It is practicable to make an efficient spokeshave,
by tying a large clasp-knife on a common stick which has been cut into a
proper shape to receive it.
Oakum.--Old cord, picked into oakum, will also make a bed.
Various Makeshifts.--If a traveller, as is very commonly the case, should
have no mattress, he should strew his sleeping-place with dry grass,
plucked up from the ground, or with other things warm to the touch,
imitating the structure of a bird's-nest as far as he has skill and
materials to do so. Leaves, fern, feathers, heather, rushes, flags of
reeds and of maize, wood-shavings, bundles of faggots, and such like
materials as chance may afford, should be looked for and appropriated; a
pile of stones, or even two trunks of trees rolled close together, may
make a dry bedstead in a marshy land. Over these, let him lay whatever
empty bags, skins, saddle-cloths, or spare clothes he may have, which
from their shape or smallness cannot be turned to account as coverings,
and the lower part of his bed is complete.
If a night of unusual cold be expected, the best use to make of spare
wearing-apparel, is to put it on over that which is already on the
person. With two or three shirts, stockings, and trousers, though
severally of thin materials, a man may get through a night of very trying
weather.
Preparing the Ground for a Bed.--Travellers should always root up the
stones and sticks that might interfere with the smoothness of the place
where they intend to sleep.
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