NEW TRICKS IN WOODCRAFT
"Camp making is a science," said Cale Vaughn that night, after they
had selected a suitable site for their night's lodging. "In the
woods you should first clear the site of brush and all dead leaves,
for the danger of fire is very great in these big timber tracts.
Just a little carelessness might do a million dollars' worth of
damage. If you have to burn off the rubbish, do so in small spots
at a time, then backfire toward the center. Be extremely careful
about this. While one is unpacking, the others will be engaged in
cutting poles for the tents, getting the food ready, each man having
his task to perform. I don't need to advise you on that point. You
boys can beat me in pitching a camp. You could give points to a
circus man, I really believe. In case your ground is too rocky to
permit driving in stakes, you may erect two tripods at a convenient
distance apart on which to place the ridge pole. If you have no
ridge pole use a rope instead."
"That is a good idea. I never thought of it," nodded Butler.
"In this way you can make a self-supporting framework without driving
a single stick into the ground. Then comes your bed. How would you
go to work to make a browse-bed, Master Tad?"
"Either stick the pine or cedar stems into the ground until they will
hold you up, or pile the browse in until you have enough to lie on,"
answered Tad.
"That will do very well, but the woodsman likes to take a little more
pains, especially if he is going to remain in camp for a few days, as
we shall do."
"We are ready to learn," nodded Rector.
"Then I will explain. First smooth the ground, leaving no stones,
stubs or hummocks. Cut head and foot logs a foot thick, and side
logs which may be somewhat smaller. Pin them down with inverted
crotches, making a rectangular framework on the ground to keep the
browse in place. Do you get me?"
"Yes, yes," answered the boys.
"I never knew how to make my bed so it wouldn't slip out from under
me in the night," laughed Tad. "In the morning I usually find myself
lying on the bare ground, no matter how carefully I have made my
bed."
"So I have observed," smiled the guide. "We will have Charlie do this
work hereafter, but it might be a good idea for you boys to help in
order to get your hands in. There will be many times when you will
have to do it for yourselves."
"We have had to do so many times already," muttered Walter.
"To continue with our subject, next fell a thriving balsam or
hemlock--spruce, pine or cedar will do if you can get nothing
else--and strip off the fans."
The boys drew closer, for they were learning something that was of no
little interest to them.
"Place a course of boughs a foot long against the head-log, butts
down and to the front, then shingle another layer in front of these
and continue in that way down to the foot of the bed, leaving only
the tips of the boughs showing."
"That is something like my way of making the browse-bed," said Tad.
"Yes, except that yours is a heap of greens, not a bed," answered the
guide.
Tad agreed to this with a nod.
"New greens should be put in every day to freshen your bed and keep
it soft."
"It strikes me that a bed of that sort means a lot of work," observed
Rector.
"I could sleep myself to death on that kind of couch," mused Stacy.
"You can do that all right on the hard ground," answered Butler.
"Ever hear Stacy snore, Mr. Vaughn?"
"I have not had that pleasure."
"Oh, it won't be any pleasure. Take my word for that," asserted Ned.
"No, you will think a troop of trained sea lions have broken loose
and strayed out in the woods. Never heard anything like it in my
life," said Tad.
"Outside of a zoological garden, Tad," added Ned.
"Having finished this," resumed the guide, "we come to the question
of caring for the food. I presume you have lost grub now and then?"
"Principally through the medium of Stacy Brown's mouth," answered
Ned.
"Hang your salt pork or bacon to a tree beside the fireplace where it
will be handy. If you are in a country where there are thieving
varmints, suspend the stuff from a wire or cord secured to two trees
sheltering the stuff from sun and rain. If you have packs, pile them
neatly together, covering them with canvas; or, in the event of not
having any of the latter, make a thatch roof of boughs. Protect your
saddles and trappings in the same way, making sure that the lash
ropes cannot get wet and shrink. Have everything where you know
where to find it in the darkest night and where it will not be
overlooked when you break camp."
"I see we have a lot to learn," said Tad.
"Yes, we've been thinking we knew it all," agreed Chunky.
"For a more permanent camp, of course you would go more into detail."
"Please explain," urged Tad.
"Yes, tell us everything. We shall probably decide to live in the
woods one of these days," added Rector.
Stacy shook his head slowly.
"I don't think I want to go into permanent camp, if there's any more
work about it than we have to do already."
"There is considerably more," smiled Cale. "You know how to make a
dining table. I have shown you that already. You will want to make
a kitchen table in the same way, using sticks, as you will have no
boards. Dig a sink hole into which to throw your refuse, sprinkling
ashes or dirt over the stuff every day, otherwise you will be
pestered with flies. If you have a spring handy it will be a good
place in which to keep fresh meat, such as venison. The outside of
the meat will come out white and stringy, but the inside of it will
keep fresh and sweet for weeks, provided no bears come nosing around
after the stuff."
"I am afraid such a plant would not last long in these woods," said
Tad.
"Not long," agreed the guide. "However, there is a simple way to
scare off the animals. All you have to do is to tie a white rag to
a stick directly over this cache. It will cause them to keep a safe
distance away ordinarily. Speaking of caching or storing food for
future use, there are several ways of doing this. My usual way is to
suspend the stuff from a wire strung between trees, high enough to be
out of the reach of any prowling animals. Be sure to peel the bark
from the trees to which your line is fastened. That will prevent the
animals from climbing the tree."
"What do you think of it, boys?" asked Tad, glancing at his
companions.
"I never thought there was so much to it," answered Rector.
"Oh, I haven't begun yet," laughed Vaughn.
"Please, please don't begin, then, if you are going to put all this
into practice. I want to get some fun out of this trip, not make a
slave of myself," begged Stacy amid a general laugh.
"I think you boys have had enough instruction for one day. Perhaps I
am telling you some things that you know already?"
"No, no; go on," begged the boys.
"Yes, go on, I can stand it to hear about it, if I don't have to do
any of the work," nodded Chunky solemnly.
"Let's see. Well, suppose I talk to you about campfires. Come over
by the fire and sit down. Our friend, Master Stacy, is weary after
his bee experience, and I don't know that I blame him," said Vaughn
with a merry twinkle in his eyes.
"I'll warrant he isn't half as tired as the bees that stung him.
They surely will have contracted the hook-worm disease," declared
Ned.
"Now we are ready to hear about the campfire," reminded Tad, after
they had seated themselves. The Professor, who had been reading,
laid down his book to listen.
"As you know from sad experience, some green woods will not burn,"
began the guide. "Leaving aside the woods that will not burn, I'll
mention some of those that will do good service when green. Hickory
is the best of all. It makes a hot fire, lasts a long time, and burns
down to a bed of coals that will keep up an even heat for hours.
Next in value are the chestnut, oak and dogwood. Black birch is
excellent, too, doing its own blowing."
"Blowing?" questioned the Professor.
"Yes, sir. That means that the oil in the birch assists its
combustion, so that the wood needs no coaxing to make it burn. Sugar
maple is good, too, but it is too valuable a tree to waste. Locust
and mulberry are good fuel. Now white ash makes one of the
first-class campfire fuels. It is easy to cut and tote and catches
fire readily."
"What about kindling?" interjected Tad.
"Yes, kindling," urged Stacy. "I've burned up half of my old shirts
trying to start fires."
"The birch bark is one of the best," answered the guide. "Besides, it
makes good torches. It is full of resinous oil, blazes up at once,
will burn in any wind, and even wet sticks may be kindled with it."
"That's new," nodded Butler.
"Stacy, there's your job. You won't have to sacrifice any more
shirts in trying to start a campfire," said Ned. "Your job, from now
on, is peeling birch bark for kindling."
"Pitch pine, of course, affords the best knots," continued Cale.
"Splits from a stump whose outside has been burned are rich in resin.
Don't pick up sticks from the ground, but rather those from the down
wood. Ordinarily you will find fine dry wood in a tree that has been
shivered by lightning."
"Br-r-r!" shivered the fat boy.
"To get to our subject--fire--you must remember that more necessary
than kindling or firewood is air. What I mean is, don't jumble your
fuel together any old way, but build up a systematic structure so the
air can draw under it and upward through the pile."
"That's why my shirts wouldn't burn," interrupted the fat boy. "I
jammed them down in the pile of wood just as I'd ram a wad into a
muzzle-loading gun."
"Just like you," affirmed Rector.
"Lay two good-sized sticks on the ground for a foundation to begin
with. Across them at right angles place a few dry twigs or splinters
so they do not quite touch. On these, one at each side, lay your
paper or bark, then on top of this put two other cross sticks,
smaller than the bed sticks; over this a cross layer of larger twigs
just as you would build a cob house, but gradually increasing the size
of the sticks as you work up toward the top of your house. You try
that and see if you don't have a roaring fire in a minute after you
apply the match. We will build one, or rather you boys may, when we
get into our camp tomorrow."
"Great!" agreed the boys.
"There are numerous methods, such as 'trapper's fire,' 'hunter's
fire,' 'Indian's fire,' and the like. I will tell you about them at
some other time. You will get them all jumbled into one if I tell
you now. I will add that, for warmth, you should build a low fire.
If you build up a big, roaring fire you can't get near it. The low
fire enables you to hover over it. That's an Indian trick. I could
go on talking about fires from now until tomorrow morning, but the
best way is to take these up one by one and learn them by actual
experience. That we will do as we go along. You boys are fine
woodsmen already, but like all the rest of us, you still have some
things to learn. I am going to teach you all I know, and if you will
watch Charlie John you may be able to get some points from him."
"Most interesting indeed," agreed the Professor.
"The first rainy day we have I will show you how to build a fire in
quick time when everything is soaked. Tomorrow we will put some of
our theories regarding camp-making and fire-building into practice.
Just now it's time for our chuck and then some stories over the
evening fire," concluded the guide.