AUGUST, 1917 
FOREST AND STREAM 
349 
canvas cut and fitted to your craft, be it 
boat or canoe, and supplied with hooks and 
cords, before starting on your trip, you 
can beat most any rain squall to it by hav¬ 
ing a good shelter erected before it strikes. 
The shelter shown in Figure 2 is a little 
more trouble to make weather-proof but 
answers the purpose very well and is prac¬ 
tical if your site is handy to small-growth 
trees, or undergrowth with thick brush. 
The canoe turned upside down and rest¬ 
ing on supports about three feet off the 
ground, gives fairly good head room. Some 
outdoorsmen leave one end on the ground, 
but the canoe resting horizontally and 
slightly on its side, with the brush for a 
windbreak at the back, is much preferable. 
Figure 3: A spare blanket sheds the dew 
Crotched strikes can be supplied for all 
four ends of the supports if a log is not 
handy or there are no boulders about to 
use for the purpose. If a log is used— 
during the rainy season—it is a good plan 
to dig a shallow trench at the back of the 
log. This will carry away surface water 
that otherwise might soak through and 
make things uncomfortable inside the 
shelter. 
W HEN you’re out with your gun or 
fishing tackle, travelling light with 
only a couple of blankets packed 
for a short trip, you often don’t even want 
to bother with making a lean-to. You are 
going to keep on the move; one night will 
be about enough at each camping place. 
If your pack doesn’t even include one of 
those little featherweight tents, select two 
small trees a short distance apart,—gauge 
this by the width of your blanket. Lop off 
the top at what you consider right for the 
length of your blanket—and for another 
reason: the trees should be small ones and 
sometimes, if the wind starts to blow dur¬ 
ing the night, it may disturb your slumbers 
to have the ridge pole (which rests in the 
crotches of these two trees) creaking back 
and forth as the trees sway to the wind. 
With a pole in the crotches of the trees, 
throw your spare blanket over this (Figure 
3) half falling on each side. Roll the ends 
of the blanket under a heavy pole to hold 
the sides out.—Stones will do, but poles are 
better if they are the right size and weight. 
Throw a few armfuls of boughs inside, 
spread your extra blanket on them, and 
Figure 4: Frame-work for the lean-to 
you’ve got your nest ready. Lay your fire, 
get your pack arranged for the night,— 
and then take your rod and see if you can 
land a nice bass. (Even a pickerel might 
do for a hungry man.) And you have a 
shelter “back yonder” that is good enough 
to keep off the heavy dew or a passing 
shower—Of course it is not supposed to 
keep you dry through an all-night’s rain. 
Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the old familiar 
lean-to. This shelter is so much used in all 
parts of the country that it needs but little 
description. It is always good policy to 
select a sheltered spot, at least one not too 
exposed in heavy storms or wind. Figure 
4 shows the framework. Lay the brush 
covering for the top and sides as you would 
in shingling: beginning at the bottom, lay 
the branches on with the butts up. You 
can make this as thick as you wish, mere- 
Figure 5: Lay the brush with the butts up 
ly covering the ends or bringing them 
round in front a bit. 
A lean-to made of heavy poles, covered 
a foot deep with good boughs, will keep 
out almost any rain. An enormous one in 
which the uprights were trees two feet in 
diameter, thickly covered with brush—and 
a foot-and-a-half of snow—housed three 
men very comfortably for over a month on 
a midwinter camping trip once. 
Figures 6 and 7 show a form of lean-to 
that is mighty serviceable. Some time back 
the writer frequently had to make trips of 
from fifty to one hundred miles in an 
open boat. On several of these occasions 
he was caught in rain and wind storms 
that drove the boat in off the open water, 
to seek a sheltered cove and wait for the 
wind to die out. With a hand-axe the 
crotched poles were cut and the mast of 
the boat commandeered for a ridgepole. 
Sometimes we pressed the sail into ser¬ 
vice, and at other times used a tarpaulin we 
had aboard the boat, for a tent. The long 
ash oars, tied to the lower edges of the 
cover with butts to the front, served as 
weights to hold the sides down. In Figure 
7 the oars are shown tied as described, and 
the cloth cover used as a flap is thrown 
back to show the interior. 
Some members of the Forest and Stream 
family have seen all of these shelters de¬ 
scribed before—if not actually doing ser¬ 
vice. There are few outdoor enthusiasts, 
indeed, who have not tried out one or more 
Figure 6: Frame of the peaked lean-to 
of them or their own variations of them. 
But there are always “recruits” coming 
along.—And even your sure enough old 
timer has been caught, on occasion, get¬ 
ting a hunch from the experiences of other 
wielders of the ax and paddle. 
THE “INSTINCT OF BARBARISM” 
The instinct of barbarism that leads 
people periodically to throw away the hab¬ 
its of civilization, and seek the freedom 
and discomfort of the woods, is explicable 
enough; but it is not so easy to understand 
why this passion should be strongest in 
those who are most refined, and most 
trained in intellectual and social fastidious¬ 
ness .—Charles Dudley Warner. 
Figure 7: Use a mast for the ridge-pole 
