26 Rod, Gun, and Palette in the High Rockies 



the ground from side to side. On one side near the door, on a 

 low platform of sand held within short logs, stands a small square 

 sheet-iron stove, its flue passing through the tent roof, the canvas 

 protected with a square of sheet iron. Taking small billets of 

 wood cut with the axe, not more than six or eight inches long, 

 such a stove, for all its small size is capable of bringing up the 

 interior to a comfortable pitch in even the bitterest weather. 

 Its good effect may be further conserved by banking snow round 

 the sides of the tent. To the right is the guides' tent, its back to 

 the square of which it forms the third side with the other two, and 

 its entrance facing that of the cook tent, as much as it is presumed 

 for the benefit of warmth from the cook tent as for the convenience 

 of passing from one to the other, they being separated by a narrow 

 alley. The interior of the guides' tent is much as that of the 

 sleeping tent. In the cook tent a kitchen table is supplied by a 

 few saplings laid side by side on posts. The stove, rather larger 

 than the one already described, and with an oven, is likewise 

 upon a log-confined platform of sand. Canned goods are stacked 

 on the end of the table, meats hang from the ridgepole overhead, 

 besides other comestible items. Such cooking utensils as are 

 needed are hung near the stove. Of these the chief, of course, is 

 the frying pan, which in the hands of an expert camp cook can be 

 put to a far greater variety of uses than are commonly dreamed of 

 by even the most resourceful housewife. Heavy bags of provis- 

 ions, potatoes, beans, flour, and the like, stand under the table. 

 The water bucket, its contents changed often from the nearby 

 river or spring, with its dipper or drinking cup, stands near the 

 door. Stovewood, cut to length and split, is neatly stacked near 

 the stove. With all its extemporaneity of arrangement there is 

 yet about the cook tent, especially if the man in charge be a real 

 camp cook, an aspect of competent resourcefulness comforting 

 to a hungry soul. 



In the center of the space defined by the three first mentioned 

 tents is the campfire, distributing its hallowed warmth and light 

 upon all quarters alike. Beyond the open side of the square, in 

 the shelter of young firs, is the wagon, about which the horses, 

 when they are not hobbled and turned loose to graze at will, 

 gather in equine sociability. To one side of these is the woodpile, 

 an assemblage of freshly fallen young firs and pines. A sawbuck 



