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-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; 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.
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