Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

1 68 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTable corkscrews and can openers, but that is aboutall.Compass.— This instrument may not often beneeded to guide one's course, but it is like the proverbialpistol in Texas. Besides, it is useful in readinga map, and indispensable for route sketching.If you get one of the common kind with both endssimply pointed and the north one blued or blackenedscratch B = N (Blue equals North) on the case.This seems like an absurd precaution, does it not?Well, it will not seem so if you get lost. Tlie firsttime that a man loses his bearings in the wildernesshis wits refuse to work. He cannot, to save his life,remember whether the black end of the needle isnorth or south. Once when I got lost in thebig woods I was not frightened, and yet I did a perfectlyidiotic thing: to hold my compass level andsteady I set it on the thick muzzle of my rifle barrel!That made the needle swing away out of true. Itwas ten minutes before I thought of this, and triedagain, with all iron carefully put aside. That showswhat a dunderhead a fellow can be, even when he isfairly cool.If dust accumulates inside the case of a compassit may interfere a little with its true pointing, andmoisture will do so. But, so long as the needlemoves freely, do not quarrel with it, no matter howsure you may think you are that it has been bewitched.A compass with revolving dial (card compass) issomewhat easier to use than one with a needle, becausethe N on the dial alwaj^s points north, no matterwhich way you turn ; but it must be rather bulky,to traverse freely, is not so sensitive as a needle, andwears the pivot faster.There are compasses with dials illuminated by aradio-active substance that are handy to use at night.The old-fashioned " luminous " compasses that haveto be exposed to sunlight every day are not worththe extra cost, for you will forget to attend to them.