Chapter XIII: 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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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

_Fishing Facts of the Utmost Interest for all
Lovers of the Out-O’-Doors_

Goin’ Fishin’

BY DIXIE CARROLL

Author of _Fishing Tackle and Kits_, _Lake and Stream Game
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Chicago _Evening News_, Etc.

Introduction by

Major-General Leonard Wood

A new book for the every now-and-then fisherman as well as the expert angler. Full of fishing facts gathered from lake and stream fishing in all parts of the country. Weather conditions and how they affect fishing. Feed and food dope and how it relates to when the fish are biting. Handling the rod, playing the fish, the backlash and how to eliminate it. Busting the rules of the game. Natural baits and artificials, how to use them and when. Home life of the game fish, the kind of waters and underwater formations they loaf about and why. The camp commissary and what to take along. Sportsmanship in fishing. Everything written from personal study in a style of one fellow to another to help him derive more enjoyment from nature along stream and lake water trails. Where to go a-fishing, data about places where the author has fished.

_Many illustrations from photographs. Colored cover jacket. Large 12mo. Silk cloth; also ¾ Green Turkey Morocco._

_STEWART & KIDD COMPANY_
_Publishers--Cincinnati, U. S. A._

BOOKS FOR THE ANGLER

_No Angler Should be Without This Book_

Streamcraft

An Angling Manual

BY DR. GEORGE PARKER HOLDEN

Here is a volume dedicated to Henry van Dyke, which will be of great interest to those of the angling fraternity. It deals with the selection, care, and rigging of the rod, the art of casting, trout habits, lures and their use, including some stream entomology, the angler flies and how to tie them, including a description of the most successful trout and bass flies. The style is always sprightly and lucid, even in the most technical parts. No other volume on American angling is so authoritative and comprehensive.

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_Handsomely and elaborately illustrated. Eight full-page colored illustrations and numerous black and whites. The book in size handy for the pocket. Silk cloth; also ¾ Turkey Morocco._

_STEWART & KIDD COMPANY_
_Publishers--Cincinnati, U. S. A._

BOOKS FOR THE ANGLER

_America’s Greatest Authority_

Bass, Pike, Perch and Other
Game Fishes of America

BY JAMES A. HENSHALL, M.D.

Author of the _Book of the Black Bass_, Etc.

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_STEWART & KIDD COMPANY_
_Publishers--Cincinnati, U. S. A._

BOOKS FOR THE ANGLER

_Valuable for Old Timer and Tyro Alike_

Casting Tackle and Methods

BY O. W. SMITH

Fishing Editor of _Outdoor Life_, and Author of
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_STEWART & KIDD COMPANY_
_Publishers--Cincinnati, U. S. A._

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.