Look at the Date on Your Film
Even the best photographer cannot take good photographs unless he has good films. On the box of every roll of films is stamped the latest date when it may be safely developed and it is foolish to try to have a film developed after that date has passed. When you buy your films be sure they are fresh ones and that the date insures you ample time; one year ahead is none too long.
Do not open the box or take the wrappings from a roll of films until you are ready to load your camera. Then save both box and wrappings, and when your films have been exposed, use them for covering the roll again. Keep the wrapped and boxed rolls in a dark place until they can be developed. Dampness will spoil both films and plates. If you are in a damp climate, or on shipboard, keep them in a tin box, tightly closed.
CHAPTER X
ON AND IN THE WATER
Boats Safe and Unsafe. Canoeing. Rowing. Poling. Raft-Making. Swimming. Fishing
Safe and Unsafe Boats
One seldom goes on the long trail, or into camp, without encountering water, and boats of some kind must be used, generally rowboats or canoes. The safest boat on placid water is the heavy, flat-bottomed rowboat with oars secured to the oar-locks. In my younger days we owned such a boat, and no one felt in the least anxious when I would put off for hours alone on the lake at our camp in Pike County, Pa.; especially as the creaking turn of the oar-locks could easily be heard at camp loudly proclaiming that I still lived, while I enjoyed the luxury of solitary adventure. But a tub of this kind is not adapted to all waters and all purposes, and the safest boat on any water is the one best adapted to it and to the purpose for which the boat is used.
Round-bottomed boats tip easily and should, therefore, not be used when learning to row, though they are safe enough in the hands of those accustomed to their management. The best of oarsmen, however, cannot prevent her boat from capsizing if her passenger does not know how to enter or leave it, or to sit still when aboard.