198 THE TENT AND BEDDING. 



one with a grain of experience would voluntarily 

 sleep in the open air, if a tent was procurable. ' Jf 

 you can't do what you like you must do what 

 you can ;' in the absence of canvas, a sky roof is 

 about the only alternative. 



Assuming a tent is available, the kind of tent 

 I should strongly recommend is a ' gable end ' or 

 ' dog-kennel ' twelve-ell tent, with a seven-foot 

 ridge-pole, and two six-feet upright poles, The 

 three poles should be joined in the centre with 

 strong galvanised iron ferrules, so that they can 

 be put together like a fishing-rod. One man, 

 unaided, can with very little practice pitch such a 

 tent in from eight to ten minutes, and peg it down. 



Let me advise all travellers to carry their poles 

 with them ; trusting to the chance of cutting them 

 is a bad plan, causing delay in pitching the tent. 

 Poles are not always so very easy to find as the in- 

 experienced may imagine, although travelling in 

 the very midst of a forest ; more than this, a tent is 

 never so secure as when pitched with poles made 

 on purpose. It is always better, too, to carry tent- 

 pegs than trusting to cut them at the camping- 

 ground ; barrel-staves afford capital material for 

 pegs. 



Bedding. A. small horsehair mattress, three 

 feet six inches wide, and six feet long. Two 



