256 
matches are the little sulphur sticks made 
on the Pacific Coast, and known there as 
‘“‘Chinese matches.”” They. will light even 
after having been dipped in water. Next 
to these are the ordinary sulphur matches 
that are rarely found now in the houses of 
the well-to-do, on account of their abomin- 
able odor and general unpleasantness. 
These will, however, stand a good deal more 
moisture than the parlor match, and even 
after being wet may be made serviceable 
again through drying. A match has been 
recently placed on the market known as 
the ‘‘Searchlight.”” This is a giant among 
matches, being about five inches long and 
very costly, but as it is warranted to burn 
for several seconds in the fiercest rain 
storm that ever was, it is good to have some 
of these packed away in a tin can as a 
reserve. In fact, all matches, excepting 
those that are for immediate use, should be 
carried in friction-top tin cans, such as are 
sometimes used for tobacco. But a thing 
to be remembered is that you should not 
carry matches in a metal match-case in 
very cold weather. Use a wide-mouth glass 
bottle. If your match-case should become 
very cold, as is quite possible, and you then 
take it into a warm camp, the metal will 
condense moisture and very possibly ruin 
your matches. This may sometimes be a 
serious matter, for to be caught far from 
the home camp on a really cold winter’s 
night without the means of making fire may 
mean death. A leather match-case, such 
as can be bought for 25 cents, will, espe- 
cially if treated to a dose of neatsfoot oil, 
keep matches in excellent condition. 
Intimately connected with the subject of 
fire is the axe. “Don’t know how them 
old fellows got along without an axe; don’t 
know anyhow.” Thus an Indian replied 
when I asked him how the ancients managed 
before the white men struck this continent. 
I, certainly, should be very averse to 
making even a one-night camp without my 
axe. And when I say axe, I mean axe, and 
not hatchet. Those cute, little, ingenious 
hatchets, about the size of the family tack- 
hammer, are very poor weapons with which 
to attack even the smallest birch or maple. 
They may have their uses, but I have not 
discovered them. The smallest axe that is 
RECREATION 
of any practical use is one with a 24-pound 
head and a handle at least 24 inches long. 
Such an axe will do everything that is 
required ’round camps, though it will not 
do it so well nor so quickly as a heavier axe. 
It is a great blessing to have one heavy 
axe in the outfit—something with a 4- or 5- 
pound head, that will bite deep at each 
blow and bring the big trees down in a 
twinkling; but, of course, on ordinary 
hunting expeditions, where traveling light 
is the order of the day, one may have to 
forego this luxury. 
A good woodsman is fully as critical in 
the choice of his axe as he is of his rifle— 
sometimes more so. There is a great 
difference in axes, and the best are those 
made by blacksmiths who have served an 
apprenticeship in the lumber woods and 
whose customers are lumbermen. They 
know how to shape and temper an axe, 
while those that are bought in the hardware 
stores are often too brittle and too thin in the 
bit, so that they splinter like glass upon a 
frozen knot. 
But if the ordinary axe of commerce is 
not a very perfect weapon, what shall we 
say of the handle? This is generally de- 
plorably bad. In Europe, American axe- 
handles are looked upon almost with 
veneration, and are acknowledged to be 
far ahead of anything over there, yet those 
same axe-handles find but small favor 
with our best woodsmen. In the Middle 
States they make their own axe-handles 
of hickory, and in the North they use rock 
maple, birch or ironwood, rock maple being 
a wood selected when it is available. Most 
good choppers prefer an almost straight 
handle, and they generally use one that is 
long in proportion to their own height. 
Of course, the longer the handle, in reason, 
the greater the momentum and the harder 
the blow. See that your axes are sharp when 
you go into the woods, and that they are not 
too highly tempered for a file to bite. If 
they are sufficiently soft, and you have a 
file and a pocket oilstone, you can keep 
your axe in fairly good condition for several 
weeks, though the time will come when the 
bit will be too thick for the shortened 
length, and then nothing but a grindstone 
will put it in first-rate condition once more. 
(To be continued.) - 
