prights the water will
lift the ice up and the ice will sometimes pull the piles out of the
bottom like a dentist pulls teeth. Nevertheless, piles are much better for
a foundation for a camp or pier than any crib of rocks, and that is the
reason I have shown the cribs in Figs. 75 and 77, made so as to rest upon
the bottom supposedly below the level of the winter ice.

XV

SIGNAL-TOWER, GAME LOOKOUT, AND RUSTIC OBSERVATORY

IF my present reader happens to be a Boy Scout or a scout-master who wants
the scouts to build a tower for exhibition purposes, he can do so by
following the directions here given, but if there is real necessity for
haste in the erection of this tower, of course we cannot build one as tall
as we might where we have more time. With a small tower all the joints may
be quickly lashed together with strong, heavy twine, rope, or even wire;
and in the wilderness it will probably be necessary to bind the joints
with pliable roots, or cordage made of bark or withes; but as this is not
a book on woodcraft we will suppose that the reader has secured the proper
material for fastening the joints of the frame of this signal-tower and he
must now shoulder his axe and go to the woods in order to secure the
necessary timber. First let him cut eight straight poles--that is, as
straight as he can find them. These poles should be about four and one
half inches in diameter at their base and sixteen and one half feet long.
After all the branches are trimmed off the poles, cut four more sticks
each nine feet long and two and a half or three inches in diameter at the
base; when these are trimmed into shape one will need twenty six or seven
more stout sticks each four and one half feet long for braces and for
flooring for the platform.

Kite Frame

It being supposed that your timber is now all in readiness at the spot
where you are to erect the tower, begin by laying out on the ground what
we call the "kite frame." First take three of the four-and-one-half-foot
sticks, _A_, _B_, _C_ (Fig. 82), and two of the nine-foot sticks _D_ and
_E_ (Fig. 82), and, placing them on a level stretch of ground, arrange
them in the form of a parallelogram. Put _A_ for the top rail at the top
of the parallelogram and _C_ for the bottom of the parallelogram and let
them rest upon the sides _D_ and _E_, but put _B_ under the sides _D_ and
_E_. In order to bind these together securely, the ends of all the sticks
must be allowed to