In these few pages I have tried to prepare something about camping and
walking, such as I should have enjoyed reading when I was a boy; and,
with this thought in my mind, I some years ago began to collect the
subject-matter for a book of this kind, by jotting down all questions
about camping, &c., that my young friends asked me. I have also taken
pains, when I have been off on a walk, or have been camping, to notice
the parties of campers and trampers that I have chanced to meet, and
have made a note of their failures or success. The experiences of the
pleasant days when, in my teens, I climbed the mountains of Oxford
County, or sailed through Casco Bay, have added largely to the stock of
notes; and finally the diaries of "the war," and the recollections of
"the field," have contributed generously; so that, with quotations, and
some help from other sources, a sizable volume is ready.
Although it is prepared for young men,—for students more
especially,—it contains much, I trust, that will prove valuable to
campers-out in general.
I am under obligations to Dr. Elliott Coues, of the United States Army,
for the valuable advice contained in Chapter XIII.; and I esteem it a
piece of good fortune that his excellent work ("Field Ornithology")
should have been published before this effort of mine, for I hardly know
where else I could have found the information with authority so
unquestionable.
Prof. Edward S. Morse has increased the debt of gratitude I already owe
him, by taking his precious time to draw my illustrations, and prepare
them for the engraver.
Mr. J. Edward Fickett of Portland, a sailmaker, and formerly of the
navy, has assisted in the chapter upon tents; and there are numbers of
my young friends who will recognize the results of their experience, as
they read these pages, and will please to receive my thanks for making
them known to me.
Portland, Me., January, 1877.
