Canteens are nearly always a necessity in mountainous regions where your work carries you on the ridges high above the valleys where the streams are. In the desert a special water supply must be planned for. In ordinary hunting or tramping trips the smaller Army canteen supplies the more urgent needs. Where the water supply is contaminated it is necessary to boil and filter the water for drinking. This can be done at mealtimes and then cooled and carried in the canteen for use on the march. The purpose of the felt covering of the canteen is to keep the contents cool by the evaporation from the wetted felt. As a rule one will, on a light trip, carry no folding grate or fire irons as supports for utensils. Rocks, logs or earthen trenches will take their places and one does not have to tote them around. In choosing the hiker’s light weight mess kit take only those component parts that are really needed and have these as strong, light and compact as is possible. CHAPTER XI THE RATION LIST Supposedly the greatest privation which will confront the amateur woodsman who breaks away from home ties for a few weeks’ jaunt into the wilderness is a gastronomic one. Yet with a properly balanced ration list composed of goods procurable of any grocer with perhaps the addition of some of the newer evaporated foods available on special order or made at home, the hiker may hit the trail confident that he will be well fed. The hackneyed slogan of outfitting, viz.:--to secure the maximum in efficiency from supplies which represent a minimum in carrying weight and bulk--must be reiterated in choosing the tramper’s food supply. For those demanding the extreme in portable equipage the evaporated foods--vegetables (as dried potatoes, Julienne, etc.,) soups (Erbswurst), eggs, milk, etc., are invaluable. In their preparation by dessication the fresh vegetables are deprived of their water content so that all one needs to do in preparing them for table use is to add water and cook in the usual way. They are thus restored to their former value as palatable foods although of course their form and shape may be altered. Their chief value for our purpose is that they represent a tremendous reduction (of approximately 15 per cent) in their natural weight and a corresponding lessening of bulk. For example a pound of evaporated potatoes will represent seven pounds of the fresh product. Or again one pound of granulated dried egg represents four dozen of the fresh eggs. Dehydrated goods are equal to fresh goods and are far superior to the canned kind. They are palatable and nutritious as foods, they never spoil and permit a welcome variety in the bill of fare. Concentration of bulk alone is not the criterion in choosing camp foods--digestibility is really paramount. Thus cheese, nuts, beans, rice and the various evaporated foods are highly concentrated but differ greatly in their ease of digestion.