Again, if you have any liquor in camp, put it in the hands of the most level-headed man in the party, and use it only moderately. I am not preaching a temperance lecture, but the use of liquor should be in moderation, if used at all. When drinking, hunting and fishing go together, the hunting and fishing get poor attention.
The first night that you are in camp will probably be destitute of many of the conveniences, for you seldom get well settled. About all that is really necessary is to get the beds well established and a light supper prepared.
The next day, get all the camp luxuries fixed up. Make some hooks on the trunks of the nearest trees to hang the odds and ends on. These may be nails, or they may be forked twigs pinned to the wood. Sort out the provisions and put them where they will keep sweet and dry. Do not lay the pork on the sugar bag, nor the salt against anything else.
The beds are of prime necessity. If you must economize on anything, let it not be on the bedding. If you are where you can get plenty of fir or spruce boughs, you have the finest bed in the world. Cut a large supply and spread them over the sleeping place. Start with the larger pieces and lay a row along the head of the bunking place. Then work toward the foot, lapping them like shingles till the bed is at least seven feet long. Next start again at the head and put on another layer, forcing the butts down into the first layer. Continue this process, using smaller branches with each layer, finishing off with the fine tips on top. Make this bed as thick as you can, for it will settle with use. When you have nothing else to do, put some more fir tips on the top. Lay the rubber blankets on this, and make up each man’s blanket separately, so that he can easily crawl into it and cover up, without disturbing the others.
If “fir browse” is scarce or absent, make a pole bed. Cut four sticks with a crotch at one end. They should be at least three inches in diameter. Force these into the ground so that the head and foot of the bed shall be about seven feet apart, and so placed that poles of about the same size shall lie across the head and foot. Across the poles lay other smaller ones close together till the frame is wide enough to accommodate the party. On this foundation lay the brush or dry leaves.
When nothing else is available, and I am in a camp that is to be permanent, I generally buy a bale of cheap hay, if I can get it. There is generally a farmer who can supply it, or it can be obtained at the point of disembarkation and brought in with the luggage. This may seem fussy, but I am supposed to be writing for the benefit of people who are accustomed to soft beds, and who come to camp to enjoy themselves. If you wish to “rough it,” spread your blanket for one night on the ground beneath the starry sky. The next night you will have a bed made.
A convenient bed is made of a strip of canvas, 6½ feet square, doubled and sewn together at the sides, with the ends open. When you put it up, drive four crotched sticks into the ground at the four corners and stretch on poles placed on these crotches.
The next important adjunct is the camp fire. It seems almost superfluous to tell a man how to build a fire, but it is an old saying, that “It takes a wise man or a fool to make a good fire.” I take it the reader classes himself as neither. The cooking fire will be the most important. If you have flat stones, lay up a fireplace, placing the stones close enough together so that the fire will play all around the kettle, and with a space long enough to hang two pots. It is a good idea to have a low place in front wide enough to set on the fry pan, and high enough so that you may haul the live coals between them. This will save you holding the pan in your hand all the time you are using it.
Matasiso Stove