122 HUNTING CAMPS. 



all with experience know, the one and only thing to do is 

 to light a fire on the spot and to sit down and keep warm 

 beside it until daylight, when a man's comrades, who have 

 missed him and are on the look-out, can see the smoke and 

 walk him up. It will be understood that to an excitable 

 nature the moment of panic is hard to conquer and a mas- 

 terly inactivity is difficult. 



Even an expert woodsman may be lost, for instance, 

 under conditions of thick weather, whether of mist or fall- 

 ing snow, but such a one will know how to retrieve his 

 mistake in one way or another. Perhaps I may be par- 

 doned for repeating the old story of the Indian and his 

 white employer who were lost. After wandering for a 

 long time and failing to find the camp they had left in the 

 morning, the Indian threw down his grub-bag and gave 

 up the search. " Indian lost/' taunted the white man. 

 " Oh, no/' replied the Indian ; " Indian not lost, camp 

 lost." The inference is plain. 



As I have said, the subject of being lost is one often 

 talked of round a camp fire, because the contingency is 

 never too remote. A company of woodsmen and trappers, 

 when discussing the essentials of life in such a case, chose 

 them in the following order : 



1. A rifle and cartridges. 



2. Matches. 



3. An axe. 



After that, opinions were divided between a cooking- 

 pot, tea, salt, tobacco, and a blanket, but these latter 

 articles were generally acknowledged to be luxuries, not 

 necessaries. It is easy to imagine the case of an expert 

 in the northern forests who is either lost or is unable to 

 reach camp on a snowy night. From pushing his way 

 through the thick-growing trees, he is wet to the skin, and 

 darkness is upon him. The moment he determines to 

 make no further effort he begins to look for a spot in which 



