The Art of Travel Part 14

Arctic Sleeping-bags.--Arctic travellers use coa.r.s.e drugget bags, covered with brown holland to make them less pervious to the wind, and having a long flap at the upper end to fold down over the face. I have already extracted pa.s.sages from travellers' accounts relating to them, in speaking of "Encamping on Snow," p. 140, and another, when speaking of "Snow-walls with Tenting for their Roofs," p. 143.

Macintosh Sack.--Mr. Falconer writes to me as follows:--"I travelled in 1841 from Austin in Texas to Mexico through New Mexico. I left Austin in June, and reached Zacateras on Christmas Day. During nearly the whole period we travelled from Austin to New Mexico, I camped without any covering at night for myself, except a large macintosh, made up as a sack, with a piece so laid as a continuation of one side, as to be used as a coverlet, sufficient in length to be brought from the back, over the head, and down on the breast. Inside I placed my blankets. I slept under this covering during many a heavy storm at night, and got out of my soft-coated sh.e.l.l dry in the morning. My opinion is, that every traveller who works his way with a horse should fix on his own saddle the said macintosh sack, two blankets, a tin cup, and a frying-pan. It is amazing, when you get into real working order, how few things are sufficient."

Peasants' Sack.--The peasants in the northern parts of Germany use a strong linen sack, made to draw at one end. This they stuff with straw, hay, dry leaves, etc.; and, putting their feet into it, pull its mouth up to their armpits. They use them when driving their wagons in winter, and when lodging at their wretched roadside inns. (See a letter in the Times, February 125.)

Bag, combined with Tent.--I should think that a combination of a sleeping bag with a very small tent, just large enough to enclose the man's head and shoulders, so as to permit him to eat or write when lying in his bag without fear of the wet would be the smallest and lightest arrangement, compatible with efficiency, in a stormy climate.

TENTS.

General Remarks.--Although tents are not worth the trouble of pitching, on dry nights, in a healthy climate, they are invaluable protectors to a well-equipped traveller against rain, dew, and malaria. But a man who is not so equipped, who has no change of clothes, and no bedstead to sleep on, will do better to sleep in the open air, in front of a good camp fire. Napoleon I., speaking of soldiers, says ('Maximes de Guerre'):--"Tents are not healthy; it is better for the soldier to bivouac, because he sleeps with his feet to the fire, whose neighbourhood quickly dries the ground on which he lies; some planks or a little straw shelter him from the wind. Nevertheless a tent is necessary for superior officers, who have need to write and to consult a map." To a party encamped for a few days, tents are of great use as storehouses for property, which otherwise becomes scattered about, at the risk of being lost or pilfered.

Materials for Tenting.--Light canvas is usually employed, and is, to all intents and purposes, waterproof. Silk, of equal strength with the canvas, is very far lighter: its only disadvantage is its expense.

Calico, or cotton canvas, is very generally used for small tents. Leather and felt are warm, but exceedingly heavy; and would only be used in very inclement climates, or where canvas could not be met with. Light matting is not to be despised: it is warm and pretty durable, and makes excellent awning or covering to a frame-work.

Diagonal Bracing.--A worn-out tent may be strengthened by sewing bands of canvas, which cross each other, and make a kind of net-work: old sails are strengthened in this way.

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.

Tents.--Large Tents.--The art of tent-making has greatly advanced since the days of the old-fas.h.i.+oned 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; it requires many tent-pegs; it has ropes radiating all round it, over which men and horses stumble; and it is incommodious and ugly.

In choosing a tent, select one that will stand in some sort of shape with only four pegs, or with six at the very utmost; it should admit of being pegged close to the ground without any intervening 'fly;' it is no objection that it should require more than one pole; and, when considering how much weight it will be possible to carry, it must be borne in mind that the tent will become far heavier than it is found to be in the peculiarly dry atmosphere of a tent-maker's show-room. It is very convenient that a tent should admit of being pitched in more than one form: for instance, that one side should open and form an awning in hot weather; also, that it should be easy to attach flys or awning to the tent to increase its available size during the daytime. All tents should be provided with strong covers, for pack-ropes are sure to fray whatever they press against; and it is better that the cover should suffer than the tent itself.

Comparative Size of Tents.--The annexed diagram will show the points on which the roominess of a tent mainly depends.

[Sketch of tent and occupants].

A man wants s.p.a.ce to sit at a table, and also to get at his luggage in order either to pack it or to unpack it; lastly, he wants a reasonable amount of standing room. A fair-sized tent ought to include the figures drawn in the diagram; and I have indicated, by lines and shaded s.p.a.ces, the section of various descriptions of tents that would be just sufficient to embrace them.

One side of the ordinary conical tents (fig. 1), of a front view of fig.

5, and of pyramidal tents (fig. 6), are represented by the line ABC.

Those that have a "fall" (fig. 2), by the lines CDLF. Gipsy-tents, as described p. 161, umbrella-tents (fig. 4), and Jourts, p. 157, by the lines GHBK. Marquees (fig. 3), and a side view of fig. 5, by GLBM.

[Fig 1-4--sketches of tents].

Notwithstanding the great height and width of conical tents, compared to the others, we see by the diagram that they afford scanty s.p.a.ce at the level of the head of a seated person. There is a recent contrivance by Major Rhodes, to be seen at Silver and Co.'s, that is a modification of the gipsy-tent. Among ordinary, well-known tents, I believe none will satisfy the varied wants of a traveller so well as Edington's three-poled tents (fig. 5). After these I should choose a small marquee (fig. 3); but it is less secure in wind, and the pitch of its roof is bad for rain, and the numerous straggling tent-ropes are objectionable.

[Fig 5-7--sketches of tents].

A pyramidal tent (fig. 6), of seven or nine feet in the side, is remarkable for its st.u.r.diness: it will stand any weather, will hold two people and a fair quant.i.ty of luggage besides; it weighs from 25 to 40 lbs. It is not a good tent for hot weather, for it is far too stuffy, though 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 made more airy by being raised up, and by having walls added to it (fig.

7). In default of canvas, the walls may be constructed of other materials. (See "Materials for Huts.")

Tent Pitched over an Excavation.--A hole may be dug deeply beneath the tent floor, partly for the purpose of a store-room, and partly for that of a living-room when the weather is very inclement. This was practised before Sebastopol in the manner shown in the fig. p. 158. The notched pole acts as a ladder for ascending from below.

Jourts.--The Kirghis-jourt is a capacious, solid, warm, and fireproof structure, that admits of being pitched or taken to pieces in an hour, and withstands the cold and violent winds of the steppes of Central Asia, in a way that no tent or combination of tents could pretend to effect. A jourt of from 20 to 25, or even 30 feet in diameter, forms two camel-loads, or about half a ton in weight.

[Fig. 8].

One camel carries the felt, the other the wood-work. Fig. 9 shows the jourt half-covered; and fig. 10 gives an enlarged view of a portion of the side. There are four separate parts in its structure:--1. The door-way, a solid piece of ornamental carpentering, that takes to pieces instantly. 2. The sides, which consist of lengths of wood-work, that shut up on the principle of the contrivance known sometimes as "lazy-tongs,"

and sometimes as "easy-back scissors:" they tie together and make a circle, beginning and ending with the doorway; a tape is wound round them, as shown in fig. 9, about one-third from their tops. 3. The roof-ribs. The bottom of each of these is tied to the sides of the jourt (A, fig. 10), and its top fits into a socket in--4, the roof-ring, which is a hoop of wood strengthened by transverse bars. Over this framework broad sheets of felt are thrown: their own weight makes them lie steadily, for they are quite an inch in thickness; however, in very stormy weather, if I recollect aright, they are weighted with stones, or they are st.i.tched together. There is no metal in the structure: the laths of willow-wood that form the sides are united, where they cross, by pieces of sinew knotted at either end; these act as pivots when the sides are shut up. I am indebted to the late Mr. Atkinson for my information on these interesting structures. Further particulars about them, the native way of making the felt, by continually rolling sheepskins with the wool between them, and numerous pictures, in which jourts form a striking feature, will be found in his beautifully ill.u.s.trated work on Siberia.

[Fig 9 and 10 as referred to above and Fig. 1 for following section].

Small Tents.--For tents of the smallest size and least pretensions, nothing can be better than the one represented in fig. 1: the ends are slit down their middles, and are laced or b.u.t.toned together, so that, by unfastening these, the tent spreads out to a flat sheet of the form of fig. 2, 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 1/2 feet in the side.

Peat, the saddler in Bond Street, once made them; they cost 2 l. 10s., and weighed 9 lbs. when dry. They are liable to bag in the side when the wind is high: a cross-pole or two sticks, following the seams of the canvas in the above sketch, would make them tauter.

[Fig. 2].

Alpine Tent.--Mr. Whymper contrived a tent for his alpine explorations, which he found eminently successful. It has a waterproof floor, continuous with the sides: it is supported by poles, that slip into hems of the cloth--two poles at either end. These tents have been used on various occasions by Mr. Whymper's brother in Alaska, and by Mr.

Freshfield in the Caucasus, and were highly approved of, but I do not know whether these tents would be altogether suitable for more comfortable travel. I myself had a tent made on this principle some years ago, but disliked it, for I found the continuity of the floor with the sides to act unsatisfactorily; the tent retained the damp, and the weight of the body, acting on the floor of the tent, was apt to disturb its walls. Mr. Whymper's tent is procurable at Carter's, Alpine Outfitter, 295, Oxford Street, London.

Boating Tent.--Further on, in the chapter on "Boats," the way is shown by which sailors make a tent out of their lug-sail, throwing it over a framework of oars.

Gipsy Tent.--A traveller who has only a blanket, a plaid, or broad piece of material of any kind, with which he wishes to improvise a tent, may make a framework of long wands, planting their ends in the ground, bending their tops together, and las.h.i.+ng or wattling them securely; over this the blanket is thrown (fig. 3). If the sticks are sufficiently long and pliant, their ends should be bent over the roof half-way down the opposite side, as in fig. 1. This adds considerably to the strength of the arrangement.

[Fig 1-3 as described in text].

The gipsies in England use the following excellent contrivance to save the trouble of tying the sticks together. They carry a light bar of wood, 2 1/2 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, are bored or burnt; they also carry eight hazel rods with them, each six feet long, and arrange their framework as in fig. 2.

It will be observed that the two rods which are planted behind give additional roominess and stability to the affair. The rug and pillow show the position in which the occupants sleep. Blankets, not sheeting, pinned together with wooden pegs, are thrown over the whole, as in fig. 3.

[Fig 1 and 2 as described in the text].

Tente d'abri.--The French, "tente d'abri" has not, so far as I know, been adopted by travellers: it seems hardly suitable, except for soldiers.

Each man carried a square of canvas (fig. 1), with b.u.t.tons and b.u.t.ton-holes all round it, by which it can be doubly attached to other similar squares of canvas, and thus, from several separate pieces, one large cloth can be made. The square carried by the French soldier measures 5 feet 4 1/2 inches in the side, reckoning along the b.u.t.tons; of these there are nine along each edge, including the corner ones. Each soldier has also to carry a tent-staff, or else a proportion of the pegs and cord. When six men club together they proceed as follows:--Three tent-sticks are fixed into the ground, whose tops are notched; a light cord is then pa.s.sed round their tops, and fastened into the ground with a peg at each eng (fig. 2). Two sheets, A and B, are b.u.t.toned together and thrown over the cord, and then two other sheets, C and D; and C is b.u.t.toned to A, and D to B (fig. 3). Lastly another sheet is thrown over each of the slanting cords, the one b.u.t.toned to A and B, and the other to C and D; and thus a sort of dog-kennel is formed, in which six men--the bearers of the six pieces of canvas--sleep. The sides of the tent are of course pegged to the ground. There are many modifications in the way of pitching these tents. Should the sticks be wanting, f.a.ggots or muskets can be used in their place.

Tent of Mosquito-netting.--I have been informed of a sportsman in Ceylon, who took with him into the woods a cot with mosquito-curtains, as a protection not only against insects, but against malaria. He also had a blanket rolled at his feet: at 3 in the morning, when the chill arose in the woods, he pulled his blanket over him.

Pitching a Tent.--It is quite an art, so to pitch a tent as to let in or exclude the air, to take advantage of sun and shade, etc. etc. Every available cloth or sheet may be pressed into service, to make awnings and screens, as we see among the gipsies. There is a great deal of character shown in each different person's encampment. A tent should never be pitched in a slovenly way: it is so far more roomy, secure and pretty, when tightly stretched out, that no pains should be spared in drilling the men to do it well. I like to use a piece of string, marked with knots, by which I can measure the exact places in which the tent-pegs should be struck, for the eye is a deceitful guide in estimating squareness. (See "Squaring.") It is wonderful how men will bungle with a tent, when they are not properly drilled to pitch it.

To secure Tent-ropes.--When the soil is loose, sc.r.a.pe away the surface sand, before driving the tent-pegs. Loose mould is made more tenacious by pouring water upon it. When one peg is insufficient, it may be backed by another. (See fig.) The outermost peg must be altogether buried in the earth. Heavy saddle-bags are often of use to secure the tent-ropes; and, in rocky ground, heavy piles of stones may be made to answer the same purpose. The tent-ropes may also be knotted to a cloth, on which stones are afterwards piled.

"Dateram" is, as the late Dr. Barth, informed me, the Bornu name for a most excellent African contrivance, used in some parts of the Sahara desert, by means of which tent-ropes may be secured, or horses picketed in sand of the driest description, as in that of a sand dune, whence a tent-peg would be drawn out by a strain so slight as to be almost imperceptible. I have made many experiments upon it, and find its efficiency to be truly wonderful. The plan is to tie to the end of the tent-rope, a small object of any description, by its middle, as a short stick, a stone, a bundle of twigs, or a bag of sand; and to bury it from 1 to 2 feet in the loose sand. It will be found, if it has been buried 1 foot deep, that a strain equal to about 50 lbs. weight, is necessary to draw it up; if 1 1/2 feet deep, that a much more considerable strain is necessary; and that, if 2 feet deep, it is quite impossible for a single man to pull it up. In the following theoretical case, the resistance would be as the cube of the depth; but in sand or s.h.i.+ngle, the increase is less rapid. It varies under different circ.u.mstances; but it is no exaggeration to estimate its increase as seldom less than as the square of the depth. The theoretical case of which I spoke, is this:--Let x be part of a layer of s.h.i.+ngle of wide extent: the s.h.i.+ngle is supposed to consist of smooth hard spherical b.a.l.l.s, all of the same size. Let s be a dateram buried in x; and T the string to which it is tied. Now, on considering fig. 2, where a series of b.a.l.l.s are drawn on a larger scale and on a plane surface, it is clear that the ball A cannot move in any degree to the right or the left without disturbing the entire layer of b.a.l.l.s on the same plane as itself: its only possible movement is vertically upwards. In this case, it disturbs B1 and B2. These, for the same reason as A, can only move vertically upwards, and, in doing so, they must disturb the three b.a.l.l.s above them, and so on. Consequently, the uplifting of a single ball in fig. 2, necessitates the uplifting of the triangle of b.a.l.l.s of which it forms the apex; and it obviously follows from the same principle, that the uplifting of S, in the depth of X, in fig. 1, necessitates the uplifting of a cone of b.a.l.l.s whose apex is at S. But the weight of a cone is as the cube of its height and, therefore, the resistance to the uplifting of the dateram, is as the cube of the depth at which it has been buried. In practice, the grains of sand are capable of a small but variable amount of lateral displacement, which gives relief to the movement of sand caused by the dateram, for we may observe the surface of the ground to work very irregularly, although extensively, when the dateram begins to stir. On the other hand, the friction of the grains of sand tends to increase the difficulty of movement. The arrangement shown in the diagram, of a spring weighing-machine tied to the end of a lever, is that which I have used in testing the strain the dateram will resist, under different circ.u.mstances. The size of the dateram is not of much importance, it would be of still less importance in the theoretical case. Anything that is more than 4 inches long seems to answer. The plan succeeds in a dry soil of any description, whether it be s.h.i.+ngly beach or sand.

Bus.h.i.+ng a Tent means the burying of bushes in the soil so far as to leave only their cut ends above the ground, to which a corresponding number of tent-ropes are tied.

Tent-poles.--When a tent is pitched for an encampment of some duration, it is well to lay aside the jointed tent-pole, and to cut a stout young tree to replace it: this will be found far more trustworthy in stormy weather. If the shape of the tent admits of the change, it is still better to do away with the centre pole altogether; and, in the place of it, to erect a substantial framework of poles, which are to be planted just within the rim of the tent, and to converge to a point, under its peak. A tent-pole can be lengthened temporarily, by las.h.i.+ng it to a log, with the help of a Toggle and strop (which see). A broken tent-pole can be mended permanently by placing a splint of wood on either side of the fracture, and by whipping the whole together, with soft cord or with the untwisted strand of a piece of rope.

To prevent Tent-poles from slipping.--When the tent is pitched in the ordinary way on a smooth rocky surface, there is considerable danger that the foot of the pole may slip whenever a gust of wind or other sudden impulse sways the tent. This danger is to be obviated on precisely the same principle as that by which builders secure their scaffolding-poles upon the smooth footways of a street: they put the foot of each pole into a bucket, filled with sand. As the base of the bucket is broad, the scaffolding is much less liable to slip, than if the narrow bases of the poles had rested directly upon the pavement.

To tie Things to Tent-poles.--To hang clothes, or anything else, upon a smooth tent-pole, see "Clove-hitch." A strap with hooks attached to it, buckled round the pole, is very convenient. The method shown in the sketch suffices, if the pole be notched, or jointed, or in any way slightly uneven. Bags, etc., are supposed to be hung upon the bit of wood that is secured to the free end. Convenient pegs, made of bits of wood roughly sharpened, may be driven into the tree, if any, when the encampment is made.

Preparations for a Storm.--Before a storm, dig a ditch as deep as you can round the outside of the tent, to divert the coming sheet of surface-water, and see that the ditch has a good out-fall. The ditch will also drain the floor of the tent, if the rain should soak in. Even a furrow scratched with a tent-peg, is better than no ditch at all. Fasten guy-ropes to the spike of the tent-pole; and be careful that the tent is not too much on the strain, else the further shrinking of the materials, under the influence of the wet, will certainly tear up the pegs. Earth, banked up round the bottom of the tent, will prevent gusts of wind from finding their way beneath. It is also a good plan to prepare a small hole near the foot of the tent-pole, with a stone firmly rammed into the bottom, into which the tent-pole may be s.h.i.+fted, as soon as the strain of the tent, under the influence of the wet, becomes dangerous to its safety.

To warm Tents.--"When living in a tent in Otago (New Zealand) during a severe winter, we were perfectly numb with cold at nights, until we adopted the Maori plan, which is to dig a hole about a foot square in the clear, to cover the bottom with a stone or stones, and to fill it at night with red-hot cinders from the camp fire, and lastly, to close the tent excepting a small opening near the top. The cinders are not nearly burnt out by morning. They diffused a pleasant warmth through the tent, and rendered us comfortable all night. There is no danger of suffocation, unless the tent be closed up very tight indeed."--(W. M. Cooper.)