Robert Robert - Scouting for Boys

Camp Routine

Here are two suggested time-tables for the day:

#1

7:00 a.m. Turn out, air bed, wash, etc.

8:00 a.m. Hoist the flag; prayers: (It may be found better to have this directly after inspection.)

8:15 a.m. Breakfast.

9:45 a.m. Inspection

10:00 a.m. Scouting practice. Swimming

1:00 p.m. Lunch

1:30-2:30 p.m. Rest (compulsory)

2:30-5:30 p.m. Scouting games in neighbourhood. Swimming

6:30 p.m. Dinner, followed by free time

8:30-9:30 p.m. Camp fire

(Or 9:00-11:00 p.m. Night practices.)

9:30 p.m. Turn in

10:00 p.m. Lights out. Silence in camp

#2

7:00 a.m. Turn out, air bed, wash, etc.

8:00 a.m. Flag break; prayers

8:15 a.m. Breakfast

10:00 a.m. Inspection

10:15 a.m. -12 noon. Scouting activities

1:00 p.m. Dinner.

1:30-2:30 p.m. Quiet hour

2:30-5:00 p.m. Wide games

5:00 p.m. Tea and biscuits

5:30-8:00 p.m. Recreation and camp games

8:00 p.m. Cocoa

8:30-9:30 p.m. Camp fire

10:00 p.m. Lights out

Bathing and Swimming

When in camp, bathing will be one of your joys and one of your duties—a joy because it is such fun, a duty because no Scout can consider himself a full-blown Scout until he is able to swim and to save life in the water. But there are dangers about bathing for which every sensible Scout will be prepared.

First, there is the danger of cramp. If you bathe within an hour and a half after taking a meal, that is, before your food is digested, you are very likely to get cramp. Cramp doubles you up in extreme pain so that you cannot move your arms or legs—and down you go. You may drown—and it will be your own fault.

There should always be a bathing guard posted, while bathing is going on, of two good swimmers, who will not bathe themselves but will be ready, undressed, prepared to jump in at any moment and help a bather if he is in difficulties. The guards should not bathe until the others have left the water, and a life line must be available.

A bulletin board may be put up for “Standing Orders”

and “Camp Routine”. Notice the Patrol dining room in the background.

Many lives are lost every summer through foolishness on the part of boys bathing, because they don t think of these things. Bathing must only be permitted in safe places and under strict supervision.

Trespassing

Be careful to get permission from the owners of land before you go on to it. You have no right to go anywhere off the roads without leave, but most owners will give you this if you go and tell them who you are and what you want to do.

When going over their land remember above all things:

1. Leave all gates as you found them.

2. Disturb animals and game as little as you possibly can.

3. Do no damage to fences, crops, or trees.

Any firewood that you require you must ask for before taking it. And be careful not to take out of hedges dead wood which is being used to fill up a gap.

Loafers in Camp

A camp is a roomy place. But there is no room in it for one chap, and that is the fellow who does not want to take his share in the many little odd jobs that have to be done. There is no room for the shirker or the grouser—well, there is no room for them in the Boy Scouts at all, but least of all in camp.

Every fellow must help, and help cheerily in making it comfortable for all. In this way comradeship grows.

Camp Beds

There are many ways of making a comfortable bed in camp, but always have a waterproof sheet over the ground between your body and the earth. Cut grass or straw or bracken is good to lay down thickly where you

are going to lie.

I think you never find out how full of corners you are till you have to sleep on a hard bit of ground where you cannot get straw or grass.

TOMMY THE TENDERFOOT No. 5 - TOMMY SLEEPS OUT

Plenty of blankets below—he’d been told. But Tommy knew better—and so he got cold.

Of course, every Scout knows that the worst corner in him is his hip-bone, and if you have to sleep on hard ground the secret of comfort is to scoop out a little hole, about the size of a tea-cup, where your hip-bone will rest. It makes all the difference to your sleeping.

Your night’s rest is an important thing; a fellow who does not get a good sleep at night soon knocks up, and cannot get through a day’s work like the one who sleeps in comfort. So my best advice is: Make a good thick straw mattress for yourself.

Making a Mattress

To make a mattress, set up a camp loom and weave it out of bracken, ferns, heather, straw, or grass, six feet long, and two feet nine inches across. With this same loom you can make straw mats, with which to form tents, or shelters, or walls (page 133).

Another good way of giving yourself a comfortable bed is to make a big bag of canvas or stout linen, 6 ft. long and 3 ft. wide. This will do to roll up your kit in for travelling. When you are in camp you can stuff it with straw, or leaves, or bracken etc., and use it as a nice soft mattress.

A pillow is also a useful thing for comfort in camp. For this you only need a strong pillow-case about two feet long by one foot wide. This you can also make for yourself. It will serve as your clothes-bag by day and your pillow by night with your clothes, neatly rolled and packed in it, serving as the stuffing.

I have often used my boots as a pillow, rolled up in a coat so that they don’t slip apart.

Camp Dodges

Camp candlesticks can be made by bending a bit of wire into a small spiral spring; or by using a cleft stick stuck in the wall; or by sticking the candle upright in a lump of clay or in a hole bored in a big potato. A glass candle shade can be made by cutting the bottom off a bottle and sticking it upside down in the ground with a candle in the neck. The bottom of the battle may be cut off

by putting about an inch or an inch and a half of water into the bottle, and then standing it in the embers of the fire till it gets hot and cracks at the water-level. Or it can be done by passing a piece of string round the body of the bottle, and drawing it rapidly to and fro till it makes a hot line round the bottle, which then breaks neatly off with a blow, or on being immersed in cold water. But remember that cut glass is a dangerous thing in camp.

You can make a camp candlestick in a number of different ways.

How to Squat

It is something to know how to sit down in a wet camp. You “squat" instead of sitting. Natives in India squat on their heels, but this is a tiring way if you have not done it as a child. It comes easy if you put a sloping stone or chock of wood under your heels.

South African Boers and other camp men squat on one heel. It is a little tiring at first.

The old camper has his own way of squatting, to keep off the ground.

Fire Building

Indians were always clever with their fires. Four kinds of fires were used. The Council Fire inside the teepee was a formal kind of thing. The Friendly Fire—somewhat larger than the Council Fire—was to warm everybody in the village. The Signal Fire, was built for sending up smoke signals. The Cooking Fire was a very small fire of glowing red-hot embers. Scouts use the same kinds of fires.