Fettercairn Island

Agnes Richardson Etherington with her father, George Richardson (c.1930s) (Lakes and Islands, Times Past)

Did you know that Girl Guides of Canada used to have a National Training Centre?

From 1929 until 1941, the Canadian Council of the Girl Guides Association operated a Dominion Training Centre on Fettercairn Island, near Chaffey’s Locks in the Rideau Lakes.  (Both the small and large island are now called Richardson Island, but the small island off to one side is still locally known as ‘Girl Guide Island’.)

The island was purchased by the Richardson Family in 1901 and Agnes Richardson built a convalescent hospital for soldiers in 1916. The hospital closed when the war ended. Agnes Richardson would go on to marry Dr. Frederick Etherington of Kingston. The couple donated use of the property to Canadian Guiding in 1929.

“Fettercairn Island is situated on Indian lake, one of the Rideau chain near Chaffey’s locks – a wonderful place of wild beauty with Laurentian aspects. It is one and a half acres in size, and its buildings consist of the main house hidden amongst the trees, which contains a recreation hall, and sitting-room with large open fireplaces, two small cottages, storehouses, and a large boathouse above which is the dining-room overlooking the lake. A tiny island is linked to the larger one by a rustic bridge – this is where the campfires are held, while the mainland close by provides for woodland hikes.” (The Ottawa Citizen, May 21, 1932)

Main House, Fettercairn Island, c.1916-18 (Lakes and Islands, Times Past)

Boat House, Fettercairn Island, c.1916-18 (Lakes and Islands, Times Past)

The first summer training camp is opened on July 1, 1929, under the leadership of Victoria Rossiter. Training camps on a variety of subjects are held every year, along with holiday weeks where Guiders could meet and spend time with Guiders from across the country without the intensity of a training week:

“The months of July and August are divided into periods of general training, Brownie training, Ranger week-ends and leisure weeks. The general and Brownie courses include training in these branches of Guide work, and swimming, boating and hiking form no small part.” (The Ottawa Citizen, August 11, 1934)

Picnic on Fettercairn Island (Girl Guides of Canada)

Some of the advertised weeks included:

• General Training – Elementary & Advanced
  • “…includes teaching in the practical part of Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class, discussions on company management and opportunities to talk over special problems and difficulties”
• Brownie Training
  • “Brownie week is devoted to the special problems and practical training of Brown and Tawny Owls, and discussions on pack management”
• Woodcraft
  • “…how to build shelters and fire-places, to cook out-of-doors; … what to do with your Guides when you are hiking, and how to go about teaching nature lore”
• Hiking and Lightweight Camping
• Ranger Week-ends
• Conference and Refresher Week for Trainers
• Leisure Weeks and Week-ends, Holiday Weeks
  • “…an opportunity to enjoy a restful holiday”

With the growth of the organization and the pressures of war-time, it became less and less practical to offer training in only one location, and in 1941, the property is returned to the Etheringtons:

Indian Lake from Fettercairn Island, c.1916-18  (Lakes and Islands, Times Past)

“It is with sincere regret that the Canadian Council announces that Fettercairn Island will no longer serve Guiding as a training centre for Canada. Owing to the growing demands of the movement, it has now become necessary to promote summer training courses elsewhere in the Dominion. The Island property has therefore been given back to its gracious donor, Mrs. Etherington, to whom the Guiders owe a great debt of gratitude for the many happy hours spent at the Island.” (The Canadian Guider, March 1941)

Sources:

• Lakes and Islands, Times Past (Photos)
• The Ottawa Citizen, various issues 1932-1941
• The Canadian Guider, March 1941

Alert & Prepared

This story of Guide skills and observation put to use happened at a Girl Guide Camp in New Brunswick during World War II. Adapted from the article “They Were Prepared” by Mrs. N.H. Davis in The Canadian Guider, March 1968.

Although we in Canada fared well, during the Second World War, our entire mode of living changed. Some foods were rationed, materials for civilian manufacture were scarce; families were uprooted, with fathers, brothers, and even sisters joining the armed services. Every restaurant and place of public gathering carried placards like “These Walls Have Ears,” “Zipper Your Lips,” and “Silence is Golden.”

Guides then did not plan what they might do on a Saturday morning; they had a choice of rolling bandages and running errands in a hospital for hours at a time, or covering districts of the city collecting rendered fats and salvage for use in the munitions factories. Because they made an excellent patriotic display, they marched in frequent parades in support of bond drives, service club projects, and so on.

During the summer of 1942, the 5th Moncton Guide Company, under the leadership of Captain Adrienne Brown, held a 10-day camp at “Camp Y’s Acres”. The campsite was a 3-acre site on Cocagne Bay operated by Moncton’s YWCA. Directly across from the site, was Cocagne Island and the Northumberland Strait.

A highlight of the camp was a “motorboat hike” to Cocagne Island, where the Guides would explore, collect specimens, and cookout. On this particular hike, Captain’s eye was caught by a venturesome group sneaking off to the high, rocky ledges that formed a bulwark against the crashing breakers of the Atlantic, where on the highest point stood a deserted two-storey house. The culprits, slightly annoyed at having their adventure nipped in the bud, had the last word by telling the Captain of the fresh footprints they had been following. This was dismissed as over-active imagination.

Later that evening, these same Guides … sneaked quietly out of the back of their tent … sheltered by a grove of birch and spruce … The ground was soft and springy and they stretched out very comfortably to whisper, giggle, and talk about the little island they could see outlined as a dark shape in the mouth of the huge bay. Suddenly one Guide exclaimed, “Look, a light on the island! But it’s uninhabited – There it is again flashing on and off – Girls! It’s a Morse Code signal.”

“Oh you must be crazy,” another offered. Nevertheless, they decided to take the signals down, though they made no sense. “It’s a code,” they whispered excitedly.  … They felt they had no choice but to tell, for the security of their country was at stake.

The next afternoon a small monoplane made a quick visit to the island. On the strength of this and negative answers to discreet enquiries … the Guiders staked themselves out that evening in the copse after lights out. Sure enough, the signals began – in Morse but undecipherable – followed by a plane visit the next afternoon. Our alert Captain took down the plane’s markings.

The next day the Commanding Officer of a nearby base came to camp to visit his daughter, and the Guiders took this opportunity to discuss the mystery with him. Although he said little, he showed marked surprise when the plane’s markings were given to him. He asked for the code, and for the ladies to leave matters with him. Within days, it was noted that the signals had ceased.

Just before breaking camp, we had another visit from the Commanding Officer, this time accompanied by the Service Police to thank the Guiders and Guides concerned for their alertness and to assure all that the information had been very helpful. More than that they would not say! Imagine the excitement of all the girls involved when it was later learned that this area had been a very popular one for enemy submarines. We also heard that two enemy agents had landed on the far side of the island by dark of night. One had set himself up with radio transmitter and flash beacon in the deserted house. The other had made his way in rough civilian dress to make contact in Moncton.

Our story is just one of hundreds that tell of the anxious years of the Forties. Was the alertness of our Guides of any help? We like to think so.

Progression in the Out-of-Doors Program

A progression chart for outdoor activities (found in The Canadian Guider, June 1957)

Look Out

• Wonder what this world is like that starts at our doorstep

Meet Out

• Look – Observe the outdoor world
• See – Trees, Birds, etc.
• Listen – Nature sounds
• Nature Games
• Nature Songs
• Nature Dances

Walk Out

• A walk around the block to see what we can see
• Collect a knotty pine cone
• Touch a tall tree

My world is getting bigger and bigger!

Hike Out

• A walk with a purpose
  • Bird Hike
  • Rock Hike
  • Gadget Hike
  • Inch Hike
  • Penny Hike
  • Road Side Cribbage
  • Colour Hike
  • Rainbow Hike
  • Trailing Hike
  • Hobo Hike

Will wonders never cease?

Cook Out

• Now we are ready to try:
  • To whittle shavings or a fuzz stick
  • To light a fire
• To test
  • Nosebag
  • One Pot
  • Skillet
  • Stick
    • Toasting
    • Broiling
  • Ember
    • Aluminum Foil
    • Mud
    • Wet Paper
  • Reflector
    • Planking
  • Beanhole
    • Emueing

All this and Heaven too!

Sleep Out

• For More…
• To Tie Three Knots
  • Square Knot
  • Clove Hitch
  • Bowline
• To prepare for an overnight
  • Bedroll
  • Klondike
  • Toilet Kit
• Plan what to take
• Know how to choose a good safe spot for sleeping
• Know how to make a comfortable bed of leaves, pine needles or boughs

And Peace comes dropping slowly

Camp Out

• And More…
• Plan what to wear and what to take
• Know safety rules and first aid
• Make outdoor cooking equipment
  • Cooking Equipment
  • Cooking Utensils
  • Toasting Forks or Broilers
  • Pot Hooks & Cranes
• Be safety wise on the jack knife and fire-building
• Establish a camp site with:
  • Caches
  • Latrines
  • Sleeping Quarters
  • Lash Gadgets
    • Table Washstand
  • Pitch and Strike a Tent
• Make incinerators and grease pits
• Handle garbage disposal and dishwashing

What ho my gypsys where are you going?

Trip Out

• Now we will use everything we have learned!
• To plan a trip that offers interesting and worthwhile program possibilities
• Know how to plan meals, menus, places to eat, purchasing, storage
• Know how to care for means or transportation if not walking
• How to plan routes, transportation and necessary arrangements
• How to use road maps, city maps, geological survey maps, charts, timetables, compass
• How to select, setup and dismantle campsite in a minimum of time
• Determine costs, budget and keep financial records
• How to select, pack and transport a minimum personal and group equipment needed for personal use, shelter, cooking, eating and sanitary arrangements

Outdoor Guiding – Camping Evenings

Camping season will be here soon – how will you get your unit ready to go?

Part 3 of a series of articles on Outdoor Guiding that appeared in The Guide. This article appeared in the May 23, 1925 issue.

     Now that the evenings are long and light why don’t you ask your Guiders if, instead of an ordinary “Company parade,” you may have an evening “in camp”? You only require the use of a field, or a camp evening has been held in a yard or school playground – although, of course, the tent pitching had to be scrapped, the most realistic tents being made out of an easel and a dust-sheet!

     There are many things you can do in a camp evening, and you can learn lots as well; I am going to give you a few suggestions here which you can adopt or not as you like.

     First of all you can plan your campsite. This is sometimes done as a competition the week before, the patrols going to the field and each Leader making out – from the suggestions of her Guides – a plan of how she would arrange the camp (where the tents would be pitched, kitchen made, etc.)

     If you are lucky enough to have the use of a tent, your evening can begin by pitching this, learning the quickest and best method of doing it, and so on. Or if you have to improvise tents, each patrol could make its own, being given so long to do it as a competition.

     Once the tents are ready the Company would go to bed, (the part of the evening which thrills smaller Guides!) You then scramble up when the whistle blows and learn to make a flagstaff and break colours correctly. (This part of the evening can include a roll-call and inspection, so that subscriptions are taken as usual and notices given out.)

     After “breakfast” which can be a competition of some kind with pencils and note-books in the place of knives and forks, you might practice camp-craft for the rest of the morning. Learning about the care of tents, signalling, and games in patrols, take up the time until you have dinner, which, if you are lucky enough to be allowed to light a real fire, might be a lesson in fire-lighting and perhaps some real cooking as well.

     “Rest hour” is the quiet time in the middle of the evening when you play a listening game, or someone reads or tells a woodcraft yarn.

     More games, and possibly a camp sing-song will bring your camp evening to an end, as you will have to leave time to tidy everything up before you go home again.

     As you will see from this very brief outline there are plenty of things to be done during an evening “in camp,” and many others which I have not mentioned as well. If you want to bring in drill, you can go for a “march,” or do physical jerks when you get up in the morning. Your ordinary Company closing ceremonial and the singing of “Taps” to end up, makes a very appropriate ending before you dismiss. 

Activity Suggestions for A Modern-Day Evening in Camp

Plan Your Campsite 

• Draw a picture of your campsite – show where the tents, fire pits, latrines/washrooms, etc. will be located. Photographs or diagrams could be used and then the girls decide where to put the ‘moveable objects’ (i.e. tents, picnic tables)
• Learn how to choose a good site to pitch a tent. 
• Raise awareness of considerations such as distances between different things – i.e. fire pits, tents, garbage, food storage.

Tent Pitching

• Set up a tent (indoors or outdoors). Girls can go inside and lie down to show how much (or how little!) space each person will have at camp.
• Bring sleeping mats or sleeping bags and arrange them in the tent to demonstrate the need for small sleeping pads. Practice packing and making bedrolls.
• Have the girls inspect the tent for damage and/or missing items – i.e. missing guy lines, bent pegs, jammed zippers. Damages could be simulated and lead to a discussion and demonstration on caring for and repairing tents. For example, a piece of cloth with a tear placed on the tent, a guy line removed, and/or old pegs (or no pegs) provided.
• Challenge experienced campers to set up a tent in the dark, blindfolded, or with other restrictions to test their skills.

Colours

• Practice the knots needed to raise a flag.
• Learn the commands for a flag raising (colour ceremonial).
• Have a colour party raise the flag at the beginning of the meeting and take it down at the end. This is simple if you are lucky enough to have a flagpole suitable for hoisting a flag. Temporary options would be a tree branch outdoors, or, for practice purposes, a closet or coatroom rail, or a tall Guider standing on a chair to hold the rope.

Campcraft

• Take you pick! Activities could include knots, gadget making, map and compass activities, a nature walk, observation games, laying and following trails, etc.

Rest Hour

• Time for a quiet activity and/or discussion about camp skills.
• Tell a legend, fable or campfire story.
• Practice listening – have each girl sit quietly a bit apart from each other. Ask everyone to close their eyes and have them concentrate on what they hear, feel, smell and taste over the next 5-10 minutes. Share as a group what was sensed. 

Cooking

• Brainstorm ideas and/or plan your menus for camp.
• Practice setting up and using your camp stove. Make something simple such as soup or hot chocolate.
• Build your cooking equipment, such Buddy Burners or a Box Oven.
• Food preparations – drying or dehydrating foods, precooking items, removing packaging – this will vary with the type of camp.
• Set up a dish-washing area and learn about the 3-basin method.
• Make a snack using an interesting cooking method – i.e. kick-the-can ice cream (or ziplock bag ice cream), armpit fudge, brownies in a Box Oven.

Campfire

• Practice laying and, if possible, lighting a fire. Where it isn’t possible to light a fire, practice striking matches and lighting a candle safely.
• Sing your favourite campfire songs.
• Learn to plan and run a campfire for a group.
• Make s’mores or another campfire treat – depending on the facilities available.

Striking Camp

• Practice taking down and rolling up a tent.
• Discuss why tents need to be put away dry, making repairs, etc.
• Do a “garbage sweep” of your meeting space to clean up all supplies

The Seven Knots and Their Uses

Looking for a way to remember the uses for different knots? Try this poem from 1924 by Elsie H.B. Clifford (Captain of the 1st Sidlow Bridge Company)

The Seven Knots and Their Uses

(In Second Class Test)

Said the reef knot to the sheet bend,

“You are wanted on a “bight.”

Said the sheet bend to the reef knot

“Please tie this bandage tight.”

Said the sheepshank to the clove hitch

“Tie my end please to this rail.”

Said the clove hitch to the sheepshank,

“Your length you should curtail.”

Said the bowline to the fisherman’s,

“To slip, I’m never one!”

But the fisherman’s said proudly,

“We’re most easily undone.”

Said the middleman’s: “Don’t falter,

And I’m useful as a halter.”

So these seven knots were all agreed

That rightly tied they’d serve our need.

(Clifford, Elsie H.B. “The Seven Knots and Their Uses” in The Guide. London: Girl Guides Association, August 9, 1924)

Some Tales of an Old Company – 1st Wimbledon

The following article by Agnes Mary Maynard appeared in The Guide, April 25, 1936, page 41. It talks of her Company’s adventures in 1910, 1911 and 1912.

On any Saturday afternoon in 1910 you would have seen a Company of Guides with large blue hats, chin straps and white haversacks, marching up Wimbledon Hill to the Common, followed by a crowd of small urchins shouting “Girl Scouts, brussel sprouts,” for we seldom went anywhere without this accompaniment. Having arrived, the whole Company ran a mile from the pond to the windmill; some practising for their mile test and the rest to get rid of the boy accompaniment or to reach the woods to start the usual tracking and signalling games.

Other badges were also worked at out-of-doors. One Saturday we took babies in perambulators on to the Common to practice amusing them; nearly every Guide brought one, their own or a borrowed one. I thought I was giving the mothers a rest, but they came too, to see what was going to happen to the babies, and apparently quite enjoyed their outing and the tea from the haversacks.

Once we took three babies to camp – ages 4 to 6. Every morning a hip bath was placed in the field and the Guides not doing orderly work or washing them were busy retrieving them from the wood, where they loved to escape with nothing on.

Our first camp at the sea was in 1911, at Whitstable. We took an unfurnished house of six rooms for 5s. a week (!) which we used for sleeping purposes. We cooked on the shore in tin basins – a hole was dug and a fire of drift wood built in it and later the big pieces removed and a big basin of meat and vegetables for 15 Guides placed in the hole and another basin placed on the top of it and the fire rebuilt over it; while we bathed and paddled our dinner was being baked – and very good it generally was.

One day we went to visit the Guides of Canterbury, eight miles away, but we never thought of not walking; the Guides all managed it, but some of their boots gave out, and one child of 9 we sent home with an escort by train. The Canterbury Guides had only got hats and ties, but they were very keen. It was always a great excitement to visit another Company, for as there was, as yet, no book of rules, you can imagine we varied quite a bit, both in appearance and activities. In 1912 another Company came to camp with us, and two Lieutenants from Bournemouth; we wore cotton overalls and had no colours or drill, but were quite good backwoodsmen. They arrived in tight-fitting navy serge dresses buttoned right up to the neck, with the army collar of those days, Sam Brown belts and cocks feathers, and sundry decorations. They clicked their heels and saluted every time we met, which is pretty often when one camps together! By the end of the week we had both learned a good deal from each other. Our next exciting adventure was when we tracked some heifers which had escaped from a nearby field. We were having dinner when we heard that the whole village had been searching for them since 8 a.m. We went off at once and found the tracks where they had got out of the field; we followed their tracks across country for four miles; often they scattered in a turnip field or became almost invisible on heather country; it was always the youngest Guides who picked up their tracks again. After four hours we met their owner as we were trying to drive them home again, a task we found more difficult than tracking them; he was very angry and declared that we must have let them out or we could not have found them so far away, but when we got back to the village our name was made, the more so as the Guides would take no reward. So little by little people began to realise we were not aping soldiers, but just girls fond of the out-of-doors, learning to be useful, and they began to realise that haversacks were tidier than paper bags, waterbottles better than jugs, and that marching in fours was by far the best way of moving a crowd, all things to which the public had objected at first.

(Please note, illustrations are not from the original article)

Winter Camping in the 1930s

Having just returned from our annual winter camp with my Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers [2014], I’ve been inspired to post a few excerpts from reports of winter camps in the 1930s – so much is still the same!

From The Toronto Star, Monday, January 20, 1930
     King, Ont., Jan. 20. – Five Toronto Girl Guides and three guiders celebrated a victory with winter sports at the guides’ camp at King this week-end. [Bonita Glen Girl Guide Camp] The celebration was the outcome of a joke, and the joke was on the person who made it.
     “I’ll give you a week-end at camp is you win the tent-pitching competition at the camp’s official opening,” Miss E.M. Hood, camp adviser for Toronto division guides, told these girls.
     “It was pure sarcasm, really,” Miss Hood told The Star, “for they were framing so badly. I was never more surprised when they won the cup, and, of course, the first thing they did was remind me of my rash promise. That was during the summer and this is the first week-end we could come.
     The tent-pitchers were Olive Goddard, Lillian Grimble, Lillian Attrell, Winifred Hall and Dorothy Newman, all northwest Toronto guides. Miss I. Williamson, divisional Brownie representative for Toronto, and Miss Hood shared the joke. With them was Mrs. M. Broadbent, another guider from Toronto.

From the “Girl Guides” Column in The Toronto Star, Saturday, February 21, 1931
     The much looked forward to weekend at King was experienced recently by some of the guides of the 62nd company. Arriving at the farm house after riding on a cutter from King, the guides settled themselves in different rooms, ate a hearty dinner and then, put on their outdoor togs. One very steep hill was picked ad the guides packed in toboggans were off. Spills! Tumbles! Falls! Slides! Bumps and tips were very common. Skiing was marvellous. It was a very tired out company who trudged back for a good supper and a grate fire!

From the “Girl Guides” Column in The Toronto Star, Friday, February 9, 1934
Winter Camping
     Fourteen Guides with their captain, Mrs. C.K. Hewitt, spent three ideal days at Bonita Glen Camp, and were fortunate to have ideal tobogganing and skiing during the entire time.

From the “Girl Guides” Column in The Toronto Star, Friday, February 23, 1934
Girl Guides Help Dig Bus From Snowdrift Near Camp
    The guides of the 66th company with their captains, Miss M. McLennan and Miss H. Huber, spent a jolly week-end at Bonita Glen camp. The happy hours were crowded with snow-shoeing, skiing and tobogganing. On Saturday evening a surprise Valentine party was arranged and the roaring fires of the comfortable camp house banished winter. Excitement was great Sunday evening when the bus, which was chartered to take the guides home, became stuck in a snow bank and the guides had to do their “good turn” by digging it out.

From The Toronto Star, Monday, January 28, 1935
Six Fires Needed by 12 Girl Guides
“Nobody Frozen” as Mercury Dips to 32 Below at King Camp
     Arctic weather did not chill the spirits of twelve girl guides who spent the week-end at the Guide camp near King in 32 below zero weather. “Nobody was frozen,” The Star was told, “and we had a wonderful week-end – but it was awfully cold.”
    “The girls went skiing and tobogganing and tramped around looking for ‘wild animals’. They wore lots of sweaters and kept themselves jumping around. It was coldest at night when the temperature reached 32 below. We had six fires going in the 13-room camp one an open fireplace and the rest stoves.”

From The Toronto Star, Monday, January 10, 1938
Toronto Girl Guides Have Their Own Week-End Camp
Winter Sports at “Bonita Glen”
     Merry week-ends are spent at Bonita Glen camp, near King, by Girl Guides of the greater Toronto division. All the work of preparing meals and managing the camp establishment for two days is divided among the girls and their leaders, but with duties done the fun begins. After a Star photographer waited for them to finish the breakfast dishes, Jill Henderson, Pat Stevens, Joyce Currey and Pat Hillis donned heavy sweaters and piled on to a toboggan. The toboggan, too, is used for work as well as sport. On it the guides drew their luggage and supplies from the highway, a mile away, where their bus left them on Friday night. Betty Dickinson pushes off for a run on her skis down the big hill in front of the camp lodge. Even a leader had time for a solo turn on the smaller toboggan, and Esther Mackay gets set for a thrill. Esther is a visiting lieutenant from the 23rd Rangers of ST. James’ church. All the other girls belong to the 60th Girl Guide company, from the Church of the Redeemer.

Summer Camp for Ottawa Guides

Tomorrow morning I will be setting off for a week at Camp Woolsey, the Ontario Girl Guide Camp outside of Ottawa, Ontario. Camp Woolsey opened in 1937, providing Guides from the Ottawa area with their own campground.

Below is a photograph of an early Guide Camp from the Ottawa Post dated August 1, 1914

Camping Tips & Hints

(Excerpted from Campcraft for Girl Guides. The Girl Guides Association, London, 1935. pp 293-297)

When eggs are scarce, dissolve 1 tablespoonful of golden syrup in ½ pint of warm milk – this equals 4 eggs. Stand in salt and water to cool.

No need for clothes pegs if the drying line is made of two twisted ropes with corners of cloths, etc., inserted between twists.

Cleaning greasy pots. Boil water in them, to which a good handful of wood ash has been added, or scour with wood ash or sand.

Why have a black billy? If the outside of the billy is rubbed with grease before use, the black can be easily removed with a wisp of grass.

To clean knives and forks – if rusty, burnish by rubbing with freshly cut potato dipped in wood ash.

To dry damp matches – place them in the hair for a few moments, or alternatively rub them briskly between the palms of the hands, leaving the head exposed.

A camp hot water bottle. Hot stones or bricks from the fire place make an emergency hot water bottle. Wrap up to avoid burning the feet.

A shelter can be made from a section cut from an old bell tent.

An obstinate tent peg – to remove – lever up with a stake at least eighteen inches long.

Bent spikes on uprights are caused by bad pitching or striking. When uprights are raised or lowered unevenly – one in advance of the other – they get bent by the leverage of the ridge pole.

Oil dissolves rubber and if spilt on groundsheets will therefore ruin them.

To water-proof material for groundsheets, rub boiled linseed oil into the material between the palms of the hands. Use just enough oil to fill pores, without leaving surplus. One quart will do five or six yards of material. Stretch cloth in dry, shady place of a week, and then hang in the sunlight for three or four days.

Water-proofing shoes. Leather can be rendered pliable and waterproof by rubbing caster oil or Vaseline well into shoes. Veterinary Vaseline is cheap and suitable.

Uses for adhesive plaster – to seal tins or boxes, or hold cork in bottle. Also makes good hinges and is useful for many repairs.

To tie up bedding. Strong belts from discarded coats and mackintoshes can be used for fastening up rolls of bedding. Companies can collect and keep a store of these.

To steady water pails. One way is to use a hoop (willow or hazel) or, alternatively, a square of four sticks lashed together. This steadies the pail and takes strain off the arms.

To improvise a bath. Find a conveniently large hole in the ground and over it place a sheet of proofed canvas. Fill with water.

Notices. If these are varnished the ink will not run if exposed to rain.

How to climb a gate. If it is necessary to climb a gate, do so at the hinge end where it is supported by the post, as this will put the least strain on the gate. It strains a gate to sit on it, as it is not made to carry weight.

A camp pillow may be made of sheep’s wool, gathered from the hedgerows and washed, dried and teased.

An improvised pillow. When hiking, a pair of shoes arranged toe to toe and covered with something soft makes a serviceable pillow.

Care of feed – to harden, soak in a strong solution of salt and warm water, or alum and water (1/2 teaspoonful alum to pint of water). Where there is a tendency to blister dap on methylated spirit. On a long walk change stockings from one foot to another, dusting them with boracic or talcum powder. This eases feet and prevents rubbing.

Thirst – a plum stone or pebble retained in the mouth helps to prevent this.

Sunday brims – lay hat on flat stone and iron over damp handkerchief with bottle filled with very hot water, or with a mug filled with hot ash.

A safe light – (a) place a candle in a jar half-filled with water. As the candle burns it rises automatically and when it is nearly all gone it sinks in the water and so goes out. (b) Affix a candle to the top of a stake and cover with an inverted bottle with the bottom removed. To remove bottom from bottle stand it on hot embers for two or three seconds, then pour in half an inch of cold water. Trim stake to fit neck of bottle.