went out in a great hurry, while the flies, if they went at all,
were back again before he was.

A better thing, really the best, is a smudge made by building a small
fire to the windward of your tent, and nearly smothering it with chips,
moss, bark, or rotten wood. If you make the smudge in an old pan or pot,
you can move it about as often as the wind changes.

HOW TO SKIN FISH.

When you camp by the seaside, you will catch cunners and other fish that
need skinning. Let no one persuade you to slash the back fins out with a
single stroke, as you would whittle a stick; but take a sharp knife, cut
on both sides of the fin, and then pull out the whole of it from head to
tail, and thus save the trouble that a hundred little bones will make if
left in. After cutting the skin on the under side from head to tail, and
taking out the entrails and small fins, start the skin where the head
joins the body, and pull it off one side at a time. Some men stick an
awl through a cunner's head, or catch it fast in a stout iron hook, to
hold it while skinning.

Cunners and lobsters are sometimes caught off bold rocks in a net. You
can make one easily out of a hogshead-hoop, and twine stretched across
so as to make a three-inch mesh.[25] Tie a lot of bait securely in the
middle, sink it for a few minutes, and draw up rapidly. The rush of
water through the net prevents the fish from escaping.

EXPENSES.

The expenses of camping or walking vary greatly, of course, according to
the route, manner of going, and other things. The principal items are
railroad-tickets, horse and wagon hire, trucking, land-rent (if you camp
where rent is charged), and the cost of the outfit. You ought to be able
to reckon very nearly what you will have to pay on account of these
before you spend a cent. After this will come the calculation whether to
travel at all by rail, supposing you wish to go a hundred miles to reach
the seaside where you propose to camp, or the mountains you want to
climb. If you have a horse and wagon, or are going horseback, it will
doubtless be cheaper to march than to ride and pay freight. If time is
plenty and money is scarce, you may perhaps be able to walk the
distance cheaper than to go by rail; but, if you lodge at hotels, you
will find it considerably more expensive. The question then is apt to
turn on whether the hundred miles is worth seeing, and whether it is so
thickly settled as to prevent your camping.

To walk a h