ill have difficulty in predicting mountain weather, because
storms are diverted by the peaks, and swing off or are broken up; and
besides, many mountain trails and mountain camps are one mile and two
miles high--above ordinary conditions. The saying is that only fools and
Indians predict weather, in the mountains!

Note 23, page 39: Scouts as well as anybody else should have their teeth
approved of by a dentist, before starting out on the long trail. The
tooth-ache saps the strength, and a cavity might result in a serious
abscess, far from proper treatment.

Note 24, page 40: In the thick timber where there are many trees the
chance of course is less that the tree which you are under will be
struck by the lightning. But to seek refuge under any tree, in a field
or other open place, is dangerous. Many persons are killed, every
summer, by seeking some lone tree or small clump of trees, or a
high-standing tree, in a thunder-storm.

Note 25, page 47: The low soft spot is not so good as the high hard
spot, to sleep on. Green grass is damp, and softness gathers dampness.
Cowboys and rangers always spread their beds on a little elevation,
where the ground is drier and where there is a breeze for ventilation
and to keep the insects away.

Note 26, page 49: Nobody can cook by a big fire, without cooking himself
too! The smaller the fire the better, as long as it is enough. Just a
handful of twigs at a time will cook coffee or roast a chunk of meat. It
is an old scout saying that "Little wood feeds the fire, much wood puts
it out." Cook by coals rather than by flame. In the West cedar makes the
best coals, the cleanest flame; sage makes a very hot fire, and burns to
ashes which hold the fire, but it does not give hard coals. Anything
pitchy smokes the camp.

In the mountains meat wrapped in a gunnysack or a tarpaulin, to protect
from the flies, and hung in the shade and particularly in a tree where
the air circulates, will keep a long, long time.

Note 27, page 49: The brass eyes in the edges of the Elk Scouts' tarps
here would come into good use for stretching the tarp as a low "A"
shelter-tent or dog-tent. The small shelter-tents of the United States
Army are called by the soldiers "pup" tents.

Note 28, page 53: The notion that many persons have, of taking guns with
them into the mountains or the hills, for protection from wild animals,
is a foolish notion. In this day and age the wild animals have been so
disciplined