Camping and Woodcraft A Handbook for the Wilderness 1917

900 Pages·1917·42.49 MB·English

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From the collection of the

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San Francisco, California
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BY HORACE KEPHART

OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS
THE BOOK OF CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT

SPORTING FIREARMS
CAMP COOKERY
CAMPING

CAMPING

AND
WOODCRAFT

A- HANDBOOK FOR VACATION CAMPERS
AND FOR
TRAVELERS IN THE W^ILDERNESS

BY
HORACE KEPHART

Aiuthor of *'Our Southern Highlanders," "Sporting

Firearms," "Camp Cookery," etc.

AMKIICAN CAMPING ASSOCIATION

:.R' ^' "^^AINING COMMITTEK
2116 NORTH S8th STHEBT
PHILADELPfllA 31, PA.

Two Volumes
in One

Vol.
I
CAMPING

Nm fork
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

1957

7^^

*

COPTHIQHT,
1917,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANlf

New Edition
Two Volumes in One,
1921
Eighteenth Printing, 1957

All
rights
reserved—no
part
of
this
book
may
be
reproduced
in any form without permission m writing
from
the
publisher,
except by
a
reviewer who wishes

to
quote
brief
passages
in
connection
with
a
review

written
for
inclusion
in
magazine
or
newspaper.

Printed m the United States of America

To
THE SHADE OF NESSMUK

IN THE
HAPPY HUNTING GROUND

7'p-
629()0

PREFACE

The
present work
is
based
upon my Book
of
Camping and Woodcraft, which appeared
in
igo6.
All of
the
original material here
retained has been

revised,
and
so much new
matter
has
been
added

that
this
is
virtually
a
new
work,
filling
two
volumes instead of one.
My
first book was intended
as
a pocket manual

for those who
travel where there are no roads and
who perforce must go
light.
I
took
little thought
of
the fast-growing multitude who go
to more
ac-

cessible
places and camp
out
just
for
the
pleasure
and
healthfulness
of
open-air
life.
It had seemed

to me that outfitting a party for fixed camp
w^ithiri
reach
of wagons was so simple
that nobody would
want
advice
about
it.
But
I
have
learned
that
such matters are not
so easy
to the multitude
as
I
had assumed; and there are, to be sure, " wrinkles,"
plenty
of
them,
in
equipping
and
managing
sta-

tionary camps
that
save
trouble,
annoyance,
or
ex-

pense.
Consequently
I
am
adding
several
chap-

ters expressly for that class of campers, and
I
treat

the matter of outfitting much more
fully than
be-

fore.

It
is not to be supposed that experienced travelers

w^ill agree with me
all around
in matters of equip-
ment.
Every old camper has his own notions about

such
things, and
all of us are apt
to be
a
bit dog-

matic.
As
Richard
Harding
Davis
says,
" The
same
article
that one
declares
is
the most
essential

to
his
comfort,
health,
and
happiness
is
the
very

first
thing
that
another
will throw
into
the
trail.
A man's outfit
is a matter which seems to touch
his

private
honor.
I
have
heard
veterans
sitting

PREFACE

around a camp-fire proclaim the superiority of their

kits with
a
jealousy,
loyalty,
and
enthusiasm
they
would
not
exhibit
for
the
flesh
of
their
flesh and
the bone
of
their
bone.
On
a campaign you may
attack a man's courage, the flag he serves, the news-
paper
for which
he
works,
his
intelligence,
or
his
camp manners, and he will Ignore you
; but
If you

criticise
his
patent
water-bottle
he
will
fall upon
you with both
fists."
Yet all of us who spend much time in the woods
are keen
to learn about the other fellow's " kinks."
And
field
equipment
is
a most
excellent hobby
to
amuse
one
during
the
shut-in
season.
I
know
nothing
else
that
so
restores
the buoyant optimism

of youth as overhauling one's kit and planning trips

for
the next vacation.
Solomon
himself knew
the
heart of man no better than that fine old sportsman
who said
to me
*' It
isn't the fellow who's catching

lots of
fish and shooting plenty of game that's hav-

ing the good time:
it's the chap who's getting ready

to do
it."

I must thank the public for the favor
It showed
my Book of Camping and Woodcraft, which passed,
with
slight
revision, through
seven
editions
in
ten

years.
For a long time
I have wished to expand the
work and bring
it up
to
date.
As there
is a well-

defined boundary between the two subjects of camp-

ing and woodcraft.
It has seemed
best
to
devote
a

separate volume to each.
The
first of these
is here

offered,
to be followed as soon as practicable by the

other, which will
deal
chiefly with such
shifts and

expedients as are learned or practised in the wilder-

ness
itself, where we have nothing
to choose from

but the raw materials that
lie around
us.
Acknowledgments
are
due
to
the
D. T.
Aber-
cromble
Co., New York,
the Abercromble & Fitch

Co., New York, and the New York Sporting Goods

Co., for permission to reproduce certain illustrations

of tents and other equipment.
This book had
its
origin
in
a
series
of
articles

PREFACE

under
the same
title
that
I
contributed,
in
1904-
1906,
to
the magazine
Field and Stream.
Other

sections have been published,
in whole or in part,
in
Sports Afield,
Recreation, Forest and
Strs'am, and
Outing.
A great deal of the work here appears for

the first time.
Many of these pages were written
in the wilder-

ness, where
there were abundant
facilities
for
test-

ing
the value of suggestions
that were
outside
the
range
of my
previous
experience.
In
this
connec-

tion
I
must
acknowledge
indebtedness
to
a
scrap-
book
full
of
notes and
clippings from
sportsmen's

journals which was one
of
the most valued
tomes

in
the
rather
select
" library "
that
graced
half
a

soap-box in one corner of my cabin.

I owe much both
to the
spirit and
the
letter of

that classic
in the literature of outdoor
life, the
lit-

tle book on Woodcraft, by the late George R. Sears,
who
is
best
known
by
his
Indian-given
title
of

'' Nessmuk."
To
me,
in
a
peculiar
sense,
it
has

been
rermdium
utriusque
fortunce;
and
it
is
but

fitting that
I should
dedicate
to the memory of
its

author this pendant to his work.
Horace Kephart.
Bryson
City, N. C,
February,
19 16.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
PAGi.

I
Vacation Time
17

II
Outfitting
23

III
Tents for Fixed Camps ...
29
IV
Furniture, Tools, and Utensils
FOR Fixed Camps
.
.
.
-53
V
Tents for Shifting Camps
.
.
68
VI
Types of Light Tents
,
.
.
76
VII
Light Camp Equipment
^
.
.
109
VIII
Camp Bedding
124
IX
Clothing
.
.
.
.
•
.
.138
X
Personal Kits
164
XI
Provisions
178
XII
Camp Making
208
XIII
The Camp-fire
225
XIV
Pests of the Woods
.
.
.
.241
XV
Dressing and Keeping Game and
Fish
264
XVI
Camp Cookery— Meats
.
.
.
290
XVII
Camp Cookery— Game
.
.
.
305
XVIII
Camp
Cookery — Fish
and
Shellfish
321
XIX
Camp
Cookery — Cured
Meats,

ETC.— Eggs
332
XX
Camp
Cookery — Breadstuffs
AND Cereals
342
XXI
Camp
Cookery— Vegetables —

Soups
363
XXII
Beverages and Desserts
.
.
.378
XXIII
Cook's Miscellany
....
386
Index
.
.
-.
395