Follow her example. A man, as he lies upon his mother earth,
is an object so small and low that a screen of eighteen inches high will
guard him securely from the strength of a storm. A common mistake of a
novice lies in selecting a tree for his camping-place, which spreads out
nobly above, but affords no other shelter from the wind than that of its
bare stem below.
[Sketch of sleeping man behind wall].
It may be, that as he walks about in search of shelter, a mass of foliage
at the level of his eye, with its broad shadow, attracts him, and as he
stands to the leeward of it it seems snug, and, therefore, without
further reflection, he orders his bed to be spread at the foot of some
tree. But as soon as he lies down on the ground the tree proves worthless
as a screen against the wind; it is a roof, but it is not a wall. The
real want in blowy weather is a dense low screen, perfectly wind-tight,
as high as the knee above the ground. Thus, if a traveller has to encamp
on a bare turf plain, he need only turn up a sod seven feet long by two
feet wide, and if he succeeds in propping it on its edge, it will form a
sufficient shield against the wind.
In heavy gales, the neighbourhood of a solitary tree is a positive
nuisance. It creates a violent eddy of wind, that leaves palpable
evidence of its existence. Thus, in corn-fields, it is a common result of
a storm to batter the corn quite flat in circles round each tree that
stands in the field, while elsewhere no injury takes place.
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