Pluck on the Long Trail Part 43

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.]

Figure I is a double bight, which is laid over the top of the pack, so that the two loops hang, well down, half on each side. "X"-"Y" is the animal's back. Take the end of the rope, "c," and pa.s.s it under the animal's belly, and through loop "a" on the other side; pa.s.s rope end "d" under and through loop "b," the same way. Next bring them back to the first side again, and through the middle place "e," as shown by dotted lines of Figure II. Keep all the ropes well separated, where they bite into the pack and into the animal's stomach, and draw taut, and fasten with a hitch at "e." The result will look like Figure III.

The diamond hitch _can_ be tied by using a loop instead of the cincha hook.

Note 56, page 193: Pack animals and saddle-horses do much better on the trail if they can be permitted to graze free, or only hobbled. They like to forage about for themselves, and usually will eat more and better gra.s.s than when tied by a picket rope. During the first three or four days out, horse or mule is apt to wander back to the home pasture.

Hobbles can be bought or made. When bought, they are broad, flexible strips of leather about eighteen inches long, with cuffs which buckle around each fore leg above the hoof. Hobbles can be made on the spot by twisting soft rope from fore leg to fore leg and tying the ends by lapping in the middle.

It is safer to picket a horse by a rope upon the neck rather than upon the leg. He is not so apt to injure himself by pulling or running. A picket rope is forty feet long. To loop it securely about the neck, measure with the end about the neck, and at the proper place along the rope tie a single knot; knot the end of the rope, and pa.s.sing it about the neck thrust the knotted end through the single knot. Here is a loop that cannot slip and choke the horse, and can easily be untied.

Sometimes the loose end of the picket rope may be fastened to a tree, or to a bush. A horse should be picketed out from trees, or in the center of an open s.p.a.ce, so that he cannot wind the rope about a tree and hold himself too short to graze. Sometimes the free end is fastened to a stake or picket-pin driven into the ground. But if there is no pin, and no tree or bush is handy, then a "dead-man" may be used. This is an old scout scheme. The rope is tied to a stick eighteen inches long, or to a bunch of sticks, or to a bunch of brush, or to a stone; and this buried a foot and a half or two feet, and the earth or sand tamped upon it.

Thus it is wedged fast against any ordinary pull. By this scheme a horse may be picketed out on the bare desert.

When an animal is allowed to graze free, a good plan is to have a loose rope twenty or thirty feet in length trail from his neck as he grazes.

This is another scout scheme, used by Indians, trappers, and cowboys.

When the animal declines to be bridled or grasped by the mane, the trailing rope usually can be caught up. Indians and trappers when riding depended much upon this trailing rope, so that when thrown they could grab it instantly, and mount again.

CHAPTER XVII

Note 57, page 206: Flowers as well as animals have their place and their rights; and they as well as the animals help to make the great out-of-doors different from the in-doors. A Scout never destroys anything uselessly or "for fun."

Note 58, page 211: Scouts should learn how to repair dislocations of the jaw, the finger, and the shoulder, as these are the least difficult and the most frequent. A dislocation can be told from a fracture of the bone by a twisting of the hand or the foot, and by a shortening or a lengthening of the arm or leg, according to whether the head of the bone has slipped _up_ from the socket, or _down_. And there is neither feeling nor sound of the broken bones grating against each other. _But never go ahead blindly._

A Scout who dislocates his own hip, far from help, should try las.h.i.+ng his leg to a tree, and on his back, clasping another tree, should pull himself forward with all his strength. But a dislocation of the knee is much more delicate to manage, and with that or a dislocated elbow the Scout can contrive to get to a surgeon.

Note 59, page 214: Yes, Scouts can always manage. The quickest way to make a blanket stretcher is to double the blanket, tie each pair of corners with a non-slipping knot, and pa.s.s a pole through the fold on one edge and through the knotted corners of the other. The quickest way to make a coat stretcher is to take two coats, turn the sleeves of one or of both inside, lay the coats inside up, or sleeves up, with the tails touching at the edges. Thrust a pole through each line of sleeves, and b.u.t.ton each coat over the poles.

Three or four belts or other straps such as camera straps slung between poles form an emergency litter or seat; and a man who can sit up can be carried in a chair made by a pole or rifle thrust through the sleeves of a coat, and the coat-tail tied fast to another pole or rifle.

When an injured person is too sore to be moved from blanket to litter, an old scout method is this: Three cross-pieces or short poles are lashed to connect the two long poles or side poles. One short piece forms each end and one crosses the middle, thus:

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This frame is lowered over the patient, and the blanket that he is on is fastened to its edges. Then when the litter is ready, he is in it already! The middle cross-piece is handy for him to grasp, for steadying himself.

Small stones rolled in the corners of blankets make a purchase for the wrappings, and the knots will not slip.

Scouts may make chairs by clasping hands; but an easy way is to have the patient sit upon a short board or short pole resting in the hollow of the bearers' arms.

In smooth country, and when the sick or wounded person is not too badly off, the Indian and trapper "travois" or horse litter may be employed.

Two elastic poles about fifteen feet long are united by cross-pieces, ladder style; and with two ends slung one upon either side of the horse, and the other two ends dragging, are trailed along behind the horse. The poles should be springy, so as to lessen the jar from rough places.

If there is another steady horse, the rear ends of the litter can be slung upon it, instead of resting on the ground. This is another old scout and Indian method.

CHAPTER XVIII