PREFACE

If a man or a well-grown boy is lost in the wilderness, what can he do? Shall he whimper and give up? Never, if he has real blood in his veins. He faces a primitive struggle for life. It is a question of reinventing primitive means of living. How to make a fire, how to obtain food, how to clothe and shelter himself—these are the immediate problems to be met. He is a Robinson Crusoe of the wilderness.

This story of a modern Crusoe in the far Northern forests embodies many actual experiences, and it is an epitome of the basic facts of outdoor life. In books like Harper’s Camping and Scouting, Outdoor Book, Young Naturalists, and others, the appliances of civilization are always at hand. It is a very different situation when one is lost in the depths of the forest without food, fire, weapons, or compass. But the problem of working out means of existence is one that will interest every lover of outdoor life, whether his interest is in camping, canoeing, fishing, or hunting, whether he is a member of the Boy Scouts or the Woodcraft Indians or simply an individual who knows the call of the wild. The adventures of Mr. Verrill’s hero forth a story of thrilling interest and constant suspense. And it is also full of suggestions which will stimulate many readers to work out some of the hero’s problems for themselves.