198 THE TENT AND BEDDING. 
one with a grain of experience would voluntarily 
sleep in the open air, if a tent was procurable. ‘If 
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 
