Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

. THECAMP-FIRE 231on A, to be renewed as required. In the morningthere will be fine coals with which to cook breakfast.Winter Camp-Fire.— Let " Nessmuk " describehow hfe and a companion kept an open camp comfortabJywarm through a week in winter, with noother cutting tools than their hunting hatchets:' We first felled a thrifty butternut tree ten inches indianneter, cut off three lengths of five feet each, and carriedthem to camp. These were the back-logs. Two stoutstaKes were driven at the back of the fire, and the logs, ontop of each other, were laid firmly against the stakes. Thelatter were slanted a little back, and the largest log placedai. bottom, the smallest on top, to prevent tipping forward.A couple of short, thick sticks were laid with the endsagainst the bottom log by way of fire-dogs; a fore-stickfive feet long and five inches in diameter; a well built pyramidof bark, knots and small logs completed the camp-fire,which sent a pleasant glow of warmth and heat to thefurthest corner of the shanty. For night-wood we cut adozen birch and ash poles from four to six inches across,trimmed them to the tips, and dragged them to camp.Then we denuded a dry hemlock of its bark by aid of ten^foot poles flattened at one end, and packed the bark tocamp. We had a bright, cheery fire from the early eveninguntil morning, and four tired hunters never slept moresoundly."We stayed in that camp a week; and, though theweather was rough and cold, the little pocket-axes kept uswell in firewood. We selected butternut for back-logs, because,when green, it burns very slowly and lasts a longtime. And we dragged our smaller wood to camp inlengths of twenty to thirty feet, because it was easier to lay'them on the fire and nigger ' them in two than to cut themshorter with light hatchets. With a heavj* axe we shouldhave cut them to lengths of five or six feet."The first camp I ever made was built exactly afterthe " Nessmuk " pattern, shanty-tent, camp-fire withbutternut back-logs, and all (see chapters III. andIV. of his Woodcraft). My only implement, besidesknives, was a double-bitted hatchet just likehis, of surgical instrument steel, weighing, with itstwelve-inch handle, only eighteen ounces. I wasalone. I stayed in that camp five weeks, in Octoberand November; and I was snug and happy all the