20 BIG GAME SHOOTING IX ALASKA chap, n 



Supplies and Outfit 



To any one who has read Colonel Cane's well-known book 

 on the country, such remarks as I can make on camp equip- 

 ment will appear superfluous, since the author has dealt 

 exhaustively with the whole subject, and named practically 

 every article required for a trip in Alaska. In the matter of 

 tents our party followed the example of that author ; and we 

 had all that was required made in Chinatown, Victoria, B.C. 

 For a sportsman's own use, I should suggest a tent, without 

 walls, made in a V-shape, of cotton drill, 8 feet by 6 feet in 

 width, and 6 feet high at the ridge-pole. Colonel Cane, 

 however, used tents exactly one foot smaller in each 

 dimension than the above, but the extra foot in size adds 

 very little to the weight, and very considerably to personal 

 comfort. Such tents weigh only about 7 lbs. each, and will 

 accommodate two or even three natives ; two or three of 

 them may be taken. In addition to their lightness, they 

 have the advantage of being very easy to pitch. Even on 

 the desolate Barren Lands of the Alaska Peninsula will be 

 found here and there a patch of alders high enough to 

 furnish a ridge-pole 8 feet long, and four sticks, which when 

 lashed together at the tops will afford the necessary support. 

 Another advantage of these tents is that they do not catch 

 the wind to anything like the same extent as the square 

 ones with walls. Although they are so light and thin, yet, 

 owing to their shape and the steepness of the roof, they will 

 shoot off any quantity of rain. 



A larger tent of different shape may be taken into the 

 timber country, and can be used with advantage as a cache- 

 tent for stores and skins, or employed as a dwelling, when 

 remaining any length of time in a permanent camp. For 



