Lost©

 

 

Personally, I try not to use the word “lost”¹, it is freighted with negative emotions, however that is the title of the Boy Scouts of America booklet that I found.  Since it is a hard to find pamphlet, and close to 75 years old, I uploaded it to Archive.org, HERE.  However, I thought that you would like a sneak preview of the survival information from the leaflet, along with some discussion.  So here it is.

 

Horace Kephart was quoted as saying, “In the school of the woods, there is no graduation day”, and he continued that the woodcraft tricks that you know don’t always transfer from one wilderness area to another, i.e. arctic spruce forest to tropical jungle, but the basics like not panicking, being coolheaded and being observant do.

 

Survival fundamentals rules are timeless and if you follow them, you can turn an emergency from a tragedy to simply an unfortunatesituation.

 

Remember, as the Arctic explorer Vihjalmur Stefansson said, if you can sleep, go ahead.  It is a myth that you will fall asleep and not awake because of the cold UNLESS you are so fatigued from lack of sleep, that you pass out.  So, rest whenever possible and conserve your energy...you will need it later!

 

And as Winston Churchill said, at Harrow, on October 29^th, 1941, “Never give in...never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in.”.

 

I hope that you are never in a wilderness emergency, but if you are, I hope you use the information from this pamphlet to turn an emergency into a simply unfortunate misplaced situation, instead of letting it spiral out of control into a lost tragedy.

 

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 prefer using the term “misplaced”, instead of “lost” because misplaced things are ultimately found, but lost things never are.

 

 

Sources

 

Boy Scouts of America; Lost, [Boy Scouts of America, New York City, NY, 1950]