When their canoe tipped their matches got wet and were unusable. "There remained the problem of cooking ., but lighting a fire without matches was not as impossible as Jamie feared." (Mowat 51) Awasin started making a fire drill out of sticks and some fur. Next he made a hole in a fireboard to put the drill in. He began to spin it and spin it until it began to smoke and flames were becoming visible. Before no time the two boys were sitting next to a warm fire proud of what they had done. Their next problem of course would be getting food. Awasin used his knowledge of his equipment and environment to go fishing. He knew that during this time of the year, there would be plenty of trout in the river. He took the fishing line and the fishing net that they had and he went, so to say, fishing. After a little while of waiting, Awasin felt an enormous pull. He struggled with the fish for quite some time until it was visible in the water. As soon as it got close enough he jumped on it and caught it. The fish was huge, "Four feet long, it would have tipped the scales at more than forty pounds." (Mowat 58) After eating their fill, Awasin brings up the point, "We must not waste it . We"ll smoke and dry the rest of it." (Mowat 58) This point also helped them survive by conserving their food for later occasions. When they were in the Hidden Valley they also had the problem of hunger. With their one and only rifle they had to shoot an oncoming deer. They each took a position that would help them kill the deer. This knowledge of scouting, hiding, waiting, and knowing where to shoot the deer from also helped them survive. During their plight, they killed a total of forty-seven bucks. They were going to leave the bucks they killed and get them later, but Awasin said, "We have to finish the job. If we let those deer go to waste we will be no better than murderers." (Mowat 110) Here is another way they used their knowledge of their environment to get food, preserve it, use the hides for clothing, and survive.