Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

BARK UTENSILS 257"Then of seasoned hickory or bois d'arc."*'No room for it in the lock. The old man hadkilled a turkey.He split several quills of its pinions,overlaid them one on another, bound them togetherwith wet sinews that shrunk when they dried, and—there was his mainsprmg. It worked."Boiling Water in a Bark Kettle.—^A competentwoodsman can cook good meals without anyutensils except what he makes on the spot frommaterials that lie around him, and he will wasteno time at it. In the chapters on Camp Cookery*I have shown how to broil, grill, roast, bake, barbecue,plank and steam without utensils. But, itmay be asked, how would one boil water withouta metal kettle? There is more than one way ofdoing this.One of them, w^hich many have read of, but fewnowadays have seen, is to split a short log, chopout of it a trough, pour water in, heat a numberof small round stones to a white heat, pick up onewith a forked stick or extemporized tongs, drop itinto the water, add another, and so on until thewater boils, which will be very soon. To keep itboiling, remove the stones and add others from thefire. You must select such stones as will neitherburst in the fire nor, like sandstone, shiver to pieceswhen dropped in the water./ Another way, which will be news to many, is toboil the water in a bark kettle by direct action ofthe fire. The thin inner bark of many species oftrees will do, or a thin sheet of the bark of thepaper birch, notwithstanding that it is so notoriouslyinflammable that we use it for kindling. No, thisis not a trick; it is a practical expedient.But first you must know how to make a watertightvessel out of nothing but a square sheet of pliablebark and a couple of thorns or splinters.Seem?*See Vol. I., pp. 293-299, 301, 309, 312, 315, 317, 319, 322-324.330, 344-346, 352, 369.