Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

34 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTright material, which must be soft, non-resinouswood, thoroughly seasoned, brash, but not the leastpunky. In most situations it would be accidentalif a lost man should find such wood. As a matterof fact, savages carry their fire-sticks with them, aswe do matches.Next Morning.—A night's rest, even thoughfitful, will have cleared your mind a good deal. Bythis time you probably will iiave a definite theoryof location,based upon what you know of the relationof the camp site to the surrounding country,and the general course of your wanderings. Andyou will feel much better at having a whole day ofsunlight ahead of you.The first effort will be to get an outlook over thesurrounding country. In the hills this is easy, butin a level country heavily timbered it is difficult.If you are a good climber, pick out a tall tree andgo up as high as you can get. Where the trunksare too thick for climbing, select a big tree that hasa slender one growing beside it from which you canclamber into the lower limbs of the old one. Butdon't risk a broken limb of your own—that mightbe fatal.Having gained your outlook, note the compassdirection of watercourses and other landmarks, mappingthem on a piece of paper; for a lost man'smemory is treacherous. The courses of smallstreams show where the main valley lies. Look forsmoke. Your comrades will have raised one, if therebe a woodsman among them.Now decide whether to try to reach camp or to"break out" to a known road or settlement. If stiDcompletely bewildered, then there is but one thingto do: work down country, either along a stream ora divide. If you do this, even in a remote district,it cannot be more than a few days until you reachhabitations of men. In the meantime you may suffer,but you certainly need not starve nor freeze. liyou have no one definite objective, but are merely