Camping

Camp garbage should be burned or buried. II refuse is buried, the pit should be sufficiently deer and the deposit so thoroughly covered with earth that it will not be an invitation to the ever-present disease-carrying flies.

You'd Better Take a Tent Now for the tent! Of course no real camper is afraid to roll himself in his blanket and go to sleep with nothing between him and the stars. Everybody should have the experience of a roofless night at least once; but for continuous camping, open to variations of weather, a tent is not to be despised. It isn't necessary to court discomfort in order to be a true camper. Rather, the true camper is the one who knows how to make himself comfortable under any conditions.

The subject of tents is too extensive to be treated fully here. You will find interesting and full dis cussions in chapter iv of 'The Boy's Camp Book', by Edward Cave; in the chapter on camperaft in 'The Boy Scout Handbook', which every boy, whether scout or not, will find interesting; in Dan Beard's various books on camping; in the chapter on camp equipment in H. W. Gibson's 'Camping for Boys', in Horace Kephart's book on 'Camping', and other reputable sources.

If more than three are to sleep together, the wall tent is preferable; but for two or three occupants the "A" or "pup" tent is thoroughly satisfactory. In the pamphlet on 'Camping' issued by the Boy Scouts of America, this type of tent is described.

A serviceable tent for two persons (and large enough for three) is the by 9 foot size, with an inside sod cloth nine inches wide. Some experienced campers substitute for the front supporting pole two cut poles locked together at their tops by crotches in which the ridge pole will rest, and spread at about the angle of the tent front. This leaves the door space entirely open when the flaps are thrown back, and makes easier drap ing over this space bobbinet to keep out mosquitoes and other pests in their season. In fact, your experienced camper is likely to leave behind all ready-made tent poles and pegs, which he contends there is no point in lugging around, unless the camping is to be done in a treeless country.

For the one-night or week-end camp, the lean-to makes a satisfactory shelter.

A thick layer of hemlock or balsam boughs may be spread on the floor of the lean-to, convex side up, butts where your feet are to rest—that is, toward the entrance. A poncho spread rubber side

down on this foundation, and you in your sleeping blanket on top, and all is well on your " browse bed." Take Woolen, Not Cotton, Blankets Don't make the mistake of carrying cotton blankets.

Weather in the United States has infinite variety, and a good camper is prepared for anything. Cot ton absorbs dampness and in wet weather is likely to become an exceedingly moist and unpleasant bed-fellow. Also, safety first ! A careless applica tion of a lighted match to a woolen blanket will do little damage. The same match meeting a cotton blanket is likely to start a merry little conflagration.

A soft loosely woven woolen blanket is warmer for its weight than a closely woven one, though the latter has greater durability. The color should be dark or neutral.

Horace Kephart, one of our great camping experts, tells how to roll up in a blanket and stay rolled up: Lie down and draw the blanket over you like a coverlet, lift the legs without bending at the knee, and tuck in first one edge smoothly under your legs, then the other. Lift your hips and do the same there. Fold the far end under your feet. Then wrap the free edges similarly around your shoul ders, one under the other. You will learn to do this without bunching and you will find yourself in a sort of cocoon.

Some campers like sleeping bags; others abhor them. If used, the cover should be waterproof, the inner layers removable. It goes without saying that a sleeping bag whose blankets and linings cannot be quickly removed and spread out to dry and air is an abomination and a menace to health.

For a camp which is to be occupied for a fortnight or so there is no good reason why the campers should not supply themselves with cots. The canvas stretcher type with compactly folding framework is better than the heavier wire-bottom kind. For cold weather the cot should be fairly wide; on a narrow canvas cot the sleeper's weight depresses the canvas sufficiently to make air spaces between his body and the side of the cot, and the draughts playing through these spaces will keep him more or less cold. On a wider cot the blanket may be made to meet the can vas close to the sleeper's body. But in cold weather it is difficult to keep warm on any cot without a mattress, unless one uses a heavy sleeping bag.