ATTEMPT TO MAKE A FIRE 217

I stopped to rest, but it was not possible to sit down for
any length of time, as it was far too cold.

It must have been somewhere about four o’clock in the
afternoon that I reluctantly came to the conclusion that
my chances of reaching camp before dark were not of the
rosiest, and that a most unpleasant night out in the woods
was likely in store for me. It therefore behoved me to
look out for a place where some sort of a brush shelter
could be conveniently made, and also wood handy for a
fire. Luck, however, was against me that day. My
stock of matches, which was not very large, had been
sadly reduced by frequently lighting my pipe, so that
when, eventually, I picked out a spot to light a fire,
only a few remained. Of these some were put out
by the water dripping off me, and the last one only
just got the fire going. Unfortunately I did not take
the precaution to make a bit of a bark shelter over my
fire to shield it from the rain until it got well started,
and, more unfortunately still, I left it for a time to hunt
up more dry wood. The consequence was that the rain
had just about put it out by the time I got back to it,
and my efforts to resuscitate it put it out completely.
There was now nothing for it but to keep going or perish
from cold. Once more I started off.

Just about the time it was getting dusk I recognised a
gulch I had passed across that morning; it was not very
far from where I had fired my first shot at the buck.
With half an hour’s daylight there would have been time
for me to get back without much trouble by following
my tracks. But as there was not time to do it this way
I again foolishly decided to make another short cut so
as to strike one of the old “‘ skid roads.”? But it was not
“to be. Before any distance had been covered it became
too dark to see where I was going, and soon night caught
me and it became as black as ink.

Hour after hour I struggled wearily on. My legs were
almost too tired to move, but it was necessary to keep
going. My bare feet, by this time a mass of cuts, bruises,
and scratches, were painful in the extreme, and would