Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

aoCAMPING AND WOODCRAFTpanic of fear, as irrational but quite as urgent asthat which swoops upon a belated urchin when heis passing a country graveyard at night. It willtake a mighty effort of will to rein himself in andcheck a headlong stampede.Panic.—In such predicament as this, a man isreally in serious peril. The danger is not from thewilderness, which, pitiless niggard though it be tothe weak-minded or disabled, can yet be forced toyield food and shelter to him who is able-bodied andwho keeps his wits about him. No: the man'sdanger is from himself.I have heard old woodsmen say that there is nouse in offering advice to novices about what theyshould do if they get lost, because a lost man is aninsane m.an, anyway, and will remember nothingthat has been told him. Certainly it is true that ifa man in such a strait permits panic to conquer him,he is likely either to perish or to come out of thewoods a gibbering lunatic. There have been manysuch cases. But it is not true that they are the rule.Thousands of wayfarers have been lost for a day,two days, or longer, without losing their self-command.And there really is no valid excuse for anable-bodied person going out of his head from beingbewildered in the big woods so long as he has a gunand ammunition, or even a few dry matches and ajackknife. The first time I was lost, I was rattledand shook all over. Something seemed to tell methat camp lay in a certain direction, and I felt thesame impulse to rush madly toward it that one feelsto dash for the door when there is a cry of *'fire!"in a theater. But I did remember what old Barneshad told me: "If you get lost, sit downl—sit downand give yourself half an hour to think it over." Isat down, and for five minutes could not think ofanything, except cold, and rain, and hunger. Then