IN THE FAR WEST, 9 



out the dampness, and with another over the woollen blankets he 

 may repose soundly even while the rain pours down upon him. 



The most comfortable means of keeping warm in a tent 

 either night or day, and also the readiest for cooking food, is 

 to use a neat camp stove made of sheet iron, which has a 

 length of about two feet, a breadth of thirteen or fourteen 

 inches, a height of, say, fifteen inches, and contains an oven 

 nine or ten inches in length, and occupying the whole width 

 of the apparatus. There should be two holes in the top for 

 kettles, and their covers ought to be saucer-shaped to prevent 

 them from being warped by the heat. The pipe should be 

 made in small sections, for the sake of portability, and where 

 it passes through the tent the hole should be protected by a 

 plate of sheet iron or tin, to prevent the camp from being set 

 on fire. This will not only keep the tent heated in the 

 coldest weather, but will minimise the danger of a conflagra- 

 tion from vagrant sparks, and will enuble a person to cook 

 several dishes at the same time. Those who have used it 

 would scarcely do without it, as it makes camp pleasant on 

 the rawest and dreariest days and nights, and it is almost a 

 necessity to the culinary department. All hunting parties 

 should carry one at least, and they would soon learn to prize 

 it at its full value. It need not necessarily do away with the 

 open-air fires, as the latter are often useful in keeping skunks, 

 wolves, bears, flies, snakes and other prowling creatures away 

 from the camp, and persons may, as of yore, seat or stretch 

 themselves on the ground beside it, and relate tales of dangers 

 passed and adventures by Hood and field. 



To make a good fire of this character, a back log, or perhaps 

 three or four of them piled one on the other, and retained in 

 their position by stakes driven into the ground, is needed ; and 

 two or three large stones should be placed under the fuel in 

 front, in order to give it the draft necessary to cause it to burn 

 freely. The Flat-head Indians make one by placing the butts 

 of the logs in the centre and resting them on one another, thus 

 giving them a pyramidal form; and under these they place moss, 

 bark, and twigs, which burn rapidly as soon as they are set on 

 fire, and as they communicate their heat at once to all the wood 



