s
shrewdness, and his kindliness, his help to army and other Government
expeditions, and his advice in Indian matters, he is the best-known of
all Western frontiersmen.

Thomas Fitzpatrick the Bad Hand was an Ashley trapper, and was a captain
of trappers. He afterwards served as a valuable guide for emigrants and
the Government, and was a Government agent over Indians. He was called
by the Indians "Bad Hand," because one hand had been crippled through a
rifle explosion. He was called "White Head," too, because in a terrible
chase by Indians his hair turned white.

Jedediah S. Smith is known as the Knight in Buckskin. He also was an
Ashley scout or trapper, and he was the first American trapper to lead a
party across to California. Jedediah Smith was a true Christian, and
during all his wanderings the Bible was his best companion.

Jim Bridger was another Ashley scout. He became a scout when he was
nineteen, before Kit Carson, and is almost as well known as Kit Carson.
He was the Ashley man who discovered the Great Salt Lake, in 1825; he
was the first to tell about the Yellowstone Park; and it was by his
trail that the Union Pacific Railroad found its way over the Rocky
Mountains.

Note 2, page 4: Boy Scouts know that "taking a message to Garcia" means
"there and back and no breath wasted." When the war with Spain broke
out, in 1898, Captain Andrew Summers Rowan, of the United States Army,
was directed by the President to convey a message from the Government to
General Garcia of the Cuban Army. Nobody seemed to know the exact
whereabouts of General Garcia, who was concealed in the depths of the
island. But Captain Rowan did not wait to ask "when" or "how." Not he.
He pocketed the message, he made for Cuba, he plunged into the jungle,
he found General Garcia, and he brought back the desired report. That
was genuine Scouts' work, without frills or foolishness.

Note 3, page 5: Two pairs of thin socks are better for the feet than one
pair of thick socks. They rub on each other, and this saves the skin
from rubbing on the inside of the boot. Soldiers sometimes soap the
heels and soles of their stockings, on the inside.

Note 4, page 6: The "tarp" or tarpaulin, or cowboy bed-sheet, is a strip
of sixteen- or eighteen-ounce canvas duck six to eight feet wide and ten
to twenty feet long. Fifteen feet is long for Boy Scouts. But it should
be plenty wide enough to tuck in well and not draw open when _humped_ by
the body, an