ock boughs, or with cat-tails, rushes (see Figs. 66
and 69) or any kind of long-stemmed weeds or palmetto leaves.

To Peel Bark

In the first place, I trust that the reader has enough common sense and
sufficient love of the woods to prevent him from killing or marring and
disfiguring trees where trees are not plenty, and this restriction
includes all settled or partially settled parts of the country. But in the
real forests and wilderness, miles and miles away from human habitation,
there are few campers and consequently there will be fewer trees injured,
and these few will not be missed.

Selecting Bark

To get the birch bark, select a tree with a smooth trunk devoid of
branches and, placing skids for the trunk to fall upon (Fig. 38), fell the
tree (see Figs. 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, and 118), and then cut a
circle around the trunk at the two ends of the log and a slit from one
circle clean up to the other circle (Fig. 38); next, with a sharp stick
shaped like a blunt-edged chisel, pry off the bark carefully until you
take the piece off in one whole section. If it is spruce bark or any other
bark you seek, hunt through the woods for a comparatively smooth trunk and
proceed in the same manner as with the birch. To take it off a standing
tree, cut one circle down at the butt and another as high as you can reach
(Fig. 118) and slit it along a perpendicular line connecting the two cuts
as in Fig. 38. This will doubtless in time kill the tree, but far from
human habitations the few trees killed in this manner may do the forest
good by giving more room for others to grow. Near town or where the
forests are small use the bark from the old dead trees.

Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14.

[Illustration: One-night shelter. The fallen tree and the scout-master.]

Using Bark

To shingle with bark, cut the bark in convenient sections, commence at the
bottom, place one piece of bark set on edge flat against the wall of your
shelter, place a piece of bark next to it in the same manner, allowing the
one edge to overlap the first piece a few inches, and so on all the way
around your shack; then place a layer of bark above this in the same
manner as the first one, the end edges overlapping, the bottom edges also
overlapping the first row three or four inches or even more. Hold these
pieces of bark in place by stakes driven in the ground against them or
poles laid over them, according to the shape or form of your shel