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101 Camping Out Ideas & Activities
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KINDLING A FIRE
This is almost like a game of skill. First, clean the site where you are going to lay your fire, and scrape the ground all around it so that you leave nothing that may be ignited by a flying spark. Then, start with paper, dried grass or reeds, dried leaves and twigs, birchbark or paper-thin shavings. Set up a little pyramid of the thinnest, driest twigs over this. Then, to get a strong flame, lay brittle softwood branches on top of the pile. Finally, to produce effective heat and a good glow, add pieces of root and thick hard wood sticks.
The hardwoods include oak, beech, poplar, birch and hickory. Hazel, spruce, pine and fir are all softwoods. The paper-thin outer layer of birchbark is ideal for kindling.
 
Set fire to the core of the pyramid only when it is finished. If kindling piles are skillfully built, it is possible to light them with a magnifying glass—if the sun is out brightly. As long ago as 278 B.C. the inventive Archimedes saved the Sicilian city of Syracuse with this principle. He erected a huge reflector on the city wall and set fire to the enemy fleet with it. Soon the fleet was swimming in bright flames on the sea. I wasn't there myself, but I have often lighted a well-prepared, dry kindling pyramid with my pocket burning glass.
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