The Art of Travel Part 13

Whatever huts are used by the natives are sure, if made with extra care, to be good enough for European travellers.

Log-huts.--In building log-huts, four poles are planted in the ground, to correspond to the four corners; against these, logs are piled one above another as in the drawing below; they are so deeply notched where their ends are crossed, that the adjacent sides are firmly dovetailed. When the walls are entirely completed, the door and windows are chopped out.

[Sketch of cabin].

The s.p.a.ces between the logs must be caulked with moss, etc., or the log-cabin will be little better than a log-cage. It requires a great many logs to make a hut; for, supposing the walls to be 8 feet high, and the trees to average 8 inches in diameter, twelve trees would be required to build up one side, or forty-eight for all four walls. Other timber would also be wanted for the roof.

Underground Huts are used in all quarters of the globe. The experience of our troops when encamped before Sebastopol during an inclement season told strongly in their favour. Their timely adoption was the salvation of the British army. They are essentially, nothing else than holes in the ground, roofed over, fig. 1.

[Sketch of roof and geometrical measure].

The shape and size of the hole corresponds to that of the roof it may be possible to procure for it; its depth is no greater than requisite for sitting or standing. If the roof has a pitch of 2 feet in the middle, the depth of the hole need not exceed 4 1/2 feet. In the Crimea, the holes were rectangular, and were roofed like huts.

Where there is a steep hillside, a a', fig. 2, an underground hut, b, is easily contrived; because branches laid over its top, along the surface of the ground, have sufficient pitch to throw off the rain. Of course the earth must be removed from a', at the place intended for the doorway.

Reed Huts.--The reed huts of the Affej Arabs, and other inhabitants of the Chaldean marshes, are shaped like wagon-roofs, and are constructed of semicircular ribs of reeds, planted in the ground, one behind the other, at equal distances apart; each rib being a f.a.ggot of reeds of 2 feet in diameter. For strength, they are bound round every yard with twisted bands of reeds. When this framework has been erected, it is covered with two or three sheets of fine reed matting (see "Matting"), which forms a dwelling impervious to rain. Some of the chiefs' huts are as much as 40 feet long, and 12 high; the other huts are considerably smaller. Many of these reed dwellings are contained in compounds enclosed by lofty reed fences; the reeds being planted upright, and simply strung together by a thread run through them, as they stand side by side. (See "Straw and Reed Walls.")

Snow-houses.--Few travellers have habitually made snow-houses, except Sir J. Franklin's party and that of Dr. Rae. Great praises are bestowed on their comfort by all travellers, but skill and practice are required in building them. The mode of erection of these dome-shaped buildings is as follows:--It is to be understood that compact, underlying snow is necessary for the floor of the hut; and that the looser textured, upper layer of snow, is used to build the house. First, select and mark out the circular plot on which the hut is to be raised. Then, cut out of that plot, with knives, deep slices of snow, 6 inches wide, 3 feet long, and of a depth equal to that of the layer of loose snow, say one or two feet.

These slices are to be of a curved shape, so as to form a circular ring when placed on their edges, and of a suitable radius for the first row of snow-bricks. Other slices are cut on the same principle for the succeeding rows; but when the domed roof has to be made, the snow-bricks must be cut with the necessary double curvature. A conical plug fills up the centre of the dome. Loose snow is next heaped over the house, to fill up crevices. Lastly a doorway is cut out with knives; also a window, which is glazed with a sheet of the purest ice at hand. For inside accommodation there should be a pillar or two of snow to support the lamps.

Snow Walls with Tenting for their Roofs.--Sir L. McClintock says:--"We travelled each day until dusk, and then were occupied for a couple of hours in building our snow-hut. The four walls were run up until 5 1/2 feet high, inclining inwards as much as possible, over these our tent was laid to form a roof. We could not afford the time necessary to construct a dome of snow. Our equipment consisted of a very small brown-holland tent, macintosh floor-cloth and felt robes; besides this, each man had a bag of double blanketing, and a pair of fur boots, to sleep in. We wore moca.s.sins over the pieces of blanketing in which our feet were wrapped up, and, with the exception of a change of this foot-gear, carried no spare clothes.

"When we halted for the night, Thompson and I usually sawed out the blocks of compact snow, and carried them to Petersen, who acted as the master-mason in building the hut. The hour-and-a-half or two hours usually employed in erecting the edifice was the most disagreeable part of the day's labour; for, in addition to being already well tired and desiring repose, we became thoroughly chilled while standing about. The dogs were then fed, then the sledge unpacked, and everything carried into it. The door was now blocked up with snow, the cooking-lamp lighted, foot-gear changed, diary writing up, watches wound, sleeping-bags wriggled into, pipes lighted, and the merits of the various dogs discussed, until supper was ready; the supper swallowed, the upper robe or coverlet pulled over, and then to sleep. Next morning came breakfast, a struggle to get into frozen moca.s.sins, after which the sledges were packed, and another day's march commenced. In these little huts we usually slept warm enough, although latterly, when our blankets and clothes became loaded with ice, we felt the cold severely. When our low doorway was carefully blocked up with snow, and the cooking-lamp alight, the temperature quickly rose, so that the walls became glazed and our bedding thawed; but the cooking over, or the doorway partially opened, it as quickly fell again, so that it was impossible to sleep, or even to hold one's pannikin of tea without putting mits on, so intense was the cold."--Sir L. McClintock is here speaking of a temperature of -39 degrees Fahr.

Materials for building Huts.--The materials whence the walls and roofs of huts may be constructed are very numerous: there is hardly any place which does not furnish one or other of them. Those princ.i.p.ally in use are as follows:--

Wattle-and-daub, to be executed neatly, required well-shaped and flexible sticks; but a hut may be constructed much like the sketch (see p. 120) of the way of "Drying Clothes." It is made by planting in the ground a number of bare sticks, 4 feet long, and 1 foot apart, bending their tops together, las.h.i.+ng them fast with string or strips of bark, and wattling them judiciously here and there, by means of other boughs, laid horizontally. 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. If daubed over with mud, clay, or cattle-dung, the hut becomes more secure against the weather. To proceed a step further:--as many poles may be planted in the ground as sticks have been employed in making the roof; and then the roof may be lifted bodily in the air, and lashed to the top of the poles, each stick to its corresponding pole. This sort of structure is very common among savages.

For methods of digging holes in which to plant the hut-poles, see the chapter on "Wells." The holes made in the way I have there explained are far better than those dug with spades; for they disturb no more of the hardened ground than is necessary for the insertion of the palisades. To jam a pole tightly in its place, wedges of wood should be driven in at its side, and earth rammed down between the wedges.

Palisades are excellent as walls or as enclosures. They are erected of vast lengths, by savages wholly dest.i.tute of tools, both for the purposes of fortification and also for completing lines of pitfalls across wide valleys. the pitfalls occupy gaps left in the palisading. The savages burn down the trees in the following manner:--a party of men go to the forest, and light small fires round the roots of the trees they propose to fell. the fires are prevented from flaming upwards by the judicious application of leaves, etc. When the fire has eaten a little way into the tree, the man who watches it sc.r.a.pes the fire aside and knocks away the charred wood, exposing a fresh surface for fire to act upon, and then replaces the burning embers. A single man may easily attend to a dozen trees, and, indeed, to many more, if the night be calm. Some hours elapse before the trees actually fall. Their tops and branches are burnt off as they lie on the ground. The poles being thus procured for the palisading, they are carried to the required place, where holes are dug for their reception, on the principle described in "Wells," to which I have just alluded.

Straw or Reed Walls of the following kind are very effective, and they have the advantage of requiring a minimum of string (or subst.i.tute for string) in their manufacture. The straw, reeds, or herbage, of almost any description, is simply nipped between two pairs of long sticks, which are respectively tied together at their ends, and at a sufficient number of intermediate places. The whole is neatly squared and trimmed.

[Sketch of straw walls].

A few of these would give good help in finis.h.i.+ng the roof or walls of a house. They can be made moveable, so as to suit the wind, shade, and aspect. Even the hut door can be made on this principle. In reedy countries where there are no sticks, thin f.a.ggots of reeds are used in their place.

Bark.--Bark is universally used in Australia for roofs of huts and temporary buildings; the colonists learnt the use of it from the natives, and some trees, at least, in every forest-country might very probably be found as well fitted for that purpose as those in Australia. The bark may be easily removed, only when the sap is well up in the tree, but a skilful person will manage to procure bark at all seasons of the year, except in the coldest winter months; and even then he will light on some tree, from the sunny side of which he can strip broad pieces. The process of bark-stripping is simply to cut two rings right round the tree (usually from 6 to 9 feet apart), and one vertical slit to join them; starting from the slit, and chipping away step by step on either side, the whole cylinder of bark is removed. The larger the tree, the better; for if the tree is less than 18 inches, or so, in diameter, the bark is apt to break when flattened out. When stripped for huts, it is laid on the ground for some days to dry, being flattened out on its face, and a few stones or logs put on it. the ordinary bark of gum-trees is about half an inch to three-eighths thick, so that a large sheet is very heavy.

Most exploring expeditions are accompanied by a black, whose dexterity in stripping bark for a wet night is invaluable, as if the bark will "come off" well, he can procure enough of it in an hour's time to make a shelter for a large party.

Mats can be woven with ease when there is abundance of string, or some equivalent for it (see "String"), in the following manner:--

[Sketch of loom].

A, B, are two pegs driven into the ground and standing about a foot out of it. A stake, A B, is lashed across them; a row of pegs, E, are driven into the ground, parallel to A, B, and about 6 inches apart. Two sets of strings are then tied to A B; one set are fastened by their loose ends into clefts, in the pegs E, and the other set are fastened to the stick, C D. If there be ten strings in all, then 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, are tied to C D, and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, to A B. By alternately raising and depressing C D, and by pus.h.i.+ng in a handful of rushes between the two sets of strings after each of its movements, and, finally, by patting them home with a flat stick, this rough sort of weaving is carried on very successfully.

Mats are also plaited in breadths, and the breadths are st.i.tched together, side by side. Or a thicker kind of mat may be made by taking a wisp of straw and working it in the same way in which straw beehives are constructed. Straw is worked more easily after being damped and beaten with a mallet.

Malay hitch.--I know no better name for the wonderfully simple way (shown in the figure) of attaching together wisps of straw, rods, laths, reeds, planks, poles, or anything of the kind, into a secure and flexible mat; the sails used in the far East are made in this way, and the moveable decks of vessels are made of bamboos, joined together with a similar but rather more complicated st.i.tch.

[Sketch of fastening].

I may remark that soldiers might be trained to a great deal of hutting practice in a very inexpensive way, if they were drilled at putting together huts, whose roofs and walls were made of planks lashed together by this simple hitch, and whose supports were short scaffolding poles planted in deep holes, dug, as explained in the chapter on "Wells," with the hand and a small stick. The poles, planks, and cords might be used over and over again for an indefinite time. Further, bedsteads could be made in a similar way, by short cross-planks lashed together, and resting on a framework of horizontal poles, lashed to uprights planted in the ground. The soldier's bedding would not be injured by being used on these bedsteads, as much as if it were laid on the bare ground. Kinds of designs and experiments in hutting could be practised without expense in this simple way.

Tarpaulings are very suitable for roofs. Those made after the method used by sailors are much superior to others in softness and durability. The plan is as follows:--As soon as the canvas has been sewn together, it is thoroughly wetted with sea-water; and, while still wet, it is smeared over on one of its sides with tar and grease, boiled together--about two parts tar and one of grease. After being hung up till it is dry, it is turned; and the other side, being a second time well wetted, is at once painted over with the tar and grease, just as the first side had been before. The sailors say that "the tar dries in, as the water dries out;"

a saying which I confess I cannot understand.

Other Materials.--I will merely mention these by name, for they require no explanation. They are fascines or f.a.ggots; bricks, sun-dried or baked in the oven; turf; stones; and bags or mats, filled with sand or s.h.i.+ngle.

Whitewash is lime and water. Lime is made by burning limestone, chalk, sh.e.l.ls, or coral in a simple furnace.

Roofs.--Thatching.--After the framework of the roof has been made, the thatcher begins at the bottom, and ties a row of bundles of straw, side by side, on to the framework. Then he begins a second row, allowing the ends of the bundles composing it to overlap the heads of those in the first row.

Wood-s.h.i.+ngles are tile-shaped slices of wood, easily cut from fir-trees.

They are used for roofing, on the same principle as tiles or slates.

Floors.--Concrete for floors, is made of eight parts large pebbles, four parts river-sand, and one part lime (to make lime, see "Whitewash").

Cow-dung and ashes make a hard, dry, and clean floor; such as is used for a thres.h.i.+ng-floor. Ox blood and fine clay kneaded together are excellent.

Both these latter compositions are in use in all hot dry countries.

Windows.--A window, or rather a hole in the wall, may be rudely shuttered by a stick run through loops made out of wisps of gra.s.s. In hot weather, the windows of the hutmay be loosely stuffed with gra.s.s, which, when watered, makes the hut cooler.

Gla.s.s, to cut.--Gla.s.s cannot be cut with any certainty, without a diamond; but it may be shaped and reduced to any size by gradually chipping, or rather biting, away at its edges with a key, if the slit between the wards of the key be just large enough to admit the pane of gla.s.s easily.

[Sketch].

Subst.i.tutes for gla.s.s.--These are waxed or oiled paper or cloth, bladder, fish-membranes, talc, and horn. (See "Horn.")

SLEEPING-BAGS.

Sleeping-bags.--Knapsack Bags.--These have been used for the last twenty-five years by the French 'douaniers', who watch the mountain-pa.s.ses of the Pyrenean frontier. The bags are made of sheepskin, with the wool inside. When not in use they are folded up and buckled with five buckles into the shape of a somewhat bulky knapsack (p. 152), which the recent occupant may shoulder and walk away with.

The accompanying sketches are drawn to scale. They were made from the sleeping-bag belonging to a man 5 feet 6 inches in height; the scale should therefore be lengthened for a taller person, but the breadth seems ample. Its weight was exactly seven pounds. The douaniers post themselves on watch more or less immersed in these bags. They lie out in wet and snow, and find them impervious to both. When they sleep, they get quite inside them, stuff their cloaks between their throats and the bag, and let its flap cover their faces. It is easy enough for them to extricate themselves; they can do so almost with a bound. The Spanish Custom-house officers who watch the same frontier, use their cloaks and other wraps, which are far more weighty, and far inferior in warmth and protection to the bags. I described these knapsack bags in 'Vacation Tourists for 1860,' p. 449, and I subsequently had a macintosh bag lined with drugget, made on the same principle. I had a hood to it, and also the means of b.u.t.toning it loosely under my chin, to make myself watertight during heavy rain. In that bag I pa.s.sed many nights of very trying weather. On one instance, I selected a hilltop in Switzerland, on the way from Chambery to the Dent du Midi, during a violent and long-continued thunderstorm. The storm began above my head, then slowly sank to my level, and finally subsided below me. Many Alpine travellers, notably Mr.

Packe and Mr. Tuckett, have adopted these bags, and used them continually. Macintosh is certainly oppressive to sleep in, though less so than might have been expected, as the half-unconscious fidgeting of the sleeper changes the air. A man in travelling "condition" would probably find a drugget-bag more healthy than macintosh, even though he became somewhat wet inside it. Beds used to be almost unknown in some parts of the Pyrenees. Sheepskin sleeping-bags were employed instead.

Thus, I am a.s.sured that at the beginning of this century, there was hardly a bed in the whole of the little republic of Andorre. The way of arranging them as knapsacks is, as I have said, a recent invention.

In fig. 1 the wide opening to the mouth of the bag is shown; also the ends of the buckles and straps that are sewn (on patches of leather, for additional strength) to the lower side of the bag, as seen in fig. 2.

[Fig 1 and 2].

It must be understood that the woolly sides of the skins are inwards. The straps that hold the knapsack to the shoulders are secured by a simple fastening, shown in figs. 2 and 3. But the ordinary knapsack hooks and rings, if procurable, would answer the purpose better. The straight lines in fig. 1 show the way in which the bag is to be folded into the shape of fig. 3. Fig. 4 shows the sleeper inside his bag, in which he fits very like a grub in its coc.o.o.n. There is no waste of s.p.a.ce. For the sake of warmth, the bag is made double from the knees downwards, and also opposite to the small of the back.

[Figs 3 and 4].

During the daytime, when the weather is wet or cold, the bags are of much use, for the douaniers sit with them pulled up to their waist. When carried in the manner of a knapsack the bag sits perfectly well against the shoulders; but, owing to the yielding nature of its substance, it lies too close to the back, and is decidedly oppressive. A wicker frame might well be interposed.