2 2 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



our large party we took one such tent made of 8 oz. duck, 

 12 feet by 8 feet, with walls 2^ feet high, and 6 feet at the 

 ridge-pole. Such a tent weighs about 20 lbs., and is con- 

 sequently too heavy to pack when constantly moving camp 

 on land, but will be found very useful and luxurious in the 

 moose-country, or where the long poles necessary for 

 successfully pitching this form of tent can be cut. The 

 dimensions here given for this class of tent may quite well 

 be reduced by one or two feet in length, for the use of a 

 single sportsman. I should, however, never advise taking 

 one, even of this reduced size, on a trip to the Alaska Pen- 

 insula, where such tents are a mere nuisance, owing to the lack 

 of poles with which to pitch them. Colonel Cane adopted 

 the plan of having a gauze mosquito-net made to fit inside 

 a tent of this description, and this is certainly a luxury, even 

 if not a necessity, when shooting during the hot season in a 

 country so infested as this is by the mosquitoes. One point is 

 of vital importance, namely, that all tent-ropes should be made 

 of cotton, which does not shrink when wet ; a plan whereby 

 one of the greatest curses of life in the ordinary British Army 

 tents would be avoided. Any one who has had to spend 

 hours in camp tightening and slacking-off ordinary hemp- 

 ropes in wet weather will soon appreciate the advantage of 

 cotton ropes. As a general rule, they are used in making 

 tents by the Chinamen, but it is well when ordering camp-kit 

 to emphasise this point. The total cost of these tents is 

 absurdly small in Victoria ; some £2 or £21 suffices to 

 purchase the lot, and they can be made by the Chinese in 

 two or three days, if required in a hurry. 



With regard to the question of clothing, the matter may 

 be briefly summed up as follows. Two complete suits of 

 ordinary English shooting kit, and one change of under- 



