| It is better to spend a night in the dark wood than | | | | into shorter lengths and damp wood may be dried |
| getting yourself more confused when you are lost. | | | | enough to be burned after the fire has had a chance |
| And it always safe to know some survival tips when | | | | to get a good start. Sometimes it is hard to find |
| you are in that situation. There are many factors that | | | | enough dry wood which can be used for kindling the |
| could lead us to get lost in the wood even in the | | | | fire, but the dead branches on the lower part of the |
| daytime. Reads more on how you could survive in | | | | softwood trees are nearly always dry enough to |
| those kinds of situations. | | | | start with. Any of these branches that will break with |
| There are times when even the best of woodsmen | | | | a snap are satisfactory. Some of the mosses which |
| are forced to spend a night in the wilderness. A man | | | | hang from fir and spruce branches may be used for |
| might travel so far into the woods, after a deer that | | | | tinder if there is no birch bark nearby. |
| it might be unsafe or impractical for him to try to find | | | | Sometimes a man will be caught with no dry matches |
| his way to the camp in the darkness. He might | | | | or other conventional means of starting a fire. In |
| become lost as to direction, and prefer to camp out | | | | such cases it is possible to borrow a page from the |
| instead of risking the chance of becoming more | | | | days of the flint-lock, when the hunter would use his |
| confused by aimless traveling. If, for any reason, it is | | | | gun as a fire starter. This modern adaptation should |
| necessary to spend the night in the woods, | | | | not be used except in an emergency, but it is usually |
| knowledge of some of the fundamentals of | | | | effective. |
| woodcraft will aid in the comfort and even the | | | | Remove the bullet from a cartridge and empty about |
| survival of the lost person. | | | | half of the powder onto a dry piece of bark. Cover |
| People seldom become lost on a day when the sun is | | | | this powder with crumbled, dry punk which is found |
| shining, so the chances are that cold, wet or stormy | | | | in decayed stumps or in the interior of dead trees, or |
| weather has to be dealt with. If a person becomes | | | | stubs where woodpeckers have been working. Be |
| lost early in the day, it is all right to travel (unless he | | | | sure to keep this dry. Fill the bullet-end of the partly |
| finds that he is traveling in circles) with the hope of | | | | loaded cartridge with cotton cloth, or, lacking cotton, |
| stumbling onto some tote-road, which could be | | | | any cloth of vegetable origin. Place the cartridge in |
| followed to habitation. Otherwise it is best to try to | | | | the gun and shoot it in a direction that will permit |
| make a camp somewhere in the vicinity and prepare | | | | recovery of the cloth. This cloth will be smoldering |
| to spend the night. Usually one night out is all that is | | | | from the heat of the explosion. Place this smoldering |
| necessary, unless the lost person is a lone hunter and | | | | cloth in contact with the punk and powder, using |
| no others know of his absence, or in the case of a | | | | sticks to handle the burning cloth and being careful to |
| continued storm of several days' duration. In any | | | | keep the hands and face away from the flash fire |
| case the camp should be made as comfortable as | | | | which is almost sure to result. Powder will not actually |
| possible. | | | | explode in the open air, but will burn very rapidly with |
| Fire is the most important item in the camp. The | | | | an intense heat which will ignite the punk, leaving a |
| hearth is the symbol of the home and nothing does | | | | mound of glowing coals that can be utilized to start a |
| more to make a man feel at ease in the woods than | | | | blazing fire. |
| a good fire. Build it against a fallen tree or a dead | | | | There is something that you should learn which could |
| stub so that there will be a back-log to hold the heat. | | | | be useful when lost in the woods especially in the |
| Gather as large a supply of dry limbs and down-wood | | | | woods. These tips given above will help you in your |
| as possible, because an open fire can use a surprising | | | | fight to survive in the woods when you are lost in |
| amount of fuel in a night and it is no fun to hunt for | | | | the deer hunting. You can starts practicing them now, |
| it in the dark. Gather anything which might burn and | | | | if you have any plan to go deer hunting in the near |
| which can be dragged. Long pieces can be burned | | | | future. |