WAYS AND MEANS 



round to the barest indispensables — the 

 ground is got over with no disheartening 

 doubles at the portages. It is a true saying 

 of a comrade in many a stiff voyage: plus 

 de Messieurs plus de misere, — the word 

 being commodious enough to cover all the 

 discomforts, toils and misadventures that 

 can befall on land or water. Aluminum 

 utensils economize weight; small bags, for 

 everything that can spill or take damage in 

 the larger sack, will economize provisions. 

 I commend the woodsman's practice of 

 halting for five minutes every half hour, 

 or, at less intervals, if the difficulty of the 

 way should call for it. Whether you 

 carry on head or chest (the latter so con- 

 stricts breathing and circulation that you 

 are likely to prefer the former, when once 

 the right adjustment of the burden to back 

 and neck has been found) it is a great relief 

 to drop the pack for a few minutes, letting 

 pulse and respiration slow down. In what 

 may seem but a small matter, the leader, 

 choosing time and place for the rests, has 

 room to exercise a useful tact. Stop after, 

 and not before, a bit of difficult walking, — 

 steep pitch, windfall, stream crossing; 

 there is spiritual refreshment in knowing 

 that this trouble is behind, and not ahead. 

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