t is now closely
buttoned and the smudge kept burning directly outside, there will
be no further trouble with the mosquitoes, and the odor of the
smoke is, after all, but a slight annoyance and to some is even
enjoyable after being once accustomed to it. When the home shanty
is infested, it may be cleared in the same way, and by the aid of
two or more smudges on the windward side may be kept free from
the insects.
FOOD AND COOKING UTENSILS.
The professional trapper on a campaign depends much upon his traps
for his food, and often entirely contents himself with the subsistence
thus gained. We _encourage_ and _believe_ in "roughing it" to a
certain extent, but not to that limit to which it is often carried
by many professional "followers of the trap" throughout our country.
The course of diet to which these individuals subject themselves,
would often do better credit to a half civilized barbarian than
to an enlightened white man, and when it comes to starting on a
campaign with no provision for food excepting a few traps, a gun, and
a box of matches, and relying on a chance chip for a frying-pan, he
would rather be "counted out." In ordinary cases we see no necessity
for such deprivation, and, on the other hand, we decry the idea of
transporting a whole kitchen and larder into the woods. There is
a happy medium between the two extremes, whereby a light amount
of luggage in the shape of cooking utensils and closely packed
portable food, may render the wild life of the trapper very cozy
and comfortable, and his meals a source of enjoyment, instead of a
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fulfilment of physical duty. What with the stock of traps, necessary
tools, blankets, etc., the trapper's burden is bound to be pretty
heavy, and it becomes necessary to select such food for transportation
as shall combine the greatest amount of nutriment and the least possible
weight, and to confine the utensils to those absolutely necessary
for decent cooking.
The trapper's culinary outfit may then be reduced to the following
items, and in them he will find a sufficiency for very passable
living.
One of the most nutritious and desirable articles of food consists
of fine sifted Indian meal; and it is the only substantial article
of diet which many trappers will deign to carry at all.
By some it is mixed with twice its quantity of wheat flour, and
is thus used in the preparation of quite a variety of palatable
dishes. One or two pounds of salt pork
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