pee | StrronG, An Observation Tent. 291 
wood in which holes were bored on three sides for the end, side, 
and upright poles. It has been my experience that these blocks 
are very unsatisfactory. Wear and shrinkage at the sockets make 
the fitting insecure, and a very small amount of looseness allows a 
large amount of sagging of the whole tent to leeward in a breeze. 
Furthermore, the blocks must be relatively large and clumsy to 
stand the strain put upon them, and they make a smooth fit of the 
cloth impossible. I found it necessary to brace the leeward side 
with sticks or boards which of course interfere seriously with the 
view and are often blown down by a strong wind. 
I have been unable to get satisfactory poles for the tent frame in 
the vicinity of the places where I have used the tents. Further- 
more, it requires more time to prepare poles properly than I have 
wished to spare after reaching a place for work. Since my first 
day in the field with a tent, I have always taken poles with me 
carefully prepared in advance. 
In place of the clumsy wooden blocks, I had some brass corner 
pieces constructed. These consist of three short tubes brazed 
together (see Fig. 1), and lacquered black. These tubes have an 
inside diameter of 22 mm., and each is about 70 mm. long. One of 
these receives the end roof pole, another a side roof pole, and. the 
third an upright supporting pole. The roof poles each make an 
angle of 103 degrees with the upright supporting pole. The angle 
of the two horizontal poles is of course 90 degrees. In place of the 
heavy hardwood, I have substituted bamboo poles. These are 
prepared from ordinary bamboo fish poles, selecting portions of 
suitable diameter. Brass ferrules were fitted on the ends of each 
roof pole and on the upper ends of each upright pole. These are 
necessary for a firm joint and were prepared at a hardware shop. 
A portion of such a ferrule projecting from a socket, appears in 
Fig. 1, at the right. 
The tent proper was made from the same material used in my 
smaller tent, i. e. dark-green cambric or lining cloth which was 
purchased at 6 cts. a yard. About thirty yards 26 inches wide 
were used. I cut the cloth, pinning the sections together for the 
seamstress. The roof is in one section, which spreads slightly 
over the sides and ends of the tent. The angles were determined 
on cross section paper, and the material was cut into strips, three 
