You may be interested in a picture of our camp on the Allalaer River
in Norway. The shelter was rigged up with a waterproof sheet and a few
poles cut in the forest.
Inside this shelter you see our store-cupboard; in other words, a box
turned on end, with a bit of the lid made into a shelf. In this we
stored our bread, coffee, sugar, and such things.
Then down on the left of the sketch is a small log bridge over a
stream. Under this bridge we kept our milk, butter, and fish; it made
an excellent ice-cold larder.
Next we come to the chopping block, an old log on which we chopped
firewood into the right size. If you chop wood on the ground you will
very soon blunt your axe, so always use a chopping-block.
And when you have finished chopping, leave your axe sticking in the
block; this preserves its edge from getting rusty or knocked by
stones, etc. It also preserves your toes from getting cut by stumbling
over an axe in the dark.
[Illustration: MY CAMP ON THE ALLALAER RIVER IN NORWAY.]
Next we come to the important part of the camp--the fire. You see we
made the fire between two big flat stones. These were useful for
standing the frying-pan on, and cooking billies, etc. The fire is made
at the windward end of the channel, between the stones, so that the
heat blows into the channel, while the fire forms a pile of red-hot
embers outside, at which toast can be made.
Notice our automatic toast-makers, made of a forked stick and a small
supporting fork.
[Illustration: MY TOASTING-FORK.]
Then over the fire we had a crossbar of green wood (if you use old
wood it will catch fire and drop your pot into the fire just as the
stew is ready); it was supported on two stout, firmly-driven forked
stakes, not the wobbly, rickety things which tenderfoots like to put
up.
On the crossbar our kettle was hung by a pot-hook--just a hooked stick
with a good notch cut in it to take the handle of the kettle.
Also on the crossbar in the sketch you see our tongs. These are most
useful things for a camp-fire for lifting hot embers into the spot
where you want them for giving extra heat.
[Illustration: MY AUTOMATIC KETTLE-HOLDER.]
The tongs are made from a green stick of hazel, or alder, or birch.
The stick should be about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. At the middle you cut
away a good bit of the wood from one side for about 4 inches. Then cut
a number of small notches across the grain of the wood to make it
still more bendable at the centre. Here's the side view of the centre
part of your stick.
[Illustration: THE TONGS BEFORE AND AFTER BEING BENT.]
Then flatten the inner sides of your stick towards both ends, so that
they get a better hold on things; bend the two ends together and there
you have your tongs:
Next to the tongs, in the sketch, you see a small branch of dwarf fir.
This makes a hearth-brush, which is very useful for keeping the fire
neat and clean.
The ordinary-looking stick leaning against the crossbar is an ordinary
sort of stick, but a very useful one. He is the poker and pot-lifter.
He should be a stout green stick not easily burnt. Poplar is a
difficult wood to burn, but then many old hands won't use it, because
it is said to bring bad luck on the camp-fire where it is used; but
that is an old wife's story, and I always use it when I get the
chance.
If the soup gets upset, I look on it as my fault, not the fault of the
poplar poker. In fact, whatever wood the poker is made of, one always
seems to get a kind of affection for him. He is only an ordinary ugly,
old half-burnt stick, but he is jolly useful and helpful.
On this side of the fire you see the pile of wood that has been
collected for fuel. It is generally the right thing when in camp for
each camper, when coming in, whether from bathing, or fishing, or
anywhere else, to bring with him some contribution to the wood-pile.
Different kinds of wood are needed for it.
First you want "punk" and "kindling"--that is, strips of birch-bark
(which are better than paper for starting a fire), dry fibre from the
inside of old dead trees, dry lichen or moss, anything that will start
a fire. And also small, dry splinters, chips, and twigs to give the
flame for lighting the bigger wood.
Secondly, you want lots of sticks, about 1/2 to 1 inch in thickness,
for making your cooking-fire of hot embers, or you can get bigger
logs, from which you can afterwards knock off, with our friend the
poker, red-hot embers for the cooking.
Remember, you don't want a great blazing fire for cooking, but one
that is all made of red-hot lumps.
For warming you up and giving a cheerful appearance to the camp at
night you can have any amount of big, dry branches and logs--the drier
the better for a good blaze.
Beyond the fire, in the sketch, you see our dining-table and seat.
This is a plank set across a hole in the ground, and the table is
another plank beyond it. That is one way of making a dining-table.
Another way to make seats and tables in camp, especially in a country
like this, where the forest is full of fallen timber, is to go and
look out for a suitable pine tree with branches so placed that by a
little lopping with an axe you can make a trestle like this:
[Illustration: HOME-MADE SEAT.]
Two such trestles can be made to support a few split saplings, or a
number of stout straight rods, which can then be nailed, spiked, or
lashed down with cross-battens to form a table; and more such trestles
can form the seats.
On the right of the sketch you see three forked uprights. These formed
our rack for holding fishing-rods and landing-nets.
The little tufts hanging on this rack are bunches of heather.
Did you ever hear the yarn of the Boy Scout who, at his school
examination in natural history, was asked, "What is heather?" He
replied, "Well, sir, it is what we clean the cooking-pots with in
camp."
He was quite right, though perhaps the examiner did not think so.
A few bunches of heather are most useful as dishcloths for cleaning
dishes and pots. The reason why they are hanging on the rod rack is
that they are handy for use in the scullery, which is that part of the
river close by the rack.
In using a river you always have certain spots told off to the
different uses. First and highest up-stream you get your drinking
water. Next is your handwashing place (not bathing place) and scullery
for washing plates and cooking-pots.
Below that is the refuse place, where you throw away scraps off the
plates and from cooking-pots, and gut your fish. This should be where
the stream will carry away the scraps and not slack water, where they
will collect.
Of course, this throwing of refuse into the river only does in a wild
country or where the river is big. In most English camps, all refuse
should be buried in a pit or burnt.