[Illustration:  The wrong way—­this looks like the work of a beaver]

When you have cut about half way through, go to the other side of the tree and start another notch a little higher than the first one.  A skilled man can chop either right-or left-handed but this is very difficult for a beginner.  If you are naturally right-handed, the quickest way to learn left-handed wood chopping is to study your usual position and note where you naturally place your feet and hands.  Then reverse all this and keep at it from the left-handed position until it becomes second nature to you and you can chop equally well from either position.  This you may learn in a week or you may never learn it.  It is a lot easier to write about than it is to do.

When the tree begins to creak and show signs of toppling over, give it a few sharp blows and as it falls jump sideways.  Never jump or run backward.  This is one way that men get killed in the woods.  A falling tree will often kick backward like a shot.  It will rarely go far to either side.  Of course a falling tree is a source of danger anyway, so you must always be on your guard.

If you wish to cut the fallen tree into logs, for a cabin, for instance, you will often have to jump on top of it and cut between your feet.  This requires skill and for that reason I place a knowledge of axemanship ahead of anything else in woodcraft except cooking.  With a crosscut saw, we can make better looking logs and with less work.

Next to knowing how to chop a tree is knowing what kind of a tree to chop.  Different varieties possess entirely different qualities.  The amateur woodchopper will note a great difference between chopping a second growth chestnut and a tough old apple tree.  We must learn that some trees, like oak, sugar maple, dogwood, ash, cherry, walnut, beech, and elm are very hard and that most of the evergreens are soft, such as spruce, pine, arbor vitae, as well as the poplars and birches.  It is easy to remember that lignum vitae is one of the hardest woods and arbor vitae one of the softest.  Some woods, like cedar, chestnut, white birch, ash, and white oak, are easy to split, and wild cherry, sugar maple, hemlock, and sycamore are all but unsplitable.  We decide the kind of a tree to cut by the use to which it is to be put.  For the bottom course of a log cabin, we place logs like cedar, chestnut, or white oak because we know that they do not rot quickly in contact with the ground.  We always try to get straight logs because we know that it is all but impossible to build a log house of twisted or crooked ones.

It is a very common custom for beginners to make camp furniture, posts, and fences of white birch.  This is due to the fact that the wood is easily worked and gives us very pretty effects.  Birch however is not at all durable and if we expect to use our camp for more than one season we must expect to replace the birch every year or two.  Rustic furniture made of cedar will last for years and is far superior to birch.