Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

:'CONCENTRATED FOODS 153the far West in the days of Jim Bridger and KitCarson.Powdered parched corn Is still the standby of nativetravelers in the wilds of Spanish America, and itis sometimes used by those hardy mountaineers, "ourcontemporary ancestors," in the Southern Appalachians.One of my camp-mates in the Great SmokyMountains expressed to me his surprise that any one)should be ignorant of so valuable a resource of thehunter's life. He claimed that no other food wasso ''good for a man's wind" in mountain climbing.In some parts of the South and West the pulverizedparched corn is called "coal flour." The Indiansof Louisiana gave it the name of gofio. InMexico it is known as pinole. (Spanish pronunciation,/>f^-no-lay; English, pie-Tzo-lee.)Some years ago Mr. T. S. Van Dyke, author cf(The Still Hunter and other excellent works on fieldsports, published a very practical article on emergencyrations in a weekly paper, from which, as itis now buried where few can consult it, I take theliberty of making the following quotation"La comida del desierfo, the food of the desert, orpinole, as it is generally called, knocks the hind sightsoff all American condensed foods. It is the onlyform in which you can carry an equal weight andbulk of nutriment on which alone one can, if neces-lsarry, live continuously for weeks, and even months,Mnthout any disorder of stomach or bowels. . . .The principle of pinole is very simple. If you shouldeat a breakfast of corn-meal mush alone, and startout for^a hard tramp, you will feel hungry in an houror two, though at the table the dewrinkling of yourabdomen may have reached the hurting point. Butif, instead of distending the meal so much with waterand heat, you had simply mixed it in cold v^ter anddrunk it, you could have taken down three timesthe quantity in one-tenth of the time. You wouldnot feel the difference at your waistband, but youwould feel it mightily in your legs, especially if youhave a heavy rifle on your back. It works a littleon the principle of dried apples, though it is quitean improvement. There is no danger of explosion.;it swells to suit the demand, and not too suddenlySuppose, now, instead of raw corn-meal, we make