HINTS TO SPORTSMEN. 23 



places it is so scarce that not a vestige of it is visible for 

 miles. In selecting a camp, the first requisites are that 

 wood, water, and grass should be convenient, if it is intend- 

 ed to remain there any length of time ; if not, the second 

 element is the first matter that should receive attention, 

 and all others, except personal safety, should be sacrificed 

 to it. It is, fortunately, plentiful enough in the hunting re- 

 gions west of the Rocky Mountains, and if it takes its rise 

 in a granite formation it never runs dry. When a tent 

 is pitched, its back should always be toward the wind, if 

 there is no shelter convenient; but if there is, advantage 

 should be taken of it. It should occupy, if possible, a knoll, 

 or the crest of sloping ground; and if a storm is threaten- 

 ed, a trench a few inches deep should be dug all round it 

 to drain away the rain ; and the earth ought to be placed 

 against the lower part of the sides to prevent their being 

 lifted up by the wind or saturated with water. On a 

 mountain, it ought to occupy the lee of a rock or a bluff, 

 and in a forest, should be placed amidst the shrubbery ; 

 for if pitched under a tree, the latter is liable to be hurled 

 down by a fierce gust of wind, and to do the occupants 

 some injury. This rule does not apply, however, to the 

 dense woods of Oregon and Washington Territory, as 

 wind- storms are rare in that region, and the most violent 

 that ever blew seem incapable of tearing up the arboreal 

 giants that cover the ground there for an area of many 

 thousands of square miles. 



If the camp is located near a river, care should be taken 

 that it is not inundated during the freshets which occur in 

 all of them in May or June, and in many of them after a 

 heavy rainfall. To provide against such an accident, it 

 should be established some distance away from the banks, 

 and, if possible, on sloping ground or a crest. No hard- 

 and-fast rules can be followed in all cases; hence persons 

 must depend on their own judgment as to where it would 

 be best to pitch a camp ; so the precautions given are only 

 to suggest that where it is convenient they might be fol- 

 lowed to advantage. 



