Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-12-17
ABOUT CAMPING OUT.
PRENTICE MILFORD TELLS ABOUT
LIFE IN THE SIERRA NEvADAs.

d.
Shooting q Sage Hen and Suffering from
Notwithstanding the Art of Camp
ing Out-The Solitude OF the Noun
tains-Indian Fashion of Sleeping.
Especial Correspondence
BOSTON, Dec. 6.-I was little more than q
boy in years when / stroHed of into the wilds
of the Sierra Nevadas all alone or a "pros-
pecting" expedition after silver. A rancher
lent me a horse and agreed to take his pay
in shares of whatever mines / might find.
l managed from one and another to scrape
together a saddle and bride on similar terms.
Some one gave me a dog, I bought q cheap
gun, and with a few dollars worth Of provi-
sions / rode out of the settled portion Of the
country into the mountains.
went for a stroll the first evening Of this.
outdoor life, leaving my camp in charge Of the
dog Put. found on returning that he had
made a supper of my whole stock Of meat,
which I expected would last three days.
After that / hung my meat out OF Puts
reach, and ! had always to hang 1t pretty
high too. The next morning I had nothing
for breakfast but a robin. That robin /
couldn't eat until / shot it-and 1t was a full
hour before I could get sufficiently near the
bird to do SO.
Bloody business, I thought, this killing
ones fellow creatures to skin and eat. Is not
a robin ones fellow creature? 1t has intelli-
gonce to build its nest, love for its mate, love
for its young, and its song Is a cheerful morn
ing melody in those solitudes. Certainly it is
a fellow creature.
Once on this trip, while camped on one Of
the sage brush plains Of Nevada, 1 passed
and repassed for three days a sage hen sitting
on her nest. / was short OF provisions. For
W days / resisted the temptation to shoot
her; but my needs were pressing, and on the
third day / did shoot her and have accused
myself of murder ever since. / had no tent.
On the California plains for seven months Of
the year / needed none, since no rain falls
there for that period. On the mountains there
were occasional showers. II one lasted too
long / could generally contrive a shelter of
pine bark, always plentiful and to be stripped
from the trees in large sheets. Camping out
Is an art by itself, and ! was obliged to learn
it by myself. I learned never to pass an in
viting spotfor camping-furnishing wood and
water and grass for my horse-after 4 o'clock
in the afternoon, for the chances would al
ways be against my finding such another be-
fore dark, If found any at all. Learned
to look carefully about before choosing a
camping spot, to see that no dead trees were
near enough to reach me should they fall.
Because in these forests, never touched by
man, dead and rotten trees are numerous
very large ones, too, and they are as liable to
come downin a calm as in a storm. Often
did I on still nights in those solitudes hear the
crash Of their fall miles away. More than
once, after making my arrangements for the
night, have 1 found a rotten pine over 100 feet
! in height close to me and inclined II, my d.
~rection, and therefore / would move Off that
ground. Once, after my fire was made and
my supper nearly ready, on looking up I saw
suspended by a mere splinter in the branches
over me a dead limb weighing hundreds Of
pounds. 1t was in another shape a repetition
Of the sword of Damocles. I moved off that
location.
Twice during my absence my camper
rather oil that could burn in my camp-came
near doing SO through the dry grass catching
from my fire. After a few such alarms and a
run back home Of n mile or so on seeing the
danger, I learned to cover up the fire well or
remove the dry grass a foot or two from it.
During the summer the grass and weeds in
California wither and dry to the roots, and Sc
take fire very easily.
l kept my tea, coffee and sugar in canvas
bags holding about a pound each. Pepper
and salt in q smaller bag. had a bread bag
and a meat bag. Butter ] carried in q tin
box, inclosed by another bag. On packing /
rolled up these bags in my blankets, which
were strapped behind the saddle. On unpack-
ing, I placed all the bags in q row together
on the ground. That row was my larder and
kitchen, and I could put my hand on any
article as soon as it was wanted.
Before l SO arranged my groceries in thia
system of bags, took them from the blankets
as they were needed, laid them anywhere In
the tall dry grass about me when l had done
with them and then spent a good deal Of time
and strength hunting them up. Just SO with
knife, spoon or fork. I found it paid in many
ways to arrange all my kitchen furniture and
, groceries in regular order on the ground as
soon as my blankets were unstrapped.
My cooking apparatus consisted of a fry
ing pan and coffee pot. Bread bakes very
nicely in a frying pan. when propped up
nearly upright before the fire or better still a
heap of glowing Goals. Imagine the predica-
ment l found myself once in on discovering /
had left my matches at the last camp, then
, ten miles of and no grocery or settler within
twenty miles. There was nothing to do but
return and hunt them up. Without matches
!, meant being without fire, and being without
fire meant being. without cooked food. Acct
dents like these beat at last something like
order into my bead, and much I needed it.
1t was the custom in those days for people
to carry a revolver slung at the hip. In the
forest for a revolver / substituted a Ratchet.
, Tho weight in iron was about the same, but
; the Ratchet was far more useful for chopping
, %firewood and many other purposes. 1 found
1t a very good plan to keep secure from the
= possibility of wet or dampness a little bag
full of dry s~havings or whittlings, for often
In the forest it is difficult to get any perfectly
, dry fuel for kindling. They laughed at me
in a certain cabin where ! was staying on see
ing me preparing my bag of kindling wood,
and called ne a granny" Some two yesrs
aftervard met ona of tbaso wa,