206 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



As to preparing an emergency camp for a night, if the weather 

 is cold, and there is snow on the ground, the camper should pick 

 a place where he will be as much sheltered from the cold winds 

 as circumstances will allow and where he can get wood as con- 

 veniently as possible. 



Select a log (if one can be had) that lays close to the ground. 

 Now, scrape away the snow about six or eight feet b?ck from this 

 log, and where you will have your bed, build a fire on this space 

 the first thing you do. Then build a cover over this space or 

 fire, by first setting two crotched stakes about four feet apart and 

 five or six feet high, back three feet from the log. Cut a pole, 

 and place it in these crotches and then from this pole lay poles 

 long enough to come back so as to give room for your bed, cov- 

 ering the space where the fire is built ; one end of the poles resting 

 on the ground. With evergreen boughs, cover this entire frame- 

 work, top and two sides toward the log open. 



Now scrape the fire down against the log and proceed to build 

 your fire for the night. Cover the space where the fire was with 

 fine boughs; this is your bed. Take off your coat, and spread it 

 over your shoulders, rather than wear it on you as usual. 



When the camper has plenty of time, and a good axe, in build- 

 ing an open camp-fire the thing to do is to cut two logs six or 

 eight inches in diameter and three feet long and place them at right 

 angles with the back log, and three or four feet apart; then 1 y 

 the wood across these logs. This will give a draft underneath 

 the wood and cause the fire to burn much better than where the 

 wood lays close to the ground. 



