tom. After camp is made, gather 
enough fire wood for both meals, a 
small fallen tree is best as you can 
carry it all in one load. Chop it into 
fourteen or sixteen inch lengths. If the 
butts are too thick, they must be split, 
this is best accomplished by driving the 
ax into the butt and then pounding the 
ax head on a stump or log holding the 
butt with one hand and the ax handle 
with the other so that they do not come 
in contact or the handle may be broken. 
F you have no pine, shavings can be 
whittled from the inside of a split 
log. Prepare your meal while the fire 
is getting started. Get a good bed of 
coals before cooking and then feed the 
wood end first so as to get as little 
blaze as possible, otherwise you will 
have burnt food as well as burnt fingers 
and smoke in your eyes. 
After supper wash out the canoe and 
pull it up far enough to be safe from 
rising water, and 
in sight of the tent 
so if prowlers or 
stray cattle come 
around after dark 
you can shine them 
with your electric 
jlantern without 
leaving the _ tent. 
Cover your cases 
with the canoe 
cover and tie it on 
'with the rope so it 
will not blow away, 
then gather a 
_bunch of logs for 
‘your night fire. 
\Wet driftwood is 
_good for banking a 
|fire, it drys gradu- * 
sally and burns 
slowly enough to 
last nearly all 
night. 
See that every- 
thing is shipshape and tidy for you 
may have to spend another day in camp 
so don’t clutter it up. 




) 
bo FOS) 

i BY the time your chores are finished 
it is dark and you sit before the fire 
smoking or reviewing the events of 
the day, speculating on the weather for 
tomorrow, studying the stars and listen- 
ing to the song of the katydids. Candles 
| aed oil lanterns (except an emergency 
Candle) are a nuisance and only at- 
tract insects. If you must read, read 
the signs of nature. If you want to 
Write do it at the post office of the 
towns you stop at. An electric lantern 
will supply all the light you may re- 
Quire and last for the entire trip, unless 
it is used as a reading lamp. 
A smudge is usually harder on the 
camper than upon mosquitoes and not 

ZZ, YA... i | eee ae ae 
Ti een OA ea INE GAIN ETO 1 BB TO Ip ann cath 
7 Fie Si, ——— = - 
TTT <= es 
very effective at best. Mosquitoes will 
not come between you and the fire if 
you sit close, so just hang your slicker 
over your head like a shawl, sit on the 
skirt and lap the corners over your 
ankles, this will give protection and 
catch the heat, keeping your back warm. 
If there are willows near camp and 
you fail to make a browse bed under the 
tent floor, don’t be surprised if you 
feel cold or! get rheumatism from sleep- 
ing on the damp ground. But don’t for- 
get, also, near the willows mean mos- 
quitoes and mosquitoes mean malaria. 
Small streams are all fairly much 
alike in characteristics: rippling water 
and rapids usually denote obstructions 
beneath the surface or an uneven bot- 
tom, but on the Mississippi these signs 
are not always applicable. Ripples gen- 
erally mark the outer edge of the chan- 
nel, while rapids are formed by strong 
winds blowing against the deep cur- 
rent. Up stream winds form rapids. 

SO ge 
————— 

SSE OD Kea 
“fyi Ye eZ 
l 
PANS CSS 
least, it supplies fresh water. As long 
as you can keep your canteen filled 
from the wells at farm houses it is ad- 
visable to do so. But the time will oc- 
cur when this convenience will be con- 
spicuously absent and you must drink 
river water unless you happen to run 
across a Government Quarter boat. 
fige, water is always muddy below 
the Missouri River and should al- 
ways be clearéd before using. This can 
be done by various methods: with a 
pocket filter, with chemicals that will 
precipitate it, by letting it settle over 
night in a vessel (canvas bucket) or 
digging a sand well and bailing the 
water out until it runs clear. A sand 
well caves in .very easy aS soon as 
water level is reached, but with care 
and practice one can become quite adept 
at digging them. A well six inches deep 
must have a.large diameter in propor- 
tion, about two feet, and be near the 
water’s edge. The 
ar water obtained is 
seepage of the sur- 
face but it can be 
- sterilized with a 







itl Pani army rite ee 
| e : 
. -- 




ae few drops of io- 
d dine. A piece of 
zine three feet long 


by six inches wide 

ean be carried to 
roll in a cylinder 
and thrust into the 





MOORED. 
Showing a Safe Method of Mooring the Canoe 
Quartering winds an entire wavy sur- 
face. 
A good -canoeist will ride the chop- 
chop and make better time than can be 
made in smooth water, which denotes 
shallows, dead current or sand bars. 
While on the subject of sand bars I 
will offer a few suggestions regarding 
them. A sand bar, meaning: sand 
beaches or islands, is the logical camp 
spot for the canoeist, it always offers 
a well drained spot to pitch a tent, it is 
clean and fairly comfortable to lie on, 
it is close to the water and the canoe is 
always in sight. Driftwood is gener- 
ally abundant and insect pests are 
searce. It is the best place to dry out 
the tent and bedding as the sun is un- 
obstructed. It also has privacy, being 
uninhabited and is the ideal place to 
bathe and do washing, Last but not 
sand, when scooped 
out it will prevent 
cave-ins. Rain 
water can also be 
dipped from pools 
when fresh. 
Don’t drink the 
muddy water 
(many do). We all 
must eat our peck 
of dirt’ in a life- 
time, but that is no 
reason why anyone 
should try to crowd it into a short vaca- 
tion at the expense of the kidneys, be- 
sides, food cooked in muddy water is 
not very appetizing. 
HE one drawback to sand bars is 
the unprotected location in case of 
storms. But a real waterproof tent 
fastened with long pins can weather a 
fairly stiff blow. 
The tent should be pitched as high as 
possible, never on a bar that is less than 
a foot above water level in the season 
when the river is falling. The wind 
blowing upstream during the day backs 
up the water, which will rise about six 
inches when the wind dies down at 
night. 
Spots on sand bars that show a clay 
crust should be avoided as these are 
(Continued on. page 372) 
O41 
