Camping and camp cooking

by Frank A. Bates

In closing, a word to the camper. Never use fish that have lain in the sun or have begun to soften. They are not only less palatable than freshly caught fish, but at times positively dangerous to the health. Take all such fish, chop them up and take them, with the entrails and other refuse of the cleaned fish, out to the fishing ground and throw them overboard. If this is done daily at the same spot, especially if near some sunken ledge, you will be able to catch a dinner there at any time, as the fish will congregate there in large numbers. This is called ground-baiting.

CHAPTER V
WHAT TO DO IF LOST IN THE WOODS

Every man who goes camping in the woods, at a distance of more than five miles from civilization, and does what nearly every man does do, i. e., “take a walk to see the country,” is liable to miss his way and if he is not lost, the camp is. I have talked about this with a few people who have been in that unenviable position and the answer to the question is difficult and varied. “You just can’t tell what you would do.” You may theorize all you choose beforehand, but when the time comes and your brain is bewildered, you would take the most solemn oath that your compass is wrong. It is a most horrible sensation to find that you do not know how to get out of the woods, with perhaps miles of almost trackless forest before you; the one safe place, perhaps, is only a short distance away, but you do not know where that way is.

I have roamed the woods for thirty years, sometimes being in camp from May 1st to December 1st. I have hunted summer and winter in strange localities, as naturalist, sportsman and surveyor, and while I do not know as much woodcraft as I wish I did, I have had some experience in getting lost—and finding myself again; in fact, I have a faculty for getting lost. When I am following a rare or unknown bird I endeavor to keep my eye on it, irrespective of the direction in which it may take me, sometimes across country and often in circles, and when I get ready to resume my quiet path I know not where I am. So I have adopted a positive maxim: “Whatever you do, do not get rattled and lose your head.”

I often have had to caution a “novo” who looked to me for instruction in the woods, to remember the above every minute, and to add to it “Always carry a compass and never think that it lies.” Most people have heard of local attraction in the compass, and they always think they have found it. There is only about one per cent. of the country that will show anything of the kind and even then it would not deflect the needle enough to carry the traveler far astray. If it were deflected, the needle would keep you from wandering in circles in which lies the greatest danger of being lost.

Now supposing that you are camping on the shore of a lake in the woods, and you want to look over the neighborhood. Your first duty is to look at a map of the locality, if you have not already done so, so that you may have a general idea of the characteristics of the surrounding country; especially of the trend of the hills, the locations of streams or roads or the direction of the coast or lake shore, as compared with your camp. If you cannot do this do not go.

When you find that you do not know where you are, and you are positive that the sun is setting in the east or in some other impossible quarter, endeavor to make up your mind as to where you are within a radius of five miles, and think in which general direction lies some river, road or other landmark, and then set up a stick or blaze a tree in that direction. If it is not too late in the day, make up your mind in which direction you ought to go, set your compass, take a bearing on some prominent tree or other mark in that course, and go to it. If the woods are so thick that you cannot pick out a mark, set up a peeled stick or blaze a tree once in a while so you can look back and see your trail. When you have gone as far in any direction as you are certain of your course, lay it out again, always by compass, and you will come out somewhere at a place that you will recognize as leading to some known point.

If it is late in the day, do not wander around in the dark, but pick out a comfortable place, cut some boughs to lie upon and to build a lean-to; gather fire-wood enough to last through the night or as long as you want it to, and make yourself as comfortable as possible until morning. If you are fortunate enough to have some lunch with you, you will probably get a fair night’s sleep. You will not starve in one night, and you can usually find something to eat, even if it is not so nice. In very few places would there be the slightest danger of molestation from any source. Next morning you may follow the instructions for getting out, as shown in the preceding paragraphs.

Methinks I hear someone say, suppose you have no map, compass, matches, etc. I reason that you are a rational being and if you have not these things you will not be foolish enough to go out. If you do not know how to provide yourself with the necessary comforts, you have not read this book understandingly.

In the case of a hunting party in the deep woods, it is the custom among the parties with which I have been associated, to have a “lost call.” We generally separate in the morning to hunt in different sections, which are duly allotted beforehand, so that each member knows just where the other men ought to be. In case any one of them becomes so overcome with the ardor of the chase, or in the following of wounded game, that he does not know how to get back to camp, he gives the call, three shots of the rifle in succession. If not replied to, the lost one starts in the direction that he believes the camp to be situated, repeating the signal occasionally. Usually he is heard before much time has elapsed and is answered. If he does not show up by dark, a search party is formed, and he is trailed by the light of birch bark torches, or the lanterns. Seldom is a man compelled to stay out all night.