





























































































859 

FOREST AND STREAM. 


[Nov. 30, 1907. 


hopeless expression of fright than they showed 
when I was in their midst, Their tongues were 
lolling out of their mouths and great tears were 
streaming out of their eyes as they looked at 
me in their distress. 
By this time the runaway could run no more 
and could only put up a slow trot or walk; the 
elk were doing the same. When he walked they 
would also slow down almost to a walk. Three 
had dropped out, but I still followed the band, 
thinking the hunting party would follow me and 
findthem. “Oh, for a horse; my kingdom for a 
horse.” Old Rawbones was done. On a ridge, 
about a mile away, I saw the troop, I took off 
my shooting jacket, and pointing at the elk 
waved it round and round above my head, but 
they did not see me or could not join in the 
chase. Oh, for a fresh horse or Farley. 
When I came to my last shot elk I dismounted 
and awaited events, letting the old horse wander 
about by himself and get his wind. About twenty 
minutes later Farley appeared, saying that was 
the finest race he had ever seen. 
I said, “Why did you not follow me?” He 
answered, “I was so taken up with watching the 
old horse carry you into the band that I could 
not do anything but watch the result of the run.” 
It took us some time to cut up the elk and 
pack it on the horses, his carrying most of the 
load. We never tried to find the other two | 
had shot at earlier in the run. It took us till 
after dark to make camp. All the men had 
seen the finish of the run from the ridge. I do 
not think the man that rode the runaway would 

CAMP-FIRE IN 
THE NORTH, 
have taken any price for him or would have 
swapped him with considerable boot for any 
horse in the troop. He certainly was a good 
one to go, if not much to look at. I found I 
had taken the sides out of my riding breeches 
during the run. Ge DB awWe 

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256 pages. Chas. Scribner’s Sons. Of the many 
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and the author of this very attractive volume. 
Mr. Finley has always been a bird lover and 
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In this volume are included a series of repre- 
sentative birds from the hummingbird to the 
eagle, and each chapter represents close and care- 
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of some bird or group of birds. In this way we 
are given accurate reports of the habits and 
actions of birds, and the conclusions of the ob- 
server are supported by the testimony of the 
camera. Of the more than 125 photographs in the 
volume many have already been printed in Forest 
AND STREAM. Mr. Finley writes of his friends, 
the birds, with close observation and with entire 
sympathy. His book will give great pleasure 
to all bird lovers. 
THE Forest AND STREAM may be obtained from 
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supply you regularly, 
Ask your dealer to 

How To’s for Beginners. 

Building a ¢amp-Fire. 
Tue camp-fire may be built for one of three 
purposes; to cook by, to keep the camp warm, 
or merely for its cheerful appearance. In 
different parts of the country it will be built in 
different ways. On some of the naked prairies 
of the West two or three handfuls of fine willow 
twigs may perhaps serve to fry your bacon and 
to cook your coffee, or two or three hatfuls of 
buffalo chips may make a larger and longer fire, 
while the large sage brush of some of the high 
prairies makes a bright and good fire. In the 
forests of the East, wood is always abundant 
and the same is true of the mountain ranges of 
the West. 
For cooking in all places where wood is 
scarce, the fire should be a small one. If it 
blazes much the cook has a hard time, and the 
food is likely to be scorched. On the prairies, 
in river bottoms where the grass often grows 
rank and high it is well to dig out a rectangular 
hole in the ground four inches deep, fifteen wide 
and two feet long. Build your fire in this, hav- 
ing previously cut down or burned away the 
high grass about it. If flat stones can be had, 
put one in each end of your fire hole; they will 
be convenient to stand your coffee pot on and 
any other things that you wish to keep hot. 
Whittle a few shavings from a dry stick, pre- 
ferably of pine or cottonwood, leaving them at- 
tached to the stick at one end, place some dried 
grass in the bottom of the hole and over this a 
few small sticks, then holding the stick to which 
the shavings are attached close to the ground, 
light the shavings and push the stick under the 
dry grass. Feed the fire with small pieces until 
the wood is going well, and then put on larger 
sticks, which should not be longer than the 
hole. After these larger sticks have burned 
down to coals you can go on with your cooking. 
Where cooking is to be done for one, two or 
three men only, two green sticks three inches 
throngh and flattened by the ax on one side 
can be placed on the ground side by side, three 
inches apart at one end and ten inches at the 
other. Build your small fire between these 
sticks at the point where they are six or seven 
inches apart. As the fire burns down, spread it 
in both directions, then stand your coffee or tea 
pot so that it rests on the two sticks, and close 
to it you have a place where you can rest your 
frying-pan. This style of fire was recommended 
by Nessmuk. 
“At the present day, many guides who travel 
with pack horses and perhaps some journeying 
by canoes, carry with them a grating of strap- 
iron two and a half to three feet long and twenty 
inches broad. To each of the four corners of 
this grating is hinged an iron leg from four to 
six inches long and sharpened at the point. 
After the fire has been built the grating can be 
placed on its four legs over the fire and close 
enough to it to get all the heat. All of one’s 
cooking utensils can stand on the grating. When 

CAMP 
AND COOK 
ARKANSAS FIRE, 
the camp is moved in the morning the grating 
is taken up, the legs folded in flat, and the 
whole thing slipped into a gunny sack which will 
go ona pack. : 
In the woods of the North and especially in 
Canada where the cold is severe and the shelter 
for the night often only an open lean-to which 
it is desired to heat, a more elaborate fire is 
built. In front of the lean-to, or half tent, or 
whatever the open shelter may be, two stout 
stakes are driven into the ground about four feet 
apart, parallel to each other and slightly inclined 
away from the shelter. A green tree, prefer- 
ably a butternut, or basswood, is felled and 
from its butt are cut three lengths about five 
feet long and from a foot to eight inches 
diameter. These are piled up against the stake 
the largest log at the bottom and the smalle 
at the top. They form the backlogs of the fir 
Against the lower one of these, near each en 
is laid a short, thick stick at right angles to tl 
backlogs and these short, thick sticks form tl 
sides of the fire-place and are the equivalent « 
andirons. At the ends of these short, thic 
sticks and so parallel to the backlog is a stot 
fore stick five or six feet long. ‘The fire 
built in the rectangular space inclosed wit] 
in these logs and is fed with large dry sticks. Tt 
green backlogs burn but slowly, and throw tl 
heat of the fire forward over the space between tl 
fire and the shelter and into the furthest corne 
of the latter. If the weather is cold, a goo 
pile of night wood must be cut, because in thz 
country people carry comparatively little bec 
ding and depend on the fire for warmth, I hav 
seen a Canadian, when the temperature we 
far below zero and the rivers were running wit 
mush ice, whose only covering at night was 
thin bed spread. It seemed no hardship fe 
him to get up half a dozen times during th 
night and build up the fire. 
Down in the Southwest in the Mississipy 
Valley—for example in Arkansas—the cookin 
and camp-fires are built in a way quite differe: 
from any of the above methods. The wood use 
is commonly green hickory. Two logs are lai 
on the ground parallel to each other and fro1 
four to six feet apart. On these, and at rigl 
angles to them, are piled long, straight hickor 




COOK 
FIRE. 
sticks laid as close together as possible. Th 
fire is started in the space of four or six inche | 
between these longer logs and the ground, an, 
at first burns slowly, since the flames and smok!| 
must pass through very narrow apertures be, 
tween the logs. As the green hickory woo), 
gets heated and dried, however, it burns with 
clear, steady flame and gives out great heat, 
but no great amount of smoke and flame. Oh), 
one end of the pile of logs is used the frying}. 
pan, the coffee-pot stands in another place, th), 
lid of the Dutch oven for bread baking rest) , 
on top of the pile, while from beneath it ar). 
scraped out splendid hickory coals on whic] 
the oven is to stand. There is no trouble ii : 
lighting such a fire in wet weather, for th 
sticks which run lengthwise of the fire furnis]| 
a roof that keeps the rain off while you ari, 
lighting your kindlings. A fire such as this i|’ 
not only good to cook by, but is a splendid) 
cheerful camp-fire and one that will burn al 
night. 
In a forest country where pine trees, ani} 
especially where old pine stumps are abundant), 
these make a splendid night camp-fire, whicl}, 
is really nothing more than a bonfire. It ij; 
good to look at, and if you have shelter fron}; 
the winds, is a great protection against thi, 
cold. Many men, however, will say that a smal}} 
fire which you can get close to and huddle ove’; 
will keep you warmer. The Indian makes fu1 
of the white man’s fire which he cannot ge 
near to, on account of the great amount of hea 
that it gives out, for while a white man is warn|“ 
—perhaps too warm—on one side he is freezing|!! 
on the other and has to keep turning himsel 
constantly like a ham of meat roasting over thi 
fire. a 


