LIGHTS
For camp use, there is nothing better than the Stonebridge folding-lantern, with a good supply of candles.
But a temporary torch can readily be made of pine knots or roots in a split stick of green wood, and a fairly steady light can be made of a piece of cotton cloth or twisted rag stuck in a clam-shell full of melted grease or oil. An improvement on the last is easily made by putting the cotton wick on a stick, which is, by help of a base of wet clay, able to stand upright in the grease. Another improvement is made by using a tin in place of the shell. It makes a steadier lamp, as well as a much larger light.
This kind of lamp has wide use and some queer names.
WATER
If there is swamp or pond, but no pure water at hand, you can dig an Indian well in half an hour. This is simply a hole about 18 inches across and down about 6 inches below water-level, a few paces from the pond. Bail it out quickly; let it fill again; bail it a second time, and the third time it fills, it will be full of filtered water, clear of everything except matter actually dissolved.
MOSQUITOES, BLACK FLIES, ETC.
If you are camping in mosquito or fly season, the trip may be ruined, if you are not fully prepared.
For extreme cases, use the ready-made head-nets. They are hot, but effectual. You can easily get used to the net; no man can stand the flies. In my Arctic trip of 1907, we could not have endured life without the nets. Indians and all wore them.
Of the various dopes that are used, one of the simplest and best is Colonel N. Fletcher's, given in Kephart's "Book of Camping and Woodcraft":
