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“As he looked apathetically
about him, his eyes chanced on the dog.” An illustration by Frank E.
Schoonover1, which appeared in “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine, August 1908, Vol.
LXXVI, No. 4, p. 531
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 525
It
is supposed to snow hard tonight, and while where I live, between the Great
Lakes and the foothills of the Alleghenies, it doesn’t usually drop below 0oF/-18oC,
the first big snowfall made me think of the story To
Build A Fire, by Jack London.
Have
you ever read To Build A Fire? It
is a great story by someone who lived what he wrote about. Have you ever thought to read it as a winter
survival manual? There are some good
winter survival tips buried in what is a great outdoor adventure story.
The
unnamed main character of To Build A Fire does a few things wrong and
several things right, and by studying what he does right and what he does wrong
we will be able to discover some winter survival tips that can help us
today.
In
this article, I am going to explore what the unnamed main character of To
Build A Fire, does right and what survival tips we can learn from him. In “Survival Tips
From Jack London, Part Two”, coming next week, I am going to discuss what he
did wrong and what winter survival tips he can teach us.
So
just what does he do right? The unnamed
main character does five things right as he travels down the trail to meet up
with “the boys” who were camped at the old claim on the left bank of Henderson
Creek. These five things are things that
everyone who travels in the wilderness should do, winter or summer, rain or
shine.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 526
The first thing that he did right, was that he told “the boys” in camp on Henderson Creek, what route he was traveling and what time they should expect him to arrive. The most important thing that you can do for your survival, in case you have an emergency is to tell someone, before you leave; where you are going, when you are going, what route you are taking and when you should arrive at your destination. Also, never change your plans or your route without letting someone know. Remember searchers can’t find you if they don’t know you are lost or where to look.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 527
The second thing that he did right was to keep his feet dry. In the winter, wet feet are frozen feet, and frozen feet spell disaster! Even if it isn’t below freezing, wet feet can lead to blisters or to the much more serious condition called “immersion-foot”.
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Pictures of the author’s right foot
after canoeing all day on a windy 70oF/21oC day. Note the blanched appearance of my foot and
how the area below the sock line is whiter than the area above it. Also notice how my toenails are white and not
a healthy pink. Both of my feet were in
the early stages of immersion-foot. Pictures
by the author.
Immersion-foot
is a warm weather, cold injury caused when wet foot gear and evaporation
combine to cool the surface of your feet and ankles. If it is windy, the wind will speed the
evaporation and cool the feet even more.
This cooling causes the body to shut-off the blood flow to the skin
surface and to the tissues just below the skin, causing the feet and ankles to
look white, waxy and dead. If untreated,
immersion-foot can lead to serious and painful complications.
As
a guide in Algonquin Provincial Park, the first thing that I teach the scouts
to do after they get off the water for the day and put the rain fly up, is to
take off their wet canoe shoes and socks, dry their feet and then change into
dry camp shoes and socks. That is what I
was doing when I took the pictures above.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 528
The
unnamed main character was traveling light, and only carried a sheath knife; 70
strike-anywhere matches, loose in his pocket; a couple of pieces of birchbark
tinder in his other pocket and a bag of food, kept inside his shirt and jacket. What he carried wasn’t anywhere near the
complete set of the Ten Essentials, however it is more than many people carry
with them when they venture into the wilderness. And so, the third thing that he did right was
that he carried with him food and the two most important things for a
wilderness journey: a knife and the means to make a fire.
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The author’s knives and hatchet:
(1) a butchers boning knife, that I have used as a utility sheath knife for 15
years, (2) a small hatchet, (3) a utility pocket knife that I keep with my survival
kit, and (4) a pocket knife that that can be opened, one-handed, which I wear
in a sheath around my neck.
|
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An excerpt from Arctic Survival
Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 65
A knife is vital for almost every task in the wilderness, such as building a shelter or preparing tinder, and it doesn’t matter if it is a sheath knife or a pocketknife. Never, ever travel in the wilderness without a knife! Personally, I always carry two knives with me when I travel in the woods; a pocketknife that can be opened one-handed, which I wear in a sheath hanging around my neck and a utility pocketknife that is rubber-banded to my survival kit. In the northern woods, you should also always carry either a sturdy sheath knife or a small axe. Both can be used to cut saplings for tools or shelter, and branches for firewood2.
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The author’s tinder-bag, clockwise,
(1) Ziploc® bag with birchbark, dryer lint old jute twine and cotton pads, (2)
my waterproof tinder-bag, (3) a tea candle, (4) strike-anywhere and UCO Stormproof
matches and striker, (5) a mini-BIC® lighter,
(6) a Landmann Fire Starter and (7) petroleum jelly as a fire sustainer
Just
like you should always carry a knife, you should also always carry tinder and a
way to start a fire with you when you venture out into the wilderness. I always carry two BIC® lighters
with me, one in my pocket and one in my tinder-bag. In my tinder-bag, in addition to the BIC®
lighter, I also keep strike-anywhere and UCO Stormproof matches, tinder,
petroleum jelly, tea-candles and a Landmann Fire Starter: the last three are
for those rainy days when everything is wet and it is difficult to get a fire
going. I keep my tinder-bag in my pack;
but in my survival kit, which I always have in my pocket, I also carry a Ferrocerium
rod (or as it is sometimes called, a Ferro rod), some trick birthday candles
that don’t blow out, extra strike-anywhere and UCO Stormproof
matches and a spare mini-BIC® lighter.
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An excerpt from Arctic Survival
Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 64
Also, as you travel through the woods, you should always be the lookout for dry tinder to replenish the supply in your tinder-bag: you never know when you will need it and you never know when it will rain.
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An excerpt from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 526
In
the winter it is vital to keep your furnace fueled and your heat production
up. The unnamed main character’s lunch
biscuits would have provided him with carbohydrates for quick energy and fats
and proteins to keep his furnace going for the long haul. Even though most people can go for three
weeks without food and live, you should always bring high energy snacks or
emergency rations with you when you wander in the woods. For a good recipe for an emergency ration
bar, see “Survival Rations … 1962 Civil Defense Style”, HERE, and “Further Thoughts on Survival Rations … 1962 Civil Defense
Style” HERE.
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Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 529
The fourth thing that the main character did right was that he knew how to build a fire. He knew to place several large pieces of firewood on top of the snow as a foundation, to protect the young flame from melting snow. He also knew to start with the smallest and finest of dry grasses and twigs as tinder and to slowly and carefully, as the flame grew, work his way up to sticks the size of his finger and then, as the fire began to burn fiercely, to the size of his wrist.
It
always amazes me, when I am teaching outdoor skills to adults, how few modern
people know how to build a fire and how to feed it. Maybe this is because, unlike in 1898 when To
Build A Fire takes place, when building a fire was a daily requirement,
rain or shine; today fire building is a recreational skill only practiced
occasionally in good weather on weekends.
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Excerpts from Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 64 to 66
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The
excerpts above, from the Arctic Survival Manual by Alan Innes-Taylor,
are an excellent introduction to fire building.
While the need to build a foundation or platform when lighting a fire on
top of snow is obvious, because of the need to protect the flame from melting snow,
a platform can also be useful when there isn’t any snow. As your fire burns it will draw moisture from
the ground below; so if the ground is wet, or if it is or has been raining, make
a platform to build your fire on. Also, I
like to hold my handful of tinder against a piece of bark as I light it; this
protects my fingers from the flames and allows me to turn the handful of tinder
so that the flames spread through it.
And when I place the lit tinder into my kindling square, the bark will
shield the young flame from ground water, particularly if I have built my
kindling square on a foundation of firewood.
There
are two rules of thumb that I have found to be the most useful when it comes to
fire building 101. The first one is from
“How To Build A Campfire”, by ScoutmasterCG.com, found HERE, and the second is from Craig
White, a Canadian survival expert, who teaches that you will burn through a
generous armload of wrist-size sticks in only an hour.
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A section of “How To Build A
Campfire”, from Scoutmastercg.com
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Excerpts from “To Build A Fire”, The Century Magazine,
August 1908, page 529 to 530
The
fifth and final thing that the unnamed main character of To Build A Fire
does right, is he doesn’t panic, when the worst happens, he calmly and coolly
sets about rebuilding his fire. I always
teach that if something bad happens when you are in the wilderness, or anywhere
for that matter, if you panic it will only make it worse. Never, ever panic! It can kill you if you do.
Hopefully
we have all learned something from the mishaps that the unnamed main character
of this tragic story blunders through, and I hope that, if nothing else, I have
inspired you to read Jack London’s short story To Build A Fire.
In
next week’s article “Survival Tips From Jack London,
Part Two”, I am going to talk about what the unnamed main character did wrong
and what winter survival tips we can learn from his mistakes.
That
is all for now and until next week “Happy Trails”.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and my videos at
BandanaMan Productions and don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s
Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you
have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric
Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds,
so watch for me.
Notes
1
Frank Earle Schoonover was a student of Howard Pyle art school and subscribed
to Pyle’s philosophy that an artist should “live what he paints”. As such in 1903, with inspiration from Pyle,
Schoonover traveled north to the Hudson Bay to experience the wilderness so
that he could illustrate it. Schoonover
journeyed to both Canada and Alaska and on one trip in 1903 he traveled 1,200
miles entirely by snowshoe, canoe and dog sled.
For more information on
Frank Earle Schoonover, visit https://americanillustration.org/project/frank-schoonover/
2
Remember in a pinch you can use a baton-sized stick or wooden club to pound
your knife through saplings or branches, by repeatedly strike the spine of the
knife; this is called batoning.
Sources
Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm,
1957], page 64-65
Green, Clarke; “How to Build a
Campfire”, November 7, 2012, [Dynamik-Gen, 2019] https://scoutmastercg.com/how-to-build-a-campfire/
London, Jack; “To Build
A Fire”, The Century Magazine, August 1908, Vol. LXXVI, No. 4, [The
Century Company, New York, 1908], p. 525-534, https://books.google.com/books?id=8XkAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA518&lpg=PA518&dq=%22to+build+a+fire%22+%22jack+london%22+1908+%22century+Magazine%22&source=bl&ots=Erpfoe9twm&sig=ACfU3U2hNB3BlOJWvbrdE1Lr4ctAFaxIHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhsNTjjLHlAhXhQ98KHTfiBwU4MhDoATAIegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=%22to%20build%20a%20fire%22%20%22jack%20london%22%201908%20%22century%20Magazine%22&f=false, accessed 11/02/2019
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