142 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



favourable, or when wit and muscle were dull or 

 clumsy from cold or exhaustion. During long 

 winter snowshoe trips it was my custom to have 

 three separate stocks of matches: a leather box, 

 a metal box, and a package of matches wrapped in 

 oiled, waterproof silk which was sewed into my 

 shirt pocket. The metal box was usually carried 

 in a trousers pocket, and the leather one, which 

 would resist water for hours, in a coat pocket. 

 Generally the matches were the black-tipped sul- 

 phur ones. 



Men have become so chilled and helpless that 

 they have perished after reaching shelter because 

 unable to hold a match with which to start a fire. 



If the fingers are too cold to clutch and strike a 

 match, this may be accomplished by catching the 

 match up in the hand along with a stick an inch 

 or less in diameter, or with the hatchet handle. 

 The match may also be held and struck by binding 

 it to a stick, as though to a splint, with a turn of a 

 handkerchief, or with two or three turns of bark, 

 or a string. Or it may be bound to a finger or a 

 thumb. With fingers of both hands helpless the 

 match may be held by getting it between two flat 

 sticks which may be held between both hands. 



Starting a fire in a pinch is what wins. 



Fate was kind enough to cast me early in life 

 where I formed the acquaintance of the wild folk. 

 Bears, beavers, birds, chipmunks, and coyotes 

 came strangely into my youthful life. 



