The following outfit is complete, save for gun, ammunition and cleaning implements. For a longer trip than one week, a reserve of provisions can be cached at some central point in the hunting district.

Autumn Outfit

Lbs. OZ.

Pack sack, with tump strap ................ 2 12

Tent........................................ 4

Sleeping-bag ................................ 8

Pillow bag* ................................ 3

Rubber cape* ............................... 1 5

Mackinaw stag shirt ........................ 1 8

Spare underwear, 1 suit..................... 1 8

Spare socks, 2 pairs ........................ 5

Moccasins .................................. 1

German socks .............................. 12

Axe and muzzle ........................... 1 12

Cooking kit, dish towel, tin cup* ........... 2 2

Cheese cloth................................ 2

Mill file, 6 in................................ 2

Whetstone* ............................... 2

Pliers* ..................................... 4

Wallet, fitted* .............................. 6

Twine* .....................................

Toilet articles* ............................. 6

Talcum powder* ............................ 2

Toilet paper* ............................. 1

First aid kit* ............................... 5

Spare matches, in tin ...................... 6

Alpina folding lantern .................... 8

Candles, ^2 doz..........'................. $

Emergency ration . .. r...................... 8

Tobacco, in wpf. bag ....................... 8

Spare pipe ................................. 3

Total pack -without provisions. .28 12

One Week's Rations (not including fresh meat)

Flour ....................................... 4

Baking powder ............................. 4

Meal, cereal ................................ 1 8

Milk powder ................................ 8

Butter ...................................... 8

Bacon ...................................... 2

Egg powder ................................ 8

Raisins ..................................... 8

Dried apricots, prunes ...................... 1

Sugar ....................................... 1

Chocolate................................... 12

Coffee...................................... 8

Tea.................................... ... 2

Salt ....................................... 4

Provision bags, etc......................... 10

Pack complete. .42 12

The articles starred (*) are same as in summer hiking list already given.

Moccasins are to be large enough to fit over the German socks. This foot-gear is used in still hunting in dry weather, and on cold nights. The camper sleeps, when it is frosty, in fresh underwear and socks, army shirt (dried before the fire after the day's use), trousers, stag shirt, neckerchief rigged as hood, German socks, and moccasins. When he has tc get up to replenish the fire, or in case of any alarm, he springs from his bed attired cap-a-pie.

Many a time I have gone for a week's hunt, high up in the mountains, in bleak November, with much less outfit than is here listed. My native companions went even lighter than I. Often they slept out on the mountainside without shelter or blanket, when the winter fog coated every twig in the forest with rime, and frost sprang up from the giound in feathery forms three or four inches high. We grinned at all that, and fancied that we were playing the game like men. So we were, but not like sensible men. We were sapping our vitality. Had we gone fixed to be well fed by day, warm and dry at night, and clean enough not to have smelt like a monkey's nest, we would have been playing a better game. A-loo, it is gone—and 1 am done.

Going Alone

I have given a good deal of space to the subject of outfitting for single-handed cruising in the wilderness, because, as I have said, it is a difficult art, and anyone who masters it can easily fit up a company kit for two or more. But why go alone? To the multitude, whether city or country bred, the bare idea of faring alone in the wild^ for days or weeks at a time is eerie and fantastic: it makes their flesh creep. He who does so is certainly an eccentric, probably a misanthrope, possibly a fugitive from justice, or, likely enough, some moonstruck fellow whom the authorities would do well to follow up and watch.

But many a seasoned woodsman can avow that some of the most satisfying, if not the happiest, periods of his life have been spent far out of sight and suggestion of his fellow men.

From a practical standpoint there are compensations in cruising the woods and streams alone, and even in Camping -without human fellowship. You get the most out of the least kit. It simplifies the whole business of camp routine. It would be piggish, for example, for two men to eat out of the same dish; there must be three at least, one to cook in and two for serving the food; but for one man to eat from his own frying-pan is not only cleanly but a sensible thing to do. It keeps the food hotter than if transferred to a cold plate, and saves washing an extra dish, an economy of effort that is the most admirable of all efficiencies!

The problem of cuisine is reduced to its lowest terms. You cook what you like, and nothing else; you prepare what you need, and not one dumpling more. It is done precisely to your own taste— there is a world of gustatory satisfaction in that. You bake a corn pone,^ let us say, leaving the frying-pan clean of grease. You cut your venison (the flesh of all game is venison) into cubes and broil these on a sharpened stick, one at a time, just as you eat them, which is the best and daintiest cooking process in the world. Your coffee, settled by a dash of cold water, is drunk from the same cup you brewed it in.

Then comes the cleaning up. No more bugaboo of dishwashing, which all men so cordially despise. You give pan and pannikin a rinse and a wipe, jab your knife into the ground and draw it through some fresh leaves, chuck the broiling-stick into the fire, and—voila, the thing is done, thoroughly and neatly done, without rising from your seat!

So with other camp chores, from pitching the miniature tent to packing up for the march: everything is simplified, and time and effort are saved.

From a selfish standpoint, the solitary camper revels in absolute freedom. Any time, anywhere, he can do as he pleases. There is no anxiety as to whether his mates are having a good time, no obligation of deference to their wishes. Selfish? Yes; but, per contra, when one is alone he is boring nobody, elbowing nobody, treading on nobody's toes. He is neither chiding nor giving unasked advice. Undeniably he is minding his own business—a virtue to cover multitudes of sins.

A companion, however light-footed he may be, adds fourfold to the risk of disturbing the shy natives of the wild. By yourself you can sit motionless and mutely watchful, but where two are side by side it is neither polite nor endurable to pass an hour without saying a word. Lonesome? Nay indeed. Whoever has an eye for Nature is never less alone than when he is by himself. Should a strain of poetic temperament be wedded to one's habit of observing, then it is more than ever urgent1 that he should be undisturbed; for in another's 'presence "Imagination flutters feeble wings".

Solitude has its finer side. The saints of old, when seeking to cleanse themselves from taint of worldliness and get closer to the source of prophecy, went singly into the desert and bided there alone. So now our lone adventurer, unsaintly as he may have been among men, experiences an exaltation, finds healing and encouragement in wilderness life.

When twilight falls, and shadows merge in darkness, the single-handed camper muses before the fire that comforts his bivouac and listens to the low, sweet voices of the night, which never are heard in full harmony save by those who sit silent and alone.

Then comes the time of padded feet. Stealthy now, and mute, are the creatures that move in the forest. Our woodsman, knowing the ways of the beasts, regards them not, but dreams before the leaping flames like any Parsee worshipping the fire.

Weird shapes appear in the glowing coals. Elves dance in the halo where night and radiance mingle.

Hark to Titania!

"Out of this wood do not desire to go: Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no. I am a spirit of no common rate; The summer still doth tend upon my state; And I do love thee"

Ah, precious even the ass's noil, if by that masque one shall enter the fairy realm!