500 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1921 
A PORTABLE CAMP-BED 
A PORTABLE camp-bed that will 
sleep two men and be light in 
weight, will stand hammering around, 
keep you dry and warm, that will last 
and make good under all conditions, that 
can be easily cleaned and aired, is made 
as follows: 
First buy a sheet of unbleached mus- 
lin six feet wide and fourteen feet long, 
of heavy grade. Entirely around the 
edge of this cloth sew a piece of strong 
fish-cord the size of a slate-pencil, turn- 
ing out loops an inch long every twelve 
or fourteen inches. This cord should be 
sewed firmly all around the cloth the 
same as a bolt-rope is sewed around a 
sail, with a hand-needle, whipping the 
stitch over and over around the string 
and through the cloth. This is to pre- 
vent the cloth from tearing and the loops 
are to lash the cloth together when the 
bed is doubled up, if you choose. 
Now get the best boiled linseed oil you 
can buy and rub it into the cloth so that 
it just fills the pores without any surplus. 
Do not soak the cloth in it and do not 
paint it on the cloth with a brush; just 
rub it into the cloth with your hands 
until the pores of the cloth are filled. In 
other words, all you need is to wet the 
cloth through with the oil. After the 
cloth is oiled, stretch it up tightly in the 
shade and let it dry for about a week; 
then put in the sun and dry it with one 
side to the sun for one day, then turn 
the other side to the sun for one day. 
You are now ready to go ahead and 
make your bed. 
The next step is to get two packages 
of wool batting which come in rolls the 
same as cotton batting and can be had 
at any drygoods store. Get one two- 
E are depending upon the 
friends and admirers of our 
old correspondent Nessmuk to 
make this department worthy of 
his name. No man knew the woods 
better than Nessmuk or wrote of 
them with quainter charm. Many 
of his practical ideas on camp- 
ing and “going light” have been 
adopted by the United States 
Army; his canoe has been preserved 
in the Smithsonian Institution ; and 
ive hope that all good woodsmen 
iv ill contribute to this department 
their Hints and . Kinks and trail- 
tested contrivances. — [Editors.] 
pound and one three-pound roll. Spread 
your oiled sheet out flat, then unroll your 
wool and spread one package on one end 
of it and the other package on the other 
end, letting them join in the middle. 
This will leave two feet or so of un- 
covered cloth at one end of the bed 
which is for head-room to spread back 
over pillow or keep bushes or brush 
from coming down over head. 
Next get a light-weight double length 
cotton blanket. Open this blanket out 
full length and lay it down on top of 
your wool so that it covers all the wool 
and comes flush with the edges of the 
oiled cloth. Now sew this blanket down 
by tying with a pack-thread and needle 
through the blanket, wool and cloth at 
intervals of about six inches each way, 
just as the old-fashioned hand-made 
quilt was tied. When this is done sew 
the edge of the blanket and the edge of 
the cloth together all the way around; 
the result, if you have followed direc- 
tions, would be practically the same as 
the old-fashioned quilt with the oiled 
sheet on one side, the blanket on the 
other, and the wool-batting between the 
two. This makes a one-piece bed that 
is light, warm, dry and compact. It can 
be opened out like a single blanket, 
brushed off or aired any time. The oiled 
sheet makes it waterproof so that you 
can sleep in a swamp if you want to ; in 
fact, sleep anywhere in it. The end that 
has the three pounds of wool should be 
under you, then pull the other end up 
over you when you use it. If the 
weather is extremely cold you can make 
a double sleeping-bag of it by lashing I 
the edges together with a cord passed 
through the loops along the edges— that 
is what the loops are for. This kind of j 
a bed can be used under all kinds of 
conditions and it makes good every time. 
Ross Merrick, Washington. 
BARNEGAT SNEAK BOAT 
W E have received so many inquiries 
concerning the famous Barnegat 
Sneak Boat from our duck-hunting cor- 
respondents that a brief description of 
this handy little craft is given herewith: 
Length, 12 feet; width amidship, 4 feet; 
width of stern, 2 feet 9 J 4 inches; depth 
of stern, 7 inches. Sprung timbers all of 
one pattern, 9/16x13/16 inch; distance 
apart, 8 inches ; 
deck timbers nat- 
ural bend, 1 x % 
inch. Cockpit, 
inside measure- 
ment, length 3 
feet 4 inches; 
width at bow 
and stern, 18/2 
inches ; amidships 
19 inches. Comb- 
ing, height of in- 
side at bow and 
stern, 2^4 inches ; 
midships, 2 inches. 
From bottom of 
combing to top of 
ceiling, 13 inches. 
Trunk on port 
side set to take a 
15 -inch board trunk placed alongside and 
abaft of forward corner of combing. 
Boards for boats, white cedar, £4 inch 
thick; deck, narrow strips tongued and 
grooved. Rowlocks, height 6 inches, 
from combing 9 inches, made to fold 
down inboard and to fasten up with a 
hook. Stool-rack runs from rowlocks 
to stern, notched at ends into fastenings 
of rowlocks, also notched at corners and 
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