64 
SURVIVAL ON LAND AND SEA 
camp should be on rising ground, well back from the stream and 
away from swamps and bogs, where mosquitoes and sand flies 
and gnats will be less numerous. Should there be any breeze 
stirring put your camp where you will get full benefit from it. 
A crude lean-to or A-type shelter with a frame of sticks or 
bamboo with large leaves of leafy branches for walls and a roof 
will give protection from the cold dew of the tropics and also 
from prowling animals. Where there is any form of construction 
the latter will suspect a trap and keep away. In making a lean-to, 
sink uprights, preferably forked at the upper end, into the ground 
several feet apart. Then lash a ridge pole in the forks or at the 
top of the uprights and place inclined pieces from the forks and 
the ridge pole, their opposite ends resting on the ground at what 
will be the rear of the shelter. Lash a series of cross pieces to 
the inclined timbers at intervals not too widely separated. Then, 
starting at the bottom as you would in shingling a house, thatch 
the framework with wide-leaved branches. These will hold their 
positions better if the branches are hooked onto the cross pieces. 
The bigger and broader the leaves the better the roof. A simpler 
form of construction, one probably sufficient for a single night, 
is to place a whole series of inclined pieces along the ridge pole, 
covering the framework with wide-leaved branches but not 
bothering to hook them to the framework. For the A-type struc- 
ture the same procedure may be followed except that the ridge 
pole needs to be higher and you make two sides to the roof instead 
of one. A variation may be made by using a series of inverted 
V-shaped frames for the main support instead of the upright 
sticks in the center to support the lashed ridge pole. The large 
leaves of coconut trees are particularly good for making shelters. 
The leaves themselves attain a length up to 12 feet and the center 
