How to Camp Out | Page 5

any thing."[4]
There should also be in every party a clothes brush, mosquito-netting,
strings, compass, song-book, guide-book, and maps, which should be
company property.
I have supposed every one to be dressed about as usual, and have made
allowance only for extra weight; viz.,--
Rubber blanket 2-1/2 pounds. Stout woollen blanket and lining 4-1/2 "
Knapsack, haversack, and canteen 4 " Drawers, spare shirt, socks, and
collars 2 " Half a shelter-tent, and ropes 2 " Toilet articles, stationery,
and small wares 2 " Food for one day 3 " ---- Total 20 pounds.

You may be able to reduce the weight here given by taking a lighter
blanket, and no knapsack or canteen; but most likely the food that you
actually put in your haversack will weigh more than three pounds. You
must also carry your share of the following things:--
Frying-pan, coffee-pot, and pail 3 pounds. Hatchet, sheath-knife, case,
and belt 3 " Company property named on last page 3 "
Then if you carry a heavier kind of tent than the "shelter," or carry
tent-poles, you must add still more. Allow also nearly three pounds a
day per man for food, if you carry more than enough for one day; and
remember, that when tents, blankets, and clothes get wet, it adds about
a quarter to their weight.
You see, therefore, that you have the prospect of hard work. I do not
wish to discourage you from going in this way: on the contrary, there is
a great deal of pleasure to be had by doing so. But the majority of men
under twenty years of age will find no pleasure in carrying so much
weight more than ten miles a day; and if a party of them succeed in
doing so, and in attending to all of the necessary work, without being
worse for it, they will be fortunate.
In conclusion, then, if you walk, and carry all your stuff, camping, and
doing all your work, and cooking as you go, you should travel but few
miles a day, or, better still, should have many days when you do not
move your camp at all.
OTHER WAYS OF GOING AFOOT.
It is not necessary to say much about the other ways of going afoot. If
you can safely dispense with cooking and carrying food, much will be
gained for travel and observation. The expenses, however, will be
largely increased. If you can also dispense with camping, you ought
then to be able to walk fifteen or twenty miles daily, and do a good deal
of sight-seeing besides. You should be in practice, however, to do this.
You must know beforehand about your route, and whether the country
is settled where you are going.

Keep in mind, when you are making plans, that it is easier for one or
two to get accommodation at the farmhouses than for a larger party.
I heard once of two fellows, who, to avoid buying and carrying a tent,
slept on hay-mows, usually without permission. It looks to me as if
those young men were candidates for the penitentiary. If you cannot
travel honorably, and without begging, I should advise you to stay at
home.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] A German officer tells me that his comrades in the Franco-Prussian
war of 1870-1 had no rubber blankets; nor had they any shelter-tents
such as our Union soldiers used in 1861-5 as a make-shift when their
rubbers were lost. But this is nothing to you: German discipline
compelled the soldiers to carry a big cloak which sheds water quite
well, and is useful to a soldier for other purposes: but the weight and
bulk condemn it for pleasure-seekers.
[3] In general it is better to put the shelter-tent in the roll, and to keep
out the rubber blanket, for you may need the last before you camp. You
can roll the rubber blanket tightly around the other roll (the cloth side
out, as the rubber side is too slippery), and thus be able to take it off
readily without disturbing the other things. You can also roll the rubber
blanket separately, and link it to the large roll after the manner of two
links of a chain.
[4] I knew an officer in the army, who carried a rubber air-pillow
through thick and thin, esteeming it, after his life and his rations, the
greatest necessity of his existence. Another officer, when transportation
was cut down, held to his camp-chair. Almost every one has his whim.
CHAPTER III.
LARGE PARTY TRAVELLING AFOOT WITH
BAGGAGE-WAGON.
With a horse and wagon to haul your baggage you can of course carry

more. First of all take another blanket or two, a light overcoat, more
spare clothing, an axe, and try to have a larger tent than the "shelter."
If the body