Medley Scouting

 

 

 

Search  Inquiry Net

Back ] Home ] Up ] Next ]

Apache Relay
Chinese Tag
Far Sight
Hand Ball
Home Star
Hostile Spy
Medley Scouting
Quick Sight
Rat on Lodge
Scouting
Deer Hunt
Trailing
Tree the Coon
Watching Trail
Water-Boiling
Books Recommended

Scout Books

Site Contents

by Ernest Thompson Seton

The following competition in Medley Scouting took place at one of my camps. A prize was offered for the highest points in the following: 

At the word, "Go," bring a leaf of sugar-maple; and tell how it differs from other maples. 

Tell a short story or give a recitation. 

Bring a leaf of poison ivy (wrapped in a thick paper, to avoid touching it), and describe the-poison, and mode of counteracting it. 

Mark off on a stick your idea of a yard. 

Bring a leaf of witch hazel, and tell what it is good for. 

Bring a leaf of beech, and tell how it differs from those most like it. 

Dance a step; any-English, Irish, Scotch, or Indian. 

Strike a match and light a lamp; both of them imaginary. 

Boil a quart of water, as in the Water-Boiling Contest.

Make a map of North America from memory in ten minutes.

Give an imitation of some animal, actions or sounds. 

Play the part of an Indian woman finding her warrior dead. 

For each of the first 20 competitors, points were given; the prize adjudged by the total. 

Some of these stunts may seem trivial, but there was a purpose in each, and that purpose was served. In the Indian widow, for example, we wished to select the best actor for play. Most of the boys failed. Two were good, but one, nearly the smallest in camp, was so fine that he brought tears into the eyes of many. 

The selection of the various leaves impressed these kinds on all, especially those who failed to bring the right ones. 

The animal imitation and dance was introduced to cultivate the spirit of going fearlessly in and doing one's best, however poor it might be. The imitations of monkey, lynx, cat, panther, moose, etc., developed a keen observation and a lot of good natural history that was intensely interesting as well as amusing. 

The water-boiling was particularly instructive and was tried twice. The first time the winner took 14 minutes, and the second best 20. The last time, the winner's time was 8 minutes, and the second one's 10.

The Birch Bark Roll

 

 

   

 

 


Additional Information:

Peer- Level Topic Links:
Apache Relay ] Chinese Tag ] Far Sight ] Hand Ball ] Home Star ] Hostile Spy ] [ Medley Scouting ] Quick Sight ] Rat on Lodge ] Scouting ] Deer Hunt ] Trailing ] Tree the Coon ] Watching Trail ] Water-Boiling ] Books Recommended ]

Parent- Level Topic Links:
Council Games ] Indoor Games ] Outdoor Games ] Water Games ]

The Inquiry Net Main Topic Links:
 [Outdoor Skills]  [Patrol Method [Old-School]  [Adults [Advancement]  [Ideals]  [Leadership]  [Uniforms]

Search This Site:

Search Amazon.Com:

When you place an order with Amazon.Com using the search box below, a small referral fee is returned to The Inquiry Net to help defer the expense of keeping us online.  Thank you for your consideration!

Search:

Keywords:

Amazon Logo

 

 

Scout Books Trading Post

Dead Bugs, Blow Guns, Sharp Knives, & Snakes:
What More Could A Boy Want?

Old School Scouting:
What to Do, and How to Do It!

To Email me, replace "(at)" below with "@"
Rick(at)Kudu.Net

If you have questions about one of my 2,000 pages here, you must send me the "URL" of the page!
This "URL" is sometimes called the "Address" and it is usually found in a little box near the top of your screen.  Most URLs start with the letters "http://"

The Kudu Net is a backup "mirror" of The Inquiry Net.  

©2003, 2011 The Inquiry Net, http://inquiry.net  In addition to any Copyright still held by the original authors, the Scans, Optical Character Recognition, extensive Editing,  and HTML Coding on this Website are the property of the Webmaster.   My work may be used by individuals for non-commercial, non-web-based activities, such as Scouting, research, teaching, and personal use so long as this copyright statement and a URL to my material is included in the text
The purpose of this Website is to provide access  to hard to find, out-of-print documents.  Much of the content has been edited to be of practical use in today's world and is not intended as historical preservation.   I will be happy to provide scans of specific short passages in the original documents for people involved in academic research.  

 

Last modified: October 15, 2016.