26 PRACTICAL TAXIDERMY. 



in an inclosnre made of four small logs, half jointed and 

 pegged together at their ends. This will prevent bedding 

 from being burned, and facilitate cooking. The tent 

 should be ditched until snow comes, when it will freeze 

 in for the winter. The bottom of the tent should be 

 covered with straw if obtainable, or rushes, oak leaves, or 

 spruce boughs. Hemlock branches will do for a few 

 nights, but they soon lose their leaves and elasticity. 



When sleeping in the open air with scant bedding, keep 

 your head under the blankets, and the warmth of your 

 breath will be almost equal to that of another blanket. If 

 one acquires the habit of sleeping face downward, he will, 

 according to my experience, rest warmer than when lying 

 on the side or back, and is less liable to take cold. Most 

 of the bedding should be on the ground under the sleeper, 

 to keep the dampness from the body. Never sleep in 

 your clothing in a cabin or in the open air in mild weath- 

 er, when there is plenty of bedding, as you rest warmer 

 and more comfortably without it. 



When ^^ roughing it," lie with the head to the wind, 

 fold the blankets under the feet, and wrap them as close- 

 ly to the body as possible. With two blankets and a buf- 

 falo robe, the hunter can sleep warm enough in a snow- 

 drift, with the thermometer below zero. If convenient, 

 fell white pine, spruce, or tamarack trees on the north 

 side of the tent, to break the wind and prevent the snow 

 from drifting about it. 



When a cabin is constructed, and a fire place used, 

 much wood is consumed, and a large clearing will be 

 made by spring. It will recpiire nearly a cord of wood 

 every twenty-four hours to heat a cabin in the north 

 woods, and in the latter part of winter logs often have to 

 be carried from a distance through deep snow and over 

 tangled limbs. For these reasons the cabin should be 

 built where wood is abundant, and, if possible, in a grove 

 of wiiite birches. They make the best of fire-wood when 



