Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

CHAPTER VBLAZES—SURVEY LINES—USE OF THECOMPASSThe chief difficulty in forest travel, especially inflat lands that are heavily timbered, is the lack ofnatural outlooks from which one could get a viewof distant landmarks. Although there are plenty ofmarks in the woods themselves by w^hich a trainedwoodsman can follow a route that he traversed notlong before, j^t these signs are forever changing,vanishing, being superseded by others. Not only donew growths spring up, but old ones are swept away,sometimes suddenly, as by flood or fire. Hence,when men have once picked out a course through thewoods that they intend to follow again, they leavepermanent marks along the way for future guidance.The most conspicuous and durable waymarks thatcan easily be made are blazes on the trees. It is ofno little consequence to a traveler in the wilds thathe should know something about blazes and thespecial uses made of them in the backwoods.Blazes.—On a thin-barked tree, a blaze is madeby a single downward stroke, the axe being heldalmost parallel with the trunk; but if the bark isthick, an upward and a downward clip must bemade, perhaps several of them, because, in any case,the object usually is to expose a good-sized spot ofthe whitish sapwood of the tree, which, set in thedark framework of the outer bark, is a staring markin the woods, sure to attract attention, at least whilefresh. Outside of white birch forests, white is themost conspicuous color in the woods, until snow falls.60