenty years ago I commenced making my own canoes. The
+construction was of the simplest; a 22 inch pine board for the bottom,
+planed to 3/4 of an inch thickness; two wide 1/2 inch boards for the
+sides and two light oak stems; five pieces of wood in all. I found that
+the bend of the siding gave too much shear; for instance, if the siding
+was 12 inches wide, she would have a rise of 12 inches at stems and
+less than 5 inches at center. But the flat bottom made her very stiff,
+and for river work she was better than anything I had yet tried. She
+was too heavy, however, always weighing from 45 to 50 pounds and
+awkward to carry.
+
+My last canoe of this style went down the Susquehanna with an ice jam
+in the spring of '79, and in the meantime canoeing began to loom up.
+The best paper in the country which makes outdoor sport its specially,
+devoted liberal space to canoeing, and skilled boatbuilders were
+advertising canoes of various models and widely different material. I
+commenced interviewing the builders by letter and studying catalogues
+carefully. There was a wide margin of choice. You could have lapstreak,
+smooth skin, paper, veneer, or canvas. What I wanted was light weight
+and good model. I liked the Peterboro canoes; they were decidedly
+canoey. Also, the veneered Racines: but neither of them talked of a 20
+pound canoe. The "Osgood folding canvas" did. But I had some knowledge
+of canvas boats. I knew they could make her down to 20 pounds. How much
+would she weigh after being in the water a week and how would she
+behave when swamped in the middle of a lake, were questions to be
+asked, for I always get swamped. One builder of cedar canoes thought he
+could make me the boat I wanted, inside of 20 pounds, clinker-built and
+at my own risk, as he hardly believed in so light a boat. I sent him
+the order and he turned out what is pretty well known in Brown's Tract
+as the "Nessmuk canoe." She weighed just 17 pounds 13 3/4 ounces and
+was thought to be the lightest working canoe in existence. Her builder
+gave me some advice about stiffening her with braces, etc., if I found
+her too frail, "and he never expected another like her."
+
+"He builded better than he knew." She needed no bracing; and she was,
+and is, a staunch, seaworthy little model. I fell in love with her from
+the start. I had at last found the canoe that I could ride in rough
+water, sleep in afloat, and carry with ease for miles. I paddled her
+early and late, mainly on the Fulton Chain; but I also cruised her on
+Raquette Lake, Eagle, Utowana, Blue Mountain and Forked Lakes, I
+paddled her until there were black and blue streaks along the muscles
+from wrist to elbow. Thank Heaven, I had found something that made me a
+boy again. Her log shows a cruise for 1880 of over 550 miles.
+
+As regards her capacity (she is now on Third Lake, Brown's Tract),
+James P. Fifield, a muscular young Forge House guide of 6 feet 2 inches
+and 185 pounds weight, took her through the Fulton Chain to Raquette
+Lake last summer; and, happening on his camp, Seventh Lake, last July,
+I asked him how she performed under his weight. He said, "I never made
+the trip to Raquette so lightly and easily in my life." And as to the
+opinion of her builder, he wrote me, under date of Nov. 18, '83: "I
+thought when I built the Nessmuk, no one else would ever want one. But
+I now build about a dozen of them a year. Great big men, ladies, and
+two, aye, three schoolboys ride in them. Tis wonderful how few pounds
+of cedar, rightly modeled and properly put together, it takes to float
+a man," Just so, Mr. Builder. That's what I said when I ordered her.
+But few seemed to see it then.
+
+The Nessmuk was by no means the ultimatum of lightness and I ordered
+another six inches longer, two inches wider, and to weigh about 15
+pounds. When she came to hand she was a beauty, finished in oil and
+shellac. But she weighed 16 pounds and would not only carry me and my
+duffle, but I could easily carry a passenger of my weight. I cruised
+her in the summer of '81 over the Fulton Chain, Raquette Lake, Forked
+Lake, down the Raquette River, and on Long Lake. But her log only
+showed a record of 206 miles. The cruise that had been mapped for 600
+miles was cut short by sickness and I went into quarantine at the
+hostelry of Mitchell Sabattis. Slowly and feebly I crept back to the
+Fulton Chain, hung up at the Forge House, and the cruise of the Susan
+Nipper was ended. Later in the season, I sent for her and she was
+forwarded by express, coming out over the fearful Brown's Tract road to
+Boonville (25 1/2 miles) by buckboard, From Boonville home, she took
+her chances in the baggage car without protection and reached her
+destination without a check or scratch. She hangs in her slings under
+the porch, a thing of beauty--and, like many beauties, a trifle frail--
+but staunch as the day I took her. Her proper lading is about 200
+pounds. She can float 300 pounds.
+
+Of my last and lightest venture, the Sairy Camp, little more need be
+said. I will only add that a Mr. Dutton, of Philadelphia, got into her
+at the Forge House and paddled her like an old canoeist, though it
+was his first experience with the double blade. He gave his age as
+sixty-four years and weight, 140 pounds. Billy Cornell, a bright young
+guide, cruised her on Raquette Lake quite as well as her owner could do
+it, and I thought she trimmed better with him. He paddled at 141 1/2
+pounds, which is just about her right lading. And she was only an
+experiment, anyhow. I wanted to find out how light a canoe it took to
+drown her skipper, and I do not yet know. I never shall. But, most of
+all, I desired to settle the question approximately at least, of weight,
+as regards canoe and canoeist.
+
+Many years ago, I became convinced that we were all, as canoeists,
+carrying and paddling just twice as much wood as was at all needful,
+and something more than a year since, I advanced the opinion in Forest
+and Stream, that ten pounds of well made cedar ought to carry one
+hundred pounds of man. The past season has more than proved it; but, as
+I may be a little exceptional, I leave myself out of the question and
+have ordered my next canoe on lines and dimensions that, in my
+judgment, will be found nearly perfect for the average canoeist of 150
+to 160 pounds. She will be much stronger than either of any other
+canoes, because few men would like a canoe so frail and limber that she
+can be sprung inward by hand pressure on the gunwales, as easily as a
+hat-box. And many men are clumsy or careless with a boat, while others
+are lubberly by nature. Her dimensions are: Length, 10 1/2 feet; beam,
+26 inches; rise at center, 9 inches: at seams, 15 inches; oval red elm
+ribs, 1 inch apart; an inch home tumble; stems, plumb and sharp; oak
+keel and keelson; clinker-built, of white cedar.
+
+Such a canoe will weigh about 22 pounds and will do just as well for
+the man of 140 or 170 pounds, while even a light weight of 110 pounds
+ought to take her over a portage with a light, elastic carrying frame,
+without distress. She will trim best, however, at about 160 pounds. For
+a welter, say of some 200 pounds, add 6 inches to her length, 2 inches
+to her beam and 1 inch rise at center. The light weight canoeist will
+find that either of these two canoes will prove satisfactory, that is
+10 feet in length, weight 16 pounds, or 10 1/2 feet length, weight 18
+pounds. Either is capable of 160 pounds and they are very steady and
+buoyant, as I happen to know. I dare say any first class manufacturers
+will build canoes of these dimensions.
+
+Provide your canoe with a flooring of oilcloth 3 1/2 feet long by 15
+inches wide; punch holes in it and tie it neatly to the ribbing, just
+where it will best protect the bottom from wear and danger. Use only a
+cushion for a seat and do not buy a fancy one with permanent stuffing,
+but get sixpence worth of good, unbleached cotton cloth and have it
+sewed into bag shape. Stuff the bag with fine browse, dry grass or
+leaves, settle it well together and fasten the open end by turning it
+flatly back and using two or three pins, You can empty it if you like
+when going over a carry, and it makes a good pillow at night.
+
+Select a canoe that fits you, just as you would a coat or hat. A 16
+pound canoe may fit me exactly, but would be a bad misfit for a man of
+180 pounds. And don't neglect the auxiliary paddle, or "pudding stick,"
+as my friends call it. The notion may be new to most canoeists, but
+will be found exceedingly handy and useful. It is simply a little
+one-handed paddle weighing 5 to 7 ounces, 20 to 22 inches long, with a
+blade 3 1/2 inches wide. Work it out of half-inch cherry or maple and
+fine the blade down thin. Tie it to a rib with a slip-knot, having the
+handle in easy reach, and when you come to a narrow, tortuous channel,
+where shrubs and weeds crowd you on both sides, take the double-blade
+inboard, use the pudding stick, and you can go almost anywhere that a
+muskrat can.
+
+In fishing for trout or floating deer, remember you are dealing with
+the wary, and that the broad blades are very showy in motion.
+Therefore, on approaching a spring-hole, lay the double-blade on the
+lily-pads where you can pick it up when wanted and handle your canoe
+with the auxiliary. On hooking a large fish, handle the rod with one
+hand and with the other lay the canoe out into deep water, away from
+all entangling alliances. You may be surprised to find how easily, with
+a little practice, you can make a two-pound trout or bass tow the canoe
+the way you want it to go.
+
+In floating for deer, use the double-blade only in making the passage
+to the ground; then take it apart and lay it inboard, using only the
+little paddle to float with, tying it to a rib with a yard and a half
+of linen line. On approaching a deer near enough to shoot, let go the
+paddle, leaving it to drift alongside while you attend to venison.
+
+Beneath a hemlock grim and dark,
+    Where shrub and vine are intertwining,
+Our shany stands, well roofed with bark,
+    On which the cheerful blaze is shining.
+The smoke ascends in spiral wreath,
+    With upward curve the sparks are trending;
+The coffee kettle sings beneath
+    Where sparks and smoke with leaves are blending.
+
+And on the stream a light canoe
+    Floats like a freshly fallen feather,
+A fairy thing, that will not do
+    For broader seas and stormy weather.
+Her sides no thicker than the shell
+    Of Ole Bull's Cremona fiddle,
+The mall who rides her will do well
+    To part his scalp-lock in the middle.
+
+Forest Runes  --Nessmuk
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+Odds And Ends--Where To Go For An Outing--Why A Clinker?--Boughs And
+Browse
+
+THE oft-recurring question as to where to go for the outing, can
+hardly be answered at all satisfactorily. In a general way, any place
+may, and ought to be, satisfactory, where there are fresh green woods,
+pleasant scenery, and fish and game plenty enough to supply the camp
+abundantly, with boating facilities and pure water.
+
+"It's more in the man than it is in the land," and there are thousands
+of such places on the waters of the Susquehanna, the Delaware, the
+rivers and lakes of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada.
+
+Among the lakes of Central New York one may easily select a camping
+ground, healthy, pleasant, easily reached and with the advantage of
+cheapness. A little too much civilization, perhaps; but the farmers are
+friendly and kindly disposed to all summer outers who behave like
+gentlemen.
+
+For fine forest scenery and unequaled canoeing facilities, it must be
+admitted that the Adirondack region stands at the head. There is also
+fine fishing and good hunting, for those who know the right places to
+go for deer and trout. But it is a tedious, expensive job getting into
+the heart of the Wilderness, and it is the most costly woodland resort
+I know of when you are there. You can keep expenses down (and also have
+a much better sport) by avoiding the hotels and going into camp at once
+and staying there. The best way is for two men to hire a guide, live in
+camp altogether and divide the expense.
+
+All along the Allegheny range, from Maine to Michigan and from
+Pennsylvania to the Provinces, numberless resorts exist as pleasant, as
+healthy, as prolific of sport, as the famed Adirondacks, and at half
+the cost. But, for an all-summer canoe cruise, with more than 600
+accessible lakes and ponds, the Northern Wilderness stands alone. And,
+as a wealthy cockney once remarked to me in Brown's Tract, "It's no
+place for a poor man."
+
+And now I will give my reasons for preferring the clinker-built cedar
+boat, or canoe, to any other. First, as to material. Cedar is stronger,
+more elastic, more enduring and shrinks less than pine or any other
+light wood used as boat siding. As one of the best builders in the
+country says, "It has been thoroughly demonstrated that a cedar canoe
+will stand more hard knocks than an oak one; for where it only receives
+bruises, the oak streaks will split." And he might add, the pine will
+break. But I suppose it is settled beyond dispute that white cedar
+stands at the head for boat streaks. I prefer it then, because it is
+the best. And I prefer the clinker, because it is the strongest,
+simplest, most enduring and most easily repaired in case of accident.
+To prove the strength theory, take a cedar (or pine) strip eight feet
+long and six inches wide. Bend it to a certain point by an equal strain
+on each end and carefully note the result. Next strip it lengthwise
+with the rip saw, lap the two halves an inch and nail the lap as in
+boat building. Test it again and you will find it has gained in
+strength about twenty per cent. That is the clinker of it.
+
+Now work the laps down until the strip is of uniform thickness its
+entire length and test it once more; you will find it much weaker than
+on first trial. That is the smooth skin, sometimes called lapstreak.
+They, the clinker canoes, are easily tightened when they spring a leak
+through being rattled over stones in rapids. It is only to hunt a
+smooth pebble for a clinch head and settle the nails that have started
+with the hatchet, putting in a few new ones if needed. And they are put
+together, at least by the best builders, without any cement or white
+lead, naked wood to wood, and depending only on close work for
+waterproofing. And each pair of strips is cut to fit and lie in its
+proper place without strain, no two pairs being alike, but each pair,
+from garboards to upper streak, having easy, natural form for its
+destined position.
+
+The veneered canoes are very fine, for deep water; but a few cuts on
+sharp stones will be found ruinous; and if exposed much to weather they
+are liable to warp. The builders understand this and plainly say that
+they prefer not to build fine boats for those who will neglect the
+proper care of them.
+
+The paper boat, also, will not stand much cutting on sharp stones, and
+it is not buoyant when swamped, unless fitted with watertight
+compartments, which I abhor.
+
+The canvas is rather a logy, limp son of craft, to my thinking and
+liable to drown her crew if swamped.
+
+But each and all have their admirers, and purchasers as well, while
+each is good in its way and I only mention a few reasons for my
+preference of the cedar.
+
+When running an ugly rapid or crossing a stormy lake, I like to feel
+that I have enough light, seasoned wood under me to keep my mouth and
+nose above water all day, besides saving the rifle and knapsack, which,
+when running into danger, I always tie to the ribbing with strong linen
+line, as I do the paddle also, giving it about line enough to just
+allow free play.
+
+I am not--to use a little modern slang--going to "give myself away" on
+canoeing, or talk of startling adventure. But, for the possible
+advantage of some future canoeist, I will briefly relate what happened
+to me on a certain windy morning one summer. It was on one of the
+larger lakes--no matter which--between Paul Smith's and the Fulton
+Chain. I had camped over night in a spot that did not suit me in the
+least, but it seemed the best I could do then and there. The night was
+rough and the early morning threatening. However, I managed a cup of
+coffee, "tied in," and made a slippery carry of two miles a little
+after sunrise. Arrived on the shore of the lake, things did not look
+promising. The whirling, twirling clouds were black and dangerous
+looking, the crisp, dark waves were crested with spume, and I had a
+notion of just making a comfortable camp and waiting for better
+weather. But the commissary department was reduced to six Boston
+crackers, with a single slice of pork, and it was twelve miles of
+wilderness to the nearest point of supplies, four miles of it carries,
+included. Such weather might last a week, and I decided to go. For half
+an hour I sat on the beach, taking weather notes. The wind was
+northeast; my course was due west, giving me four points free. Taking
+five feet of strong line, I tied one end under a rib next the keelson
+and the other around the paddle. Stripping to shirt and drawers, I
+stowed everything in the knapsack and tied that safely in the fore
+peak. Then I swung out. Before I was a half mile out, I fervently
+wished myself back. But it was too late. How that little, corky, light
+canoe did bound and snap, with a constant tendency to come up in the
+wind'e eye, that kept me on the qui vive every instant. She shipped no
+water; she was too buoyant for that. But she was all the time in danger
+of pitching her crew overboard. It soon came to a crisis. About the
+middle of the lake, on the north side, there is a sharp, low gulch that
+runs away back through the hills, looking like a level cut through a
+railroad embankment. And down this gulch came a fierce thunder gust
+that was like a small cyclone. It knocked down trees, swept over the
+lake and caught the little canoe on the crest of a wave, right under
+the garboard streak. I went overboard like a shot; but I kept my grip
+on the paddle. That grip was worth a thousand dollars to the
+"Travelers' Accidental" and another thousand to the "Equitable
+Company" because the paddle, with its line, enabled me to keep the
+canoe in hand and prevent her from going away to leeward like a dry
+leaf. When I once got my nose above water and my hand on her after
+stem, I knew I had the whole business under control. Pressing the stem
+down, I took a look inboard. The little jilt! She had not shipped a
+quart of water. And there was the knapsack, the rod, the little
+auxiliary paddle, all just as I had tied them in; only the crew and the
+double-blade had gone overboard. As I am elderly and out of practice in
+the swimming line, and it was nearly half a mile to a lee shore, and as
+I was out of breath and water logged, it is quite possible that a
+little forethought and four cents' worth of fishline saved the
+insurance companies two thousand dollars.
+
+How I slowly kicked that canoe ashore; how the sun came out bright and
+hot; how, instead of making the remaining eleven miles, I raised a
+conflagration and a comfortable camp, dried out and had a pleasant
+night of it; all this is neither here nor there. The point I wish to
+make is, keep your duffle safe to float and your paddle and canoe
+sufficiently in hand to always hold your breathing works above water
+level. So shall your children look confidently for your safe return,
+while the "Accidentals" arise and call you a good investment.
+
+There is only one objection to the clinker-built canoe that occurs to
+me as at all plausible. This is, that the ridge-like projections of her
+clinker laps offer resistance to the water and retard her speed.
+Theoretically, this is correct. Practically, it is not proven. Her
+streaks are so nearly on her water line that the resistance, if any,
+must be infinitesimal. It is possible, however, that this element might
+lessen her speed one or two minutes in a mile race. I am not racing,
+but taking leisurely recreation. I can wait two or three minutes as
+well as not. Three or four knots an hour will take me through to the
+last carry quite as soon as I care to make the landing.
+
+A few words of explanation and advice may not be out of place. I have
+used the words "boughs" and "browse" quite frequently. I am sorry they
+are not more in use. The first settlers in the unbroken forest knew how
+to diagnose a tree. They came to the "Holland Purchase" from the
+Eastern States, with their families, in a covered wagon, drawn by a
+yoke of oxen, and the favorite cow patiently leading behind. They could
+not start until the ground was settled, some time in May, and nothing
+could be done in late summer, save to erect a log cabin and clear a few
+acres for the next season. To this end the oxen were indispensable and
+a cow was of first necessity, where there were children. And cows and
+oxen must have hay. But there was not a lot of hay in the country. A
+few hundred pounds of coarse wild grass was gleaned from the margins of
+streams and small marshes; but the main reliance was "browse." Through
+the warm months the cattle could take care of themselves; but, when
+winter settled down in earnest, a large part of the settler's work
+consisted in providing browse for his cattle. First and best was the
+basswood (linden): then came maple, beech, birch and hemlock. Some of
+the trees would be nearly three feet in diameter, and when felled, much
+of the browse would be twenty feet above the reach of cattle, on the
+ends of huge limbs. Then the boughs were lopped off and the cattle
+could get at the browse. The settlers divided the tree into log, limbs,
+boughs and browse. Anything small enough for a cow or deer to masticate
+was browse. And that is just what you want for a camp in the forest.
+Not twigs that may come from a thorn, or boughs that may be as thick as
+your wrist, but browse, which may be used for a mattress, the
+healthiest in the world.
+
+And now for a little useless advice. In going into the woods, don't
+take a medicine chest or a set of surgical instruments with you. A bit
+of sticking salve, a wooden vial of anti-pain tablets and another of
+rhubarb regulars, your fly medicine and a pair of tweezers will be
+enough. Of course you have needles and thread.
+
+If you go before the open season for shooting, take no gun. It will
+simply be a useless incumbrance and a nuisance.
+
+If you go to hunt, take a solemn oath never to point the shooting end
+of your gun toward yourself or any other human being.
+
+In still-hunting, swear yourself black in the face never to shoot at a
+dim, moving object in the woods for a deer, unless you have seen that
+it is a deer. In these days there are quite as many hunters as deer in
+the woods; and it is a heavy, wearisome job to pack a dead or wounded
+man ten or twelve miles out to a clearing, let alone that it spoils all
+the pleasure of the hunt and is apt to raise hard feelings among his
+relations.
+
+In a word, act coolly and rationally. So shall your outing be a
+delight in conception and the fulfillment thereof; while the memory of
+it shall come back to you in pleasant dreams, when legs and shoulders
+are too stiff and old for knapsack and rifle.
+
+That is me. That is why I sit here tonight with the north wind and
+sleet rattling the one window of my little den, writing what I hope
+younger and stronger men will like to take into the woods with them and
+read. Not that I am so very old. The youngsters are still not anxious
+to buck against the muzzleloader in off-hand shooting. But, in common
+with a thousand other old graybeards, I feel that the fire, the fervor,
+the steel, that once carried me over the trail from dawn until dark, is
+dulled and deadened within me.
+
+We had our day of youth and May;
+    We may have grown a trifle sober;
+But life may reach a wintry way,
+    And we are only in October.
+
+Wherefore, let us be thankful that there are still thousands of cool,
+green nooks beside crystal springs, where the weary soul may hide for a
+time, away from debts, duns and deviltries, and a while commune with
+nature in her undress.
+
+And with kindness to all true woodsmen; and with malice toward none,
+save the trout-hog, the netter, the cruster and skin-butcher, let us
+
+PREPARE TO TURN IN.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT***
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