nger steps with our right leg because it is the
stronger; another thinks that our heart has something to do with it,
and so on. Why we do this no one really knows, but it seems to be a
fact. Therefore, before a lost person starts to hunt for camp, he
should blaze a tree that he can see from any direction. Blazing simply
means cutting the bark and stripping it on all four sides. If you have
no hatchet a knife will do, but be sure to make a blaze that will show
at some distance, not only for your own benefit but to guide a
searching party that may come out to look for you. You can mark an
arrow to point the direction that you are going, or if you have
pencil and notebook even leave a note for your friends telling them
your predicament. This may all seem unnecessary at the time but if you
are really lost, nothing is unnecessary that will help you to find
yourself.

As you go along give an occasional whack at a tree with your hatchet
to mark the bark or bend over the twigs and underbrush in the
direction of your course. The thicker the undergrowth the more blaze
marks you must make. Haste is not so important as caution. You may go
a number of miles and at the end be deeper in the woods than ever, but
your friends who are looking for you, if they can run across one of
your blazes, will soon find you.

When you are certain that you will not be able to find your way out
before dark, there is not much use of going any farther. The thing to
do then is to stop and prepare for passing the night in the woods
while it is still daylight. Go up on the highest point of ground,
build a leanto and make your camp-fire. If you have no matches, you
can sometimes start a fire by striking your knife blade with a piece
of flint or quartz, a hard white stone that is common nearly
everywhere. The sparks should fall in some dry tinder or punk and the
little fire coaxed along until you get a blaze. There are many kinds
of tinder used in the woods, dried puff balls, "dotey" or rotten wood
that is not damp, charred cotton cloth, dry moss, and so on. In the
pitch pine country, the best kindlings after we have caught a tiny
blaze are splinters taken from the heart of a decayed pine log. They
are full of resin and will burn like fireworks. The Southerners call
it "light-wood."

Dry birch bark also makes excellent kindlings. A universal signal of
distress in the woods that is almost like the flag upside down on
shipboard is to build two smoky fires