THE ANGLER’S CAMP
Where the silvery gleam of the rushing stream
Is so brightly seen o’er the rocks, dark green,
Where the white pink grows by the wild red rose
And the bluebird sings till the welkin rings;
Where the red deer leaps and the panther creeps,
And the eagles scream over cliff and stream,
Where the lilies bow their heads of snow,
And the hemlocks tall throw a shade o’er all;
Where the rolling surf laves the emerald turf,
Where the trout leaps high at the hovering fly,
Where the sportive fawn crops the soft green lawn,
And the crows’ shrill cry bodes a tempest nigh--
There is my home--my wildwood home.
Where no steps intrude in the dense dark wood,
Where no song is heard but of breeze and bird;
Where the world’s foul scum can never come;
Where friends are so few that all are true--
There is my home--my wildwood home.
--EDWARD Z. C. JUDSON (“Ned Buntline”)
(An Adirondack camp in ante-bellum days)
Angling leads naturally to camping, because of the manifest advantage
of being domiciled most conveniently to the waters to be fished; and
though conscious of the plethora of printed advice upon the subject
of camp-life and equipment, we yet have the hardihood to believe
we may be able to “hand out” a few pointers that will prove neither
redundant nor altogether devoid of practical value to many of our
readers. There are things about this outdoor game that it is not
possible to overemphasize.
Whenever you project a camping trip, take it for granted that you
are going to camp _in the rain_. To be sure, it may not rain--but
then, again, it does. If you are prepared for it, you yet can have a
satisfactory trip; if you are not, it is absolutely and irretrievably
spoiled. The first consideration is to have your tents actually--not
supposedly--waterproof, especially their roofs; and if for an
extended trip, have an additional roof-piece or “fly” to spread a few
inches above the tent roof proper.
Of course one does not expect to go upon such an expedition in the
middle of June, in this latitude, and encounter two weeks of the
coolest and wettest weather that the Weather Bureau has turned loose
in over forty years for a corresponding period. And yet if one of the
chief features of the trip was to be the testing of the practical
qualifications of a little homemade shelter-tent, no one may deny
that the weather served the purpose admirably.--Wherefore the story
of the tent that “made good.”
[Illustration: ANGLERS’ CAMP]
The place is the upper waters, in Sullivan County, N. Y., of a little
river that for recommendation has size, beauty, and wildness in
great variety, freedom to angle for miles without interference,
and the presence of many trout in its waters, both native and brown,
averaging a goodly size, requiring skill to attach, and never in
primer condition then during this season, the early Summer of 1916.
The modest intention of the author, and designer of the aforesaid
tent, was to produce a creation that should embody all the good
points of all the good tents that had preceded it--and then some.
Whether or not he succeeded in this particular endeavor, the tent
proved a success all right; with the addition of a butler’s pantry
and garage it almost might pass for a Newport summer cottage.
It is seven feet square on the ground, seven feet to the peak at
the top of the triangular front side, and has an eighteen-inch wall
at the back. It has windows fifteen by eighteen inches, screened by
cheesecloth, and provided with flaps outside, adjusted by cords; and
the door in the front is five feet high above a six-inch sill, three
feet wide at the bottom, and fourteen inches at top. This opening
also is protected by a cheesecloth screen-door which draws to one
side and is gathered by tapes when not in use, and also there is
a regular flap-door, hinged at the top and secured when closed by
large hooks-and-eyes. (De Long “Jumbos.” The same likewise fasten the
sleeping-bag flaps, presently to be noted.)
The bottom and one side of the door-space, to which the screen-door
is not sewed, is made in _double flaps between which_ the free edges
of the screen-door are secured with safety-pins in closing it. Edges
of screen-door are bound with tape. The outer door may be entirely
closed, be stayed out in front like that of a Frazer canoe-tent, or
be closed at either side with the opposite side held open. A small
piece of sapling is run through a pocket at the top edge of the
door-sill to prevent sagging.
The material is the best quality unbleached muslin--about twenty-five
yards of it--tanned by immersion in a hot decoction of ground white
oak bark. (Another time we believe we will go in for a green color,
with “Diamond” household-dye, and will use the government airplane
cloth, beautiful for tents.) The muslin was passed through the
solution three times, rinsed each time, and hung out to dry (thereby
greatly arousing the curiosity of the neighbors). This before
cutting. The proportion for the dye, as given by Kephart, was two
pounds of the dry ground-bark to three and one-half gallons of water.
After chipping the bark into small pieces with a hatchet it was
ground in a hand grist-mill. When dry, the muslin was waterproofed by
the alum and lead method. This consists in preparing two solutions,
one with three-quarters of a pound of alum and the other with the
same amount of sugar (acetate) of lead, each of which is dissolved
in four gallons of boiling soft water. When dissolved, and clear,
pour first the alum solution and then the lead water together into
another vessel. Allow this to stand for several hours to deposit
sediment, then pour off the clear liquid say into the washtub. Soak
and knead the fabric in this, let it stand an hour or two, rinse in
clear water, and hang out in the air to dry, without wringing. This
makes not only a pretty effective waterproofing but mildew-proofs the
cloth, and to no little extent renders it spark proof.
The weight of the tent material without the ground-cloth is a little
over five pounds.
From past experience the writer holds strong convictions that the
stretcher form of bed is at once the most generally practical and
comfortable for camping, so he decided to incorporate stretcher-bed
accommodations for two in the ground-cloth, which is sewed to the
bottom edges of the tent all the way around. (Yes, madam, this will
keep out wriggly and crawly things.) Also he decided to provide flaps
for these beds, to hold the blankets in place. Furthermore, the
tent-bottom, in addition to thus serving as _combined ground-cloth,
stretcher-beds, and sleeping-bags_, also was to be the waterproof
cover for the whole outfit, when packed; and could be utilized as a
packsack in which to carry additional duffle, as a hatchet or small
ax, folding reflector-baker, an army intrenching-tool or a miniature
shovel; and last but not least, a half-dozen old newspapers. All
this, and in addition two single five-pound army-blankets, which are
laid out flat inside the tent, on the floor--for packing--and folded
within it. Thus the tent can be raised in a rainstorm without getting
a drop of wet on the bedding.
[Illustration:
Ground-plan of combined tent ground-cloth, stretcher-beds, and
sleeping-bags: A--Stretcher-pole pockets; B--Pillow straps; C,
E--Sleeping-bag flaps; D--Lap-seams ]
The ground-cloth, complete as described, and waterproofed by the
paraffine method, is made of regulation army ten-ounce khaki duck,
three widths of which laid crosswise of the ground-plan, came out
just right after allowing for the lapped seams. About eleven yards
were required.
In applying the paraffine, about a pound was cut into shavings and
melted on the stove, removed and added to two-quarts of gasolene, on
the roof (more incitement of neighbors’ curiosity--almost painful),
the whole kept warm and fluid by placing it in a basin of hot water.
The ground-cloth then was spread out and the paraffine and gasolene
mixture applied hot to the bottom side with a paint-brush. It
congealed in streaks as soon as applied. Then it was hung in the sun
and air (neighbors forgotten by this time) for three or four hours,
and finally was ironed with a very hot iron, care being taken not to
burn it, which gave a uniform, smooth result, spreading the paraffine
evenly all over and into the fabric.
Some prefer to mix the paraffine with turpentine, and yet again, a
small quantity of melted beeswax sometimes is added. Also there are
ready-prepared waterproofing solutions, such as “Preservo,” etc.,
which you can buy at the camp outfitter’s for from a dollar up per
gallon. Another waterproofing process for cotton goods, consists in
working pure linseed oil thoroughly into it with a brush. As applied
to a tent, first set it up with everything pulling even and taut,
and start at the ridge or top and work toward the ground. The tent
must be left up, well exposed to sun and air, for two or three weeks
before folding it for packing or storage.
In utilizing the stretcher-bed feature of our tent--though it may
be used as an ordinary tent, without this--four saplings, about
two and one-half inches at the butt and about nine feet long, are
thrust through five-inch-wide pockets sewed on the under side of
the ground-cloth (for the middle pockets, the others being made by
folding the edges under) and extending from the back of the tent to
within about a foot of the front edge; a pocket along either side of
the middle, about sixteen inches apart. This left a center aisle,
which by sewing in two triangular side gores and a rectangular piece
at the back, gave a trough or gutter between the two beds when the
beds were raised at the head about ten inches above the ground, at
the back of the tent. The front ends of the stretcher-poles simply
were embedded in the ground, flush with the surface, and held apart
here by stakes driven into the ground flush with their top sides.
Thus one can stand or walk on the canvas of the center aisle with the
solid ground underfoot, when the rear ends of the poles are elevated.
In setting up, the beds are stretched taut sideways, and the poles
held apart at the back, by large nails driven against their sides and
into a thicker, cross-pole resting upon stones and atop of which the
stretcher-poles are supported. They project about two feet beyond the
tent rear wall. This arrangement is shown in the photo of the rear of
the tent, as also are the extension-flaps at bottom of back and sides
of the tent which prevent wind from blowing under the beds when used
as stretcher-beds.
[Illustration:
1--Inside of author’s tent, showing stretcher-bed with flaps and
blanket, pillow, window, and pockets
2--Rear view, with stretcher-beds in use ]
In any form of bed off the ground, the camper must guard against
_cold from underneath_--that’s where the chill principally comes
from. Banking up around the sides with earth and sod, and even a thin
layer of balsam, hemlock, or pine fans placed between the canvas of
the bed and the blanket will materially help here.
Of course these stretcher-beds are bound to sag some, but to insure
comfortable results you hollow out the ground under the middle of
each bed, a little distance each way from where your hips come, and
for a space about eighteen inches wide by three feet long. The old
army intrenching-tool does this work handily and serves well the
purpose of camp shovel, in ditching tents, etc.
A tent invariably should be well ditched, and its site should be
selected with special reference to water draining away from it in the
event of heavy rains; also with due regard to convenience of drinking
water and firewood. And don’t pitch your tent directly _under_ large
trees, particularly dead ones, or ones with dead limbs that might be
blown down by the wind and endanger your life. Nearby trees are all
right, to serve as a windbreak in the protection of which your camp
is pitched, but the site should be well exposed to the sun for a part
of the day. The ditch generally should extend around all four sides
of your tent, should be nearly a foot deep, and a leader ditch should
connect with the low corner. A more effective ditch-digger than the
intrenching-tool is a folding or collapsible shovel. It is a mighty
handy instrument about camp--so is a small cross-cut saw.
Plenty of trouble, perhaps you are thinking, for the sake of
comfortable sleeping. Well, son, when your uncle is out on a
two-weeks’ camping trip, if there is one thing that he’s going to
do it is to sleep comfortably or he will know the reason why. It is
the novice at the game whose specialty is “roughing it.” Your true
woodsman certainly has learned to accommodate his wants to restricted
means, but he is the last man to submit himself needlessly to harmful
exposure and privation. And say, speaking of trouble, did ever you
attempt to make one of those all-browse affairs?--make it right and
keep it so? That _is_ work. And did we sleep comfortably in our
stretcher-beds?--_Did_ we? Ask “Denny the Axman,” sixty-three years
young and good for a twenty-mile hike any day--he’ll answer.
In using this tent for only a night or two, the stretcher-bed feature
need not be utilized; the tent being set up with the bottom flat
and laid over leaves, browse, or grass. In this way it easily will
sleep three adults. Used for two, luxuriating in the stretcher-beds,
there is the aisle affording room for a small boy or for storage of
considerable duffle, and also a space at the foot of each bed, as
the beds are six inches less than the full length of the tent. “Next
time” we shall increase this fore-and-aft length of the tent perhaps
a foot, to gain more storage-room at this convenient spot.
One may stand at full height well within the door of this canvas
woods-dwelling, for changing clothes, etc., and he has headroom to
sit up in his bed; yet the walls are so steep that a good quality of
unbleached muslin, treated as stated, proved effectively waterproof,
even if the material was rubbed against on the inside. And our house
is _well ventilated_, both because of the windows and as the alum and
lead process does not seal the pores of the cloth while conferring
protection from the wet. The writer and his tent-mate “Denny”--and
may every camper have his equal for wearing qualities--weathered on
this trip a continuous thirty-six-hour downpour which raised the
river twenty-two inches, higher than it reached in early Spring.
But not yet have we exhausted the catalog of the virtues of this
little tent. On the inside of its rear wall are four pockets, and
there are two more on either side-wall, alongside the heads of the
beds, for miscellaneous articles of clothing, etc. The curious
“swellings” of the accompanying illustrations show that they were
appreciatively utilized.
Across the top edge of the rear wall and from thence extending
from the rear corners to the peak is a continuous piece of braided
cotton-rope, with small galvanized thimbles at these corners. This
rope-triangle bears all the chief strain of the ropes holding the
tent, and it is sewed to the inside of the roof at its edges. About
two feet from the peak it is left unattached for a space to admit of
the insertion of a pothook for suspension of a Stonebridge folding
candle-lantern (never go into camp without one, and use the extra
hard plumbers’-candles that will burn for hours with a minimum of
drip).
The main guy-ropes are two single ropes leading from the top corners
of the low rear wall, and a much longer double rope leading from
the peak over a pair of sapling shears and secured at either side
out in front; and the shears leave the door unobstructed. By easy
manipulation of these shears and of the _tautening-sticks_ placed
under the rear guys, slack quickly is taken up when required.
The weight of the completed ground-cloth is about ten pounds, making
fifteen or sixteen pounds for the completed tent; and twenty-five or
-six pounds for the whole outfit, including ten pounds of blankets,
which one man readily may carry in a packstrap while his companion
lugs the cook-kit and the grub.
Oh, about those newspapers! The added weight is insignificant, and
spread out between the blanket and the canvas, under and over the
sleeper, they are effective for much added warmth in chilly weather.
During prolonged wet weather you will appreciate more than ever
the value of woolen underwear for the woods, even in Summer; and
also the desirability of a warm, dry, comfortable bed. Sheepskin
bed slippers are another great comfort; so is a sleeping-hood at
times. Another pointer on the theme of keeping warm in extra chilly
weather: The time that most you will feel the cold is about three A.
M., and the place will be your back, between waist and shoulders. A
sheepskin vest may be bought for four or five dollars and is a good
investment--either way you look at it; and it’s nice for automobiling
in Winter, especially for the doctor when he gets up out of a warm
bed in the early hours to face the chill blast. If, in addition
to the observance of these suggestions, you carry to bed with you
the hot-water bottle mentioned in the previous chapter, and should
you chance to have along a down quilt to curl up in inside your
blanket--well, you may realize that you can be comfortable even
in a tent, in the woods, and in the rain. Of course it requires
forethought and the application of brains and ingenuity; and while
the latter may be some other fellow’s or a composite of some other
outdoorsmen’s, _the forethought must be yours_. Down quilts, though
undeniably bulky, are extremely light; and you can economize both
in bulk and cost by dividing one full-sized quilt into three parts,
each of which will afford good back protection for one sleeper; or
a feather pillow will serve as the makings of such a pad. For very
severe weather, though, there is nothing in the tent line equal
to one in the Baker style, left open in front, and whose slanting
back-wall reflects down on its occupants the heat from a good fire
built out in front.
[Illustration: Window detail:
A--Cord and bridle for raising flap. B--Cords for guys and closing.
C--Eyelet-holes through tent wall. D--Triangular pockets at back and
corners to insert. E--Twigs to reinforce flap. ]
Other little details of our tent are a doormat (yes, sir!) made of
an extra piece of duck, fifteen inches by three feet, secured at the
front of the aisle just within the door by hooks-and-eyes, to save
the ground-cloth proper from muddy feet; and two straps sewed at
the head of each bed under which to slip the pillows so they will
stay put, said pillows consisting of flour-bags stuffed with reserve
underwear, etc., or with balsam or other evergreen tips or even
ordinary leaves, moss, or grass. Mention also should be made here
of the little pockets at the back and at the front corners of the
window-flaps, for the insertion of twigs to hold these shutters out
flat when raised. The adjusting-cords lead through buttonholed
eyelets to the inside of the tent and are secured as desired by
making a slip-noose in them, the knot of which lies against the
inside wall close against the eyelet holes. We believe, gentlemen,
we have only to mention that along the line of direct strain at the
sides of the triangle forming the front wall, and from the top of the
rear wall along each side to the ground front-corners of this paragon
of a tent, the muslin is reinforced by three-quarter inch tape sewed
on the inside.
[Illustration: Side view of author’s tent]
[Illustration: Baker tent]
This tent is erected, except for the finer details, simply by staking
out the four ground corners, and then carrying the front guys from
the peak over the shears--thus it very quickly is made a “safe
port in a storm.” The procedure was to chuck all our other dunnage
immediately into this and next to erect the big fly (see ahead); we
then could arrange the further camp details under cover, at leisure.
Our regular outfit comprises in addition two other, seven by seven
wall tents and the duffle-bags.
An important point in the construction of any real tent is that it
should have eaves, projecting at least two or three inches, where the
roof meets the side-wall at a sharp angle, and especially when a seam
is there; another thing is that it often is a good stunt to economize
in weight by having the sides of very light material but to have the
_roof_ of heavier stuff.
[Illustration: Stretcher-bed temporary shelter]
A simpler application of the stretcher-bed principle makes at
once the easiest to erect, lightest, and most comfortable form of
temporary night-shelter known to the writer. All you need is a single
stretcher-bed canvas (they are stocked in the outfitting shops), a
poncho or similar square of waterproof material, and a blanket; or
a second poncho with two edges grommeted to lace together may be
used over the stretcher-bed poles. You cut two saplings for these
stretcher poles; and four more, smaller poles with which to make two
pairs of shears, about four feet high and with a three-foot base.
The shears are driven into the ground about four and one-half feet
apart. The stretcher-poles lie _outside_ the shears, elevated enough
to clear the ground nicely. As the weight of the stretcher occupant
then tends to spread his bed, it automatically is kept taut. A rope
serves as ridge and at the same time stays the whole thing at the
ends, where it is securely staked--have all main tent-stakes strong
and _long_ enough to hold when that big wind arrives in the dead of
some night. The poncho or whatnot is thrown over the ridge-rope--and
that’s all there is to it.
Remember then, when you are preparing your woodland couch, to _get
clear of the ground_. Next to some such affair, the best thing to
do is to scoop out a full-length hole, at least six or eight inches
deep, fill this with browse level with the ground, and then to top
this with your damp-excluding poncho within which is folded your
blanket.
If the personnel of your party is large enough for two or more tents,
a nice thing is to have a large waterproof fly that you can use for
the ridged roof of a court around three sides of which the tents are
grouped, each facing the center. Such an arrangement makes a very
comfortable “fix.” In protracted rainy weather you can build your
small cooking-fire under this large fly and sit around it and eat in
comfort; also you have the means of drying out clothing, etc. Upon
our trip mentioned above we had a sixteen-foot-square fly for this
purpose, which, stretched over and between our tents, proved a life
saver; this also was treated with the alum and lead, but it is of
six-ounce drill. We had pitched camp in the rain, most of the time
continued to camp in the rain, and all but broke camp in the rain.
You may keep dry during a prolonged rainy season and yet find the
confinement of close tent-life very irksome; a device of the kind
we have described adds much to your freedom of movement under these
circumstances. In the picture of the “Anglers’ Camp” you will see
how three tents may be set up around such a big central fly. It had
best extend a little beyond the front of each tent, being about two
feet higher than the tents at their highest point; the open side of
the court faces the stream. Here is a rough diagram of the plan. The
uprights which support the ridge-pole for this big fly may also be
utilized in the erection of two of the tents.
[Illustration: Plan of tents grouped to face central court roofed by
large fly]
Another thing that will add measurably to your comfort in a wet camp
is some pieces of canvas with which you may improvise stools and
chairs to sit upon under cover of your fly. A triangular piece of
duck, twelve to fifteen inches long on the sides, rope-bound and
looped at the corners--or hemmed at the edges and reinforced at the
corners, where grommets are inserted--with the blunt-pointed ends
of three crossed sticks thrust into these corners, the sticks being
bound together at the middle, makes a stool not to be sneezed at.
Before we proceed any further with this discussion we must have
special concern for our matches. If you have but once experienced the
feeling of miserable desolation in the wet woods without the means of
producing that thing most desirable of all, the cheer of a fire, you
need not be impressed with the idea that those matches must be stored
in an absolutely water-tight tin receptacle. A shaving-stick metal
holder makes a handy one. And it isn’t a bad stunt always to have on
your person a special, emergency supply of matches further protected
by previously having had their heads dipped in shellac or melted
paraffine.
Moreover don’t overlook the value of a store of dry, small
pine-kindlings--mere slivers of wood that you bring from home,
included amongst your duffle, and guard jealously by taking them to
bed with you, under the blanket, and reserve strictly for actual
need. The war-introduced “trench torch” or candle is also a great
boon when starting a fire under dam(p), bad circumstances.
Some of these things we have discussed thus far are in truth but the
A B C’s of the expert woodsman, but soon we are about to reveal
something that we believe to be really new--at any rate very little
known--about camp-fires; in short we now shall discourse about the
“Loot’s” rain-defying outside camp-fire, a discovery that he made
on our memorable wet expedition, demonstrating before our very eyes
how necessity could be the mother of invention. This phenomenon is
that of keeping a fire going right out in the open, _and with a good
steady rain raining right along_! As already affirmed, so far as we
are aware the inspiration of genius that created it had its genesis
in the cerebrum of Charlie, the popular Lieutenant, as intimated,
of our local branch of the State Guard, and one of our Westchester
County Supervisors. If he supervises the county affairs that directly
concern Yonkers as ably as he can supervise a camp-fire, he should be
elected to succeed himself perennially.
After a fire is once well started under cover it is a simple enough
matter to dry out alongside of it firewood for use as needed--and
if you are not an experienced camper you will be astonished to
learn how small a cooking-fire need be to be efficient; it’s that
starting it that may be the rub, to say nothing of keeping it going
satisfactorily in the open. So to start this Charlie affair a-going,
you may have to hunt for some dry tinder from the inside of a dead
stump or log. Or the thin outer bark of the white or yellow birches
contains a vegetable oil that will admit of its being fired even
when sodden with wet. (Birch logs are the best-burning green wood.)
But you must proceed in the right way. Make a cylindrical roll of
this bark, stand it vertically with the lower edge resting on two
small stones or pieces of wood to lift it at least an inch clear of
the ground, brace it thus with a few small pieces of kindling ranged
about it conewise, like the poles of a miniature tepee tent, and fire
the bark at the bottom edge. In addition to birch-bark, you should
lose no time in collecting a stock of small, dry, dead twigs for
safe storage in camp after it is once pitched, for kindling, against
a wet spell, and occasionally you may souse these with surplus
frying-pan fat. These or your pine kindlings and your birch-bark
will furnish sufficient nucleus for a good fire at any time. If you
have thought to bring along a small bellows, so much the better. A
piece of rubber tubing attached to a short metal tube having one end
flattened to insinuate under the embryo fire (perhaps made from an
old rod-ferrule), isn’t a bad fire-blower. (The whole might easily be
fashioned from a doctors’ defunct stethoscope.)
But how did Charlie do it?--well, we’re getting to that. His
beautiful idea is to build a roof of wet firewood over the fire, by
placing one end of the sticks on the top backlog, butting against a
strip of wood stood vertically to keep them from slipping off, with
their forward ends resting on the cross-bar or crane from which the
pots and “kittles” are suspended, and projecting somewhat in front of
it. A little space is left between the sticks as they are laid side
by side, so they will not blanket the fire too much. These screen the
fire from the rain sufficiently so that it will keep burning, and the
fire dries them enough so that they burn readily. When the fire needs
replenishing you feed it with a piece of the roof dropped dry side
down, and replace this with another, wet piece of firewood; how’s
that for perpetual reciprocity!
But after all, what less should we have expected as a result of
Charlie’s exuberant personal and professional qualifications! I have
mentioned something about his social and political activities--but
not a word as to his business-card, which in our home paper reads as
follows:
Secure our estimate on your heating
plant (new or repairs). Our work
and materials give the best service.
Our figures are close.
W---- & C----
Steam and Water Heating
The unanimous vote of the bunch at “Big-Birch” camp was that his
services were eminently satisfactory, and that the result of his
“figuring” was beyond cavil as economical of time and energy as the
above literary specimen is devoid of verbiage.
[Illustration: A RAIN-DEFYING OUTSIDE CAMP-FIRE]
In the accompanying illustration of this arrangement there is no
camouflage about the trout frying in the pan, although the
“panhandler” in this instance is not the fire and county supervisor,
but “Denny the Axman,” who more recently has manifested an ambition
to “usurp” the cook’s prerogatives.
Every orthodox camp outfit must include a “ditty-bag”--a compact
collection of things of general utility. Here are some of the items
that should not be overlooked. We already have mentioned _nails_,
in connection with the tent stretcher-bed. They are most useful in
camp; have on assortment of varied sizes, and including hobnails. A
ball of _marlin_ is handy for lashing tent-poles, etc. _Pliers_ and
a coil of _wire_ often are not to be despised. Of course you want
_sewing materials_, including thimble or a sailmakers’ palm, beeswax,
and patches and buttons, for clothing and tent repairs. _Tackle- and
wader-repairing outfits_ must find a place. A _leather-stitching
hand awl_ may not come amiss. Then there is that _file_ and
_carborundum-stone_ for sharpening the ax and other edged tools. And
don’t forget _safety-pins_--fine for pinning shirt-pockets so things
won’t drop out; and big fellows, horse-blanket size, are just as good
for blankets for humans--to pin fast the doubled-up bottom, when you
arrange it in sleeping-bag style, and for holding the top in place.
The ax itself won’t go into the ditty-bag--for, in addition to the
camp hatchet or small ax, you want a real ax for real execution; it
should be at least a “three-quarter” size. But it will pack all
right into the center of a duffle-bag, the blade having a guard
affixed. That icemen’s ax, with its pick at one end of the head,
isn’t a bad camp-tool, with the handle shortened. And it is a good
idea to wire your ax- and hatchet-heads to their helves, by inserting
a piece of stout wire through a hole bored through the handle close
to the back of the head and then bringing the ends of the wire in
front of the head and twisting them together.
The novice will be interested to see what an actual “grub-list,”
ample for five men for two weeks, will look like. We lived royally
on this with the addition to the menu of trout, wild-strawberry
shortcake, and some potatoes and a fowl or two obtained from a
farmer--in a manner perfectly legitimate. And note that we were not
unmindful of the value of macaroni as a portable potato-substitute.
The total expense of this trip, exclusive of railroad fares but
inclusive of twelve dollars paid for the transportation of the whole
outfit, men and dunnage, into and out of the woods--about twenty-five
miles--at the prices then current, amounted to seventy-nine cents per
day for each member of the party. Alas! those days so recent yet of
yore have gone, never to return. Here then follows the larder:
7 pounds flour
4 pounds prepared pancake-flour
4 pounds rice
10 pounds bacon
2 pounds salt pork
2 pounds cornmeal
4 pounds beans
2 pounds lima beans
2 pounds split peas
8 packages spaghetti
1 pot mustard
5 pounds cheese
3 pounds hardtack
6 pounds onions
1 package Pettijohn
3 packages H. O.
5 pounds butter
½ pound baking powder
7 pounds coffee
1 pound tea
4 cans cocoa
14 cans unsweetened evaporated milk
1 can Crisco
12½ pounds sugar
1 pound salt
1 box pepper
4 nutmegs
8 cans soup
4 pounds dried prunes
2 pounds dried apricots
5 pounds raisins
24 Steero beef-cubes
12 cakes German’s sweet chocolate
2 pounds English walnuts
3 jars mixed pickles
8 jars jams and jellies
2 jars honey
1 bottle salad dressing
(_Note._--Powdered milk, as the “Klim” brand, may be
substituted for condensed milk in liquid form. Dehydrated
vegetables, such as potatoes and onions, and dehydrated
berries are worth keeping in mind. Sugar, flour, coffee,
and tea are best first enclosed individually in paraffined
muslin bags, and salt in a wooden box to keep it dry. In
packing jars of jelly, etc., wrap in newspapers and then
put in empty tobacco-cans, securing the covers with strips
of adhesive plaster on which mark the contents. Generally
you may check on the railroad as baggage 150 pounds of
properly packed dunnage to each man.)
[Illustration: “COME GET IT”--and it seems to be drying day]
For a nutritious emergency ration in compact form, to carry in the
pocket when away from camp for the day, have some rolled-wheat cereal
(as Pettijohn’s), dry raisins, walnut meats, German’s sweet chocolate
(Walter Baker and Co.), and a little tea. You can pit some prunes and
insert the walnut meats--which make prunes acceptable to anyone. Then
there is that concentrated form of pulverized coffee (G. Washington
brand). Carry these in a little paraffined-muslin bag. Also take
along on these little side-trips some bits of trench torch; one piece
supplies sufficient fire to heat water or make coffee. These torches
are made by rolling newspapers into a tight cylinder of about an inch
in diameter, pasting the outside sheet to hold all, sawing into two-
or three-inch lengths, and then boiling them for five minutes in
paraffine. Or you can make them of burlap or any coarse cloth soaked
in most any grease.
It is quite desirable that your provisions be protected from the
depredations of ants and other woods pests, prominent among which is
the porcupine. Effectual against crawling vermin will be the simple
expedient of making a skeleton table of small boughs, having legs
about a foot long to raise it above the ground. Have each leg resting
in a tin can, fill the cans with water, and store your provisions
on this table in the commissary tent. A securer plan is to store
them upon a covered shelf suspended in mid-air by wire attached to a
horizontal limb of a tree.
Have everything neat as a pin about your camp, burying all refuse
that won’t burn. You inevitably will leave behind unmistakable signs
of having camped in the spot, but don’t expose yourselves to the
diagnosis of having “picnicked” there. Every true lover of the woods
is scrupulously careful about the disposition of lighted matches, and
about quenching all fires after they have served his purpose; the
Game Commission and the Forest Service have not harped upon this
precaution one bit too much.
In addition to the grub, also the following items, some not already
noted, were on my checking-list:
Cheap canvas gloves, used in handling the reflector-baker
Canteen
Collapsible canvas-bucket
Cook-kit
Pipes and tobacco
Mosquito-dope
Three-in-One oil
18 candles
Flour-bag pillow-slips
Mirror
Postal cards
Indelible pencil
Whisk-broom
Map
Compass
Pedometer
File
Carborundum-stone
Camera and films
Flashlight and extra batteries
Hot-water bag
Bellows
Pine kindlings
Canvas stool-seats
Medicine-kit
4 boxes matches
2 cakes Babbitt’s soap
2 cakes Ivory soap
1 cake Sapolio
1 can Greosolvent hand-paste
1 box toothpicks
Bird, tree, and flower books
Calendar
Note this last item; it is surprising in how short a time in the
woods you can lose all track of the days.
Fresh-water fish that you intend to ship or transport home are best
cleaned soon after killing; this should include removal of the gills
but not of the large blood-sinus along the backbone. You may place
inside each fish some damp watercress (not ferns or grass); wrap
individually and tightly in paraffined or other paper to exclude
the air; and then make of all one package wrapped in sawdust and
more paper, and cloth--dry. Till the last moment before shipment
or transportation, keep them if possible on but not against ice;
otherwise keep in a covered pail buried in the ground or set in a
shallow, shady part of the stream. This latter way we have kept trout
in camp perfectly sweet and firm for over three days in midsummer.
Fresh fish are also sometimes packed in salt for a journey, which is
soaked out in water at their destination, before cooking them; and
yet another plan is to hang them in the smoke of the camp-fire a few
hours, after gutting them, and then wrap after they are plentifully
peppered inside.
To clean trout, sever the attachment of the gills well forward under
the lower jaw and at the sides in front of the pectoral fins; hook
your finger into the gills and strip toward the tail, when everything
comes away clean at once. The nicest way to prepare bass is, after
scaling, to cut along each side of the dorsal fin the whole length of
the back, with a good-sized sharp knife, and carrying the incision
across the body behind the gill covers; then “saw” off a steak or
fillet close down to the bones, discarding the rest. Pickerel and
perch preferably are skinned.
The safest place to carry your bill-roll is in a chamois-leather bag
securely fastened around your neck.
Keep a notebook of choice bits of practical information on camping,
woodcraft, and angling acquired on your trips into the woods.
[Illustration:
COPYRIGHT BY WM. LYMAN UNDERWOOD
STILL YOUNG--IN ENTHUSIASM]
A last caution--which might well have come first--is that you be
wary of your drinking supply when camping. If you imbibe the nectar
of the gods from a living spring at its source--“b’gosh, that’s the
kind er water a feller kin drink when he ain’t dry!”--you shouldn’t
worry. But if in the least suspicious of contamination, either boil
the water or treat it with a dilute solution of chloride of lime. The
following formula will be satisfactory: Add one teaspoonful of fresh
chloride of lime to one pint of water, which will keep for several
days if stored in a stoppered bottle. If one teaspoonful of _this
solution_ is added to _two gallons_ of drinking water and allowed to
stand for half an hour the water will then be safe for use.
But my! boys, it’s getting late; and the camp-fire has burned low.
Suppose we all crawl into our blankets. Good night! and a full creel
for everybody tomorrow.
* * * * *
Finally, patient “Scholer,” and once again,
Here’s to the swish of the Split-Bamboo!--
Musical swish of _your own_ bamboo.--
Go to it! And may the abounding benediction of the Great Father of
the beautiful outdoors be visited upon each and every one of you,
in the guise of renewed brightness of eye, elasticity of step,
acceleration of appetite and digestion coincident with reduction
of equatorial girth, refreshment of slumber, serenity of mind, and
mellowness of heart, so long as warbling birds, Springtime flowers,
the whispering woods, and murmuring waters shall exist for our
periodical enchantment and sanctuary--which may it be a long, long
while, before, joining my old-time angling companion John P----, we
too will have passed on, out of sight downstream, to that faraway
land where “a pure river of the Water of Life, clear as crystal,
proceedeth from the throne of God.”
Make all good men your well-wishers,
and then, in the years’ steady sifting,
Some of them turn into friends. Friends
are the sunshine of life.
--JOHN HAY.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The interested reader will do well to investigate the
very inexpensive Chester A. Reed flower and bird pocket-guides,
illustrated in color; Mrs. Dana’s _How to Know the Wild Flowers_,
and _How to Know the Ferns_; the Chapman bird books; Collins and
Preston’s _Key to the Trees_; Julia Ellen Roger’s _Tree Guide_;
Keeler’s _Our Native Trees_; F. Schuyler Mathews’ various field
books; etc. Of course he already has made the acquaintance of John
Burroughs.]
[Footnote 2: For the following data concerning the history of the
“split-bamboo” we are indebted to articles by Messrs. William
Mitchell and Lawrence D. Alexander, appearing in vol. II of _Sport
with Gun and Rod_, published by The Century Co., in 1883, though
their original source is _The American Angler_. Mr. Mitchell himself
first made a split-cane rod, in four longitudinal sections of Chinese
bamboo, “which is much harder and more homogeneous,” in June, 1869.]
[Footnote 3: The word “joint” may signify either an individual
rod-section, the ferrule connection, the knot at site of a node in
the bamboo, or the node itself.]
[Footnote 4: “Butt” may refer to the large end of the whole rod, to
the larger end of any joint or complete single section, or to the
whole of the first or heaviest joint of the rod.]
[Footnote 5: Try Eimer and Amend’s, New York. Some of this glue may
be mixed with other glue.]
[Footnote 6: The prices that we have noted for all rod-fittings are
“before-the-war” quotations, and current prices are so unstable
that we have let these stand. From thirty to fifty per-cent advance
must be allowed, and more on some things. The agate used for guides
formerly was imported principally from Austria.]
[Footnote 7: We note again that all these are pre-war prices.]
BOOKS FOR THE ANGLER
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Goin’ Fishin’
BY DIXIE CARROLL
Author of _Fishing Tackle and Kits_, _Lake and Stream Game
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Introduction by
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Streamcraft
An Angling Manual
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BOOKS FOR THE ANGLER
_America’s Greatest Authority_
Bass, Pike, Perch and Other
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_Valuable for Old Timer and Tyro Alike_
Casting Tackle and Methods
BY O. W. SMITH
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TRANSCRIBER NOTES:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the
end of the book.
Four unnecessary hyphens at line breaks were removed. Ten misspelled
words were corrected. Digits were reversed in the denominator of one
fraction. One proper noun was capitalized.