t. First, build the fire out
from the log five or six feet where you will make your bed so as to
warm the ground. Now set two crotches about four feet high and place
a pole in these crotches. Then from this pole place three or four
poles, one end on the ground, the other resting on the pole that
rests in the crotches. Then place boughs, bark, or anything to break
the wind. This shelter will, of course, be placed over the spot where
you will make your bed. Now rake the coals and live embers down
against the log where you will have the fire for the night. Now place
some boughs over the spot where the fire has been and where your bed
will be.

With this kind of a camp you can get along through a rather chilly
night. You should always carry matches wrapped in waxed paper in
three or four different places about your person. You may lose your
match safe.

If convenient, when going into camp, you should take several
stretching boards for different kinds of fur with you. If not, you
can usually find a tree that will split good and you can split some
out. It is usually hard to find withes that are long and straight
enough to bend so as to form a good shaped stretcher. You should
always aim to stretch and cure the furs you catch in the best manner.
In skinning you should rip the animal straight from one heel across
to the other and close to the roots of the tail on the under side.
Work the skin loose around the bone at the base until you can grasp
the bone of the tail with the first two fingers of the right hand
while you place the bone between the first two fingers of the left
hand. Then by pulling you will draw the entire bone from the tail
which you should always do.

Sometimes when the animal has been dead some time the bone will not
readily draw from the tail. In this case you should cut a stick the
size of your finger about eight inches long. Cut it away in the
center until it will readily bend so that the two ends will come
together. Then cut a notch in each part of the stick just large
enough to let the bone of the tail in and squeeze it out. It is
necessary to whittle one side of the stick at the notch so as to form
a square shoulder.

You should have about three sizes of stretching boards for mink and
fox. For mink they should be from 4 1/2 inches down to 3 inches and
for fox from 6 1/4 inches down to 5 inches wide, and in length the
fox boards may be four feet and the mink boards three feet long. The
boards shou