March, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
165 
pulled through the two slits will make an 
adjustable sliding knot. 
This same principle can be used to make 
a safety catch for keeping the hat on. I 
lost a very good hat one day while riding 
on a train. I fell 
asleep and it blew 
out of the win¬ 
dow ; so I devised 
a contrivance 
which will keep 
my hat on in any 
position. I take a 
rournd braided 
shoestring, cut 
two tiny holes in 
the hat close to 
the sweat band 
and run the lace 
through one and 
around the crown 
and down through the other hole. Then 
take a piece of leather the size and shape 
of a nickel, punch four holes in it as 
shown, and slip the ends of the, lace 
through the holes. This can be adjusted 
as needed. 
A good way for the hiker to get an early 
start in the morning and not have to pack 
a shower or dew wet tent, or wait until 
the sun dries it, is to start a little fire on 
the ground under the middle of the tent. 
This may make the tent smell of smoke, 
but this is not much of a drawback as the 
“skeeters” do not have any use for a smoke 
cured tent or the people that sleep in it. 
Cooking utensils should never be packed 
damp. Dry them with a cloth and then 
hold over the fire until steam stops coming 
from them, then pack. To keep cooking 
pots from collecting leaves and dirt on 
their bottoms always have handy a flat 
stone, or a piece of bark, or two sticks laid 
on the ground parallel to each other. Then 
the pot can be transferred from the fire 
to the pot-rest and there is no danger of 
its tipping over. When frying meat or 
potatoes over a camp fire, one is apt to get 
very tired of holding the handle of the 
frying pan. Take a forked stick with the 
stem of the required length; and let the han¬ 
dle of the pan rest in the crotch. If you 
can not easily get a forked stick, flatten 
the end of a stake until wider than the pan 
handle. It will balance safely. This idea 
can also be adapted to still bait fishing. 
A handy way to boil an egg and to get it 
out of the boiling water at the right mo¬ 
ment without scalding the hands or spilling 
the water, is to wrap it in a piece of cheese 
cloth with a long cord attached. A small 
tobacco sack that has been well washed 
and boiled can be used. 
To move hot stones or burning logs from 
the fire, use one forked stick and a slender 
pole; place the end of the pole through the 
crotch and on each side of the object to 
be moved, then move the hands together 
and the object will be held firmly enough 
to pick it up and transfer it. 
I often use a tiny folding stove or an 
iron U-grate when cooking, but when get¬ 
ting a big meal extra accommodation over 
the fire is needed. Then I press into ser¬ 
vice a picket pin which I used to use for 
my horse. It is a I inch bar i l / 2 feet long 
with 9 inches bent over as shown in the 
illustration, and the opposite end sharp¬ 
ened. When using this as a crane to ac¬ 
commodate two pots, it must be worked 
bring the pots over the fire. Another way 
is to take a pole 5 J4 feet and work it into 
the ground so that it will rest in the crotch 
of a forked stick 2 feet long set upright. 
To swing the kettle from this use a piece 
of wire and a fishhook. I use a 5/0 
O’Shaugnessy. 
Jim Ferguson, New York. 
Hunters’ Handwarming Device 
SE a small battery such as a three cell 
flash-light takes. This should be car¬ 
ried in a pocket under the right arm. 
Insulated copper wire extends from bat¬ 
tery down sleeve of each arm. At wrists 
the copper wire connects with plain Ger¬ 
man silver wire, No. 30, which is threaded 
about the palm and fingers of my mittens. 
Now when I hold the lock of my gun 
with one hand and the barrel with the 
other, just as one holds his gun when 
shooting, it is evident that a circuit is com¬ 
pleted and a current generated. 
The electricity flows through battery 
along copper wire, through the German 
silver wire along the gun barrel, back 
through the silver wire in other mitten by 
way of copper wire into battery. 
But what warms your hands you ask? 
Easy enough! German silver has just re¬ 
sistance enough so that it will heat when 
an electric current passes through. 
Hence your hands soon become warm 
because of the heat developed in the Ger¬ 
man silver wire. If my hands get too 
warm I shift my hand from the metal to 
the wooden part of the underside of the 
gun, thus breaking the current, and the 
wire loses its heat. This device may also 
be used without a gun, and the hands may 
be clasped together to complete the circuit. 
R. Becker, New York. 
The Best “Go Light” Lunch 
F you are out for a hike, on an all-day 
fishing trip, or a day’s hunt, the best 
lunch to carry is a sandwich, and the best 
sandwich, in my experience, is one made 
of bacon and flapjacks. The idea of a 
cold flapjack may not be very tempting, 
but the reality is. There is an amount of 
nourishment and a “filling” quality to this 
combination which I challenge any reader 
of Nessmuk’s Camp Fire to beat. 
R. W., Canada. 
Pure, Cold Drinking Water 
DRINK of cold water is greatly ap¬ 
preciated by the camper. In the 
spring when the streams are muddy or in 
summer when the 
water is warm and 
insipid at the sur¬ 
face there is al¬ 
ways cold water at 
the bottom. I take 
a jug or a flask, tie 
a heavy stone to 
the bottom, cork it 
firmly but not too 
tightly with a cork 
that has a small 
screw eye inserted 
in the top. Then I 
tie a fish line to 
the cork and to the 
middle of the can¬ 
teen strap, and 
lower the bottle 
into the water. 
When it gets to 
the bottom I pull out the cork and get a 
bottleful of clear, cold water. Be sure the 
fish line is very strong as it has to pull up 
the stone as well as the filled bottle. 
“Wandering Buckeye." 
