gs that he can get in
the woods, and in all my recent fire-making I have contented myself
with the tinder used for ages by the red men: that is, cedar wood
finely shredded between two stones. Some use the fringes that grow on
birch, improving it by rubbing in powdered charcoal.

Now that he has the tools and material ready, it will be an easy
matter for the matchless castaway to produce a fire.

Pass the leather thong once around the drill--and this should make the
thong taut; put the lower point of the drill in the pit at the top of
the notch in the fire-board, and hold the socket with the left hand on
top of the drill. The notch of the fire-board should be resting on a
chip or thin wooden tray. Hold the bow by the handle end in the right
hand, steady the board under the left foot, and the left arm against
the left knee. Now draw the bow back and forth with steady, even
strokes, its full length. This causes the drill to turn in the pit and
bore into the wood; ground-up wood runs out of the side of the notch,
falling on the chip or tray. At first it is brown; in two or three
seconds it turns black, and then smokes; in five or six seconds it is
giving off a cloud of smoke. A few more vigorous strokes of the bow,
and now it will be found that smoke still comes from the pile of black
wood-dust on the chip. Fan this gently with the hand; the smoke
increases, and in a few seconds you see a glowing coal in the middle
of the dust. (There are never any visible flying sparks.)

Now take a liberal pinch of the cedar tinder--about a teaspoonful;
wrap this in some bark fibre or shredded rope to {74} keep it from
blowing away. Hold it down on the coal, and, lifting tray and all,
blow or fan it until in a few seconds it blazes. Carefully pile over
it the shreds of birch bark or splinters of fat pine prepared
beforehand, and the fire is made.

If you have the right wood and still cannot get the fire, it is likely
because you do not hold the drill steady, or have not cut the side
notch quite into the middle point of the little fire pit.

The advantages of learning this method are threefold:

First: Fire-making by friction is an interesting experiment in
woodcraft.

Second: A boy is better equipped having learned it. He can never
afterward freeze to death for lack of matches if he has wood and an
old shoe lace.

Third: For the very reason that it is difficult, compared with
matches, it tends to prevent the boys making unnecess