Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Part 61

No definite rule of distance to be covered in a day can be laid down. In the high mountains ten or twelve miles a day should be considered a maximum, for part of the benefit to be gained from such trips is the enjoyment of the trip itself. It is better to go a few miles slowly, observing keenly all the time, stopping for frequent rests to examine a flower, to drink at a clear spring, to feast upon the view, than to cover more ground in a hurried way.

The following is a suggestion for the management of a day in high mountain alt.i.tudes. Arise with the sun or a little before breakfast.

Breakfast consists of rice, dried fruit (put to soak the night before), bacon, and shredded wheat biscuit. Before packing, make a small package of cheese, chocolate, raisins and biscuit for the noon lunch that can be reached without having to unpack equipment. There should be a rest of at least an hour at noon, eating slowly, throwing off the pack, and if possible relaxing flat on the back for a while. Then another hike of three or four miles, making camp early in the evening, about 5 o'clock.

This divides the day into three periods of hikes with a rest in between.

The dinner is like breakfast, with the addition of soup. Soup can be prepared and eaten while the rice is cooking. Mountain trout can be fried with bacon.

The equipment must be of the lightest. Clothing should consist of one pair of stout, high, waterproof, hob-nailed boots; one pair of light moccasins, to rest the feet in camp; short skirt; middy; riding breeches or bloomers (for in crossing difficult pa.s.ses skirts must be discarded); hat; gauntlet gloves; one change of underclothes; three pairs of wool stockings; one sweater; one comb (no brush); one small pocket mirror; ivory soap or soap leaves; one tube of cold cream; compa.s.s; fis.h.i.+ng rod, lines and hooks; rope; leather thongs; stout string; note-book and map; small hatchet; matches (in waterproof case).

[Ill.u.s.tration: GIANT ALASKAN MOOSE

The largest member of the deer tribe. The antlers which are worn only by the male are shed once a year. Range: This and related forms found in northern United States, Canada, and Alaska. Courtesy of American Museum of Natural History.]

No guns, books or cameras can be carried on a high hike, for their weight is prohibitive. A sleeping bag made of eiderdown, lined with canton flannel and covered with oiled silk or duck's back can be rolled and carried across the shoulders. A knife, fork and spoon in addition to the big sheath knife worn at the belt, one frying pan, tin plate and cup (aluminum should be used in preference as tin rusts easily), a rice and a soup kettle are all the cooking utensils needed. If a company of Girl Scouts attempts a high mountain climb, additional covers of clothing and food can be carried on a pack mule, but this chapter is for those who wish to climb unenc.u.mbered with pack animals. It is by far the finest way to see the high mountains, though it must be admitted few have the hardihood or courage to try it. The new Roosevelt National Park, one of the most magnificent playgrounds in the world, can be visited in the way just described.

The writer of this chapter has walked all through this park carrying the clothing, food and equipment just described. Every day of the journey found her in better physical trim, vigor, strength, and with keenness of vision and joy of life increased daily.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUSY BEAVERS AT WORK

The largest gnawing animal in this country, noted for damming streams with trees (which they cut down by gnawing), mud, and stones. Range: This or related races formerly found practically all over this country, and northward into Canada. Detail from Habitat Group in American Museum of Natural History.]

THE RED G.o.d

Now the Four-way Lodge is opened: Now the hunting winds are loose, Now the Smokes of Spring go up to clear the brain; Now the young men's hearts are troubled for the whisper of the trues, Now the Red G.o.ds make their medicine again!

Who hath seen the beaver busied? Who hath watched the black-tail mating?

Who hath lain alone to hear the wild goose cry?

Who hath worked the chosen waters where the ouananiche is waiting?

Or the sea-trout's jumping crazy for the fly?

Who hath smelled wood-smoke at twilight? Who hath smelled the birch log burning?

Who is quick to read the noises of the night?

Let him follow with the others, for the young men's feet are turning To the camps of proved desire and known delight!

Do you know the blackened timber? Do you know that racing stream With the raw, right-angled log-jam at the end?

And the bar of sun-warmed s.h.i.+ngle where a man may bask and dream To the click of shod canoe-poles round the bend?

It is there that we are going with our rods and reels and traces To a silent, smoky Indian that we know, To a couch of new-pulled hemlock with the starlight on our faces, For the Red G.o.ds call us out and we must go!

_He must go--go--go away from here!

On the other side the world he's overdue.

'Send your road is clear before you when the old spring-fret comes o'er you And the Red G.o.ds call for you!_ --Rudyard Kipling.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOON WITH NEST

From Group in American Museum of Natural History]

FOOTNOTE:

[5] The pa.s.sages in this section, from "Camping and Woodcraft," by Horace Kephart, are used by permission of the author and the publisher, the Macmillan Company, and are copyrighted, 1916, by the Macmillan Company.

SECTION XV

NATURE STUDY FOR GIRL SCOUTS

FOREWORD

The following section was specially prepared for the Girl Scouts by Mr.

George H. Sherwood, Curator, and Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, a.s.sociate Curator, of the Department of Public Education of the American Museum of Natural History. All the ill.u.s.trations used were supplied by the Museum, and the tests in the various subjects were devised by the same authors.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York conducts special courses of lectures in all of the branches of Natural History, and extends a cordial invitation to all Girl Scouts to visit the Department of Education if wis.h.i.+ng help in preparation for their Nature Study tests.

_Contents_

1. Introduction to Nature Study.

2. Plants: Flowers and Ferns and Trees.

3. Animals: Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Fishes Invertebrates

4. Geology.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN EGRET "ROOKERY" IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

The demand for the nuptial plumes of this bird in the millinery trade brought it to the verge of extermination. Range: Temperate and tropical America. Habitat Group in The American Museum of Natural History.]

1. Introduction to Nature Study

_To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye._ --_Wordsworth._

_To understand nature is to gain one of the greatest resources of life._ --_John Burroughs._

Nature Study means getting acquainted with the mult.i.tude of creatures, great and small, which inhabit the land, the water, and the air, and with the objects which surround them. Mother Nature has many, many secrets which she will reveal to sharp eyes and alert minds. It is, of course, impossible for any one to learn all these secrets, but the mastering of a few makes it easier to learn others, until finally it becomes clear that all life is related and that the humblest creature may be of the greatest importance to the welfare of the highest.

It is for these reasons that the _Girl Scout_ should learn as much as possible of the Wonders of Nature. This study may begin wherever you are, but rapid progress will be made by rambles afield and by visits to the great Natural History Museums. For example, a visit to the exhibition halls of the American Museum of Natural History in New York will answer many of your questions about animals you have seen and will enable you to answer many others for yourself, when you go out into the country.

Nature Study in its broadest application includes all of the natural sciences, such as zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, and astronomy.

So, there are many fascinating fields for study and enjoyment, and it does not matter much where we begin, whether it be Wild Flowers, Trees, Birds, b.u.t.terflies, or Stars.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BULLFROG IN ITS NATURAL SURROUNDINGS

See Snake, Turtle and Dragonfly and notice the tongue of the frog.

Habitat Group in Museum of Natural History]

Of the more practical subjects especially suited to the activities of the Girl Scout are those civic problems which can only be solved by team-play; that is, by working together. Among these may be mentioned: The preservation of birds, wild flowers, and forests; control of mosquitoes, house-flies, rats, weeds; diseases of plants and animals, including man.

The civic nature of these problems is appreciated when we realize that it would do little good, for example, for one person to destroy the breeding-places of mosquitoes on his premises, if his neighbors did not do likewise about their homes; or for one orchardist to cut out the blight from his pear-trees or the black-knot from his plum-trees, if his neighbors did not co-operate with him by ridding their orchards of these diseases.