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Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



her, and if he becomes exhausted, the 

 whole group is jeopardized. Your 

 chances to "walk out" are slim if you 

 break a leg. Take it easy. 



9. You are just as good as your feet, 

 and they are just as good as the shoes 

 that protect them. Tight boots, new 

 shoes not well broken-in, overgreased 

 leather in cold-weather travel, and 

 slippery soles can cause trouble. Shoes 

 should fit well and be tough enough for 

 severe use. Those specifications met, 

 they should be as light as possible for 

 ordinary walking. Mountain climbing 

 and skiing call for special footgear. 

 Socks should be of the proper size to 

 avoid wrinkling (from being too large) 

 or discomfort (from being too small) . 



10. If you get lost, sit down and 

 think through your predicament. The 

 resourceful wanderer, who remembers 

 his bearings, follows water courses 

 downhill to inevitable civilization, and 

 refuses to become panicky, may be con- 

 fused, but he is seldom lost. Do not fret 

 about food you can live for days 

 without any food and suffer no perma- 

 nent harm. So far as we know, no visitor 

 has ever starved to death in the na- 

 tional forests, but some have frozen to 

 death or died of exposure or exhaus- 

 tion. Neither you nor your rescuers 

 should ever call quits the record is 

 filled with cases where the lost sur- 

 passed their endurance and the rescuers 



found the object of their search after 

 all hope had been abandoned. Take it 

 easy. Do not travel at night. It might 

 take you several days to reach civiliza- 

 tion, but the chances are excellent that 

 you will ; you will be tired and hungry, 

 but not harmed. Guard your matches, 

 and keep them dry. If you smoke, do 

 not use your matches recklessly; you 

 may need them to build fires. One night 

 in the cold of a high-mountain storm 

 has finished off tough men, so look for 

 a cave or overhanging rock early in the 

 afternoon and gather good dry wood. 

 Whether it is better to search for help 

 or to wait for help depends on whether 

 you are injured and whether you have 

 let anyone know where you were going 

 and when you would be back. It is use- 

 less to wait for someone to find you if 

 no one knows about where you are. 

 Passers-by are rare in some wild parts 

 of the national forests. 



ROBERT S. MONAHAN,, general man- 

 ager of the Dartmouth Outing Club 

 and Dartmouth College Forester, has 

 combined his professional forestry 

 career with leadership in recreational 

 activities. His 15 years in the United 

 States Forest Service took him from 

 Maine to California and provided 

 unusual opportunities to become well 

 acquainted with all major forms of out- 

 door recreation. 



