Introduction - Even though the cities grow larger and larger and our natural playgrounds get continually smaller, even though everyone has at his disposal switches and faucets which produce light, water, heat, music, and entertainment, and even though the police protect us from burglars and bad neighbors and the firemen keep us from burning up—there still remains one area where we are completely dependent upon ourselves.....

1. Around The Fire - From books and moving pictures we all know that Indians had the ability to maintain smokeless fires, and that trappers could blot out the sites of their fires without leaving the slighest trace behind. But we're not always able to imitate these models. We gaily follow the recipe: take some wood and light it. ... But there's far more to it than that.

2. Overnight Shelters - Trapper's bivouac—Sleeping bag, ranger's tent and bivouac fire. These are enough to let you sleep comfortably through a cold night.

If you are to be truly at home in the out-of-doors, you should learn how to build a shelter for yourself. There is no genuine trapper or ranger who has not spent at least one night sleeping under the sky. We've all read stories about the weary traveler who "dug a hollow for his hips in the soft ground and slept until dawn.

3. Building Huts - The bush hut is the simplest kind of shelter to build in the woods. It may not look like much when you start it, but it improves from year to year. Look for a bush that has long, pliable branches and thick foliage. Bend the branches down in an arch, and fasten the ends to the ground. You might use strong rope on leather thongs attached to pegs. While you are doing this try not to crack any twigs or branches.

4. Tree House - Hanging aerie—This type is suitable if you can find a tree with one very thick fork. The floor of the aerie is tied to both sides of the fork. To make the floor more secure, it is hung from a horizontal beam fastened to sturdy limbs above it. Notice the knotted ladder, the simplest form of rope ladder.

5. On The Trail - From the earliest times, reading tracks has been important to man. Animal tracks led him to food and human tracks warned him of enemies or served as a guide, preventing him from getting lost in the wilderness.

Those folks who have remained close to nature and are dependent on nature—today we often arrogantly call them "primitive peoples"—are highly skilled in reading tracks.

6. Heavens - The Indians and woodsmen of old didn't need watches, compasses and barometers. They could get all the information they wanted from the animals and plants, the wind, the stars and the moon. Who today can interpret these natural signs? A passage in a recent magazine read: "Midnight. The tropical heaven arched above in a splendor of shimmering stars.

7. Water's Edge - The Indians, especially the tribes around the Canadian Great Lakes, were true water lovers and real artists at controlling their canoes, which they made for themselves out of barks and pelts.

The first essential for your activities in or near the water is, of course, knowing how to swim. In addition, you must know and obey all the safety measures that can prevent accidents.

8. With Knife - There are many constructive things you can do with your Bowie knife or pocketknife. There are just as many things you should never do with it. If you want to practice knife throwing, make a target of a softwood board propped against a wall. Anyone who uses a living tree as a target is simply destructive and proves that he has less intelligence than a field mouse.

9. Exploring - Hunting in the woods is not confined to shooting game with a rifle or bow and arrow. You can spend your time in the out-of-doors far more enjoyably and constructively if you hunt with your head and eyes. All searching, tracking, and interpreting is really hunting, and the most patient and shrewdest hunters today are not those who hang their hunting trophies on the wall in the form of antlers, but rather those who preserve their booty from the hunt in photo albums—hunters with the camera.

10. Messages - The Indians, as we know from all the tales about them, drew their messages on strips of birchbark. There is no need for us to be that authentic, and it's far better today to leave the birchbark on the birch trees. Strips of brown wrapping paper will serve as well. And if you carefully singe the edges with a candle, the paper will look positively ancient. After all, the important thing is the message, not what it is written on.

11. Signaling - In the days when ships  had no radios, signaling from ship to ship or from ship to shore and back was done with flags. I do not mean the pennants which were run up and down the ensign halyard in a quick succession of different combinations according to the key which the specially designated sailor read out of a thick code book. No, I mean signaling by semaphore.

12. Moccasins - These were the items of clothing worn by the Indians of old. Leather trousers would be ideal for working in the woods, it's true, but ordinary old pants will do as well. However, you can make cheap, long-lasting moccasins yourself.

You need an old tire, preferably one on which the tread has not been completely worn off. This will make your moccasins skid-proof.

13. Frest Law - In the woods and fields and camping grounds there are certain rules to be obeyed, certain laws to be respected. Like most rules and laws, there is a good reason for them. You already know that you must put out your fires completely and not trespass on private property, nor will you harm a living tree.

THE END