SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
337 
burn holes in tents and bedding or set the neighborhood 
afire ; others burn quietly, with clear, steady flame. 
Some are stubborn to split, others almost fall apart 
under the axe. In wet weather it takes a practiced 
woodsman to find tinder and dry wood, and to select 
a natural shelter where fire can be kept going during 
a storm of rain or snow, when a fire is most needed. 
“There are several handy little manuals by which 
one who has no botanical knowledge can soon learn 
how to identify the different species of trees by merely 
examining their leaves, or, late in the season, by their 
bark, buds and habit of growth. 
“But no book gives the other information that I have 
referred to ; so I shall offer, in the present chapter, a 
little rudimentary instruction in this important branch 
of woodcraft. 
“It is convenient for our purpose to divide the trees 
into two great groups, hard woods and soft woods, using 
these terms not so loosely as lumbermen do, but draw- 
ing the line between sycamore, yellow birch, yellow 
pine, and slippery elm, on the one side, and red cedar, 
sassafras, pitch pine and white birch, on the other. 
“As a general rule , hard woods make good, slow- 
burning fuel that yields lasting coals, and soft woods 
make a quick, hot fire that is soon spent. But each 
species has peculiarities that deserve close attention. 
“Best Fuel— Best of all northern fire woods is hick- 
ory, green or dry. It makes a hot fire, but lasts a long 
time, burning down to a bed of hard coals that keep 
up an even, generous heat for hours. Hickory, by the 
way, is distinctly an American tree; no other region on 
earth produces it. The live oak of the south is most 
excellent fuel; so is holly. Following the hickory, in 
fuel value, are chestnut, oak, overcup, white, blackjack, 
post and basket oaks, pecan, the hornbeams (iron- 
