Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

20 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT^o go where he can hunt, capture, and cook his ownmeat, erect his own shelter, do his own chores, andso,in some measure, pick up again those lost arts ofwildcraft that were our heritage through ages past,but of which not one modern man in a hundredknows anything at all. In cities our tasks are sohighly specialized, and so many thi \gs are done forus by other specialists, that we tend \o become a onehandedand one-idead race. The self-dependent lifeof the wilderness nomad brings bodily habits andmental processes back to normal, by exercise ofmuscles and lobes that otheiwise might atrophy fromwant of use.If one would realize in its perfection his dream ofpeace and freedom from every worldly care» let himkeep away from summer resorts and even fromfarms; let him camp out; and let it be the realthing. There are "' camps " so-called that are notcamps at all. A rustic cottage furnished with tablesand chairs and beds brought from town, with rugson the floor and pictures on the walls, with a stove inthe kitchen and crockery in the pantry, an ice-househard by, and daily delivery of groceries, farm products,and mails, may be a pleasant place in which tospend the summer with one's family and friends;but it Is not a camp. Neither is a wilderness clubhouse,built on a game preserve, looked after by acaretaker, and supplied during the season withservants and the appurtenances of a good hotel.A camp proper is a nomad's biding-place. Hemay occupy it for a season, or only for a single night,according as the site and its surroundings please ordo not please the wanderer's whim. If the fish donot bite, or the game has moved away, or unpleasantneighbors should intrude, or if anything elsegoes wrong. It is but an hour's work for him to pullup stakes and be off, seeking that particularly goodplace which generally lies beyond the horizon'srim.Your thoroughbred camper likes not the atten-.