Forest! Subtle she is, and mysterious, and gifted with a charm that
lures. Vast she is, and dreadful, so that man bows before her fiercer
moods, a little thing. Gentle she is, and kindly, so that she denies
nothing, whether of the material or spiritual, to those of her chosen
who will seek. August she is, and yet of a homely, sprightly
gentleness. Variable she is in her many moods. Night, day, sun, cloud,
rain, snow, wind, lend to her their best of warmth and cold, of comfort
and awe, of peace and of many shoutings, and she accepts them, but yet
remains greater and more enduring than they. In her is all the
sweetness of little things. Murmurs of water and of breeze, faint
odours, wandering streams of tepid air, stray bird-songs in fragment as
when a door is opened and closed, the softness of moss, the coolness of
shade, the glimpse of occult affairs in the woods life, accompany her
as Titania her court. How to express these things; how to fix on paper
in a record, as one would describe the Capitol at Washington, what the
Forest is--that is what I have asked myself often, and that is what I
have never yet found out.
This is the wisdom reflection has taught. One cannot imprison the ocean
in a vial of sea-water; one cannot imprison the Forest inside the
covers of a book.
There remains the second best. I have thought that perhaps if I were to
attempt a series of detached impressions, without relation, without
sequence; if I were to suggest a little here the beauty of a moon-beam,
there the humour of a rainstorm, at the last you might, by dint of
imagination and sympathy, get some slight feeling of what the great
woods are. It is the method of the painter. Perhaps it may suffice.
For this reason let no old camper look upon this volume as a treatise
on woodcraft. Woodcraft there is in it, just as there is woodcraft in
the Forest itself, but much of the simplest and most obvious does not
appear. The painter would not depict every twig, as would the
naturalist.
Equally it cannot be considered a book of travel nor of description.
The story is not consecutive; the adventures not exciting; the
landscape not denned. Perhaps it may be permitted to call it a book of
suggestion. Often on the street we have had opened to us by the merest
sketches of incident limitless vistas of memory. A momentary pose of
the head of a passer-by, a chance word, the breath of a faint
perfume--these bring back to us the entirety of forgotten scenes. Some
of these essays may perform a like office for you. I cannot hope to
give you the Forest. But perhaps a word or a sentence, an incident, an
impression, may quicken your imagination, so that through no conscious
direction of my own the wonder of the Forest may fill you, as the mere
sight of a conch-shell will sometimes till you with the wonder of the
sea.
SUGGESTIONS FOR OUTFIT.
In reply to inquiries as to necessary outfit for camping and
woods-travelling, the author furnishes the following lists:--
1. _Provisions per man, one week._
7 lbs. flour; 5 lbs. pork; 1-5 lb. tea; 2 lbs. beans; 1 1-2 lbs. sugar;
1 1-2 lbs. rice; 1 1-2 lbs. prunes and raisins; 1-1-2 lb. lard; 1 lb.
oatmeal; baking-powder; matches; soap; pepper; salt; 1-3 lb.
tobacco--(weight, a little over 20 lbs.). This will last much longer if
you get game and fish.
2. _Pack one, or absolute necessities for hard trip._
_Wear_ hat; suit woollen underwear; shirt; trousers; socks; silk
handkerchief; cotton handkerchief; moccasins.
_Carry_ sweater (3 lbs.); extra drawers (1 1-2 lbs.); 2 extra
pairs socks; gloves (buckskin); towel; 2 extra pairs moccasins;
surgeon's plaster; laxative; pistol and cartridges; fishing-tackle;
blanket (7 1-2 lbs.); rubber blanket (1 lb.); tent (8 lbs.); small axe
(2 1-2 lbs.); knife; mosquito-dope; compass; match-box; tooth-brush;
comb; small whetstone--(weight, about 25 lbs.); 2 tin or aluminium
pails; 1 frying-pan; 1 cup; 1 knife, fork, and spoon--(weight, 4 lbs.
if of aluminium).
Whole pack under 50 lbs. In case of two or more people, each pack would
be lighter, as tent, tinware, etc., would do for both.
3. _Pack two--for luxuries and easy trips--extra to pack one._
More fishing-tackle; camera; 1 more pair socks; 1 more suit
underclothes; extra sweater; wading-shoes of canvas; large axe;
mosquito net; mending materials; kettle; candles; more cooking-utensils;
extra shirt; whisky.
THE END.