OAMP LIFE. 297 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



CAMP LIFE. 



One of the most important matters that demand the 

 sportsman's attention, is the equipment he should take 

 with him to make his life in the woods pleasant. He will 

 have many annoyances and even hardships to encounter, 

 and should be as well prepared to meet them as circum- 

 stances will permit. The following directions are founded 

 upon the idea he intends to retire to the wilderness, far 

 from the abode of man, where he will have to trust for 

 his support to his own exertions, and although many of 

 them may seem superfluous, and to the robust may savor 

 of effeminacy, to those who desire real comfort they will 

 prove acceptable. 



The great pest of the wild woods is — not tigers nor 

 panthers, not bears nor wolves, not even snakes — but 

 something far smaller but infinitely more terrible — the 

 Black Flt ! If it were possible for the uninitiated to 

 conceive or the pen to describe the horrors conveyed in 

 these words, I should endeavor to record them. Think 

 of the rack, the boot, the thumb-screw, the wheel ; think 

 of being rent asunder by wild horses, or torn in bits with 

 hot pincers ; think of the tortures of the inquisition, or 

 the cruel fanaticism of India, and smile ; they do not 

 compare with the black fly. When mosquitoes hover 



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