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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by 
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+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 and Camping
+
+Author: George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34607]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT AND CAMPING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Mayer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    [Transcriber's note: Italics rendered as: _italics_.]
+
+
+
+
+ WOODCRAFT
+ AND CAMPING
+
+ _by_
+ "_Nessmuk_"
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
+ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ This Dover edition, first published in 1963, is a
+ slightly abridged and edited republication of the
+ work published by Forest and Stream Publishing
+ Company, New York, in 1920 under the title _Woodcraft_.
+
+ _International Standard Book Number: 0-486-21145-2
+ Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21680_
+
+ Manufactured in the United States of America
+ Dover Publications, Inc.
+ 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+  CHAPTER I                                                            1
+
+  Overwork and Recreation--Outing and Outers--How to Do It,
+  and Why They Miss It
+
+  CHAPTER II                                                           6
+
+  Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Rods, Fishing Tackle,
+  Ditty-Bag
+
+  CHAPTER III                                                         13
+
+  Getting Lost--Camping Out--Roughing It or Smoothing
+  It--Insects--Camps, and How to Make Them
+
+  CHAPTER IV                                                          28
+
+  Camp-Fires and Their Importance--The Wasteful, Wrong
+  Way They Are Usually Made, and the Right Way to Make
+  Them
+
+  CHAPTER V                                                           35
+
+  Fishing, With and Without Flies--Some Tackle and Lures--Discursive
+  Remarks on the Gentle Art--The Headlight--Frogging
+
+  CHAPTER VI                                                          49
+
+  Camp Cooking--How It Is Usually Done, with a Few Simple
+  Hints on Plain Cooking--Cooking Fire and Out-Door Range
+
+  CHAPTER VII                                                         62
+
+  More Hints on Cooking, with Some Simple Receipts--Bread,
+  Coffee, Potatoes, Soup, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison
+
+  CHAPTER VIII                                                        77
+
+  A Ten Days' Trip in the Wilderness--Going It Alone
+
+  CHAPTER IX--CANOEING                                                87
+
+  The Light Canoe and Double Blade--Various Canoes for Various
+  Canoeists--Reasons for Preferring the Clinker-Built Cedar
+
+  CHAPTER X                                                           95
+
+  Odds and Ends--Where to go for an Outing--Why a Clinker?--Boughs
+  and Browse
+
+  INDEX                                                              103
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                            _Page_
+  "Nessmuk"                         _Frontispiece_
+  Knapsack and Ditty-Bag                         7
+  Hatchet and Knives                             8
+  Indian Camp                                   19
+  Shanty-Tent and Camp-Fire                     24
+  Shanty-Tent Spread Out                        26
+  Camp-Fire as it Should Be Made                33
+  Frog Bait                                     41
+  Three-Hook Gang                               41
+  G. W. Hatchet                                 56
+  Out-Door Cooking-Range                        58
+
+
+
+
+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 overworked 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, on the flies, rods, reels, guns, etc., 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Clothing]
+
+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 foot-gear 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 water-proofed cotton cloth 6×8 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Preparations]
+
+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, RODS, FISHING TACKLE,
+     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 water-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Hatchet and Knives]
+
+[Illustration: KNAPSACK AND DITTY-BAG]
+
+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 edge 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.
+
+[Illustration: HATCHET AND KNIVES]
+
+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.
+
+                         A WOODSMAN,
+
+  _To getting up one limber-go-shiftless pocket-axe:_    DR.
+
+  Cost of blade                                        $3.00
+  Fare on boat                                          1.00
+  Expenses for 3 days                                   3.00
+  Three days lost time at $1.25 per day                 3.75
+  Two days making model, handle and sheath, say         2.00
+                                                    --------
+  Total                                               $12.75
+  Per contra, by actual value of axe                    2.00
+                                                    --------
+  Balance                                             $10.75
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Cooking Utensils_]
+
+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
+water-tight 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 water-tight. 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. How
+ever 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Rods_]
+
+I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
+connected with out-door 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, 4-3/4-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 5-3/4 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 water-proof
+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 life-long 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Insect Pests]
+
+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 camp-fire, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Beware the Black Fly_]
+
+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 head-rest 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 bed-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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Indian Camp_]
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN CAMP]
+
+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 bed-time. 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 of 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 rain-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Shanty-Tent_]
+
+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 water-proofing; 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Construction_]
+
+To put it up properly, make a neat frame as follows: Two strong stakes
+or posts for the front, driven firmly in the ground 4-1/2 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, hard-wood 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 six-penny nail through the ends and into the posts, and you
+have a square frame 7×4 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 six-penny 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.
+
+[Illustration: SHANTY-TENT AND CAMP-FIRE]
+
+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 page 26. 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Other Camps_]
+
+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 stocking
+leg 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 7×4 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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 9×7 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Sparks_]
+
+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 camp-fire. 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 camp-fire.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+     CAMP-FIRES 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 camp-fire. 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 camp-fire. And the latter is usually handled in a way that
+is too sad, too wasteful; in short, badly botched. For instance.
+
+[Sidenote: _The "Guides' Camp"_]
+
+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 sign-board 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 camp-fire.
+
+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 mid-night, 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 camp-fire 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
+camp-fires 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, "Holy 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 h----. 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 coffee-pot 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 horse 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 camp-fires, 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 camp-fire 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _A Winter Camp_]
+
+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
+camp-fire, 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 by the
+aid of ten-foot poles, flattened at one end, and 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.
+
+[Illustration: CAMP-FIRE AS IT SHOULD BE MADE]
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Our Luck_]
+
+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 illustrations show the camp-fire--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 out-door 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 bed-time.
+
+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, water-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Best Flies_]
+
+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,
+new-born 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
+out-door 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _At the Spring-Hole_]
+
+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 "johnny-cake," break it into pieces the size of 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 forty 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Frog-Bait and Gangs]
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration: FROG-BAIT]
+
+[Illustration: THREE-HOOK GANG]
+
+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 fork 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Lake Trout]
+
+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 worse 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Stout Tackle]
+
+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 an 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, on 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Swivels and Snells]
+
+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 OUT-DOOR RANGE
+
+
+The way in which an average party of summer outers will contrive to
+manage--or mis-manage--the camp and camp-fire 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 camp-fire, 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 hard-tack 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.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Day Out]
+
+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 camp-fire 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.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Night]
+
+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, knots, 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 re-arranging
+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).--"D--n '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."
+
+[Sidenote: Their Lesson]
+
+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, camp-fires,
+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 doodlebugs 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."
+
+[Illustration: G. W. HATCHET]
+
+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, fore-stick, etc., complete the arrangement,
+and the camp-fire is in shape for the coming night, precisely as shown
+in the engraving on page 33.
+
+"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.
+
+[Sidenote: The Cooking-Range]
+
+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 out-door 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.
+
+[Illustration: OUT-DOOR COOKING-RANGE]
+
+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 mid-night, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Getting Breakfast]
+
+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 dose.
+
+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 résumé 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress?]
+
+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 d--d. "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,
+     COFFEE, 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 out-door 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 out-door sport. 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 hard-tack, 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 teaspoonful 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 out-door 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 teaspoonful of salt,
+and a teaspoonful 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Coffee_]
+
+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 parts 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 Senhor 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Potatoes_]
+
+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 any one 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; luke-warm 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
+camp-fire in which to do it. To cook them aright, scoop out a basinlike
+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,
+hard-wood 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 forty minutes commence to try them with
+a sharpened hard-wood 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 salt
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Beans_]
+
+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, hard-wood
+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 teaspoonful 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Stews and Fries_]
+
+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 hard-wood 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 hard-wood
+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
+long-legged 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Fish_]
+
+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 broil 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 teaspoonful 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
+hard-tack, with butter. The simplest is best, healthiest, and most
+appetizing.
+
+As a rule, on a mountain 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 camp-fire 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 of 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Condiments_]
+
+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 have 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 your 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 outflanking 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 schoolmates 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _At Pete Williams'_]
+
+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, _cui bono_?
+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, gamy 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
+good-bye, 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 er 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
+twelvemonth 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, out-door 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
+camp-fires 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Wood Life_]
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Incidents_]
+
+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, sassafras, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Turkeys and Deer_]
+
+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 travelling 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 johnny-cake, 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
+johnny-cake, 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 d--d 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--Canoeing
+
+     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 may 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 any one to buy a ten and a half pound canoe;
+although she would prove competent for a skillful light-weight. 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 15×31-1/2 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _A Light Canoe_]
+
+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 out-door sport a specialty,
+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. It is 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Experiments_]
+
+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 Gamp, 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 my 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 oil-cloth 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Proper Craft_]
+
+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 shanty 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 man 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
+water-proofing. 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Various Craft_]
+
+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 water-tight
+compartments, which I abhor.
+
+The canvas is rather a logy, limp sort 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Overboard_]
+
+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's 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 ton 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 muzzle-loader 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Final Advice_]
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+
+    Adirondacks 28, 95
+
+    angle-worms 37, 48
+
+    axe 6-9
+
+
+    Bait, fish-belly 47
+      -fishing 37
+      grubs 37
+      pork frog 41, 43
+      worms 48
+
+    barbs on hooks 40
+
+    baskets, pack 6
+
+    bear 83
+
+    beans 67-69
+
+    beds 51
+
+    black bass bait 43, 47
+
+    black flies 15
+
+    blanket-bag 4
+
+    boats 96 ff.
+
+    boots 3, 75
+
+    bread 63, 64
+
+    brook trout 36
+
+    broom for camp 52
+
+    browse 99
+
+
+    Camp 18 ff.
+      brush shanty 21
+      coal cabin 25
+      cookery 50, 62 ff.
+      fires 28-34, 49, 57
+      furniture 51, 52
+      Indian 18-21
+      shanty tent 21-24
+      shed roof 26
+      stoves 28, 57
+      tents 18, 21, 27
+
+    canoes 87-94, 96-99
+      "Nessmuk" 90
+      paddles 93
+      "Sairy Gamp" 91
+      seats 93
+      "Susan Nipper" 91
+      weight 92
+
+    canvas
+      boats 97
+      water-proofing 22
+
+    cleanliness in camp 53
+
+    clinker-built cedar boats 96
+
+    clothing 3, 75
+
+    coal cabin 25
+
+    coffee 64-66
+
+    condiments 75
+
+    cooking 49 ff., 62 ff.
+      fires 49
+      -range 56
+      utensils 9, 10
+      _See also_ recipes
+
+
+    Deer 84
+
+    ditty-bag 11, 12
+
+    duffle 3, 4
+
+
+    Fire
+      woods 57
+      _See also_ camp, cooking
+
+    fish, cooking of 73
+      large 44, 45, 47, 48
+
+    fish-belly bait 47
+
+    fishing 35-48
+      bait- 37
+      fly- 36 ff.
+
+    flapjacks 63
+
+    flies 36 ff.
+
+    fly pests 15
+      varnish 15
+
+    foot-gear 3, 75
+
+    Forester, Frank 15, 62
+
+    forests 31, 77-86
+
+    forks 9
+
+    frog-bait 41, 43
+
+    frogging 12, 45, 46
+
+    Froissart 1
+
+    Game fish 44
+
+    gang hooks 40, 41
+
+    gnats 15
+
+    gut snells 47
+
+
+    Hat 4
+
+    hatchet 7-9
+
+    headlight 39, 46
+
+    hooks, barbs on 40
+      kinds of 40 ff.
+      size of 44
+
+    hunting 75, 100
+
+
+    Indian camp 18-21
+
+    insects 14-17
+
+
+    Johnnycake 63
+
+
+    Knapsack 6
+
+    knives 8, 9
+
+
+    Lake trout 43
+
+    lapstreak boats 96
+
+    lines 36
+
+    lost in woods 14
+
+
+    Mascalonge 42, 47
+
+    _Micropterus dolomieu_ 43
+
+    mosquitoes 15
+      ointment 15, 16
+
+    "mudding up" 74
+
+    Murray, "Adirondack" 15, 46
+
+
+    Night
+      fishing 39
+      in camp 20
+
+
+    Overwork 1
+
+
+    Pack baskets 6
+
+    paddles 93
+
+    paper boats 97
+
+    pests 14-17
+
+    pickerel 42, 45, 47
+
+    pillows 18, 20, 93
+
+    planning outings 2
+
+    pocket-axe 7, 8
+
+    poker and tongs 51
+
+    preparations 4
+
+    pudding sticks 93
+
+    "punkies" 16, 17
+
+
+    Recipes
+      baked beans 69
+      bread 63, 64
+      brown bread 69
+      canned goods 73, 74
+      club bread 64
+      coffee 64-66
+      ducks 72
+      fish 73
+      flapjacks 63
+      grouse 72
+      Johnnycake 63
+      "mudding up" 74
+      pancake 63
+      pigeons 71
+      porcupine 72
+      pork and beans 69
+      potatoes 66, 67
+      quail 71
+      rabbit 72, 73
+      soups 70
+      squirrel 71
+      stews 70
+      tea 66
+      vegetables 67, 68
+      venison 72
+      woodcock 72
+
+    reels 36
+
+    rifle 82
+
+    rods 10, 11
+
+    "roughing it" 13
+
+
+    _Salmo fontinalis_ 11, 36
+
+    shanty tent 21-24
+
+    shelter cloth 4
+
+    snells 41, 46, 47
+
+    sparks 27
+
+    Spencer, Herbert 1
+
+    spoons 9
+
+    spring-holes 38, 39
+
+    still-hunting 75, 76, 100
+
+    stoves 28, 57
+
+    swivels 47
+
+
+    Tents 18, 21, 27
+
+    tinware 9, 10
+
+    tongs 51
+
+    trout 35 ff.
+
+
+    Vacations 2
+
+    vegetables 67, 68
+
+    venison 72
+
+
+    Warner, Charles Dudley 11, 17, 50, 75
+
+    water-proofing canvas 22
+
+    winter camps 31 ff.
+
+    wire snells 41
+
+    wild hog 82
+
+    worms 48
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by 
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Woodcraft, by Nessmuk.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by 
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+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 and Camping
+
+Author: George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34607]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT AND CAMPING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Mayer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>WOODCRAFT
+AND CAMPING</h1>
+
+<h2><i>by
+"Nessmuk"</i></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.png" width="400" height="420" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h3>DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
+NEW YORK</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<p class="center">This Dover edition, first published in 1963, is a
+slightly abridged and edited republication of the
+work published by Forest and Stream Publishing
+Company, New York, in 1920 under the title <i>Woodcraft</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>International Standard Book Number: 0-486-21145-2<br />
+Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21680</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">Manufactured in the United States of America<br />
+Dover Publications, Inc.<br />
+31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p>
+<h2>Preface</h2>
+
+
+<p><i>Woodcraft</i> is dedicated to the Grand Army of "Outers," as a pocket
+volume of reference on&mdash;woodcraft.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With a pulse of evil that throbs and beats;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And men are withered before their prime<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">By the curse paved in with the lanes and streets.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">And lungs are poisoned and shoulders bowed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the smothering reek of mill and mine;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And death stalks in on the struggling crowd&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But he shuns the shadow of oak and pine.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">NESSMUK.<br /></span></div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2>
+
+
+<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<td></td>
+<th align="right"><i>Page</i></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER I</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Overwork and Recreation&mdash;Outing and Outers&mdash;How to Do It, and Why They Miss It</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER II</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_6">6</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Rods, Fishing Tackle, Ditty-Bag</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER III</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Getting Lost&mdash;Camping Out&mdash;Roughing It or Smoothing It&mdash;Insects&mdash;Camps,
+and How to Make Them</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER IV</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Camp-Fires and Their Importance&mdash;The Wasteful, Wrong Way They Are Usually Made,
+and the Right Way to Make Them</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER V</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td>Fishing, With and Without Flies&mdash;Some Tackle and Lures&mdash;Discursive
+Remarks on the Gentle Art&mdash;The Headlight&mdash;Frogging</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER VI</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Camp Cooking&mdash;How It Is Usually Done, with a Few Simple Hints on Plain
+Cooking&mdash;Cooking Fire and Out-Door Range</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER VII</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>More Hints on Cooking, with Some Simple Receipts&mdash;Bread, Coffee,
+Potatoes, Soup, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER VIII</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>A Ten Days' Trip in the Wilderness&mdash;Going It Alone</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER IX&mdash;CANOEING</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>The Light Canoe and Double Blade&mdash;Various Canoes for Various
+Canoeists&mdash;Reasons for Preferring the Clinker-Built Cedar</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>CHAPTER X</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Odds and Ends&mdash;Where to go for an Outing&mdash;Why a Clinker?&mdash;Boughs and Browse</td>
+<td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><small>INDEX</small></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Illustrations" id="Illustrations"></a>Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations">
+<tr>
+<th></th>
+<th align="right"><i>Page</i></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>"Nessmuk" </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_i"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Knapsack and Ditty-Bag</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Hatchet and Knives</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Indian Camp</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Shanty-Tent and Camp-Fire</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    Shanty-Tent Spread Out  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    Camp-Fire as it Should Be Made  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    Frog Bait  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    Three-Hook Gang  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    G. W. Hatchet  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>    Out-Door Cooking-Range  </td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_I" id="Chapter_I"></a>Chapter I</h2>
+
+<h3>OVERWORK AND RECREATION&mdash;OUTING AND OUTERS
+HOW TO DO IT, AND WHY THEY MISS IT</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p1ch1.png" width="150" height="248" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>t does not need that Herbert Spencer should cross the ocean to tell us
+that we are an overworked 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&mdash;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"&mdash;something akin to paralysis&mdash;from which the sufferer
+seldom wholly recovers.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;or nearly all&mdash;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&mdash;to
+themselves at least&mdash;that after a month's vacation, they return to work
+with an inward consciousness of being somewhat disappointed&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;workers, so to speak&mdash;who sorely need and well deserve a season of
+rest and relaxation at least once a year. To these, and for these, I
+write.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When the mountain streams are frozen and the Nor'land winds are out;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>when the winter winds are drifting the bitter sleet and snow; when
+winter rains are making out-of-door life unendurable; when season,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+
+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, on the flies, rods, reels, guns, etc., 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.</p>
+
+<p>Go light; the lighter the better, so that you have the simplest material
+for health, comfort and enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;only to leave it behind when you come
+out.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Clothing</div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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 foot-gear 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>The hat should be fine, soft felt with moderately low crown and wide
+brim; color to match the clothing.</p>
+
+<p>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 water-proofed cotton cloth 6&times;8 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;yes, and an extra pair of heavy boots hanging
+astride of the gun&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Preparations</div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;going on foot over carries or through the
+woods.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_II" id="Chapter_II"></a>Chapter II</h2>
+
+<h3>KNAPSACK, HATCHET, KNIVES, TINWARE, RODS,
+FISHING TACKLE, DITTY-BAG</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p6ch2.png" width="150" height="249" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>he 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 water-proof in a rain or a splashing head
+sea, is more than twice as heavy&mdash;always growing heavier as it gets
+wetter&mdash;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&mdash;which I have
+carried for years&mdash;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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;">
+<img src="images/illp7.png" width="600" height="728" alt="Knapsack and Ditty-Bag" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Knapsack and Ditty-Bag</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Hatchet and Knives</div>
+
+<p>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 edge tools, and these were the
+worst of all, being like nothing on the earth or under
+it&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp8.png" width="500" height="650" alt="Hatchet and Knives" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hatchet and Knives</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<caption><span class="smcap"><b>A woodsman,</b></span></caption>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>To getting up one limber-go-shiftless pocket-axe:</i></span></td>
+<td align="right"><span class="smcap"><b>Dr.</b></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cost of blade</span></td>
+<td align="right">$3.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fare on boat</span></td>
+<td align="right">1.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Expenses for 3 days</span></td>
+<td align="right">3.00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Three days lost time at $1.25 per day</span></td>
+<td align="right">3.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Two days making model, handle and sheath, say</span></td>
+<td align="right"><span class="u">2.00</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Total</span></td><td align="right">$12.75</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Per contra, by actual value of axe</span></td>
+<td align="right"><span class="u">2.00</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Balance</span></td>
+<td align="right">$10.75</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Cooking Utensils</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>I get a skillful tinsmith to make one dish as follows: Six inches on
+bottom, 6&frac34; inches on top, side 2 inches high. The bottom is of the
+heaviest tin procurable, the sides of lighter tin, and seamed to be
+water-tight 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+
+a perfect cover for the next larger. The other piece is a tin
+camp-kettle, also of the heaviest tin, and seamed water-tight. 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&mdash;with its handle three feet long. How
+ever did they get through the brush with such a culinary terror?</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Rods</i></div>
+
+<p>I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
+connected with out-door 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&mdash;this and these constrain me to be
+brief.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>A rod may be a very high-toned, high-priced aesthetic plaything, costing
+$50 to $75, or it may be&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+
+flies on the water quite as attractively to <i>Salmo fontinalis</i>. My
+little 8&frac12;-foot, 4&frac34;-ounce split bamboo which the editor of <i>Forest
+and Stream</i> 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&frac12; feet long and 5&frac34; 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:</p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+<p>One summer during a seven weeks' tour in the Northern Wilderness, my
+only rod was a 7&frac12; 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&frac12; 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.</p>
+
+<p>And don't neglect to take what sailors call a "ditty-bag." This may be
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+
+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&frac12; 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&mdash;of which, more in
+another place. I can always go down into that pouch for a water-proof
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;ready for another greedy snap
+at an ibis fly or red rag&mdash;is rather funny. And his hind legs, rolled in
+meal and nicely browned, are preferable to trout or venison.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_III" id="Chapter_III"></a>Chapter III</h2>
+
+<h3>GETTING LOST&mdash;CAMPING OUT&mdash;ROUGHING IT OR
+SMOOTHING IT&mdash;INSECTS&mdash;CAMPS, AND HOW TO
+MAKE THEM</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p13ch3.png" width="150" height="251" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>ith 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&mdash;anywhere
+that we may be placed&mdash;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 life-long battle, whose
+bravest slogan is bread."</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;sportsman of course&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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&mdash;and
+nearly always to the right&mdash;is a thing past understanding.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Insect Pests</div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Fish and Fishing</i>, 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."</p>
+
+<p>"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 <i>sancudos</i>,
+<i>moquims</i>, or our own poisonous insects do most abound.</p>
+
+<p>It was published in <i>Forest and Stream</i> 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;and it is
+cleanly and wholesome. If you get your face and hands crocky or smutty
+about the camp-fire, 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Beware the Black Fly</i></div>
+
+<p>We went in a party of five&mdash;two old hunters and three youngsters, the
+latter all enthusiasm and pluck&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;or two of
+them&mdash;under your head, they collapse, and make a head-rest 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp19.png" width="500" height="359" alt="Indian Camp" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Indian Camp</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>The Indian Camp</i></div>
+
+<p>The simplest and most primitive of all camps is the "Indian camp." It
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;with your hatchet&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+
+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 bed-time. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;to again awaken with a sense of chilliness&mdash;to find the fire
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+
+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."</p>
+
+<p>You have also learned the difference between such a simple shelter and
+an open air bivouac under a tree or beside an old log.</p>
+
+<p>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 of 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&mdash;better than the average bark roof, which
+is only rain-proof in dry weather.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>The Shanty-Tent</i></div>
+
+<p>As good a camp as I have ever tried&mdash;perhaps the best&mdash;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:</p>
+
+<p>Firstly, the roof. This is merely a sheet of strong cotton cloth 9 feet
+long by 4 or 4&frac12; feet in width. The sides, of the same material, to be
+4&frac12; 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+
+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 water-proofing; 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Construction</i></div>
+
+<p>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&frac12; feet apart; at
+a distance of 6 feet 10 inches from these, drive two other posts&mdash;these
+to be 4 feet apart&mdash;for back end of shanty. The front posts to be 4&frac12;
+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, hard-wood rods, 2 inches in
+diameter, and 7 feet in length&mdash;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 six-penny nail through the ends and into the posts, and you
+have a square frame 7&times;4 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;he has had a good day.</p>
+
+<p>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 six-penny 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;hemlock is best&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp24.png" width="500" height="332" alt="Shanty-Tent and Camp-Fire" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Shanty-Tent and Camp-Fire</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>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 page <a href="#Page_26">26</a>. 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.</p>
+
+<p>More than thirty years ago I became disgusted with the clumsy, awkward,
+comfortless affairs that, under many different forms, went under the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Other Camps</i></div>
+
+<p>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 stocking
+leg 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 7&times;4 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp26.png" width="500" height="667" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 9&times;7 feet, and soaked in lime and alum-water as the
+other. The only labor in making it is sewing two breadths of sheeting
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+
+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&frac14; 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Sparks</i></div>
+
+<p>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 camp-fire. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 camp-fire.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_IV" id="Chapter_IV"></a>Chapter IV</h2>
+
+<h3>CAMP-FIRES AND THEIR IMPORTANCE&mdash;THE WASTEFUL WRONG WAY THEY ARE USUALLY MADE,
+AND THE RIGHT WAY TO MAKE THEM</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p28ch4.png" width="150" height="251" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>ardly second in importance to a warm, dry camp, is the camp-fire. 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&mdash;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 camp-fire. And the latter is usually handled in a way that
+is too sad, too wasteful; in short, badly botched. For instance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>The "Guides' Camp"</i></div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+
+crying children, bitten to agony by punkies and mosquitoes, I chose to
+spread my blanket in a well-made bark shanty, which a sign-board in
+black and white said was the "Guides' Camp."</p>
+
+<p>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 camp-fire.</p>
+
+<p>No woodland hotel will long remain popular that does not keep up a
+bright, cheery, out-o'-door fire. And the fun of it&mdash;to an old
+woodsman&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>When the fire burnt low, toward mid-night, 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&mdash;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&mdash;and they
+pay well." Summer boarders, tourists and sportsmen, are not the only men
+who know how to build a camp-fire all wrong.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+
+to look on any outsider as a tenderfoot. Their mode of building
+camp-fires 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&mdash;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, "Holy Moses! I can't stand
+this; it's an oven."</p>
+
+<p>Another Snorer (partially waking).&mdash;"N-r-r-rm, gu-r-r, ugh. Can't
+you&mdash;deaden&mdash;fire&mdash;a little?"</p>
+
+<p>First Speaker.&mdash;"Deaden h&mdash;&mdash;. If you want the fire deadened, get up and
+help throw off some of these logs."</p>
+
+<p>Another (in coldest corner of shanty)&mdash;"What's 'er matter&mdash;with a-you
+fellows? Better dig out&mdash;an' cool off in the snow. Shanty's comfor'ble
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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 coffee-pot drop into the fire. He makes a
+rash grab to save his coffee, and gets away&mdash;with the handle, which
+hangs on just enough to upset the pot.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Al.," who is frying a slice of pork over a bed of coals that would
+melt a gun barrel, starts a horse laugh, that is cut short by a blue
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>This is a digression. But I am led to it by the recollection of many
+nights spent in camps and around camp-fires, 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 camp-fire 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>A Winter Camp</i></div>
+
+<p>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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+
+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
+camp-fire, 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 by the
+aid of ten-foot poles, flattened at one end, and 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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp33.png" width="500" height="304" alt="Camp-Fire as it Should Be Made" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Camp-Fire as it Should Be Made</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Our Luck</i></div>
+
+<p>Our luck, I may mention, was good&mdash;as good as we desired. Not that four
+smallish deer are anything to brag about for a week's hunt by four men
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+
+and two dogs. I have known a pot-hunter to kill nine in a single day.
+But we had enough.</p>
+
+<p>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 illustrations show the camp-fire&mdash;all but the
+fire&mdash;as it should be made.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_V" id="Chapter_V"></a>Chapter V</h2>
+
+<h3>FISHING, WITH AND WITHOUT FLIES&mdash;SOME TACKLE
+AND LURES&mdash;DISCURSIVE REMARKS ON THE GENTLE
+ART&mdash;THE HEADLIGHT&mdash;FROGGING</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p35ch5.png" width="150" height="254" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>here is probably no subject connected with out-door 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 bed-time.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Salmo fontinalis</i> 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."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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, water-proof 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+
+found two just as effective, and handier.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>The Best Flies</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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,
+new-born 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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;sometimes; at other
+times, not. As to raising them with a fly&mdash;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&mdash;as often happens. The landlord said, "He brings in large trout
+every day, when our best fly-fishermen fail." One night, around an
+out-door 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.</p>
+
+<p>"Go with me tomorrow morning to a spring-hole three miles up the river,
+and I'll show you," he said.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>At the Spring-Hole</i></div>
+
+<p>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&frac12;-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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>"And what does all that mean?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>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&frac14; pounds. Then my turn came and I
+saved one weighing 1&frac12; pounds. He caught another of 1&frac14; pounds, and
+I took one of 1 pound. Then they ceased biting altogether.</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>At the hotel we found two fly-fishers who had been out all the morning.
+They each had three or four small trout.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;a mode
+of fishing especially successful with catties and perch.</p>
+
+<p>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 "johnny-cake," break it into pieces the size of a hen's egg, and
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;as they mostly do in very hot weather.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;in late August and
+September&mdash;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&mdash;as before mentioned&mdash;catching from forty 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Frog-Bait and Gangs</div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+
+no fish can shake out a hook well sunken in mouth or gills, though
+two-thirds of the barb be filed away.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp41.png" width="500" height="514" alt="Frog-Bait Three-Hook Gang" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Frog-Bait&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Three-Hook Gang</span></div>
+
+<p>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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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 fork of the bait rests securely in the barb
+of the middle hook.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>As for the small-mouthed (<i>Micropterus dolomieu</i>, 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;when he will take them.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Lake Trout</div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;and it is always too long between bites.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;which he
+calls a camp&mdash;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&mdash;was better than either.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call the cattie a game fish?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;ten of them being worse 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&frac12;
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Stout Tackle</div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;Davis by
+name&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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&mdash;if it has any moral&mdash;is, use hooks according to the
+size of fish you expect to catch.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;and it can be made amusing, with hook and line. I have seen
+educated ladies in the wilderness, fishing for frogs with an eagerness
+and enthusiasm not surpassed by the most devoted angler with his
+favorite cast of flies.</p>
+
+<p>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,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+
+or jack-lamp. The two latter modes are best.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;or your sights with distinctness enough to make it. (See
+Murray's <i>Adirondacks</i>, page 174.)</p>
+
+<p>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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;which is enough. They are also convenient in camp, and better than
+a lantern on a dim forest path.</p>
+
+<p>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, on 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:</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Swivels and Snells</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VI" id="Chapter_VI"></a>Chapter VI</h2>
+
+<h3>CAMP COOKERY&mdash;HOW IT IS USUALLY DONE, WITH A
+FEW SIMPLE HINTS ON PLAIN COOKING&mdash;COOKING
+FIRE AND OUT-DOOR RANGE</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p49ch6.png" width="150" height="259" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>he way in which an average party of summer outers will contrive to
+manage&mdash;or mis-manage&mdash;the camp and camp-fire 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&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+<p>I have before me a copy of <i>Forest and Stream</i>, 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 <i>Forest and Stream</i>, 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 camp-fire, 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 hard-tack 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+
+with or without a canoe.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The First Day Out</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>No camp-fire 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The First Night</div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
+
+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, knots, 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 re-arranging
+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.</p>
+
+<p>The O.W., who has abided by his blanket-bag all night&mdash;quietly taking in
+the fun&mdash;rouses out the party at 4 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+
+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</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With such a face of Christian satisfaction,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As good men wear, who have done a virtuous action.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>"Holy Moses! Look here. Just see the ants and bugs."</p>
+
+<p>Second Man.&mdash;"Well, I should say! I can see your ants and bugs, and go
+you an earwig better."</p>
+
+<p>Third Man (inverting his pan spitefully over the fire).&mdash;"D&mdash;n 'em, I'll
+roast the beggars."</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Their Lesson</div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+
+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, camp-fires,
+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."</p>
+
+<p>"Except cutting some night wood and tending the fire," adds number two.</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as how? Explain yourself," says Bush D.</p>
+
+<p>O. W.&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but we learned that of the ant&mdash;and bug," says number two.</p>
+
+<p>O. W.&mdash;"Just so. And did you think all the ants and doodlebugs blundered
+into that grease in one morning? I put 'em in myself&mdash;to give you a
+'kink.'"</p>
+
+<p>Bush D. (disgusted).&mdash;"You blasted, dirty old sinner."</p>
+
+<p>Second Man.&mdash;"Oh, you miserable old swamp savage; I shan't get over that
+earwig in a month."</p>
+
+<p>Third Man (plaintively).&mdash;"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&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Fourth Man (savagely).&mdash;"Dashed old woods-loafer; let's tie his hands
+and fire him in the creek."
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>O. W. (placidly).&mdash;"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."</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp56.png" width="500" height="233" alt="G. W. Hatchet" title="" />
+<span class="caption">G. W. Hatchet</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>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, fore-stick, etc., complete the arrangement,
+and the camp-fire is in shape for the coming night, precisely as shown
+in the engraving on page <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"A&mdash;what?" asks one.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Going to start a boarding-house?" says another.</p>
+
+<p>"Notion of going into the hardware business?" suggests a third.</p>
+
+<p>"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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Cooking-Range</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+
+than round. The out-door 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/illp58.png" width="500" height="407" alt="Out-Door Cooking-Range" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Out-Door Cooking-Range</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Just at dark&mdash;which means 9 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> in the last week of June&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>When it is past mid-night, 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+
+navy plug to its lowest denomination, and takes a solitary smoke&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;or anything else, so to speak&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Getting Breakfast</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd have sworn," says one, "that I hadn't slept over fifteen minutes by
+the watch."</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+
+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."</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;and there are plenty of trout
+ahead. Then they lean their rods against the shanty, and lounge on the
+blankets, and smoke and dose.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>dolce
+far niente</i>. It is over and around every man, enveloping him as with a
+roseate blanket from the Castle of Indolence.</p>
+
+<p>It is the perfect summer camp.</p>
+
+<p>And it is no myth; but a literal r&eacute;sum&eacute; 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.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Never any more<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Can it be<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Unto me (or anybody else)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As before.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A huge tannery, six miles above Poplar Spring, poisons and blackens the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Progress?</div>
+
+<p>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 d&mdash;d. "What's all the w-u-u-rld
+to a man when his wife is a widdy?"</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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&mdash;when it is too late.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VII" id="Chapter_VII"></a>Chapter VII</h2>
+
+<h3>MORE HINTS ON COOKING, WITH SOME SIMPLE
+RECEIPTS&mdash;BREAD, COFFEE, POTATOES, SOUPS, STEWS,
+BEANS, FISH, MEAT, VENISON</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We may live without friends, we may live without books,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But civilized man cannot live without cooks.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p62ch7.png" width="150" height="265" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>t is probably true that nothing connected with out-door 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.</p>
+
+<p>I have never been able to get much help from cook-books, or the scores
+of recipes published in various works on out-door sport. 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&mdash;for a first-class hotel. I neither
+cook nor converse in French, and I have come to know that the plainest
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+
+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 hard-tack, 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
+<a href="#Chapter_II">Chapter II</a>): Put a little more than a pint of water in your kettle and
+bring it to a sharp boil, adding a small teaspoonful 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 out-door range described in the previous chapter, with a
+lively bed of coal beneath&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+
+bake as directed above. It takes several hours to rise.</p>
+
+<p>I am afraid I shall discount my credit on camp cooking when I admit
+that&mdash;if I must use fine flour&mdash;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 teaspoonful of salt,
+and a teaspoonful 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Coffee</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 parts 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,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;"To kill the biscos," they said. The coffee was above
+criticism.</p>
+
+<p>I went, in the dark of a tropical morning, with Senhor Jo&atilde;o, 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>On my arrival home&mdash;not having any small darky or any convenient
+arrangement for the dip net&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Potatoes</i></div>
+
+<p>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 any one 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+
+them out only as they are wanted; luke-warm 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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+camp-fire in which to do it. To cook them aright, scoop out a basinlike
+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,
+hard-wood 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 forty minutes commence to try them with
+a sharpened hard-wood 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;not often&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily, some one has brought a sack of white beans, and the
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+
+expert&mdash;there is always an expert in camp&mdash;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 salt
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Beans</i></div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+
+baked beans, you had better sweep the cook out of camp.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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, hard-wood
+coals on top, and bake precisely as directed for bread&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+
+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 teaspoonful of soda
+only. Bake in a steady, moderate oven, for four hours. Knead thoroughly
+before baking.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;red,
+black, gray or fox&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Stews and Fries</i></div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 hard-wood 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+
+sharpened sliver will pass easily through the breast they are done.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Venison steak should be pounded to tenderness, pressed and worked into
+shape with the hunting-knife, and broiled over a bed of clean hard-wood
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+long-legged cousin, who turns white in winter, never takes to a hole,
+and can keep ahead of hounds nearly all day, affording a game, musical
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Fish</i></div>
+
+<p>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 broil 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 teaspoonful 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
+hard-tack, with butter. The simplest is best, healthiest, and most
+appetizing.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, on a mountain 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,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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 camp-fire 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.</p>
+
+<p>There is a method of 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 <i>Forest and
+Stream</i> 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Condiments</i></div>
+
+<p>In selecting salt, choose that which has a gritty feel when rubbed
+between the thumb and finger, and use white pepper rather than black,
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+
+grinding the berry yourself. Procure a common tin pepper-box, and fill
+it with a mixture of fine salt and Cayenne pepper&mdash;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 have a flat, flashy taste eaten
+without salt, and are also unwholesome.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 your 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.</p>
+
+<p>But there is an art, little known and practiced, that invariably
+succeeds in outflanking most wild animals; an art, simple in conception
+and execution, but requiring patience; a species, so to speak, of high
+art in forestry&mdash;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."
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_VIII" id="Chapter_VIII"></a>Chapter VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A TEN DAYS' TRIP IN THE WILDERNESS&mdash;GOING IT
+ALONE</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/p77ch8.png" width="150" height="261" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>bout 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 schoolmates 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&mdash;Davis&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+
+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&mdash;liar that I was&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>At Pete Williams'</i></div>
+
+<p>I stayed ten days or more with the Williams family, and the fishing and
+hunting were all that he had said&mdash;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, <i>cui bono</i>?
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<p>Hance was the hunting and trapping genius of Saginaw Bay&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+
+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, gamy 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&mdash;if you keep
+moggin'."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Early on a crisp, bright October morning I kissed the little fellows
+good-bye, 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 er 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
+twelvemonth later, there were two little graves in a corner of the
+stump-blackened garden, and two sore hearts in Pete Williams' cabin.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;the compass.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;at
+home&mdash;about sylvan life, out-door 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 camp-fires 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.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Only to him whose coat of rags<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Has pressed at night her regal feet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Shall come the secrets, strange and sweet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of century pines and beetling crags.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For him the goddess shall unlock<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">The golden secrets which have lain<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Ten thousand years, through frost and rain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep in the bosom of the rock.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The trip was a long and tiresome one, considering the distance. There
+were no hairbreadth escapes; I was not tackled by bears, treed by
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Wood Life</i></div>
+
+<p>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&mdash;to me, at least&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Incidents</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting occurred, as usually was the case with large game, on dry,
+oak lands, where the undergrowth was hazel, sassafras, 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+
+headway, and disappeared with wonderful speed&mdash;considering the length of
+his legs.</p>
+
+<p>On another occasion&mdash;and this was in heavy timber&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Turkeys and Deer</i></div>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the afternoon of the ninth day that I crossed the South
+Muskegon and laid a course west by north. The travelling 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.</p>
+
+<p>I camped on a little rill, near a huge dry stub that would peel, made
+the last of the meal into a johnny-cake, 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+
+bank of the Muskegon.</p>
+
+<p>And the Joe Davis camp&mdash;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
+johnny-cake, I inwardly swore that my next wilderness cruise should be
+by water.</p>
+
+<p>It was in late afternoon that I heard&mdash;blessed sound&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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 d&mdash;d glad to see a man in my
+life!"</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;either likely enough at that
+season&mdash;would have been most disastrous; while a forest fire like that
+of '56, and later ones, would simply have proved fatal.</p>
+
+<p>Reader, if ever you are tempted to make a similar thoughtless, reckless
+trip&mdash;don't do it.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_IX_Canoeing" id="Chapter_IX_Canoeing"></a>Chapter IX&mdash;Canoeing</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LIGHT CANOE AND DOUBLE BLADE&mdash;VARIOUS CANOES FOR VARIOUS
+CANOEISTS&mdash;REASONS FOR PREFERRING THE CLINKER-BUILT CEDAR</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 132px;">
+<img src="images/p87ch9.png" width="132" height="259" alt="T" title="" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p>he 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 <i>Forest and Stream</i> 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&mdash;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&mdash;or feasible,
+even. It is different with the canoe. A man like myself may 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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+
+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 <i>Forest and Stream</i> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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 any one to buy a ten and a half pound canoe;
+although she would prove competent for a skillful light-weight. She was
+built to order, as a test of lightness and was the third experiment in
+that line.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;though I should hardly call it a "poor man's yacht."</p>
+
+<p>Much is being said and written at the present day as to the "perfect
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+
+canoe." One writer decides in favor of a Pearl 15&times;31&frac12; 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>A Light Canoe</i></div>
+
+<p>Believing, as I do, that the light, single canoe with double-bladed
+paddle is bound to soon become a leading&mdash;if not the leading&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 &frac34; of an inch thickness; two wide &frac12;-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.</p>
+
+<p>My last canoe of this style went down the Susquehanna with an ice jam
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+
+in the spring of '79, and in the meantime canoeing began to loom up. The
+best paper in the country which makes out-door sport a specialty,
+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&frac34; 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."</p>
+
+<p>"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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+
+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. It is 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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Experiments</i></div>
+
+<p>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&frac12; 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&mdash;and, like many beauties, a trifle frail&mdash;but staunch as
+the day I took her. Her proper lading is about 200 pounds. She can float
+300 pounds.</p>
+
+<p>Of my last and lightest venture, the Sairy Gamp, 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+
+it, and I thought she trimmed better with him. He paddled at 141&frac12;
+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&mdash;approximately at least, of
+weight, as regards canoe and canoeist.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Forest and
+Stream</i>, 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 my 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&frac12; 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.</p>
+
+<p>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&frac12; 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.</p>
+
+<p>Provide your canoe with a flooring of oil-cloth 3&frac12; feet long by 15
+inches wide; punch holes in it and tie it neatly to the ribbing, just
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>The Proper Craft</i></div>
+
+<p>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&frac12; 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Beneath a hemlock grim and dark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where shrub and vine are intertwining,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our shanty stands, well roofed with bark,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On which the cheerful blaze is shining.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The smoke ascends in spiral wreath,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With upward curve the sparks are trending;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The coffee kettle sings beneath<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where sparks and smoke with leaves are blending.<br /></span></div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And on the stream a light canoe<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Floats like a freshly fallen feather,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A fairy thing, that will not do<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For broader seas and stormy weather.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her sides no thicker than the shell<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of Ole Bull's Cremona fiddle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The man who rides her will do well<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To part his scalp-lock in the middle.<br /></span></div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&mdash;"Forest Runes"&mdash;Nessmuk.<br /></span></div></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Chapter_X" id="Chapter_X"></a>Chapter X</h2>
+
+<h3>ODDS AND ENDS&mdash;WHERE TO GO FOR AN OUTING&mdash;WHY A
+CLINKER?&mdash;BOUGHS AND BROWSE</h3>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 125px;">
+<img src="images/p95ch10.png" width="125" height="256" alt="T" title="" /></div>
+
+
+<p>he 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.</p>
+
+<p>"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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>All along the Allegheny range, from Maine to Michigan, and from
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+
+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."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+water-proofing. 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.
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Various Craft</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>The paper boat, also, will not stand much cutting on sharp stones, and
+it is not buoyant when swamped, unless fitted with water-tight
+compartments, which I abhor.</p>
+
+<p>The canvas is rather a logy, limp sort of craft, to my thinking, and
+liable to drown her crew if swamped.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Overboard</i></div>
+
+<p>I am not&mdash;to use a little modern slang&mdash;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&mdash;no matter which&mdash;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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+
+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's 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&mdash;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&mdash;the insurance
+companies two thousand dollars.</p>
+
+<p>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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+
+level. So shall your children look confidently for your safe return,
+while the "Accidentals" arise and call you a good investment.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 ton 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
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>If you go before the open season for shooting, take no gun. It will
+simply be a useless incumbrance and a nuisance.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>That is me. That is why I sit here tonight&mdash;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 muzzle-loader 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.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">We had our day of youth and May;<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">We may have grown a trifle sober;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But life may reach a wintry way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">And we are only in October.<br /></span></div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><i>Final Advice</i></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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</p>
+
+<h3>PREPARE TO TURN IN.</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><a name="Index" id="Index"></a>Index</h2>
+
+
+
+<ul>
+<li>Adirondacks <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li>
+
+<li>angle-worms <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+<li>axe <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Bait, fish-belly <a href="#Page_47">47</a>
+  <ul>
+    <li>  -fishing <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+    <li>  grubs <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+    <li>  pork frog <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+    <li>  worms <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>barbs on hooks <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+<li>baskets, pack <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li>bear <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+<li>beans <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-<a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+<li>beds <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+<li>black bass bait <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>black flies <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li>blanket-bag <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+<li>boats <a href="#Page_96">96</a> ff.</li>
+
+<li>boots <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li>bread <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+<li>brook trout <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>broom for camp <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+<li>browse <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Camp <a href="#Page_18">18</a> ff.
+<ul><li>  brush shanty <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+<li>  coal cabin <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+<li>  cookery <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a> ff.</li>
+<li>  fires <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-<a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>  furniture <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+<li>  Indian <a href="#Page_18">18</a>-<a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+<li>  shanty tent <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>  shed roof <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>  stoves <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>  tents <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>canoes <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-<a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-<a href="#Page_99">99</a>
+<ul><li>  "Nessmuk" <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+<li>  paddles <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li>  "Sairy Gamp" <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+<li>  seats <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+<li>  "Susan Nipper" <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+<li>  weight <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>canvas
+<ul><li>  boats <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+<li>  water-proofing <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>cleanliness in camp <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+<li>clinker-built cedar boats <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>clothing <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li>coal cabin <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+<li>coffee <a href="#Page_64">64</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+<li>condiments <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li>cooking <a href="#Page_49">49</a> ff., <a href="#Page_62">62</a> ff.
+<ul><li>  fires <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+<li>  -range <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li>  utensils <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+<li>  <i>See also</i> recipes</li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li>Deer <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+<li>ditty-bag <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+<li>duffle <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Fire
+<ul><li>  woods <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>  <i>See also</i> camp, cooking</li></ul></li>
+
+<li>fish
+<ul><li>cooking of <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>  large <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>fish-belly bait <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>fishing <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_48">48</a>
+<ul><li>  bait- <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+<li>  fly- <a href="#Page_36">36</a> ff.</li></ul></li>
+
+<li>flapjacks <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+<li>flies <a href="#Page_36">36</a> ff.</li>
+
+<li>fly pests <a href="#Page_15">15</a>
+<ul><li>  varnish <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>foot-gear <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li>Forester, Frank <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+<li>forests <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>-<a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+
+<li>forks <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li>frog-bait <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>frogging <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>Froissart <a href="#Page_1">1</a>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Game fish <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+<li>gang hooks <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>gnats <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+<li>gut snells <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Hat <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+<li>hatchet <a href="#Page_7">7</a>-<a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li>headlight <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+<li>hooks
+<ul><li>barbs on <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+<li>  kinds of <a href="#Page_40">40</a> ff.</li>
+<li>  size of <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li>hunting <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Indian camp <a href="#Page_18">18</a>-<a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+<li>insects <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Johnnycake <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Knapsack <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li>knives <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Lake trout <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>lapstreak boats <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li>
+
+<li>lines <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>lost in woods <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Mascalonge <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li><i>Micropterus dolomieu</i> <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+<li>mosquitoes <a href="#Page_15">15</a>
+<ul><li>  ointment <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>"mudding up" <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+<li>Murray, "Adirondack" <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Night
+<ul><li>  fishing <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+<li>  in camp <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li></ul></li>
+
+
+<li>Overwork <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Pack baskets <a href="#Page_6">6</a></li>
+
+<li>paddles <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>paper boats <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+<li>pests <a href="#Page_14">14</a>-<a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+<li>pickerel <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>pillows <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>planning outings <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+<li>pocket-axe <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+<li>poker and tongs <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+<li>preparations <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+<li>pudding sticks <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+<li>"punkies" <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Recipes
+<ul><li>  baked beans <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>  bread <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+<li>  brown bread <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>  canned goods <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+<li>  club bread <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+<li>  coffee <a href="#Page_64">64</a>-<a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>  ducks <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>  fish <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>  flapjacks <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+<li>  grouse <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>  Johnnycake <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+<li>  "mudding up" <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+<li>  pancake <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+<li>  pigeons <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>  porcupine <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>  pork and beans <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+<li>  potatoes <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+<li>  quail <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>  rabbit <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>  soups <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+<li>  squirrel <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>  stews <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+<li>  tea <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+<li>  vegetables <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+<li>  venison <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>  woodcock <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li></ul></li>
+
+<li>reels <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>rifle <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>rods <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+<li>"roughing it" <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+
+<li><i>Salmo fontinalis</i> <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+<li>shanty tent <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-<a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+<li>shelter cloth <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+<li>snells <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+<li>sparks <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+<li>Spencer, Herbert <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+<li>spoons <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+<li>spring-holes <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+<li>still-hunting <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+
+<li>stoves <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+<li>swivels <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+
+
+<li>Tents <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+<li>tinware <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+
+<li>tongs <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+<li>trout <a href="#Page_35">35</a> ff.</li>
+
+
+<li>Vacations <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+<li>vegetables <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+<li>venison <a href="#Page_72">72</a>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></li>
+
+<li>Warner, Charles Dudley <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+<li>water-proofing canvas <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+
+<li>winter camps <a href="#Page_31">31</a> ff.</li>
+
+<li>wire snells <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+<li>wild hog <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+<li>worms <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by 
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
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+</pre>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+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 and Camping
+
+Author: George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2010 [EBook #34607]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOODCRAFT AND CAMPING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Clarke, Martin Mayer and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    [Transcriber's note: Italics rendered as: _italics_.]
+
+
+
+
+ WOODCRAFT
+ AND CAMPING
+
+ _by_
+ "_Nessmuk_"
+
+ [Illustration]
+
+ DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
+ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ This Dover edition, first published in 1963, is a
+ slightly abridged and edited republication of the
+ work published by Forest and Stream Publishing
+ Company, New York, in 1920 under the title _Woodcraft_.
+
+ _International Standard Book Number: 0-486-21145-2
+ Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21680_
+
+ Manufactured in the United States of America
+ Dover Publications, Inc.
+ 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+  CHAPTER I                                                            1
+
+  Overwork and Recreation--Outing and Outers--How to Do It,
+  and Why They Miss It
+
+  CHAPTER II                                                           6
+
+  Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Rods, Fishing Tackle,
+  Ditty-Bag
+
+  CHAPTER III                                                         13
+
+  Getting Lost--Camping Out--Roughing It or Smoothing
+  It--Insects--Camps, and How to Make Them
+
+  CHAPTER IV                                                          28
+
+  Camp-Fires and Their Importance--The Wasteful, Wrong
+  Way They Are Usually Made, and the Right Way to Make
+  Them
+
+  CHAPTER V                                                           35
+
+  Fishing, With and Without Flies--Some Tackle and Lures--Discursive
+  Remarks on the Gentle Art--The Headlight--Frogging
+
+  CHAPTER VI                                                          49
+
+  Camp Cooking--How It Is Usually Done, with a Few Simple
+  Hints on Plain Cooking--Cooking Fire and Out-Door Range
+
+  CHAPTER VII                                                         62
+
+  More Hints on Cooking, with Some Simple Receipts--Bread,
+  Coffee, Potatoes, Soup, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison
+
+  CHAPTER VIII                                                        77
+
+  A Ten Days' Trip in the Wilderness--Going It Alone
+
+  CHAPTER IX--CANOEING                                                87
+
+  The Light Canoe and Double Blade--Various Canoes for Various
+  Canoeists--Reasons for Preferring the Clinker-Built Cedar
+
+  CHAPTER X                                                           95
+
+  Odds and Ends--Where to go for an Outing--Why a Clinker?--Boughs
+  and Browse
+
+  INDEX                                                              103
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+
+                                            _Page_
+  "Nessmuk"                         _Frontispiece_
+  Knapsack and Ditty-Bag                         7
+  Hatchet and Knives                             8
+  Indian Camp                                   19
+  Shanty-Tent and Camp-Fire                     24
+  Shanty-Tent Spread Out                        26
+  Camp-Fire as it Should Be Made                33
+  Frog Bait                                     41
+  Three-Hook Gang                               41
+  G. W. Hatchet                                 56
+  Out-Door Cooking-Range                        58
+
+
+
+
+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 overworked 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, on the flies, rods, reels, guns, etc., 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Clothing]
+
+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 foot-gear 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 water-proofed 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Preparations]
+
+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, RODS, FISHING TACKLE,
+     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 water-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Hatchet and Knives]
+
+[Illustration: KNAPSACK AND DITTY-BAG]
+
+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 edge 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.
+
+[Illustration: HATCHET AND KNIVES]
+
+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.
+
+                         A WOODSMAN,
+
+  _To getting up one limber-go-shiftless pocket-axe:_    DR.
+
+  Cost of blade                                        $3.00
+  Fare on boat                                          1.00
+  Expenses for 3 days                                   3.00
+  Three days lost time at $1.25 per day                 3.75
+  Two days making model, handle and sheath, say         2.00
+                                                    --------
+  Total                                               $12.75
+  Per contra, by actual value of axe                    2.00
+                                                    --------
+  Balance                                             $10.75
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Cooking Utensils_]
+
+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
+water-tight 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 water-tight. 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. How
+ever 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Rods_]
+
+I feel more diffidence in speaking of rods than of any other matter
+connected with out-door 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, 4-3/4-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 5-3/4 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 water-proof
+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 life-long 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Insect Pests]
+
+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 camp-fire, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Beware the Black Fly_]
+
+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 head-rest 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 bed-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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Indian Camp_]
+
+[Illustration: INDIAN CAMP]
+
+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 bed-time. 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 of 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 rain-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Shanty-Tent_]
+
+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 water-proofing; 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Construction_]
+
+To put it up properly, make a neat frame as follows: Two strong stakes
+or posts for the front, driven firmly in the ground 4-1/2 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, hard-wood 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 six-penny 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 six-penny 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.
+
+[Illustration: SHANTY-TENT AND CAMP-FIRE]
+
+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 page 26. 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Other Camps_]
+
+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 stocking
+leg 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.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Sparks_]
+
+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 camp-fire. 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 camp-fire.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter IV
+
+     CAMP-FIRES 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 camp-fire. 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 camp-fire. And the latter is usually handled in a way that
+is too sad, too wasteful; in short, badly botched. For instance.
+
+[Sidenote: _The "Guides' Camp"_]
+
+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 sign-board 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 camp-fire.
+
+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 mid-night, 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 camp-fire 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
+camp-fires 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, "Holy 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 h----. 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 coffee-pot 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 horse 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 camp-fires, 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 camp-fire 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _A Winter Camp_]
+
+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
+camp-fire, 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 by the
+aid of ten-foot poles, flattened at one end, and 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.
+
+[Illustration: CAMP-FIRE AS IT SHOULD BE MADE]
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Our Luck_]
+
+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 illustrations show the camp-fire--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 out-door 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 bed-time.
+
+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, water-proof 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Best Flies_]
+
+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,
+new-born 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
+out-door 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _At the Spring-Hole_]
+
+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 "johnny-cake," break it into pieces the size of 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 forty 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Frog-Bait and Gangs]
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration: FROG-BAIT]
+
+[Illustration: THREE-HOOK GANG]
+
+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 fork 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Lake Trout]
+
+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 worse 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Stout Tackle]
+
+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 an 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, on 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Swivels and Snells]
+
+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 OUT-DOOR RANGE
+
+
+The way in which an average party of summer outers will contrive to
+manage--or mis-manage--the camp and camp-fire 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 camp-fire, 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 hard-tack 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.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Day Out]
+
+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 camp-fire 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.
+
+[Sidenote: The First Night]
+
+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, knots, 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 re-arranging
+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).--"D--n '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."
+
+[Sidenote: Their Lesson]
+
+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, camp-fires,
+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 doodlebugs 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."
+
+[Illustration: G. W. HATCHET]
+
+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, fore-stick, etc., complete the arrangement,
+and the camp-fire is in shape for the coming night, precisely as shown
+in the engraving on page 33.
+
+"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.
+
+[Sidenote: The Cooking-Range]
+
+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 out-door 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.
+
+[Illustration: OUT-DOOR COOKING-RANGE]
+
+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 mid-night, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: Getting Breakfast]
+
+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 dose.
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: Progress?]
+
+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 d--d. "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,
+     COFFEE, 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 out-door 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 out-door sport. 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 hard-tack, 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 teaspoonful 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 out-door 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 teaspoonful of salt,
+and a teaspoonful 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Coffee_]
+
+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 parts 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 Senhor 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Potatoes_]
+
+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 any one 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; luke-warm 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
+camp-fire in which to do it. To cook them aright, scoop out a basinlike
+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,
+hard-wood 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 forty minutes commence to try them with
+a sharpened hard-wood 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 salt
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Beans_]
+
+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, hard-wood
+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 teaspoonful 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Stews and Fries_]
+
+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 hard-wood 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 hard-wood
+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
+long-legged 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Fish_]
+
+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 broil 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 teaspoonful 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
+hard-tack, with butter. The simplest is best, healthiest, and most
+appetizing.
+
+As a rule, on a mountain 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 camp-fire 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 of 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Condiments_]
+
+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 have 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 your 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 outflanking 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 schoolmates 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _At Pete Williams'_]
+
+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, _cui bono_?
+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, gamy 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
+good-bye, 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 er 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
+twelvemonth 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, out-door 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
+camp-fires 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Wood Life_]
+
+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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Incidents_]
+
+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, sassafras, 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Turkeys and Deer_]
+
+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 travelling 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 johnny-cake, 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
+johnny-cake, 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 d--d 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--Canoeing
+
+     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 may 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 any one to buy a ten and a half pound canoe;
+although she would prove competent for a skillful light-weight. 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 15x31-1/2 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _A Light Canoe_]
+
+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 out-door sport a specialty,
+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. It is 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Experiments_]
+
+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 Gamp, 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 my 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 oil-cloth 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _The Proper Craft_]
+
+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 shanty 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 man 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
+water-proofing. 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Various Craft_]
+
+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 water-tight
+compartments, which I abhor.
+
+The canvas is rather a logy, limp sort 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Overboard_]
+
+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's 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 ton 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 muzzle-loader 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.
+
+[Sidenote: _Final Advice_]
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+Index
+
+
+    Adirondacks 28, 95
+
+    angle-worms 37, 48
+
+    axe 6-9
+
+
+    Bait, fish-belly 47
+      -fishing 37
+      grubs 37
+      pork frog 41, 43
+      worms 48
+
+    barbs on hooks 40
+
+    baskets, pack 6
+
+    bear 83
+
+    beans 67-69
+
+    beds 51
+
+    black bass bait 43, 47
+
+    black flies 15
+
+    blanket-bag 4
+
+    boats 96 ff.
+
+    boots 3, 75
+
+    bread 63, 64
+
+    brook trout 36
+
+    broom for camp 52
+
+    browse 99
+
+
+    Camp 18 ff.
+      brush shanty 21
+      coal cabin 25
+      cookery 50, 62 ff.
+      fires 28-34, 49, 57
+      furniture 51, 52
+      Indian 18-21
+      shanty tent 21-24
+      shed roof 26
+      stoves 28, 57
+      tents 18, 21, 27
+
+    canoes 87-94, 96-99
+      "Nessmuk" 90
+      paddles 93
+      "Sairy Gamp" 91
+      seats 93
+      "Susan Nipper" 91
+      weight 92
+
+    canvas
+      boats 97
+      water-proofing 22
+
+    cleanliness in camp 53
+
+    clinker-built cedar boats 96
+
+    clothing 3, 75
+
+    coal cabin 25
+
+    coffee 64-66
+
+    condiments 75
+
+    cooking 49 ff., 62 ff.
+      fires 49
+      -range 56
+      utensils 9, 10
+      _See also_ recipes
+
+
+    Deer 84
+
+    ditty-bag 11, 12
+
+    duffle 3, 4
+
+
+    Fire
+      woods 57
+      _See also_ camp, cooking
+
+    fish, cooking of 73
+      large 44, 45, 47, 48
+
+    fish-belly bait 47
+
+    fishing 35-48
+      bait- 37
+      fly- 36 ff.
+
+    flapjacks 63
+
+    flies 36 ff.
+
+    fly pests 15
+      varnish 15
+
+    foot-gear 3, 75
+
+    Forester, Frank 15, 62
+
+    forests 31, 77-86
+
+    forks 9
+
+    frog-bait 41, 43
+
+    frogging 12, 45, 46
+
+    Froissart 1
+
+    Game fish 44
+
+    gang hooks 40, 41
+
+    gnats 15
+
+    gut snells 47
+
+
+    Hat 4
+
+    hatchet 7-9
+
+    headlight 39, 46
+
+    hooks, barbs on 40
+      kinds of 40 ff.
+      size of 44
+
+    hunting 75, 100
+
+
+    Indian camp 18-21
+
+    insects 14-17
+
+
+    Johnnycake 63
+
+
+    Knapsack 6
+
+    knives 8, 9
+
+
+    Lake trout 43
+
+    lapstreak boats 96
+
+    lines 36
+
+    lost in woods 14
+
+
+    Mascalonge 42, 47
+
+    _Micropterus dolomieu_ 43
+
+    mosquitoes 15
+      ointment 15, 16
+
+    "mudding up" 74
+
+    Murray, "Adirondack" 15, 46
+
+
+    Night
+      fishing 39
+      in camp 20
+
+
+    Overwork 1
+
+
+    Pack baskets 6
+
+    paddles 93
+
+    paper boats 97
+
+    pests 14-17
+
+    pickerel 42, 45, 47
+
+    pillows 18, 20, 93
+
+    planning outings 2
+
+    pocket-axe 7, 8
+
+    poker and tongs 51
+
+    preparations 4
+
+    pudding sticks 93
+
+    "punkies" 16, 17
+
+
+    Recipes
+      baked beans 69
+      bread 63, 64
+      brown bread 69
+      canned goods 73, 74
+      club bread 64
+      coffee 64-66
+      ducks 72
+      fish 73
+      flapjacks 63
+      grouse 72
+      Johnnycake 63
+      "mudding up" 74
+      pancake 63
+      pigeons 71
+      porcupine 72
+      pork and beans 69
+      potatoes 66, 67
+      quail 71
+      rabbit 72, 73
+      soups 70
+      squirrel 71
+      stews 70
+      tea 66
+      vegetables 67, 68
+      venison 72
+      woodcock 72
+
+    reels 36
+
+    rifle 82
+
+    rods 10, 11
+
+    "roughing it" 13
+
+
+    _Salmo fontinalis_ 11, 36
+
+    shanty tent 21-24
+
+    shelter cloth 4
+
+    snells 41, 46, 47
+
+    sparks 27
+
+    Spencer, Herbert 1
+
+    spoons 9
+
+    spring-holes 38, 39
+
+    still-hunting 75, 76, 100
+
+    stoves 28, 57
+
+    swivels 47
+
+
+    Tents 18, 21, 27
+
+    tinware 9, 10
+
+    tongs 51
+
+    trout 35 ff.
+
+
+    Vacations 2
+
+    vegetables 67, 68
+
+    venison 72
+
+
+    Warner, Charles Dudley 11, 17, 50, 75
+
+    water-proofing canvas 22
+
+    winter camps 31 ff.
+
+    wire snells 41
+
+    wild hog 82
+
+    worms 48
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Woodcraft and Camping, by
+George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
+
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