638 WOODCRAFT. 



Canadian overcoat, with hood, serves as coat, blanket, pillov\f, and 

 cap combined. Always carry plenty of twine and large needles. 

 If a piece of your clothing is torn out, patch it with anything avail- 

 able. The legs of a boot make the best possible seat for a pair of 

 trowsers, and can be as easily fitted as woolen stuff. If your felt 

 hat is too loose, put a stick under the band and give it a half-turn. 

 If you want a candle-stick make a loop of birch bark and slip the 

 ends into a split stick ; then insert your tallow dip. If you wish a 

 torch, take sheets of birch bark and slip them in the slit. A pine 

 knot is better than either where no danger is apprehended from fire. 

 If your matches are wet, and it rains heavily you can find bits of 

 dry punk in the excrescences under the bark of birch and maple 

 trees ; flash powder into hnt or tow and then ignite the punk. 

 Either fire powder from your gun or use a flint and steel. If lost 

 in a hardwood forest and can find no water, one can generally get 

 sap enough for a drink by cutting a chip out of a maple or birch, 

 and making a spout to let it flow clean of the trunk. Water can be 

 obtained by digging a hole into a marshy spot and filling it with 

 grass. Then take a piece of elder, pipe-stem, or any hollow tube 

 and setting it perpendicularly upon the grass, pack the earth 

 around it. .Then apply suction with the lips and you will get 

 water enough to assuage thirst. (By the way, in a desert birds fly 

 toward water in the afternoon, and away from it in the morning.) 

 Carry your matches in a vulcanized rubber box to prevent wetting ; 

 or a bottle will answer. There are a thousand little devices and 

 resorts which one learns by experience, and which occur to him 

 naturally when required, but are difficult to inventory for others' 

 use. Fur provisions, one must be governed by circumstances. 

 Tea, flour, ham, salt pork, soda powders, salt and pepper in quan- 

 tities required, are all that are necessary. Never carry ground 

 coffee ; it is bulky and will impregnate the other stuff with its 

 aroma, especially when wet. Borden's condensed coffee takes no 

 room, and is a luxury indeed. But, if the sportsman insists upon 

 carrying ground coffee, he will find the grounds very useful to keep 

 fish fresh, taking out their entrails and gills, and sprinkling the 

 coffee grounds thickjy into the belly and mouth of the fish ; the 

 more grounds used to each fish the better. 



Desiccated food of all kinds is compact, and goes a great 



