Part 43 (1/2)

It is much better to know exactly how to use a few simple standard remedies, than to experiment with a lot of powerful drugs and very likely make terrible mistakes. To give a medicine without being certain just why and just what it will do is as bad as pointing a gun at somebody without knowing whether or not it is loaded. Doctors study hard for years, before they begin to practice; and Scouts cannot expect to make doctors of themselves in a few months. Head cool, feet warm, bowels open, moderate eating--these are United States Army rules, and Scouts'

rules too. ”An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”!

Scouts who take care of their bodies properly will rarely need medicine, and should be proud of the fact.

Note 52, page 153: In 1909, in California alone, out of 388 forest fires 243, or almost two thirds, were caused by human beings' carelessness; and 119, or almost one third, were caused by camp-fires! The money loss to the state was $1,000,000; but this was not all the damage. A forest, or a single tree, is not replaced in a year, or in ten years; and the stately evergreen trees grow slowest of all.

California claims that if a few plain rules were observed, in that state alone 500 out of 575 forest fires would not occur. Some of these rules are:

1. Never throw aside matches, or lighted or smoldering stuff, where anything can possibly catch from it.

2. Camp-fires should be as small as will serve. (Most campers build fires too large, and against trees or logs whence they will be sure to spread.)

3. Don't build fires in leaves, rotten wood or sawdust, or pine needles.

4. Don't build fires against large or hollow logs where it is hard to see that they are not put out. They eat in.

5. Don't build fires under low evergreens, or where a flame may leap to a branch, or sparks light upon a branch.

6. In windy weather and in dangerous places camp-fires should be confined in trenches, or an open spot be chosen and the ground first cleared of all vegetable matter.

7. Never leave a fire, even for a short time, until you are certain that it is out. Wet it thoroughly, to the bottom, or else stamp it out and pile on sand or dirt.

8. Never pa.s.s by a fire in gra.s.s, brush, or timber, which is unguarded and which you can see is likely to spread. Extinguish it; or if it is beyond your control, notify the nearest ranch, town, or forest official.

These regulations are for Boy Scouts to remember and to observe, no matter where the trail leads.

CHAPTER XIV

Note 53, page 161: A fire line is a cleared strip, sometimes only ten, sometimes, where the brush is thick, as much as sixty feet wide, running through the timber and the bushes, as a check to the blaze. An old wood-road, or a regular wagon-road, or a logging-trail, or a pack-trail is used as a fire line, when possible; but when a fire line must be cleared especially, it is laid from bare spot to bare spot and along the tops of ridges. A fire travels very fast up-hill, but works slowly in getting across. Scouts should remember this important fact: The steeper the hill, the swifter the fire will climb it.

There are three kinds of forest fires: Surface fires, which burn just the upper layer of dry leaves and dry gra.s.s, brush, and small trees; ground fires, which burn deep amidst sawdust or pine needles or peat; and crown fires, which travel through the tops of the trees. Fires start as surface fires, and then can be beaten out with coats and sacks and shovels, and stopped by hoe and spade and plow. The ground fire does not look dangerous, but it is, and it is hard to get at. Crown fires are surface fires which have climbed into the trees and are borne along in prodigious leaps by the wind. They are the most vicious and the worst to fight.

The duty of Scouts is to jump upon a surface fire and kill it before it becomes a sly ground fire or a raving crown fire.

Note 54, page 171: Even the best surgeons nowadays ”fuss” with deep wounds as little as possible. They clean the deep wound, by was.h.i.+ng it as well as they can, to remove dirt and other loose foreign particles; then they cover gently with a sterilized pad, and bandage, to keep microbes away, and Nature does the rest. In the days when our fathers were boys, salves and arnica and all kinds of messy stuff were used; but the world has found that all Nature asks is a chance to go ahead, herself, without interference.

Unless a bullet, even, is lodged where it irritates a nerve or a muscle or disturbs the workings of some organ of the body, the surgeon is apt to let it stay, until Nature has tried to throw a wall about it and enclose it out of the way.

So the less a Scout pokes at a deep wound, the better. He can wash it out with hot water, and maybe can pick out particles of visible dirt or splinters with forceps which have been boiled for ten minutes. Then he can bandage it loosely, and wait for Nature or a surgeon.

CHAPTER XVI

Note 55, page 186: The Elks by this time had lost their pack-saddles and panniers, which had been cached with other stuff after the two burros were stolen by the renegades. They had lost also their lash ropes with the cinchas; so that it was necessary to throw some pack-hitch that did not require a cincha and hook. One of the easiest of such hitches is the squaw-hitch. The tarps were spread out and the camp stuff was folded in so that the result was a large, soft pad, with nothing to hurt Apache's back. Then the hitch was thrown with one of the ropes, as follows:

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. II.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. III.]