Rafts
You can never tell just what will happen when you go on the long trail, that is one of its charms, nor do you know what you will be called upon to do. The girl best versed in the ways of the water as well as of the woods is surest of safety, and can be most helpful to her party. Possibly you may never be called upon to build a raft, and again an emergency may arise when a raft will not only be convenient but absolutely necessary. When such an emergency does come it is not likely that you will have anything besides the roughest of building material and no tools besides your small axe or hatchet. But with your axe you can chop off limbs of sufficient size for the raft from fallen trees, and with ropes made of the inner bark of trees you can bind your small logs together in such a way as to hold them firmly. Do not use green wood, it will not float like the dry. Logs about twelve inches in diameter are the best, but half that size will make a good raft. Six feet by twelve is a fair size. The smaller the logs the larger the raft must be in order to carry any weight, for it must cover a wider surface of water than is necessary for one made of large logs. One good-sized log will carry your weight easily, but a small one will sink beneath you.
If you have two long, strong ropes you can use them for binding the logs together; if not you must make the ropes from fibre of some kind. Daniel C. Beard in his book, "Boat-Building and Boating," tells of making a very strong rope of the inner bark of a chestnut-tree which had been killed by fire. The fibre torn off in long strips must be twisted by two persons, or one end may be tied to a branch while you twist the other. When two are twisting one person takes one end, the other takes the other end, and, standing as far apart as possible, each twists the fibre between her fingers, turning it in opposite directions until when held slack it will double on itself and make a double twist. The ends are then brought together and the rope kept from snarling until it is bent at the middle and allowed to double twist evenly all the way to the end. The fibre rope will be a little less than half the length of the original strands, and it should be about the size of heavy clothes-line rope. The short lengths of rope must be tied together to make two long ropes. Use the square knot in tying to make sure that it will not slip. When the knot is wet it will be quite secure.
The raft of logs.