386 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



must be properly arranged, and to do this one pair of blankets 

 should be sewn up at the bottom, along the whole of one side, 

 and halfway up the other side, the other half to be fitted with tapes 

 or buttons. This makes a kind of bag which effectually prevents 

 a man from throwing off his clothes in his sleep, and keeps 

 out those bitter little draughts which otherwise so annoyingly 

 creep in and dispel the soundest slumbers. An inflatable air- 

 cushion is light to pack, and handy either as a pillow or as a 

 seat in camp. The air cushion makes a better seat than pillow, 

 for which the writer always uses a canvas bag packed with 

 spare clothes, flannels, c., carried inside the roll of blankets. 

 The sleeping bag made of blankets, with an outside covering 

 of tarpaulin to lace up over the blankets, and with a hood or 

 pillow-case of tarpaulin attached to hold pillow or canvas clothes- 

 bag, is the most convenient outfit of the kind for America. 

 Before leaving the subject of beds, a subject of the utmost 

 moment to the hunter, let me point out that one of the 

 most comfortable and simplest of camp bedsteads may be made 

 thus. Let your manteau measure 6 ft. 6 ins. by 4 ft., and let it 

 be made of the strongest waterproof canvas, two pieces of equal 

 size being sewn together so as to make an endless sack. In 

 this form your manteau will do duty as a cover for the packs 

 by day, and at night you can cut two thin poles about 7 ft. 6 ins. 

 long, pass them lengthwise through this endless sack, take two 

 logs about a foot in diameter and 5 ft. or more in length, 

 and cut notches in them 4 ft. apart ; then set one at your 

 feet and one at your head, stretch out your manteau and rest 

 the ends of the poles in the notches, and in ten minutes you 

 will have made yourself a spring mattress above the reach of 

 the damp. If, however, you are content with a brush bed and 

 the sweet aromatic balsam boughs should be good enough for 

 any man cut only the smaller boughs and arrange them in rows, 

 the points of each row overlapping and covering the thick and 

 hard butts of the row above. Hemlock makes the best of all 

 bedding, and keeps out damp better than any other brush. It 

 is a good plan before finally arranging your bed to lie down on 



