Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

TOMAHAWK SHELTERS 22.shrub that is springy and supple. Lay a course oithese on the ground and cover with moss, dead grass,dry leaves, or whatever soft stuff you can find.Green leafy branchlets, ferns, rushes, herbage, andso forth, will do, if you can get nothing better.Even if such a bed is not soft, it will serve as insulationbetween your body and the cold, damp earth,and that is far better than none at all.Bark Shelters.—Almost any bark will peelfreely in the spring, when sap is rising, and severalkinds will peel all summer. Elm peels througheight months of the year, and some young basswoodtrees may be peeled even in winter. But, as a rule,if one wishes to strip bark in cold weather he willhave to roast a log carfully without burning theoutside.Barking a tree generally kills it, and is prohibitedon public lands. But in the far wilderness suchbarking as campers would do is not detrimental tothe forest, which generally needs thinning out, anyway.The bark of the following trees makes good roofsand temporary shelters, and is useful for manyother purposes: Paper birch, cedar, basswood, buckeye,elm, pig-nut hickory, spruce, hemlock, chestnut,balsam fir, white ash, yellow poplar and cottonwood.(That of the paper birch and of cedar, is quite inflammable).Select a tree with smooth and faultlesstrunk. If it is a birch, choose one with barkthat is thick, with few and small ''eyes." If it is ofa species that has rough, hard, furrowed bark on oldtrees, pick out a young one that still is smooth onthe outside, or treat as described below.For a temporary roof it will be enough merely toskin the bark off in long strips eight to twelve incheswide, lay acourse lengthwise with the slope of theroof, convex side up, and then another on top of thiswith concave side up, so that the first course w^illform troughs to run off the water that is shed by thesecond (Fig. 59). One axeman can erect a raia-