PART III
CONTENTS: CHAPTER IV.
CAMP LIFE.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
CAMP FIRE YARNS.
11.—Pioneering: Knot-tying; Hut-making; Felling Trees; Bridging; Measurements; Handicrafts.
12.—Camping: Comfort in Camp; Camp Fires; Tidiness; Camp Orders.
13.—Cooking: Cooking; Bread-making; Driving Cattle; Cleanliness; Water.
PRACTICES, GAMES, COMPETITIONS, Etc.
BOOKS TO READ ON CAMP LIFE.
CONTENTS: CHAPTER V.
(Commences on page172.)
CAMPAIGNING.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
CAMP FIRE YARNS.
14.—Life in the Open: On the Veldt; Exploring; Boating; Watermanship; Mountaineering; Patrolling; Night Work; Weather Wisdom.
15.—Pathfinding: Finding the Way; Judging Heights and Distances; Finding the North.
16.—Signalling Information: Hidden Information; Signalling; Whistle and Flag Signals.
PRACTICES, GAMES, and COMPETITIONS IN CAMPAIGNING.
BOOKS ON CAMPAIGNING.
CHAPTER IV.CAMP LIFE.
Knot-tying—Hutmaking—Felling Trees—Bridging—Measurements—Handicrafts.
Pioneers are men who go ahead to open up a way in the jungles or elsewhere for those coming after them.
When I was on service on the West Coast of Africa I had command of a large force of native scouts, and, like all scouts, we tried to make ourselves useful in every way to our main army. So not only did we look out for the enemy and watch his moves, but we also did what we could to improve the road for our own army, since it was merely a narrow track through thick jungle and swamps. That is, we became pioneers as well as scouts. In the course of our march, we built nearly two hundred bridges of timber over streams. But when I first set the scouts to do this most important work I found that, out of the thousand men, a great many did not know how to use an axe to cut down the trees, and, except one company of about sixty men, none knew how to make knots—even bad knots. So they were quite useless for building bridges, as this had to be done by tying poles together.
So every scout ought to be able to tie knots.
To tie a knot seems to be a simple thing, and yet thereare right ways and wrong ways of doing it, and scouts ought to know the right way. Very often it may happen that lives depend on a knot being properly tied.
The right kind of knot to tie is one which you can be certain will hold under any amount of strain, and which you can always undo easily if you wish to.
Pioneering Scouts in Ashanti.Pioneering Scouts in Ashanti.
Pioneering Scouts in Ashanti.
Pioneering Scouts in Ashanti.
A bad knot, which is called a "granny," is one which slips away when a hard pull comes on it, or which gets jammed so tight that you cannot untie it.
The following are useful knots which every scout ought to know, and ought to use whenever he is tying string or rope, etc.
1.—Reef Knot, for tying ropes together.1.—Reef Knot, for tying ropes together.
1.—Reef Knot, for tying ropes together.
1.—Reef Knot, for tying ropes together.
2.—Sheet Bend, for tying two rope ends together.2.—Sheet Bend, for tying two rope ends together.
2.—Sheet Bend, for tying two rope ends together.
2.—Sheet Bend, for tying two rope ends together.
3.—Clove Hitch, for fastening a rope to a pole.3.—Clove Hitch, for fastening a rope to a pole.
3.—Clove Hitch, for fastening a rope to a pole.
3.—Clove Hitch, for fastening a rope to a pole.
4.—Two Half-Hitches to make a rope fast to a pole with a sliding loop.4.—Two Half-Hitches to make a rope fast to a pole with a sliding loop.
4.—Two Half-Hitches to make a rope fast to a pole with a sliding loop.
4.—Two Half-Hitches to make a rope fast to a pole with a sliding loop.
5.—Bowline, for making a loop that will not slip, such at you tie round a man when you want to rescue him from fire, etc.
First step in the bowline.First step in the bowline.
First step in the bowline.
First step in the bowline.
Second step in the bowline.Second step in the bowline.
Second step in the bowline.
Second step in the bowline.
6.—Overhand Knot.6.—Overhand Knot.
6.—Overhand Knot.
6.—Overhand Knot.
7.—Middleman7.—Middleman's Knot.
7.—Middleman's Knot.
7.—Middleman's Knot.
NOTE.—In the above diagrams this means the end of the rope.NOTE.—In the above diagrams this means the end of the rope.
NOTE.—In the above diagrams this means the end of the rope.
NOTE.—In the above diagrams this means the end of the rope.
This means the continuation of the rope.This means the continuation of the rope.
This means the continuation of the rope.
This means the continuation of the rope.
Rope.Rope.
Rope.
Rope.
We had no rope with us in West Africa, so we used the strong creeping plants, and also used thin withes or long whippy sticks which we made still more pliant or bendable by holding one end under foot and twisting the other round and round with our hands. The best wood for withes in England is willow or hazel. You see them used for binding faggots of wood together. You cannot tie all knots with them as with rope—but they can generally make a timber hitch; or this withe knot.
To live comfortably in camp a scout must know how to make a bivouac shelter for the night, or a hut if he is going to be for a long time in camp.
It all depends on the country and weather as to what sort of shelter you put up.
In making your roof, whether of branches of fir-trees, or of grass or reeds, etc., put them on as you would do tiles or slates, beginning at the bottom so that the upper overlap the lower ones and thus run off the rain without letting it through.
Notice which direction the wind generally blows from and put the back of your shelter that way with your fire in front of it.
The simplest shelter is to plant two forked sticks firmly in the ground, and rest a cross bar on them as ridge-pole. Then lean other poles against it, or a hurdle or branches, and thatch it with grass, etc.
Or another good way, and quicker, is to cut one pole only and lean it against a tree, binding its end there; then thatch it with branches or brushwood, etc.
Where you have no poles available you can do as the South African natives do—pile up a lot of brushwood, heather, etc., into a small wall made in semi-circle to keep out the cold wind; and make your fire in the open part.
If your tent or hut is too hot in the sun, put blankets or more straw, etc., over the top. The thicker the roof the cooler is the tent in summer. If it is too cold, make the bottom of the walls thicker, or build a small wall of sods about a foot high round the foot of the wall outside. Never forget to dig a good drain all round your hut, so that if heavy rain comes in the night your floor will not get flooded from outside.
Framework of a Bivouac Shelter.Framework of a Bivouac Shelter, to be thatched with brushwood or grass. A second lean-to roof on opposite side of ridge pole will then make a hut.
Framework of a Bivouac Shelter, to be thatched with brushwood or grass. A second lean-to roof on opposite side of ridge pole will then make a hut.
Framework of a Bivouac Shelter, to be thatched with brushwood or grass. A second lean-to roof on opposite side of ridge pole will then make a hut.
Zulus make their huts by planting in the ground a circle of long whippy sticks standing upright, then they bend the tops all down towards the centre and tie them together, then they weave more whippy sticks round in and out of the uprights horizontally until they have made a kind of circular bird-cage, this they then cover with astraw mat or thatch, or with straw woven into the sticks. Sometimes a small hole is left at the top where all the sticks join, to act as a chimney.
Hut.Hut.
Hut.
Hut.
The Red Indians make their "Tee Pee" with several poles tied together in the form of a pyramid, and over these they pass a piece of canvas, which at a little distance looks like a bell tent.
A scout must know how to use an axe or bill-hook for chopping down small trees and branches.
The way to cut down a tree is first to chop out a chunk of wood near the bottom of the stem on that side to which you want the tree to fall, then go round to the other side, and chop away on the opposite side of the stem a few inches above the first cut until the tree topples over. It is a matter of practice to become a wood-cutter, but you have to be very careful at first lest in chopping you miss the tree and chop your own leg.
HOW TO MAKE BRIDGES.
As I told you before, my scouts in Ashanti, when also acting as pioneers, had to build nearly two hundred bridges—and they had to make them out of any kind of material that they could find on the spot.
There are many ways of making bridges. In the Army they are generally made of poles lashed together. In India, in the Himalaya Mountains the natives make bridges out of three ropes stretched across the river and connected together every few yards by V-shaped sticks, so that one rope forms the footpath and the other two make the handrail on each side. They are jumpy kind of bridges to walk across, but they take you over; and they are easily made.
How to Fell a Tree.How to Fell a Tree.
How to Fell a Tree.
How to Fell a Tree.
The simplest way for bridging a narrow, deep stream is to fell a tree, or two trees side by side, on the bank, so that they fall across the stream. With an adze you then flatten the topside; put up a hand-rail, and there you have a very good bridge.
Rafts, too, can be used. You build your raft alongside the bank, in the water if the river is shallow; on the bankif deep. When it is finished you hold on to the down stream end, push the other out from the bank and let the stream carry it down into position.
Rope Bridge.Rope Bridge.
Rope Bridge.
Rope Bridge.
Every pioneer should know his exact personal measurement in the following details (of which I give the average man's measure):
Extended arms, from finger-tip to finger-tip, is called a fathom and nearly equals your height.
Pulse beats about 75 times a minute: each beat is a little quicker than a second.
Pace: A pace is about 2-1/2 feet: about 120 paces equal 100 yards. Fast walking paces are shorter than when going slow.
Fast walking you walk a mile in 16 minutes, or nearly four miles an hour.
THE SCOUT IS ALWAYS A HANDY-MAN.
Pioneers are always "handy-men." In the Army the Regimental Pioneers are the men who in war make bridges and roadways for the troops to get along; they destroy the enemy's bridges and railways so that he cannot get away; and they blow up his fortifications so that the rest of the soldiers can rush in and capture the place, and so on. In peace-time the pioneers do all the useful jobs in barracks, such as carpentering, doing plumbers' and painters' work, bricklaying and metal work, making chairs, tables, bookshelves, etc. So scouts, if they want to be handy pioneers, should also learn this kind of work; and it will always be useful to them afterwards.
Also scouts must know how to mend and even to make themselves clothes and boots. I have made myself boots as well as shoes out of all sorts of materials, but always wished I had, while a boy, learned to do a bit of boot-mending from a cobbler.
Start a carpentry class, or instruction in electricity, or plumbing, elementary engineering, etc., with a view to teaching the boys handicrafts that may be of real use to them in their future life. If you do not know enough about it yourself, get a friend to come and demonstrate with models or instruments for a few evenings.
Get leave to take the scouts over a factory to study the engines, etc.
Teach the boys to chop firewood. If they learn to chop up old packing cases, etc., and make the billets into bundles for the trade, they can earn a good deal towards their funds.
Teach them to make wooden mechanical toys, (from one or two penny ones as models.) Thereby teaching them elementary mechanics, and handiness with tools.
PRACTICES.
Knot-tying should be practised against time, by knot-tying races between scouts in heats, the losers to pair off again for further heats till the slowest knot-tyer is found. In this way (which should be used in other branches of instruction also) the worst performers get the most practice—and the emulation is just as great to avoid being the worst, as it would be in striving to be the best, and win a prize.
Knot-tying races should also be carried out in the dark, the instructor turning out the light for a few seconds on naming the knot to be tied.
Hurdle-making by planting a row of upright stakes and weaving in withes.
Make models of bridges with scouts' staves, cords, planks out of old packing cases.
"Manual of Military Engineering": War Office Publication.
"Active Service Pocket Book," by Mr. Bertrand Stewart, 3s. 6d. (Clowes and Son.)
"Romance of Engineering and Mechanism," 5s. (Published by Seely and Co.)
"How it Works." Showing how such things work as steam engines, motors, vacuum brakes, telephones, telegraphs, etc.
1s. books on Carpentering, Joinery, Engine-driving, etc.
CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 12.CAMPING.
Comfort in Camp—Useful Tricks and Dodges—Camp Fires and all about them—Tidiness.
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-cupin 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.Resourcefulness in Doing a Good Turn.
Resourcefulness in Doing a Good Turn.
Resourcefulness in Doing a Good Turn.
Remember when sleeping in camp the secret of keeping warm is to have as many blanketsunderneathyou 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.
Bed.Bed.
Bed.
Bed.
Cut four pegs, two feet long, and sharpen, drive them into the ground at the four corners to keep the poles in place.
Cut down a fir tree; cut off all branches and lay them overlapping each other like slates on a roof till a thick bed of them is made; the outside ones underlapping the poles. Cover with a blanket.
To make a mattress you first set up a camp loom (see "Hints to Instructors," page 163) and weave a mattress out of bracken, ferns, heather, straw, or grass, etc., six feet long and two feet nine inches across.
With this same loom you can make grass or straw mats, with which to form tents, or shelters, or walls, or carpets, etc.
Camp candlesticks can be made by bending a bit of wire into a small spiral spring; or by using a cleft stick stuck in the wall; or a glass candle shade can be made by cutting the bottom off a bottle and sticking it upside down in the ground with a candle stuck into the neck.
Camp Candlesticks.Camp Candlesticks.
Camp Candlesticks.
Camp Candlesticks.
The bottom of the bottle may be cut off either by putting about an inch or an inch and a half of water into the bottle and then standing it in the embers of the fire till it gets hot and cracks at the water-level. Or it can bedone by passing a piece of string round the body of the bottle, and drawing it rapidly to and fro till it makes a hot line round the bottle which then breaks neatly off with a blow or on being immersed in cold water.
Camp forks can also be made out of wire sharpened at the points.
It is something to know how to sit down in a wet camp. You "squat" instead of sitting. Natives in India squat on their heels, but this is a tiring way if you have not done it as a child; though it comes easy if you put a sloping stone or chock of wood under your heels.
Camp Fork.Camp Fork.
Camp Fork.
Camp Fork.
Boers and other camp men squat on one heel. It is a little tiring at first.
Buttons are always being lost in camp, and it adds greatly to your comfort to know how to make buttons out of bootlaces or string. This will be shown to you. Scouts should also be able to carve collar studs out of wood, bone, or horn.
A great secret of sleeping comfortably in camp is to have a canvas bag about two feet long by one foot wide into which you pack odds and ends—or carry empty and fill up with grass or underclothing to form your pillow at night.
Before lighting your fire remember always to do as every backwoodsman does, and that is to cut away or burn all bracken, heather, grass, etc., round the fire to prevent its setting light to the surrounding grass or bush. Many bad bush-fires have been caused by young tenderfoots fooling about with blazes which they imagined to be camp fires. In burning the grass for this purpose, (or "ring-burning" as it is called) burn only a little at atime and have branches of trees or old sacks ready with which you can beat it out again at once when it has gone far enough.
Scouts should always be on the look-out to beat out a bush-fire that has been accidentally started at any time as a "good turn" to the owner of the land or to people who may have herds and crops in danger.
It is no use to learn how to light a fire by hearsay, the only way is to pay attention to the instructions given you, and then practise laying and lighting a fire yourself.
In the book called "Two Little Savages," instructions for laying a fire are given in the following rhyme:
First a curl of birch bark as dry as it can be,Then some twigs of soft wood dead from off a tree,Last of all some pine knots to make a kettle foam,And there's a fire to make you think you're sitting right at home.
First a curl of birch bark as dry as it can be,Then some twigs of soft wood dead from off a tree,Last of all some pine knots to make a kettle foam,And there's a fire to make you think you're sitting right at home.
First a curl of birch bark as dry as it can be,Then some twigs of soft wood dead from off a tree,Last of all some pine knots to make a kettle foam,And there's a fire to make you think you're sitting right at home.
First a curl of birch bark as dry as it can be,
Then some twigs of soft wood dead from off a tree,
Last of all some pine knots to make a kettle foam,
And there's a fire to make you think you're sitting right at home.
Star Fire Ready to Light.Star Fire Ready to Light.
Star Fire Ready to Light.
Star Fire Ready to Light.
Remember to begin your fire with a small amount of very small chips or twigs of really dry dead wood lightly heaped together and a little straw or paper to ignite it; about this should be put little sticks leaning together in the shape of a pyramid, and above this bigger sticks similarly standing on end. When the fire is well alight bigger sticks can be added, and, finally, logs of wood. A great thing for a cooking fire is to get a good pile of red hot wood ashes, and if you use three large logs they should be placed lying on the ground, star-shaped, like the spokes of a wheel, with their ends centred in the fire. A fire made in this way need never go out, for as the logs burn away you keep pushing them towards the centre of the fire, always making fresh red hot ashesthere. This makes a good cooking fire, and also one which gives very little flame or smoke for the enemy to detect from a distance.
To leave your fire alight at night, cover it over with a heap of ashes and it will smoulder all night ready for early use in the morning, when you can easily blow it into a glow.
Camp Grate.Camp Grate.
Camp Grate.
Camp Grate.
If you want to keep a fire going all night to show or to warm you, put good-sized logs end to end star shaped—and one long one reaching to your hand so that you can push it in from time to time to the centre without trouble of getting up to stoke the fire.
If coals or wood are difficult to get for making fires at home, don't forget that old boots which you often find lying about on dustheaps, make very good fuel.
You can do a good turn to any poor old woman in winter time by collecting old boots and giving them to her for firing.
Another way to make a good cooking fire is one they use in America.
Drive two stout stakes into the ground about four feet apart, both leaning a bit backwards. Cut down a young tree with a trunk some fifteen feet high and ten inches thick; chop it into five-foot lengths; lay three logs, one on top of another, leaning against the upright stakes. This forms the back of your fireplace. Two short logs are then laid as fire-dogs, and a log laid across them as front bar of the fire. Inside this "grate" you build a pyramid-shaped fire, which then gives out great heat. The "grate" must, of course, be built so that it faces the wind.
Tongs are useful about a camp-fire, and can be made from a rod of beech or other tough wood, about four feet long and one inch thick. Shave it away in the middle to about half its proper thickness, and put this part into the hot embers of the fire for a few moments, and bend the stick over till the two ends come together. Then flatten away the inside edges of the ends so that they have a better grip—and there are your tongs.
A besom is also useful for keeping the camp clean, and can easily be made with a few sprigs of birch bound tightly round a stake.
Drying Clothes.—You will often get wet through on service, and you will see recruits remaining in their wet clothes until they get dry again; no old scout would do so, as that is the way to catch fever and get ill. When you are wet, take the first opportunity of getting your wet clothes off and drying them, even though you may not have other clothes to put on, as happened to me many a time. I have sat naked under a waggon while my one suit of clothes was drying over a fire. The way to dry clothes over a fire is to make a fire of hot ashes, and then build a small beehive-shaped cage of sticks over the fire, and then to hang your clothes all over this cage, and they will very quickly dry. Also, in hot weather it is dangerous to sit in your clothes when they have got wet from your perspiration. On the West Coast of Africa I always carried a spare shirt, hanging down my back, with the sleeves tied round my neck; so soon as I halted I would take off the wet shirt I was wearing and put on the dry, which had been hanging out in the sun on my back. By these means I never got fever when almost everyone else went down with it.
The camp ground should at all times be kept clean and tidy, not only (as I have pointed out) to keep flies away, but also because if you go away toanother place, and leave an untidy ground behind you, it gives so much important information to enemy's scouts. For this reason scouts are always tidy, whether in camp or not, as a matter of habit. If you are not tidy at home you won't be tidy in camp; and if you're not tidy in camp you will be only a tenderfoot and no scout.
Right Shoe laced in the Scout's Way.Right Shoe laced in the Scout's Way.
Right Shoe laced in the Scout's Way.
Right Shoe laced in the Scout's Way.
[One end of the lace is knotted under the lowest outside hole, and the lace is brought through and threaded downwards through the opposite hole; it is then taken up to the top. The dotted part of the lace is the part which lies underneath the shoe and is not visible.]
A scout is tidy also in his tent or room, because he may yet be suddenly called upon to go off on an alarm, or something unexpected: and if he does not know exactly where to lay his hand on his things he will be a long time in turning out, especially if called up in the middle of the night. So on going to bed, even when at home, practise the habit of folding up your clothes and putting them where you can at once find them in the dark and get into them quietly.
A scout even ties his shoe laces neatly—in fact they are not tied, but are wove through the eyelet holes from top of the boot downwards, and so need no tying.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS.
In going into camp it is essential to have a few "Standing Orders" published, which can be added to from time to time if necessary. These should be carefully explained to patrol leaders, who should then be held fully responsible that their scouts carry them out exactly.
Such orders might point out that each patrol will camp separately from the others, and there will be a comparison between the respective cleanliness and good order of tents and surrounding ground.
Patrol leaders to report on the good work or otherwise of their scouts, which will be recorded in the scoutmaster's book of marks.
Rest time for one hour and a half in middle of day.
Bathing under strict supervision to prevent non-swimmers getting into dangerous water.
"Bathing piquet of two good swimmers will be on duty while bathing is going on, and ready to help any boy in distress. This piquet will be in the boat (undressed) with greatcoats on. They may only bathe when the general bathing is over and the last of the bathers has left the water."
Orders as what is to be done in case of fire alarm.
Orders as to boundaries of grounds to be worked over, damages to fences, property, etc.
Latrine, with screens across.Latrine, with screens across.
Latrine, with screens across.
Latrine, with screens across.
Camp Latrines.—A simple trench should be dug, one foot wide, two and a half feet deep, for the user to squat astride. Straw mats or canvas screens to be put up across the trench every four feet to secure privacybetween the users. (N.B.—This is an important point in education.) Side screens to hide the latrine from outside view.
To Make a Camp Loom.—Plant a row of five stakes, 2ft. 6in., firmly in the ground; opposite to them, at a distance of 6ft. to 7ft., drive in a row of from two to five stakes. Fasten a cord or gardener's twine to the head of each stake in No. 1 row and stretch it to the corresponding stake in No. 2 and make it fast there, then carry the continuation of it back over No. 1 row for some 5ft. extra, and fasten it to a loose crossbar or "beam" at exactly the same distances apart from the next cord as it stands at the stakes. This beam is then moved up and down at slow intervals by one scout, while the remainder lay bundles of fern or straw, etc., in layers alternately under and over the stretched strings, which are thus bound in by the rising or falling on to them.
Camp Loom, for making Mats and Mattresses.Camp Loom, for making Mats and Mattresses.
Camp Loom, for making Mats and Mattresses.
Camp Loom, for making Mats and Mattresses.
If in camp, practise making different kinds of beds.
If indoors, make camp candlesticks, lamps, forks, tongs, buttons, besoms.
If outdoors, practise laying and lighting fires.
Make scouts lace shoes neatly on the principle given.
CAMP FIRE YARN.—No. 13.CAMP LIFE.
Cooking, Right Ways and Wrong Ways—Bread-making—Driving Cattle—Cleanliness—Water.
Every scout must, of course, know how to cook his own meat and vegetables and to make bread for himself without regular cooking utensils. For boiling water a scout would usually have his tin "billy," and in that he can boil vegetables or stew his meat, and often he will want it for drinking and will cook his meat in some other way. This would usually be done by sticking it on sharp sticks and hanging it close to the fire so that it gets broiled; or the lid of an old biscuit tin can be used as a kind of frying-pan. Put grease or water in it to prevent the meat getting burnt before it is cooked.
Meat can also be wrapped in a few sheets of wet paper or in a coating of clay and put in the red-hot embers of the fire, where it will cook itself. Birds and fish can also be cooked in this manner, and there is no need to pluck the bird before doing so if you use clay, as the feathers will stick to the clay when it hardens in the heat, and when you break it open the bird will come out cooked, without its feathers, like the kernel out of a nutshell.
Another way is to clean out the inside of the bird, get a pebble about the size of its inside, and heat it till nearly red-hot, place it inside the bird, and put the bird on a gridiron or on a wooden spit over the fire.
Birds are most easily plucked immediately after being killed.
Don't do as I did once when I was a tenderfoot. It was my turn to cook, so I thought I would vary thedinner by giving them soup. I had some pea-flour, and I mixed it with water and boiled it up, and served it as pea-soup; but I did not put in any stock or meat juice of any kind. I didn't know that it was necessary or would be noticeable. But they noticed it directly—called my beautiful soup a "wet peas-pudding," and told me I might eat it myself—not only told me Imight, but they jolly wellmademe eat it. I never made the mistake again.
Camp Kitchen.Camp Kitchen.
Camp Kitchen.
Camp Kitchen.
To boil your "billy" or camp kettle you can either stand it on the logs (where it often falls over unless care is taken), or, better, stand it on the ground among the hot embers of the fire, or else rig up a triangle of three green poles over the fire, tying them together at the top and hanging the pot by a wire or chain from the poles. But in making this tripod do not, if there is an old scout in camp, use poplar sticks for poles, because, although they are easy to cut and trim for the purpose, old-fashioned scouts have a fancy that they bring bad luck to the cooking. Any other kind of wood will do better.
This is as good a kind of camp kitchen as any, it is made with two lines of sods, bricks, stones, or thick logs, flattened at the top, about six feet long, slightly splayed from each other, being four inches apart at one end and eight inches at the other—the big end towards the wind.
Another way, when there are several "billies" to cook, is to put them in two lines a few inches apart, one end of the line facing towards the wind. Lay your fire of small wood between the two lines, and put a third row of "billies" standing on top of the first two rows—so that a small tunnel is made by the "billies." In the windward end of this tunnel start your fire; the draught will carry its heat along the tunnel, and this will heat all the pots. The fire should be kept up with small split chunks of wood.
When boiling a pot of water on the fire, do not jam the lid on too firmly, as when the steam forms inside the pot it must have some means of escape or it will burst the pot.
To find out when the water is beginning to boil, you need not take off the lid and look, but just hold the end of a stick, or knife, etc., to the pot, and if the water is boiling you will feel it trembling.
Kabobs.—Cut your meat up into a slice about half or three-quarters of an inch thick; cut this up into small pieces about one to one and a half inches across. String a lot of these chunks on to a stick or iron rod, and plant it in front of the fire, or suspend it over the hot embers for a few minutes till the meat is roasted.
Hunter's Stew.—Chop your meat into small chunks about an inch or one and a half inches square.
Scrape and chop up any vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, onions, etc., and put them into your "billy."
Add clean water or soup till it is half full.
Mix some flour, salt, and pepper together, and rub your meat well in it, and put this in the "billy."
There should be enough water just to cover the food—no more.
Let the "billy" stand in the embers and simmer for about one hour and a quarter.
The potatoes take longest to cook. When these are soft (which you try with a fork) enough not to lift out, the whole stew is cooked.
BREAD MAKING.
To make bread, the usual way is for a scout to take off his coat, spread it on the ground, with the inside uppermost (so that any mess he makes in it will not show outwardly when he wears his coat afterwards); then he makes a pile of flour on the coat and scoops out the centre until it forms a cup for the water which he then pours in hot; he then mixes the dough with a pinch or two of salt, and of baking-powder or of Eno's Fruit Salt, and kneads and mixes it well together until it forms a lump of well-mixed dough. Then with a little fresh flour sprinkled over the hands to prevent the dough sticking to them, he pats it and makes it into the shape of a large bun or several buns.
Then he puts it on a gridiron over hot ashes, or sweeps part of the fire to one side, and on the hot ground left there he puts his dough, and piles hot ashes round it and lets it bake itself.
Only small loaves like buns can be made in this way.
If real bread is required, a kind of oven has to be made, either by using an old earthenware pot or tin box, and putting it into the fire and piling fire all over it, or by making a clay oven, lighting a fire inside it, and then when it is well heated raking out the fire and putting the dough inside, and shutting up the entrance tightly till the bread is baked.
Another way is to cut a stout club, sharpen its thin end, peel it and heat it in the fire. Make a long strip of dough, about two inches wide and half an inch thick: wind it spirally down the club; then plant the club close to the fire and let the dough toast itself, just giving the club a turn now and then.
Ration Bags.—Very often on service they serve you out with a double handful of flour instead of bread or biscuits, a bit of meat, a spoonful of salt, one of pepper, one of sugar, one of baking-powder, and a handful of coffee or tea. It is rather fun to watch a tenderfoot get this ration and see how he carries it away to his bivouac.
How would you do it?
Of course you could put the pepper into one pocket, the salt into another, the sugar into another, the flour into your hat, and carry that in one hand, the bit of beef in the other hand, and the coffee in the other.
Only if you are in your shirt sleeves, as you generally are, you haven't many pockets, and if, like some people, you have only two hands, it is a difficult job.
The old campaigner, therefore, always has his three "ration bags," little bags which he makes himself out of bits of shirt tails or pocket-handkerchiefs, or other such luxuries; and into one he puts the flour and baking-powder, into No. 2 his coffee and sugar, into No. 3 his salt and pepper.
Very often just after we had got our rations we would have to march at once. How do you suppose we made our flour into bread in one minute?
We just mixed it with a lot of water in a mug and drank it! It did just as well in the end.
Before you cook your hare you've got to catch him. So with mutton or beef—you have to bring the sheep or ox to the place where you want him. Then you have to kill him and cut him up before you can cook him and eat him.
Scouts ought to know how to drive sheep and cattle and horses. Tenderfoots always forget to send someone in front of the herd to draw them on.
Sheep are apt to crowd up too much together so that those in the middle of the flock soon get half suffocated in dust and heat, and then they faint. It is often therefore, advisable for one driver to keep moving in the centre of the flock to make an occasional opening for air, and it keeps the whole flock moving better. If you come to an obstacle like a stile or wall with sheep, lift one or two over it and the rest will soon follow, but they should not be too hurried.
Scouts should also know how to kill and cut up their cattle.
Cattle are generally poleaxed, or a spike is driven into the forehead with a mallet, or a shot or blank cartridge is fired into the forehead, or a big sharp knife is driven into the spine just behind the horns, the animal's head having first been securely tied down to a cart wheel or fence.
Sheep are generally killed either by being laid on their side and having their head drawn back and throat cut with a big sharp knife, or by being shot in the forehead with a revolver or blank cartridge of a rifle.
The animal should then be gutted by having the belly slit open and the inside taken out, liver and kidneys being kept.
To skin the beast, lay the carcase on its back and slit the skin down the centre with a sharp knife, slit up the inside of the legs, and pull the skin off, helping it with the knife where it sticks to the body, first one side and then the other down to the back bone.
The carcase is split in half in the case of a big beast; with a sheep it is cut into two, and the fore quarters and hind quarters are then again divided into joints.
A scout should know how to milk a cow or a goat, else he may go thirsty when there is lots of milk available. A goat is not so easy to milk as you might think. You have to keep hold of its head with one hand, its hind leg with the other, and milk it with the other if you had a third. The way a native does it is to catch hold of its hind leg between his big toe and the next, and thus he has a hand to spare to milk with.
One thing to remember in camp is that if you get sick you are no use as a scout, and are only a burden to others, and you generally get ill through your own fault. Either you don't change into dry clothes when you get wet, or you let dirt get into your food, or you drink bad water.
So, when cooking your food, always be careful to clean your cooking pots, plates, forks, etc., very thoroughly.
Flies are most dangerous, because they carry about seeds of disease on their feet, and if they settle on your food they will often leave the poison there for you to eat—and then you wonder why you get ill. Flies generally live best where there is dirt, and scraps of food are left lying about.
For this reason you should be careful to keep your camp very clean, so that flies won't come there. All slops and scraps should be thrown away into a properly-dug hole, where they can be buried, and not scattered about all over the place. Patrol leaders must be very careful to see that this is always done.
Good drinking water is one of the most important of all things in campaigning, in order to make sure of your being healthy.
All water has a large number of tiny animals floating about in it, too small to be seen without the help of a microscope. Some of them are poisonous, some are not; you can't tell whether the poisonous ones are there, so the safest way is to kill them all before you drink any water; and the way to kill them is to boil the water, and let it cool again before drinking it. In boiling the water don't let it merely come to a boil and then take it off, but let it boil fully for a quarter of an hour, as these little beasts, or microbes as they are called, are very tough customers, and take a lot of boiling before they get killed.
For the same reason it is very dangerous to drink out of streams, and especially out of ponds, when you feel thirsty, for you may suck down any amount of poison in doing so. If a pond is your only water-supply, it is best to dig a small well, three feet deep, about ten feet away from the pond, and the water will ooze through into it, and will be much more healthy to drink.
We did this in Mafeking, when the Boers cut off our regular water-supply, and so had no sickness from bad water.