natives, for which service I remunerated them with beads. They also carried my coffee kettle, two calabashes of water, two American axes, and two sickles, which I used every evening to cut grass for my bed, and likewise for my horses to eat throughout the night; and my after-rider carried extra ammunition and a spare rifle."

To conclude, let the traveller, when out in trying weather, work hard at making his sleeping-place perfectly comfortable; he should not cease until he is convinced that it will withstand the chill of the early morning, when the heat of the last sun is exhausted and that of the new sun has not begun to be felt. It is wretched beyond expression for a man to lie shivering beneath a scanty covering, and to feel the night air become hourly more raw, while the life-blood has less power to withstand it; and to think self-reproachfully how different would have been his situation if he had simply had forethought and energy enough to cut and draw twice the quantity of firewood, and to spend an extra half-hour in labouring to make a snugger berth. The omission once made becomes irreparable, for in the dark and cold of a pitiless night, he lacks stamina to rise and face the weather, and has no means of coping with his difficulties.

Pillows. For a pillow, many people use their saddles: they roll up the flaps and stirrups, and place the saddle on the ground with a stone underneath, at its hindmost end, to keep it level and steady, and then lay their heads on the seat. I prefer using anything else, as, for instance, the stone without the saddle; but I generally secure some bag or other for the purpose; however, without some sort of pillow, I cannot sleep.

Mr. Mansfield Parkyn's excellent plan, of sleeping on the side, with the stock of the gun between the head and the

arm, and the barrel between the legs, will be again mentioned at length in the article Gun.

§ 4. Huts, tents, and awnings.-Huts.—Where there are trees, a bothy may soon be built with a little dexterity. The most complete sort is made by sticking bare sticks, four feet long or more, into the ground, and bending their tops together, lashing them fast with string or strips of bark, and wattling them judiciously here and there. Then, by heaping leaves, and especially broad pieces of bark if you can get them, over all, and banking up the earth on either side pretty high, an excellent kennel is made.

Tents, although not worth the trouble of pitching on dry nights in a healthy climate, are invaluable protectors against rain, dew, and malaria. To a party encamped for a few days, they are of great use as store-houses for loose luggage, which otherwise becomes scattered about, at the risk of being lost or pilfered. The art of tent-making has greatly advanced since the days of the old-fashioned bell-tent, which is so peculiarly objectionable as to make it a matter of surprise that it was ever invented and used. It is difficult to pitch, requires many tent-pegs, has ropes radiating all round it, over which men and horses stumble, is incommodious, and ugly.

In choosing a tent, select one in preference that will stand in shape with only four pegs, or with six at the very utmost; it should peg close down to the ground, without the intervention of any ropes; it is of no objection that it should require more than one pole; and as to its weight, it must be borne in mind that the weight of a tent is far greater in actual travel than it is found to be in a maker's dry show-room. All tents should have a strong cover, for pack-ropes are sure to fray whatever they press against, and it is better that the cover should suffer than the tent itself.

The sturdiest tent of all is a pyramidal one of seven or nine feet in the side: it will stand any weather, will hold two people and a fair quantity of luggage besides, and weighs from 25 to 40 lbs. By taking an additional joint to the tent-pole, and using tent-ropes (as may also be done with any other kind of tent), it may be raised up, and walls added to it, of bushes, sods of turf, or spare cloths, as in the left-hand figure. A traveller

who had to make a tent for himself would, I think, find this the best pattern for him; but if he had the opportunity of going to a good tent-maker, as Edgington, he would meet with more roomy and convenient ones, but being at the same time more complex, they require skilled workmanship to cut out and to sew together.

For tents of a smaller size and less pretensions, nothing can be better than one of this shape; the ends are slit down their middles, and are laced or buttoned together, so that by unfasten

ing these, the tent spreads out to a flat sheet, well adapted for an awning, or else it can be simply unrolled and used with the bedding. It is necessary that a tent should be roomy

enough to admit of a man undressing himself, when wet through, without treading upon his bed and drenching it with mud and water; and therefore a tent of the above description is found to be unserviceable if less than about 7 feet long, or ending in a triangle of less than 5 feet in the side. Peat, the saddler in Bond Street, makes these; they cost 21. 10s., and weigh 9 lbs. when dry.

The French private soldiers use a tent much on this principle: each soldier carries a piece of canvass; three club together, and button or tie their strips into one sheet, which they pitch as above, and all three soldiers sleep under it.

Further on, in speaking of boats, the way is shown by which sailors make a tent out of their lug-sail, throwing it over a frame-work of oars.

A traveller who has only a blanket, a plaid, or broad piece of material of any kind, wherewith he wishes to improvise a tent, should make a framework of long wands, planting their ends in the ground, bending their tops together, and lashing or wattling them securely; over this the blanket is thrown I have seen an excellent contrivance to the same effect used by gipsies in England: they dispensed with the trouble of lashing and wattling the ends of the wands, by carrying a light bar of wood, 2 feet long, bound with string here and there to

keep it from splitting; through this, six holes, each big enough to admit the tip of the little finger, were bored or burnt; they

also carried eight hazel rods with them, each 6 feet long, and arranged their framework as in the sketch. It will be observed that the two rods which are planted behind, give additional roominess and stability to the affair. The occupants slept, as indicated in the sketch, by the rug and pillow, and a large shawl was thrown over the whole.

Colonel Frémont, the American traveller, bivouacked as follows: his "rifles were tied together near the muzzles, the butts resting on the ground, and a knife laid on the rope, to cut away in case of an alarm; over this, which made a kind of frame, was thrown a large indian-rubber cloth, with which he used to cover his packs; this made a tent sufficiently large to receive about half of his bed, and was a place of shelter for his instruments."

Materials for tents.-Canvass is usually employed, and is, to all intents and purposes, waterproof. Silk, of equal strength with the canvass, is very far lighter; its only fault is its expense. Calico is very generally used for the smaller kind of tents. Leather is warm, but very heavy indeed, and would only be used where canvass could not be met with. Light matting is not to be despised; it is warm and pretty durable, and makes excellent awning, or coverings to a framework. The tent-pegs should be of galvanized iron; they are well worth the weight of carriage, for not only do wooden ones often fail on an emergency, but cooks habitually purloin them when firewood

is scarce.

Pitching a tent is quite an art, so as to let in or exclude the air, to take advantage of sun and shade, &c. &c. There is a great deal of character shown in an encampment: every available cloth or sheet may be pressed into service, to make awnings and screens as we see, among the gipsies. Before a stormy night, dig a ditch as deep as you can, round the out