47 



An india-rubber bag to hold the "kit" is a desirable addi- 

 tion to an outfit, as it makes a portable package, and keeps 

 its contents always dry. In summer a canvas camp-stretcher, 

 three feet by six, with hems on each side for inserting poles, 

 to rest on logs or crotches at any required height from the 

 ground, makes a bed preferable to hemlock boughs. It is 

 cooler, gives better circulation of air, and is a protection 

 against creeping insects. Moreover, it can be used as a wrap- 

 per for the rubber bag, to prevent its being torn. 



Now, here are some eighty different articles, conducing 

 greatly to the comfort of camp life, which can be packed up 

 in small compass and carried on the back. Of course the 

 sportsman will be governed in his selection by the length of 

 his campaign. If he desire to travel as light as possible, and 

 has knowledge of woodcraft available, he can dispense with 

 those marked with an asterisk (*). He can even forego the 

 luxury of cooking and table utensils, saving the frying-pan 

 and coffee-pot. Birch-bark will supply him with fresh, clean 

 plates and cups at every meal, with no trouble to wash them; 

 he can broil his meat on a stick, and bake his fish and bread 

 in the ashes. Cedar-roots will furnish him with twine and 

 rope ; he can tear up his shirt for towels and handkerchiefs, 

 and use his coat-skirts to make seats for his trowsers. He 

 might even forego soap, and leave his hair unkempt till civil- 

 ization dawned again upon his semi-savage mood. But knife, 

 compass, matches and his pipe these are wholly indispensa- 

 ble. Upon them his existence, comfort, and happiness de- 

 pend. 



What! forego the luxury of a pipe ? Not much. Would 

 you ask the sportsman, after he has dragged himself into 

 camp, fatigued by an .all-day tramp, drenched by soaking 

 rain, a-hungered, and thirsting for something hot to drink, 

 sitting alone in the sombre fastnesses of a pitch-pine soli- 

 tude, with ardent longings for the blazing hearth of home, 

 and vain regrets that he had ever wandered would you, 

 could you ask him to forego the luxury of a pipe ? Would 



