TEN COMMANDMENTS 

 OF THE TRAIL 



By Henry Wellington Wack, F. R. G. S. 

 (Copyright, 1926) 



By Courtesy of Nature Magazine. 

 FIRST. Use the By-Ways — not the Highways. 



SECOND. Don't go Walking to beg a Ride. The Auto- 

 riding Hiker is a Fraud. 



THIRD. Everything belongs to Somebody. Then respect all 

 Private and Public Property. Be not the Author of its dis- 

 placement, disfigurement or disappearance. 



FOURTH. Keep off Prohibited Ground. Neither fish nor 

 hunt on Posted Land. Trespassers create bad will toward 

 all Nature Lovers, Campers and Sportsmen. 



FIFTH. Leave Gates, Fences, Signs, Stakes, growing grain 

 and crops as you found them. Walk around, never across, 

 all planted fields. 



SIXTH. Pluck no wild flowers — they belong to all. Leave 

 them for all to enjoy. Pick no cultivated Fruit. Resist the 

 boyhood call of the Melon Patch! 



SEVENTH. Clear away twigs, leaves and pine needles down 

 to moist earth, before laying a Camp Fire one foot square. 

 Keep cook fires low, and less than one-fifth the size of the 

 clearing. Large fires prevent cooking, but destroy forests. 

 Only small fires are safe, quick and comfortable to cook with. 

 Put camp fires out with Water, not with a kick. See that 

 the peat or humus around the fire is not burning under- 

 ground to destroy the woodland after you have left. A 

 single spark may fly a hundred feet and burn a million trees. 

 Arson is no greater crime than stupidity or neglect on the 

 Trail. 



EIGHTH. Leave campsites clean: Burn all garbage; replace 

 cut Firewood and Supplies found in camps. You are the 

 Guest of an absent Host — not the vandal of a present oppor- 

 tunity. Leave a note of thanks in a wilderness shelter you 

 have used. Put it in order before you depart. 



NINTH. Silence, or speech in whispers, is the sign of trail 

 experience and good woodmanship. Only fools and asses 

 bray in a Forest. 



TENTH. When you leave a beautiful Woodland or descend 

 from a Mountain, stop, turn around, and gaze reverently 

 awhile. Then thank God for the boon our Forests are to all 

 Mankind. Treat Life's Trail responsibly and keep it clean. 

 To the seeing eye and the generous soul, Nature's beauty — 

 her mysteries and charm — forever call us to her Trails! 



