MARCHING.[7]
It is generally advised by medical men to avoid violent exercise
immediately after eating. They are right; but I cannot advise you to
rest long, or at all, after breakfast, but rather to finish what you
could not do before the meal, and get off at once while it is early and
cool. Do not hurry or work hard at first if you can avoid it.
On the march, rest often whether you feel tired or not; and, when
resting, see that you do rest.
The most successful marching that I witnessed in the army was done by
marching an hour, and resting ten minutes. You need not adhere strictly
to this rule: still I would advise you to halt frequently for
sight-seeing, but not to lie perfectly still more than five or ten
minutes, as a reaction is apt to set in, and you will feel fatigued upon
rising.
Experience has shown that a man travelling with a light load, or none,
will walk about three miles an hour; but you must not expect from this
that you can easily walk twelve miles in four heats of three miles each
with ten minutes rest between, doing it all in four and a half hours.
Although it is by no means difficult, my advice is for you not to expect
to walk at that rate, even through a country that you do not care to
see. You may get so used to walking after a while that these long and
rapid walks will not weary you; but in general you require more time,
and should take it.
Do not be afraid to drink good water as often as you feel thirsty; but
avoid large draughts of _cold_ water when you are heated or are
perspiring, and never drink enough to make yourself logy. You are apt to
break these rules on the first day in the open air, and after eating
highly salted food. You can often satisfy your thirst with simply
rinsing the mouth. You may have read quite different advice[8] from
this, which applies to those who travel far from home, and whose daily
changes bring them to water materially different from that of the day
before.
It is well to have a lemon in the haversack or pocket: a drop or two of
lemon-juice is a great help at times; but there is really nothing which
will quench the thirst that comes the first few days of living in the
open air. Until you become accustomed to the change, and the fever has
gone down, you should try to avoid drinking in a way that may prove
injurious. Base-ball players stir a little oatmeal in the water they
drink while playing, and it is said they receive a healthy stimulus
thereby.
Bathing is not recommended while upon the march, if one is fatigued or
has much farther to go. This seems to be good counsel, but I do advise a
good scrubbing near the close of the day; and most people will get
relief by frequently washing the face, hands, neck, arms, and breast,
when dusty or heated, although this is one of the things we used to hear
cried down in the army as hurtful. It probably is so to some people: if
it hurts you, quit it.
FOOT-SORENESS AND CHAFING.
After you have marched one day in the sun, your face, neck, and hands
will be sunburnt, your feet sore, perhaps blistered, your limbs may be
chafed; and when you wake up on the morning of the second day, after an
almost sleepless night, you will feel as if you had been "dragged
through seven cities."
I am not aware that there is any preventive of sunburn for skins that
are tender. A hat is better to wear than a cap, but you will burn under
either. Oil or salve on the exposed parts, applied before marching, will
prevent some of the fire; and in a few days, if you keep in the open air
all the time, it will cease to be annoying.
To prevent foot-soreness, which is really the greatest bodily trouble
you will have to contend with, you must have good shoes as already
advised. You must wash your feet at least once a day, and oftener if
they feel the need of it. The great preventive of foot-soreness is to
have the feet, toes, and ankles covered with oil, or, better still,
salve or mutton-tallow; these seem to act as lubricators. Soap is better
than nothing. You ask if these do not soil the stockings. Most certainly
they do. Hence wash your stockings often, or the insides of the shoes
will become foul. Whenever you discover the slightest tendency of the
feet to grow sore or to heat, put on oil, salve, or soap, immediately.
People differ as to these things. To some a salve acts as an irritant:
to others soap acts in the same way. You must know before starting--your
mother can tell you if you don't know yourself--how oil, glycerine,
salve, and soap will affect your skin. Remember, the main thing is to
keep the feet clean and lubricated. Wet feet chafe and blister more
quickly than dry.
The same rule applies to chafing upon any part of the body. Wash and
anoint as tenderly as possible. If you have chafed in any part on
previous marches, anoint it before you begin this.
When the soldiers found their pantaloons were chafing them, they would
tie their handkerchiefs around their pantaloons, over the place
affected, thus preventing friction, and stopping the evil; but this is
not advisable for a permanent preventive. A bandage of cotton or linen
over the injured part will serve the purpose better.
Another habit of the soldiers was that of tucking the bottom of the
pantaloons into their stocking-legs when it was dusty or muddy, or when
they were cold. This is something worth remembering. You will hardly
walk a week without having occasion to try it.
Leather leggins, such as we read about in connection with Alpine travel,
are recommended by those who have used them as good for all sorts of
pedestrianism. They have not come into use much as yet in America.
The second day is usually the most fatiguing. As before stated, you
suffer from loss of sleep (for few people can sleep much the first night
in camp), you ache from unaccustomed work, smart from sunburn, and
perhaps your stomach has gotten out of order. For these reasons, when
one can choose his time, it is well to start on Friday, and so have
Sunday come as a day of rest and healing; but this is not at all a
necessity. If you do not try to do too much the first few days, it is
likely that you will feel better on the third night than at any previous
time.
I have just said that your stomach is liable to become disordered. You
will be apt to have a great thirst and not much appetite the first and
second days, followed by costiveness, lame stomach, and a feeling of
weakness or exhaustion. As a preventive, eat laxative foods on those
days,--figs are especially good,--and try not to work too hard. You
should lay your plans so as not to have much to do nor far to go at
first. Do not dose with medicines, nor take alcoholic stimulants. Physic
and alcohol may give a temporary relief, but they will leave you in bad
condition. And here let me say that there is little or no need of
spirits in your party. You will find coffee or tea far better than
alcohol.
Avoid all nonsensical waste of strength, and gymnastic feats, before and
during the march; play no jokes upon your comrades, that will make their
day's work more burdensome. Young people are very apt to forget these
things.
Let each comrade finish his morning nap. A man cannot dispense with
sleep, and it is cruel to rob a friend of what is almost his life and
health. But, if any one of your party requires more sleep than the
others, he ought to contrive to "turn in" earlier, and so rise with the
company.
You have already been advised to take all the rest you can at the halts.
Unsling the knapsack, or take off your pack (unless you lie down upon
it), and make yourself as comfortable as you can. Avoid sitting in a
draught of air, or wherever it chills you.
If you feel on the second morning as if you could never reach your
journey's end, start off easily, and you will limber up after a while.
The great trouble with young people is, that they are ashamed to own
their fatigue, and will not do any thing that looks like a confession.
But these rules about resting, and "taking it easy," are the same in
principle as those by which a horse is driven on a long journey; and it
seems reasonable that young men should be favored as much as horses.
Try to be civil and gentlemanly to every one. You will find many who
wish to make money out of you, especially around the summer hotels and
boarding-houses. Avoid them if you can. Make your prices, where
possible, before you engage.
Do not be saucy to the farmers, nor treat them as "country greenhorns."
There is not a class of people in the country of more importance to you
in your travels; and you are in honor bound to be respectful to them.
Avoid stealing their apples, or disturbing any thing; and when you wish
to camp near a house, or on cultivated land, obtain permission from the
owner, and do not make any unreasonable request, such as asking to camp
in a man's front-yard, or to make a fire in dry grass or within a
hundred yards of his buildings. Do not ask him to wait on you without
offering to pay him. Most farmers object to having people sleep on their
hay-mows; and all who permit it will insist upon the rule, "No smoking
allowed here." When you break camp in the morning, be sure to put out
the fires wherever you are; and, if you have camped on cleared land, see
that the fences and gates are as you found them, and do not leave a mass
of rubbish behind for the farmer to clear up.
MOUNTAIN CLIMBING.
When you climb a mountain, make up your mind for hard work, unless there
is a carriage-road, or the mountain is low and of gentle ascent. If
possible, make your plans so that you will not have to carry much up and
down the steep parts. It is best to camp at the foot of the mountain, or
a part way up, and, leaving the most of your baggage there, to take an
early start next morning so as to go up and down the same day. This is
not a necessity, however; but if you camp on the mountain-top you run
more risk from cold, fog, (clouds), and showers, and you need a warmer
camp and more clothing than down below.
Often there is no water near the top: therefore, to be on the safe side,
it is best to carry a canteen. After wet weather, and early in the
summer, you can often squeeze a little water from the moss that grows on
mountain-tops.
It is so apt to be chilly, cloudy, or showery at the summit, that you
should take a rubber blanket and some other article of clothing to put
on if needed. Although a man may sometimes ascend a mountain, and stay
on the top for hours, in his shirt-sleeves, it is never advisable to go
so thinly clad; oftener there is need of an overcoat, while the air in
the valley is uncomfortably warm.
Do not wear the extra clothing in ascending, but keep it to put on when
you need it. This rule is general for all extra clothing: you will find
it much better to carry than to wear it.
Remember that mountain-climbing is excessively fatiguing: hence go
slowly, make short rests _very_ often, eat nothing between meals, and
drink sparingly.
There are few mountains that it is advisable for ladies to try to climb.
Where there is a road, or the way is open and not too steep, they may
attempt it; but to climb over loose rocks and through scrub-spruce for
miles, is too difficult for them.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Some of the questions which properly belong under this heading are
discussed elsewhere, and can be found by referring to the index.
[8] This advice also differs from that generally given to soldiers; the
army rule is as follows: "Drink well in the morning before starting, and
nothing till the halt; keep the mouth shut; chew a straw or leaf, or
keep the mouth covered with a cloth: all these prevent suffering from
extreme thirst. Tying a handkerchief well wetted with salt water around
the neck, allays thirst for a considerable time."--CRAGHILL'S _Pocket
Companion_: Van Nostrand, N.Y.