562 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



weeds — anything that will have some elasticity and relieve 

 the solid monotony of mother earth. Remember that a good 

 bed makes a short night, and vice versa. You had better 

 work until ten o'clock at night in making your bed, than turn 

 into a hard one at dark, and then groan with tired joints 

 from midnight until daylight. 



Some hunters condemn boughs as useless, and say they 

 soon pack and become as hard as the ground itself. This is 

 because they don't put down enough of them. Always lay 

 them from a foot to two feet deep, and be careful to have no 

 large limbs among them. In this way you will have a bed 

 that will give with every movement of the body and that 

 will remain soft all night — or a dozen nights in succession, 

 for that matter. 



CAMP-EQUIPAGE. 



The first and most important article in this line is the tent. 

 The size and style of this must of course depend, in a great 

 measure, on the number of persons to occupy it and the kind 

 and quantity of transportation with which the party is to be 

 provided. If four men are going together and have a wagon, 

 or a large boat, and no portages to make, or if they are to 

 travel with packs and have plenty of them, then a wall-tent 

 eight by ten, or ten by twelve feet, may be taken. In mak- 

 ing up for the pack or boat outfit, the tent-poles should be 

 jointed, the various joints being not more than three feet 

 long. This is done by means of wrought iron strap-hinges 

 screwed to one side of the pole, and two staples or strap-iron 

 loops, one above and one below the cut, on the opposite side 

 from the hinge, with a half-inch round iron pin passing 

 through both. For a larger party of course a larger sized 

 tent is necessary, and where it is possible to carry it, a Sibley 

 tent, such as is now used by the United States army, is an 

 excellent thing. But better than either is a round tent, after 



