Make up your own signals for other commands to your Patrol.
PATROL PRACTICES IN SIGNALLING
Practice laying, lighting and use of signal fires of smoke or flame. Practice whistle and drill signals.
Have a competition in the Patrol in concealing dispatches on the person: Give each Scout a small piece of paper and allow him to hide it on himself. Pair Scouts off and let each search the other. The one whose paper takes longest to find is winner.
Each Patrol invents its own secret code. The other Patrols try to decipher it.
Patrols compete in finding most ingenious way of sending a Morse message without use of special apparatus.
All signalling practices should be as real as possible. From the beginning separate letters can be sent and read across as wide a space as may be available, preferably out-of-doors.
Here is an English sentence you can use for practice in signalling: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”. It contains all the letters of the alphabet.
GAME IN MESSAGE CARRYING
Dispatch Running
A Scout is chosen to carry a dispatch to a “besieged” place—which may be a real village, farm or house, or someone stationed at an appointed spot. The dispatch-runner must wear a coloured rag, at least two feet long, pinned to his shoulder, and with this in its proper place he must reach
his goal.
The enemy besieging the place must prevent him reaching it, but cannot, of course, go within the lines of the supposed defenders, that is, within 300 yards of the besieged place—boundaries for this should be decided upon beforehand. Anyone found within that limit by the umpire will be ruled out as shot by the defenders.
To catch the dispatch-runner the enemy must take the rag from his shoulder. They know he starts from a certain direction at a certain time— the spot should be a mile or so from the besieged town—and they may take any steps to capture him they like, except that they may not actually witness his departure from the starting-place.
The game may be played in a town with two houses chosen as starting-place and besieged town respectively, and the dispatch-runner can adopt any disguise (except that of a woman), as long as he wears the rag pinned to his shoulder.
The people of old had their own signals. Here’s one that has meant “Attention” through all ages.
CHAPTER III
CAMP LIFE
CAMP FIRE YARN NO. 8
PIONEERING
Knot Tying — Hut-Building — Felling Trees — Bridging — Self-Measurement
Judging Heights and Distances
Pioneers are men who go ahead to open up a way in the jungle or elsewhere for those coming after them. When I was on service on the West Coast of Africa, I had command of a large force of native scouts, and, like all scouts, we tried to make ourselves useful in every way to our main army, which was coming along behind us. We not only looked out for the enemy and watched his moves, but we also did what we could to improve the road for our own army, since it was merely a narrow track through thick jungle and swamps. So we became pioneers as well as scouts. In the course of our march we built nearly two hundred bridges over streams, by tying poles together.
But when I first set the scouts to do this important work I found that, out of the thousand men, a great many did not know how to use an axe to cut down trees, and, except one company of about sixty men, none knew how to make knots — not even bad knots.
Saving Life with Knots
Just before I arrived in Canada a number of years ago, an awful tragedy had happened at the Niagara Falls.
It was mid-winter. Three people, a man and his wife and a boy of seventeen, were walking across a bridge which the ice had formed over the rushing river under the falls, when it suddenly began to crack and to break up. The man and his wife found themselves on one floe of ice floating away from the main part and the boy was on another.
All around them the water was covered with similar floating blocks of ice, grinding and bumping against each other. The three people were at the mercy of the current, which here moved slowly about, but gradually and surely carried them downstream towards the awful rapids a mile away.
People on the banks saw their dangerous position, and thousands collected, but not one seemed able to do anything to help them. Swimming was impossible. So was a boat rescue.
For an hour the poor wretches floated along. Then the river carried them under two bridges, which span the river just before the rapids.
On the bridges, 160 feet above the water, men had lowered ropes so that they hung down in the path of the drifting people.
As they passed by, the boy managed to grasp a rope, and willing hands proceeded to haul him up. But when they had him up about half way, the poor fellow could hold on no longer. He fell down in the icy stream, and was never seen again.
The man on the other floe also grasped a rope which he tried to fasten around his wife, so that she, at any rate, might be saved. But the current was now rushing them along. His hands were numb. He failed to fasten the rope. It slipped from his hands.
And a few seconds later both he and his wife ended their tortures by being sucked under the water in the heavy swirling rapids.
What Would You Have Done?
It is easy to be wise after an event, but this disaster is worth thinking out. What would you have done had you been there?
One of our Canadian Scoutmasters told me that he was travelling in a train shortly after this accident, when some of his fellow-travellers were talking it over. They did not know that he was connected with the Scouts in any way, and one of them said:
“Well, I believe that if any Boy Scouts had been there they would have found some plan for saving those poor people.”
To prevent the end of a rope from becoming frayed, you should whip it. Place a piece of twine in a loop along the rope. Then twist the longer part (B) round and round up to within a quarter of an inch of the end. Pull each turn tightly and pack each neatly to the next. Now slip end (B) through the loop, and pull firm in (A)—don’t snatch it, or it may break. This pulls end (B) down under the lashing (about half way down will do). Finally cut off the spare ends neatly.
People often think: “What is the good of learning such a simple thing as tying knots?” Well, here was a case in which that knowledge might have saved three lives.
When the ropes were lowered from the bridge they should have had a loop or two tied in them for the victims to put around themselves, or to put their arms or legs through. As it was, the ropes had no loops, and the people, not knowing how to tie bowlines or any other type of loop, were unable to save themselves.
Useful Knots
Every Scout ought to be able to tie knots.
To tie a knot seems a simple thing, and yet there are right ways and wrong ways of doing it, and Scouts ought to know the right way. A life may depend on a knot being properly tied.
The right kind of knot to tie is one which you can be certain will hold under any amount of strain, and which you can undo easily if you wish to.
A bad knot is one which slips when a hard pull comes on it, or which gets jammed so tight that you cannot untie it.
The best way to learn is to get a fellow who knows to show you. You need to practice a lot, or you will soon forget the knots. Use pieces of rope or cord and not messy bits of string or bootlaces!
On the previous page are useful knots which every Scout ought to know, and ought to use whenever he is tying string or rope.
To prevent the end of a rope from becoming frayed and unlaid you should whip it. This is done by wrapping thin string round it several times and finishing it off so that the ends do not show. There are several methods of doing this; the picture on page 94 shows an easy and efficient way.
We had no rope with us in West Africa, so we used strong creeping plants, and thin withes or long whippy sticks, which we made still more pliant or bendable by holding one end under foot and twisting the other round and round with our hands. Willow and haz
el make good withes.
You cannot tie all knots with them, as with rope, but you can generally make a timber hitch.
HINTS TO INSTRUCTORS
PRACTICE
Knot-tying should be practiced against time, by knot-tying races between Scouts in heats, the losers to pair off again for further heats till the slowest knot-tier is found. In this way (which should be used in other branches of instruction also) the worst performers get the most practice— and the emulation is just as great to avoid being the worst as it would be in striving to be the best, and win a prize.
Knot-tying races should also be carried out in the dark, the Instructor turning out the light for a few seconds on naming the knot to be tied, or blindfolding the competitors.
Make models of bridges with Scouts’ staves, cords, planks out of old packing-cases.
Hut Building
To live comfortably in camp a Scout must know how to make a bivouac shelter for the night, or a hut if he is going to be in camp for a long time.
What sort of shelter you put up depends on the country and weather.
Notice the direction from which the wind generally blows, and put the back of your shelter that way, with your fire in front of it. If you are going into camp where there are plenty of trees, and you have got the right to use them, then there are several types of shelters you may make.
A bivouac shelter is the simplest form of hut. Two upright stakes are driven firmly into the ground, with a ridge-pole placed in position along the tops. Against this a number of poles are made to lean from the windward side, with crossbars to support the branches, reeds, sods or twigs, or whatever is to form your roofing material.
For a single man this shelter can be made quite small, about 3 ft. high in front, 3 ft. wide and 6 ft. long. You build your fire about 4 ft. in front of this, and lie in it alongside your fire.
If the “shack” is for more than one man, you build it 5 t. or 6 ft. high in front, and 6 to 7 ft. deep, so that several fellows can lie alongside each other, feet to the fire.
A bivouac shelter is a simple hut, w hich you can make quickly.
Thatching Your Hut
When you start to thatch your framework., begin at the bottom and lay your roofing material layers, one above the other in the way that shingles are put on a roof. In this way you may make it watertight.
For thatching you can use thick evergreen branches, or grass, reeds, sods, bark or slabs of wood (called “shingles”), or small twigs of heather closely woven in.
It is generally advisable to lay a few branches and stout poles over the thatch when finished in order to keep it on if a gale springs up.
Other Huts
If you want to build a complete hut, you can make a lean-to from each side on the same ridge-pole. But the single lean-to, with its fire in front of it, is quite good enough for most people.
Another way to build a shelter hut is to lean a ridge-pole or backbone from the ground into the fork of a small tree about 5 ft. above the ground, the butt of the pole being 7 ft. to windward of the tree. Then put up a side pole leaning against this, and roof over in the same way as for a lean-
to.
Where you have no poles available you can do as the South African natives do—pile up a lot of brushwood, heather, etc., into a small wall made in semicircle to keep out the cold wind— and make your fire in the open part.
Zulus make their huts by planting a circle of long sticks upright in the ground. They then bend the tops towards the centre and tie them together. Next they weave whippy sticks horizontally in and out among the uprights until they have made a kind of circular bird-cage. This they cover with a straw mat, or thatch it, or weave straw in among the sticks. Sometimes a small hole is left at the top, to act as a chimney.
The Red Indians make their “teepee” by tying several long poles together in the form of a pyramid, and covering them with canvas or skins sewn together.
If your tent or hut is too hot in the sun, put blankets or more straw over the top. The thicker the roof, the cooler the tent is in summer. If the hut is too cold, make the bottom of the walls thicker, or build a small wall of sods about a foot high round the foot of the wall outside.
Never forget to dig a good drain all round your hut, so that if heavy rain comes in the night your floor will not get flooded from outside.
This type of shelter is called a “wab” by the natives of Somaliland.
Your Axe
A backwoodsman has to be pretty useful with his axe. To become a good axeman a fellow must know, first, how the thing ought to be done, and secondly, he must have lots of practice in doing it before he can be considered any good.
Only bad workmen complain of the tools—so before starting to work, be sure that your tool is a good one.
Your axe should be a “felling” axe, of which the head will weigh nearly three pounds. See that the handle, or “helve”, is perfectly straight and true in line with the head and the edge. To do this look along the helve with the edge of the head turned upwards. If the edge is not true to the helve, your cuts will go all astray.
Sharpening the Axe
Then see that your axe is sharp—really sharp, not merely with a good edge on it. A slightly blunt axe is no more good for cutting down a tree than a very blunt knife is for cutting a pencil. Learn how to sharpen your axe on a grindstone, while you are in civilisation, where grindstones can be found and where there are men to show you.
In India, when we went “pig sticking” (that is, hunting wild boar with spears), we found how very necessary it was to keep our spears as sharp as razors. Every time we killed a boar we sharpened up our spear-heads again, ready for the next fight. We could not carry grindstones about with us, but we carried a small, fine file, with which we were able to touch up the edge.
Many an old backwoodsman carries such a file with him to keep his axe keen. There is a saying with these men that “You may lend your last dollar to a friend, but never lend him your axe— unless you know that he is a good axeman and will not blunt it”.
Protect Your Axe
Only a fool will go banging about with an axe—hacking at trees, chopping at roots and branches on the ground, in this way destroying valuable trees and at the same time blunting the axe at every stroke on earth and stones. And when his arms tire, he will throw the axe down, leaving it lying around on the ground, where it may catch and cut the toe of someone moving about after dark.
When you want to leave your axe, strike straight down with it into a tree stump, and leave it sticking there till required again, or make a special “mask” for the blade of a piece of wood, or put it in its leather case.
Using the Axe
In using an axe, the tenderfoot generally tries to cover his bad aim by the extra strength of his blows. If an old hand is looking on, he is smiling to himself and thinking of the backache he got himself the first time that he did it.
Don’t try to put force into the blow, merely be careful about aiming it so that it falls exactly where you want it. The swing and weight of the axe will do the rest. Make the blows at a slant, not straight down.
A good axeman uses his axe equally well left-handed or right, It is all a matter of practice.
TOMMY THE TENDERFOOT No. 2 — TOMMY FELLS A TREE
Poor Tommy’s for gotten to sharpen his axe, So the tree only suffers a series of whacks.
Tree Felling
When you want to fell a tree for a useful purpose, get permission first.
Before starting to fell your tree, first clear away all branches which might interfere with the swing of your axe and therefore spoil your aim. Also clear away any brambles or undergrowth that might trip you at the critical moment. Make sure that onlookers are well away from you.
The way to fell a tree is first to cut a big chunk out on the side to which you want the tree to fall, and then to cut into the opposite side to fell it. Plan your work so that the tree will fall clear of other trees and not get hung up in their branches.
/> Begin your first notch, or “kerf”, as it is called, by chopping two marks, the upper one at a distance above the other equal to the thickness of the tree. Then cut alternately, first a horizontal cut at the lower mark, then a sideways, downward cut at the upper one, and jerk out the chunk between the two. Go on doing this till you get to the centre of the tree.
Scouting for Boys Page 9