Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

TOMAHAWK SHELTERS 229side measurement; for more, merely increase thewidth.An excellent camp for a party is arranged bybuilding two such shelters, facing each other, with abetween, and a "kitchen" with dining table,log fireas shown in thebenches, and "pantry," at one side,ground plan (Fig. 67). The fire is built by layinglogs on thick "hand junks," and throws out heat inall directions. In bad, windy weather, the end oppositethe kitchen is screened by setting up a row ofbushy evergreens close together.Caches.—In a camp that is liable to be raided by*coons, porcupines, or other predatory animals, them.eat, fish, butter, lard, etc., should be cached underpiles of stones twice as heavy as you think suchbeasts could move, for they are astonishingly strongand persistent. Bears will demolish any such pilethat one man could build.To cache provisions and other articles in trees:Fasten a strong peeled pole from the fork of onetree to another at fifteen to twenty feet from theground, wrap up the parcel in canvas or oilskin sosnugly that ants cannot get into it, and suspend itfrom the pole with ropes or wnres. The treesshould be too slender for a bear to climb, yet toostout for him to shake. The pole is peeled to ^iveless secure footing for small animals, and to make itseason into sound wood that will not rot and break.Canvas waterproofed with linseed oil is the best covering,as its odor and taste are offensive to animalsof all kinds, great and small. A further precaution,in case of a light parcel, is to make a St.Andrew's cross (X-shaped), hang it from the pole,and suspend the package from the end of one armof the cross, so that every puff of wind will set itswinging.A good place for a cache is on an islet in a riveror lake, so small that there are not likely to be anypredatory animals living on it.In the North, where wolves and wolverenes mustbe guarded against, the best cache for meat is madeby cuttins: a hole throu£:h the ice of a stream or lake.