Chapter 15 and 16 summary

  While in the woods, Brian measures time by events he experiences rather than by civil measures of time, in fact he marks the passing days on a rock close to the shelter. His actual sense of time, nonetheless, revolves around events such as the day of First Meat. Surviving off Fish and berries, Brian craving food he tries to catch fool birds, he has a difficult time. These birds tend to fly away at the last second and are hard to spot. Brian starts to train his eyes to see the bids, he also realized that he needed to put some work into his weapons. He figures out a system to catch the birds at the last minute and he catches his first meat. Brian creates something so that he can rotate the chicken over the fire. He sits there waiting and then he finally feasts on his meal. 

Brian proudly recalls the big events since the plane crash, which he calls "First Days." For example, on "First Arrow Day" he had successfully constructed a straight-shooting arrow, and on "First Rabbit Day"it was his first rabbit he killed, using similar methods as he had used to kill the foolbird. He alternates between fool birds and rabbits, so he is able to satisfy himself with meat that is good . In time he became very good at catching foolbirds, he even caught one of the birds with his bare hands. While washing his hands in the lake, he feels as if something is there and turns around just in time to face a huge moose. The moose attacks him, throwing him into the water, thrashing him around, and badly hurting his ribs and his shoulder. Retrieving his bow, spear, and foolbird from the water's edge, Brian, in enormous pain, attempts to make sense of the attack before falling asleep. A far-off roar awakens Brian in the middle of the night. It was a tornado, the tornado departed as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Brian out in the open, his shelter and fire obliterated. Without the protection of the fire, mosquitoes find him once again and he lies sleepless for the remainder of the night, In the aftermath of the moose attack and the tornado he has little left. Nonetheless, Brian remains unfazed in his resolve to rebuild using the hatchet, his only remaining tool, still at his belt. Right before dawn Brian dozes off, awakening to assess the tornado's damage. Then he sees the plane poking out of the water and feels the need to say a few words in honor of the pilot