Reference · what you keep coming back to
Appendix: knots, tracks, what is edible
Three things that are not tied to any biome and that you have to keep coming back to. Keep this chapter open until you know it by heart.
1. Six knots that cover everything
There are hundreds of knots, but on your own you need six. They have to be learned with your hands, until they are automatic: a knot you have to remember will not tie itself in the dark and in the cold.
The snare knot. Make a small fixed ring in the cord and pass the long end through it — that gives a large loop which tightens when the end is pulled. Check: pull it, and the loop should shrink smoothly, with no jerking or snagging.
A loop that does not tighten under load and unties easily afterwards. 1 — make a small ring, the "hole", in the rope. 2 — the end comes up out of the hole, round behind the standing part. 3 — and back down into the hole. Pull it tight. You tie it round yourself with this, and use it for guy lines.
For tying a rope to a pole, a stake or a tree. Two turns round the pole, the second crossing the first, and the end tucked under the second turn. It ties in seconds with one hand. This is the main knot for the frame of a hut or a lean-to — it holds as long as there is tension on it.
For joining two ropes of the same thickness: each is folded into a loop and passed through the other's loop. Simple and quick, but it creeps under a varying load — always lock the ends with stopper knots. It is not fit for holding a person.
For joining ropes of different thickness — which happens constantly once you are laying your own cord. The thick one is folded into a loop, the thin one goes through it, round both sides of the loop from behind, and tucks under itself. It holds where a reef knot creeps.
For joining two poles at right angles — a shelter frame, a ladder, a stretcher, a tripod. First 3–4 turns round both poles, then 2–3 turns between them, pulling the wrapping tight across. Without those tightening turns the lashing falls apart — that is the commonest mistake.
2. Tracks: who walks here
Tracks are for two things: putting a snare where animals actually go, and knowing who you share the ground with. Reading them is easier than it sounds — six types is enough.
Five toes and long claws ahead of the pads. The hind foot resembles a bare human foot, only broader. Nothing else looks like it. A fresh track and a torn-open anthill nearby — go the other way.
Four toes, claws showing, the print elongated. What marks a wolf: it walks in a straight line, print into print, with an even stride. A dog wanders and runs in circles. A line of tracks laid out "as if by a ruler" is nearly always a wolf.
Two heart-shaped halves. Elk (moose) — large, the size of your palm, pointed; wild boar — shorter and wider, with two side prints showing behind; red deer and roe deer — smaller and neater. A hoofed animals' trail leads to water — the best place for a snare and for watching.
Two long hind feet in front, two short forefeet behind — a hare swings its hind legs forward as it jumps. That reversed pattern is unmistakable. Hare paths in winter are trodden and permanent — the main target for snares.
Like a dog's, but smaller and neater, and the prints run almost in a single line. A fox works along wood edges and field margins. A raided snare with the remains of the catch in it is usually its doing.
Three toes forward, one back. Game birds (grouse, ptarmigan) leave a line of prints along the ground — set nooses on their trails in the snow. Birds of prey circling over one spot mean carrion or someone else's kill.
- Freshness. Sharp, damp edges mean a fresh track. Crumbled edges, cobwebs, debris blown in, a crust of ice mean an old one. In snow a fresh track is loose at the edge, an old one slumped and hard.
- Direction. Earth is pushed out backwards: the ridge and the lump are always on the side the animal came from. If the toe is pressed in deeper, the animal was walking, not standing.
- Size. Measure with your own hand and remember it. Absolute centimetres are useless in the field; a comparison with your palm is not.
- What is nearby. Droppings, hair on branches, gnawed bark, lying-up places, dug earth. The track says "who"; the signs of living say "how many and how often".
- Set the snare where the trail narrows — between bushes, under a fallen trunk, in a gap in a fence. In an open spot the animal will simply walk round the noose.
3. Еда: только то, что вы знали до аварии
Справочная галерея знакомых видов
Даже у знакомого вида проверяйте несколько признаков, место произрастания и сезон. Повреждённые, заплесневелые, загрязнённые и растущие у дорог или промышленных стоков растения не используют.
The leaves sit strictly in pairs opposite each other, and it stings. That is the check. Boil it 5–10 minutes and the sting goes.
A rosette of leaves straight from the ground, the stem hollow, and where it breaks white milky sap, the flower yellow. Boiling takes the bitterness out.
Take it only when the brown seed head is visible. Before that, cattail cannot be told from iris, and iris is poisonous. The rootstock is boiled, the young shoots eaten.
They grow on a low woody dwarf shrub, not on a soft green stem. The feature is the growth form, not the colour of the berry.
Needles in bunches of five . Pine has them in twos, spruce singly. The nuts out of the cone are eaten as they are.
A leaf with rounded lobes, the fruit in a "cap". They must be soaked for 2–3 days with the water changed, or boiled — otherwise they are bitter and harmful.
A leaf the size of your palm, heart-shaped, with a lopsided base — the two halves start at different heights. Young leaves are eaten raw, the flowers made into tea.
Take it live and attached to the rocks, not the rotting stuff washed up. Rinse and boil. There is essentially no deadly poisonous seaweed.
The fruit and the young pads. Scorch them over a fire and scrape them — the danger is not the big spines but the fine hairs, which cannot be got out of the skin.
Thick conical shoots in tight scales, with the bamboo itself alongside. Boiled only, and change the water twice.
Coconut, banana, papaya, mango, citrus — the things you recognise from a shop. In the tropics that is the only reliable rule.
Forbidden always, with no exceptions
An umbrella of small white flowers, a smooth hollow stem, often with purple blotches. Poison hemlock and water hemlock are among the most poisonous plants there are. Edible members of the family exist too, but no non-specialist can tell them apart.
The edibility test does not workon them: the deadly species do not taste bitter and act a day later, when nothing can be done. They grow beside edible ones and in the same places.
Herb paris, mezereon, nightshade. Go by the growth form, not the colour: the edible berries of the north grow on a low woody shrub, not on a juicy green stem.
Цвет сока не доказывает ни ядовитость, ни съедобность: у одуванчика млечный сок, у ряда опасных растений его нет. Практическое правило одно — незнакомый вид не пробуют.
| Region | Reliable, and by what feature | Forbidden |
|---|---|---|
| Temperate zone forest, taiga, steppe, mountains |
Nettle — leaves strictly in pairs, and it stings. Dandelion — rosette from the ground, white milky sap, hollow stem. Cattail — only with a brown seed head, by water. Berries on a low woody shrub — lingonberry, bilberry, cloudberry. Pine nuts — needles in bunches of five. Acorns — soak or boil with changes of water. Lime (linden) — young leaves, with a lopsided leaf base. |
The whole carrot and parsley family (an umbrella of small white flowers) — poison hemlock and water hemlock are among them. All mushrooms — the edibility test does not work on them. Dark berries on a soft green stem — herb paris, mezereon, nightshade. Anything smelling of almonds. |
| Dry and hot desert, salt flats |
Prickly pear fruit — once the spines and hairs have been burned off completely. Yucca — flowers and young fruit, boiled. Dates and palm fruit in oases. Grass seed — ground and boiled. |
Любое незнакомое растение, даже без запаха, горечи или яркой окраски. Растения у загрязнённых и солёных водоёмов. Сок кактусов и лиан, который вы раньше не употребляли. |
| Tropics | The things you know from a shop — coconut, banana, papaya, mango, citrus. Bamboo shoots — boiled only, with the water changed twice. Coconut water from a green nut. |
Anything unfamiliar — the tropics have the largest number of poisonous species. White sticky sap from vines and fruit. Bright unfamiliar fruit and seeds. Mushrooms. |
| Coast and Arctic | Seaweed — live, attached to rocks, boiled. Fish, shellfish, crustaceans — the basis of the diet. Tundra berries on a low woody shrub. Scurvy grass — against scurvy, grows along the shore. |
Моллюски при предупреждении о токсинах и любые найденные мёртвыми — часть морских токсинов не убирается варкой или заморозкой. Печень белого медведя и неизвестных морских млекопитающих — риск опасного избытка витамина A. Rotting weed washed up on the shore. |
Контакт с кожей, вкус, отсутствие горечи и несколько часов без симптомов не доказывают безопасность. Часть токсинов действует поздно, а некоторые повреждают печень или почки до появления очевидных признаков. Не вызывайте рвоту самостоятельно после отравления: сохраните образец, свяжитесь с экстренной службой или токсикологическим центром и выполняйте их указания.