Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

LIGHT CAMP EQUIPMENTin'nition, flint and steel, tomahawk, knife, an awl, aspare pair of moccasins, perhaps, a small bag ofjerked venison, and another of parched corn, groundto a coarse meal, which they called " rockahominy "or " coal flour." Their tutors in woodcraft oftentraveled lighter than this. An Indian runner wouldstrip to his G-string and moccasins, roll up in hissmall blanket a pouch of rockahominy, and, armedonly with a bow and arrows, he would perform journeysthat no mammal but a wolf could equal. GeneralClark said that when he and Lewis, with theirmen, started afoot from the mouth of the ColumbiaRiver on their return trip across the continent, theirtotal store of articles for barter with the Indians forhorses and food could have been tied up in two handkerchiefs.But they w^ere woodsmen, every inch otthem.Now it is not needful nor advisable for a camperin our time to suffer hardships from stinting his supplies.It is foolish to take insufficient bedding, or torely upon a diet of pork, beans, and hardtack, in acountry where game may be scarce. The knack is instriking a happy medium between too much luggageand too little. Ideal outfitting is to have what wewant, when we want it, and not to be bothered withanything else. A pair of scales are good things tohave at hand when one is making up his packs.Scales of another kind will then fall from his eyes.He w^ill note how the little, unconsidered triflesmount up ; how every bag or tin adds weight.Now let him imagine himself toiling uphill under anAugust sun, or forging through thickety woods, overrocks and roots and fallen trees, with all this stuffon his back. Again, let him think of a chill, wetnight ahead, and of what he will really need to keephimself warm, dry, and well ballasted amidships.Balancing these two prospects one against the other,he cannot go far wrong in selecting his outfit.In his charming book. The Forest, Stewart EdwardWhite has spoken of that amusing foible, com-