 |
“Test your survival knowledge with a simple exam”, by Melinda Allan, from The Register-Guard, February
18, 1987, Eugene, Oregon, page 5D, the article can be found HERE
To read “Test Your Survival Knowledge, Part One” go HERE,
and to read “Test Your Survival Knowledge, Part Three” go HERE –
Author’s note
So,
last week we talked about the answers to questions one and two of Melinda
Allan’s “Test your survival knowledge with a simple exam”. This week we will be discussing the answers
to
questions
three and four.
 |
Question three from “Test your survival knowledge with
a simple exam”, by Melinda Allan, The Register-Guard, February 18, 1987,
Eugene, Oregon, page 5D |
 |
Photograph by the author.
 |
Answer three from “Test your survival knowledge with a
simple exam”, by Melinda Allan, The Register-Guard, February 18, 1987, Eugene,
Oregon, page 5D
This
is one of the questions that my kids got wrong, when they took the test. And before we get started on all the
different ways to get a fire started, let me say I agree with the author when
she said “But remember your matches.
It’s a lot easier.”
Personally, I never go out into the woods without at least one lighter
and some strike anywhere matches with an emery board in a waterproof match-case
in my pocket or in my pack1.
However,
having said that, it is true that you MIGHT be able to start a fire with any of
these methods, but banging the right rocks and rubbing the right sticks together is
difficult and using batteries from a car or plane or shooting a smoldering rag
from a gun are dangerous, but you MIGHT be able to do it.
Maybe
you should just throw an extra BIC® lighter into your
pocket, it is easier!
 |
Photograph by the author.
Having
said that here is what Bradford Angier, the author of Living off the Country: How to Stay Alive in the Woods,
had this to say, about expedient methods of starting fires.
 |
An excerpt from Bradford Angier’s Living off the Country: How to Stay Alive in the Woods, page
90-91.
Also,
Larry Dean Olsen, who wrote the classic Outdoor Survival Skills, wrote this
about using flint and steel.
 |
Excerpts from Larry Dean Olsen’s Outdoor Survival
Skills, pages 41-43 |
And
Paul H. Risk, who wrote Outdoor Safety and Survival, described using dry-cell
batteries to start a fire.
 |
Excerpts from Paul H. Risk’s Outdoor Survival
Skills, pages 48-49
 |
Excerpts from Paul H. Risk’s Outdoor Survival
Skills, pages 47-50, discussing some of the dangers of using wet-cell
batteries and gunpowder to start fires. |
Yes,
it would definitely be easier, a lot faster and safer to just throw an extra
BIC® lighter into your pocket!
Now,
onto question four and its answer.
 |
Question four from “Test your survival knowledge with
a simple exam”, by Melinda Allan, The Register-Guard, February 18, 1987,
Eugene, Oregon, page 5D |
 |
Answer four from “Test your survival knowledge with a
simple exam”, by Melinda Allan, The Register-Guard, February 18, 1987, Eugene,
Oregon, page 5D |
It
is generally accepted that the word Adirondack is from a Mohawk word, atirú:taks,
and means “they eat trees” or “those who eat trees” and it was
used by the Mohawks to refer to the Algonquins, who used to hunt extensively in
the Adirondack region. The Mohawks and
the rest of the Iroquois, who called themselves “those who build cabins”,
waged war on the Algonquins for centuries and this derogatory term was used to
belittle them2. However, and in
the case of starvation, which during the winter months in the Northwest or the Adirondacks
is a distinct possibility, eating bark is a survival option of last resort.
Bradford
Angier wrote this about eating the inner bark of trees or, as I like to call it
“The Adirondack Diet Plan”.
 |
An excerpt from Bradford Angier’s Living off the Country: How to Stay Alive in the Woods, page 16-17.
And
Larry Dean Olsen had this to say about gathering barks and greens if you are
forced to participate in the Adirondack Diet Plan.
 |
Excerpts from Larry Dean Olsen’s Outdoor Survival
Skills, pages 75
While
I make and enjoy pine-needle tea from time to time, when I am out in the woods,
for most people it is probably an acquired taste. I have never tried eating the inner layer of
bark, never having been misplaced for more than a couple of hours. As an aside, remember that according to The
Rule of Threes, you can live for about three weeks without food and most
people are found within three days, so maybe eating bark and being a member of
The Adirondack Diet Plan isn’t something that you are likely going to have to
worry about.
Personally
I believer that many of the skills that Melinda Allan wrote about in “Test your
survival knowledge with a simple exam”, would more accurately be called
primitive skills and bushcraft skills, not survival skills (for a definition of
the difference read “Les Stroud, Survival and Outdoor Skills ©”, HERE). That doesn’t make them any less useful, and
it never hurts to know how to do things, but remember on average “misplaced”
persons are found within 72 hours, so you need to learn basic survival skills
that will keep body and soul together for that long, before you learn bushcraft
and primitive skills.
I
hope that you enjoyed this installment of, “Test your survival knowledge with a
simple exam”, tune in next week for part three and the answers to questions
five and six.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. 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.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
I usually have two BIC® full sized lighters with me whenever I go out into the
woods, one in my pocket and one in my pack.
They aren’t very heavy, weighing 0.89 ounces (25.4 grams) and according
to BIC’s website they are good for up to 3,000 lights. The reason why I keep one in my pocket and
one in my pack, is it is good to have a spare in case something happens to one
of them and because in a survival situation you might find yourself without
your pack, but hopefully, unless this is “Naked and Afraid” you should always
have your pants! I also keep a BIC® mini
sized lighter in my survival kit, which is kept in my vest pocket or in my life
jacket pocket, and in the woods I always wear either my vest or my life jacket,
depending on my mode of transportation.
From,
What Things Weigh: Getting To The
Weight Of The Matter; “Weight Of BIC Lighter” and www.shopbic.com; “Ask Us Anything. As Long As It’s About BIC® Lighters”
2 From
J. Dyneley Prince, “Some Forgotten Indian
Place-Names In The Adirondacks” and Stephen B. Sulavik, M.D., “Adirondack Of Indians
And Mountains, 1535-1838”
Sources
Angier, Bradford; Living
off the Country: How to Stay Alive in the Woods, [The Stackpole
Company, Harrisburg, PA, 1959], p. 17, 23 & 91
Olsen, Larry Dean; Outdoor Survival Skills,
[Pocket Books, New York, NY, 1976], p. 75
Prince, J. Dyneley; “Some Forgotten Indian
Place-Names In The Adirondacks”, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol.
13, No. 49, Apr. - Jun., 1900, pp. 123-128, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/533802.pdf, accessed September 14, 2020
Risk, Paul H.; Outdoor Safety And Survival,
[John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1983], p. 47-50
Sulavik, M.D., Stephen
B.; “Adirondack Of Indians And Mountains, 1535-1838”, [Copyright © 2005 Purple
Mountain Press], http://www.catskill.net/purple/sulavik.htm, accessed September 14,
2020
What Things Weigh: Getting To The Weight Of The Matter; “Weight
Of BIC Lighter”, [© 2020 What Things Weigh], https://whatthingsweigh.com/weight-of-bic-lighter/,
accessed September 18, 2020
www.shopbic.com; “Ask Us Anything. As Long As It’s About BIC® Lighters”, [©2020 BIC USA INC.] https://www.shopbic.com/lighters/faqs#:~:text=HOW%20MANY%20LIGHTS%20CAN%20YOU,Up%20to%203%2C000, accessed September 18, 2020
