Adventure, February 1917 — page 221: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Camp-Fire- my knees are calloused from long hours in the canoe. I can = paddle, portage, snow-shoe, camp and chop w Sour dough or baking-powder, it makes no differ- ence, I can bake my bannock and digest it. I believe I know a way to meet every demand of “the snow country.” I am aware that my way is by no means the only way. | I am even open to conviction that it is not the best way. = eas Our North, poets and novelists to the contrary notwithstanding, is a hospitable land and a com- fortable—to the man who knows how to get along with it. "THIS is the foundation of what I have to offer in this “Ask Adventure’ powwow. I am bold to speak on how things can be done and with what tools the north woodsman can work. I am humble to accept the corrections of those who are more competent to speak than I am. What I want to do is to kindle a council-fire at which the tenderfoot may feel free to voice his de- sire for information and the old-timer feel welcome te rise up and disclose his wisdom. I have lived in the north woods, Winter and Sum- mer. I have learned much there. Most of all I have learned that woodcraft is a science in which a man must always be a learner. | ADVENTURE has long appealed to me as a * magazine numbering more practical outdoor men among its readers than any other. It seems to me that the great virtue of this section of the “‘Ask Adventure’ department lies not so much in the advice which I may be able to hand out as in the fact that it will bring to a focus the combined woods-wisdom of the readers. I think I can suggest a workable solution for *most any problem likely to be put up tome. But I don’t want you to feel that I am setting up my judgment as final. When you know a better way, speak up and tell us all about it. When I’m stumped Pll holler for help,~wyith perfect confidence that Pll get if. Let’s get together and help each other. Let’s be conservative without being mossbacks. While hold- ing to the tried and true equipment that has served us well, let’s take a look at the new stuff and see if it’s worth while. Among us we ought to emulate the example of _an Indian friend of mine-who taught me a lot about handling a canoe—and copied my paddle.—C. L. GILMAN. Western U. S. [ft IS my desire- that this section shall be a _place where every man who loves the West, with all that means of sport and scenery and real freedom, shall feel free to ask any question he de- sires answered, If I am not able to answer from my own knowledge, F shall use the knowledge of oth- ers. But this little corner shall be like a seat beside a fire, where the flickering light touches the pine- needles and the sound of the wind mingles with the sucking gurgle of water among the rocks. WHEN the great Civil War was in its second year of agony, my father moved into the heart of the hardwood timber belt of Minnesota. 219 He filed on a homestead in Wright County, sixty miles west of Minneapolis, twenty-five miles south. of St. Cloud. There were no roads in that section and he walked ahead of the ox-team which hauled us from the railroad fifteen miles away, and brushed out a road, “swamped” a road, to be true to back- woods lingo, for the last mile or two. Here in the midst of the wilderness, he reared his family. There were four of us boys and one sister. It was uphill business, but the wilderness gave back to my father the health he had lost and with it a delight in the wild. For over nineteen years this” was my home. Here I learned to shoot, to trap, to fish. Here I learned to love the wilderness and everything init. It was the knowledge gained in the woods that made me take ‘to the mountains of the west coast like a homesick cat crawling back to its old quarters, California, and the days I have spent in the mountains have been the most golden of all. My rifles, my shotgun and my six-gun are still beloved companions and the thrill that runs along a rod is still dear to my heart. I can still enjoy one blanket -on a pile of pine-tips. And [I still like to ride a lively horse. My experience with wild animals has taken in all kinds Minnesota held in the old days, except moose FOR almost thirty-one years I have lived in and elk, which were only seen far to the north. - Bear, wolves, wildcats, panther, otter, beaver, fisher, lynx, and many others swarmed about us there. Here, radiating from Los Angeles, I have had some little experiences worth while. As for camping and fishing, I find the same things apply here as did in the old stamping-ground, and the zest is identical—E. E. HarRRIm™MAN. ‘The Balkans ~ ] WANT to help all of you who read this and are curious about Balkan matters. It may well be that some of you will ask me questions I can not answer. We all of us have our natural limita- tions. If you do, though, ll admit it frankly and refer you to a better source, or else own I’m stumped. Remember that the country we are dealing with in this department is one of the least known in the world, although it has been settled since the begin- ning of man and is situated right at the doorstep of Europe’s most civilized communities and on the great central trade-routes of the Old World. There are lots of things I don’t know about the Balkans, but those that I do know are at your service, and between us we'll hunt out the facts that have eluded _ recording up fo this time. ~*~ I HAVE served with Macedonian revolution- ists against the Turks; traveled in Bulgaria, Servia and Macedonia; written on various aspects of the Balkans and their problems for many maga- zines and newspapers in this country and abroad.— ArTHUR D. HOWDEN SMITH. Russia and Eastern Siberia CCORDING to the friendly custom, inaugu- rated years ago at Adveniwre’s Camp-Fire, [ _rise to introduce myself, Was born in Petrograd, Russia, on the eleventh of August, 1871 (twenty- third of August, new style). Only son of General 6)6)(6) EOMNIE S