trip
during leisure hours and make out a list of indispensable articles,
securing them beforehand and have them stowed in handy fashion, so that
nothing needful may be missing just when and where it cannot be
procured. The list will be longer than one would think, but need not be
cumbersome or heavy. As I am usually credited with making a cruise or a
long woods tramp with exceptionally light duffle, I will give a list of
the articles I take along--going on foot over carries or through the
woods.

CHAPTER II
Knapsack, Hatchet, Knives, Tinware, Fishing Tackle, Rods, Ditty-bag

THE clothing, blanket-bag and shelter-cloth are all that need be
described in that line. The next articles that I look after are
knapsack (or pack basket), rod with reel, lines, flies, hooks and all
my fishing gear, pocket-axe, knives and tinware. Firstly, the knapsack;
as you are apt to carry it a great many miles, it is well to have it
right and easy-fitting at the start. Don't be induced to carry a pack
basket. I am aware that it is in high favor all through the Northern
Wilderness and is also much used in other localities where guides and
sportsmen most do congregate. But I do not like it. I admit that it
will carry a loaf of bread, with tea, sugar, etc., without jamming;
that bottles, crockery and other fragile duffle is safer from breakage
than in an oil-cloth knapsack. But it is by no means waterproof in a
rain or a splashing head sea, is more than twice as heavy--always
growing heavier as it gets wetter--and I had rather have bread, tea,
sugar, etc., a little jammed than water-soaked. Also, it may be
remarked that man is a vertebrate animal and ought to respect his
backbone. The loaded pack basket on a heavy carry never fails to get in
on the most vulnerable knob of the human vertebrae. The knapsack sits
easy and does not chafe. The one shown in the engraving is of good
form; and the original--which I have carried for years--is satisfactory
in every respect. It holds over half a bushel, carries blanket-bag,
shelter-tent, hatchet, ditty-bag, tinware, fishing tackle, clothes and
two days' rations. It weighs, empty, just twelve ounces.

The hatchet and knives shown in the engraving will be found to fill
the bill satisfactorily so far as cutlery may be required. Each is good
and useful of its kind, the hatchet especially, being the best model I
have ever found for a "double-barreled" pocket-axe.

And just here let me digress for a little