Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

82 CAMPING AND WOODCRAFTAs examples, I give here a couple of sketches(Figs. 14 and 15) showing, respectively, the back-Woods half of the wagon road and the over-mountaintrail to "the last house up Deep Creek," where Ionce lived for a year or so. I made these while stillnew tothe country, without losing more than halfan hour from regular marching time. First, Iwalked in to the railway station, pacing and sketchingthe trail as I went. The next day I returnedby wagon, mapping the road and the creek, withoutonce checking the horses, and judging distancesaltogether by eye.My rough sketches were made in a vest-pocketmemorandum book that was quadrille ruled. Merelines showed the road, trail, creek, and branches, asin Fig. 14, and the sketch map was finished on largerpaper w^hen I got home. My compass had a dialof only ij/^ inch, which is small for such work. Iwore it in a leather strap on my left w^rist, like awrist watch ; so it never was in the way, yet alwayswas right under the eye when needed. To orientthe instrument. It could be slipped out of its guardin a second or two, though this was seldom necessary.Afterwards I discarded this way of carrying acompass, because it had to be open-faced and wastoo easily smashed.Considering that the country here was rough, andso densely timbered that there were few outlooks,and that I did not use a protractor nor even a ruler,I was pleased to find that my "closures" requiredvery little "humoring in," as a surveyor would say.I had a U. S. topographical map of the country, butIt was so defective that it was of no use, save inestablishing one or two "controls."In sketching a route it is convenient, though notnecessary, to use paper ruled in little squares. Anydealer in draughting materials can supply crosssectionpaper ruled ten lines to the inch. A pieceof «uch paper, about 7 x 10 inches, tacked on a thinboard and carried in the hand, is a good way. If