CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 12.
CAMPING.
Comfort in Camp—Useful Tricks and Dodges—Camp Fires and all about them—Tidiness.
COMFORT IN CAMP.
Some people talk of "roughing it" in camp. Those people are generally "tenderfoots"; an old backwoodsman doesn't rough it, he knows how to look after himself and to make himself comfortable by a hundred little dodges. For instance if there are no tents he doesn't sit down to shiver and grouse, but at once sets to work to rig up a shelter or a hut for himself. He chooses a good spot for it where he is not likely to be flooded out if a storm of rain were to come on. Then he lights up a camp fire and makes himself a comfortable mattress of ferns or straw. An old scout is full of resource, that is he can find a way out of any difficulty or discomfort. He is full of "dodges," like the boy who had to rap on the door with the knocker which he could not reach. He showed resourcefulness.
A bivouac is a halt without tents and generally is not meant to last for many hours; a camp generally means a resting place with tents or huts to live in.
There are many ways of making a comfortable bed in camp, but always if possible have some kind of covering over the ground between your body and the earth, especially after wet weather. Cut grass or straw or bracken are very good things to lay down thickly where you are going to lie, but if you cannot get any of these and are obliged to lie on the ground, do not forget before lying down to make a small hole about the size of a tea-cup in which your hip joint will rest when you are lying on your side; it makes all the difference for sleeping comfortably. A very comfortable bed, almost a spring mattress, is made in Canada by cutting a large number of tops of the fir-tree branches and planting them upright in the ground as close together as possible, like bristles in a brush, so close that when you lie down on them they form a comfortable and springy couch.
Resourcefulness in Doing a Good Turn.
Remember when sleeping in camp the secret of keeping warm is to have as many blankets underneath you as you have above you. If a patrol were sleeping round a fire you would all lie with your feet towards it like the spokes of a wheel. If your blankets do not keep you sufficiently warm, put straw or bracken over yourselves and newspapers if you have them. It is also a good tip in cold weather, if you have not sufficiently warm clothing, to put a newspaper under your coat or waistcoat up your back and round your body, it will be as good as a great-coat in giving you extra warmth.
To make a bed, cut four poles—two of seven feet, two of three—lay them on the ground so as to form the edges.