ary fires, and
thus reduces the danger of their setting the woods ablaze or of
smoking the forbidden cigarette.

There is such a fascination in making the rubbing-stick fire that one
of my Western cooks, becoming an expert, gave up the use of matches
for a time and lit his morning fire with the fire-drill, and, indeed,
he did not find it much slower than the usual way.

Walter Hough told me a story of an Apache Indian who scoffed at the
matches of white men, and claimed that he could light a fire with
rubbing-sticks faster than Hough could with matches. So each made
ready. They were waiting for the word "go" when the Indian said:

"Wait. I see if him right." He gave a few strokes with the drill, and
called--"Stop--stop him no good." He rearranged the sticks, and tried
a few more strokes. Just as Mr. Hough was going to strike the match,
he said: "Stop--stop him no good." He did this three times before he
called "Ready." Then the word "Go" was given. The white man struck the
slow, sizzling match. The Indian gave half a dozen twirls to the
drill--the smoke burst forth. He covered it with the tinder, fanned a
few seconds, then a bright flame arose, just before the white man got
his twigs ablaze. So the Indian won, but it was by an Indian trick;
for the three times when he pretended to be trying it, he was really
warming up the wood--that is, doing a large part of the work. I am
afraid that, deft as he was, he would have lost in a fair race. Yet
this incident shows at least that, in point of speed, the old
rubbing-sticks are not very far behind the matches, as one might have
supposed.

{75}

It is, indeed, a wonder that the soldiers at West Point are not taught
this simple trick, when it is so easily learned, and might some day be
the one thing to save the lives of many of them.

Archery

No woodcraft education is complete without a knowledge of archery. It
is a pity that this noble sport has fallen into disuse. We shall find
it essential to some of our best games.

The modern hunting gun is an irresistible weapon of wholesale murder,
and is just as deadly no matter who pulls the trigger. It spreads
terror as well as death by its loud discharge, and it leaves little
clew as to who is responsible for the shot. Its deadly range is so
fearfully great as to put all game at the mercy of the clumsiest tyro.
Woodcraft, the oldest of all sciences and one of the best, has
steadily declined since the coming of the gun, and