THE ANGLER'S CAMP 269 



admit of its being fired even when sodden with wet. 

 (Birch logs are the best-burning green wood.) But 

 you must proceed in the right way. Make a cy- 

 lindrical roll of this bark, stand it vertically with 

 the lower edge resting on two small stones or pieces 

 of wood to lift it at least an inch clear of the ground, 

 brace it thus with a few small pieces of kindling 

 ranged about it conewise, like the poles of a minia- 

 ture tepee tent, and fire the bark at the bottom edge. 

 In addition to birch-bark, you should lose no time 

 in collecting a stock of small, dry, dead twigs for 

 safe storage in camp after it is once pitched, for 

 kindling, against a wet spell, and occasionally you 

 may souse these with surplus frying-pan fat. These 

 or your pine kindlings and your birch-bark will fur- 

 nish sufficient nucleus for a good fire at any time. 

 If you have thought to bring along a small bellows, 

 so much the better. A piece of rubber tubing at- 

 tached to a short metal tube having one end flat- 

 tened to insinuate under the embryo fire (perhaps 

 made from an old rod-ferrule), isn't a bad fire- 

 blower. (The whole might easily be fashioned 

 from a doctors' defunct stethoscope.) 



But how did Charlie do it? well, we're getting 

 to that. His beautiful idea is to build a roof of wet 

 firewood over the fire, by placing one end of the 

 sticks on the top backlog, butting against a strip of 

 wood stood vertically to keep them from slipping 

 off, with their forward ends resting on the cross-bar 



