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-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. 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 space 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 spaces,
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 space 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 sturdiness: it will stand any weather, will hold two
people and a fair quantity 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 stitched 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 illustrated 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 buttoned 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 lashing 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 buttons and
button-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 buttons; 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 passed round their tops, and fastened into the ground with a
peg at each eng (fig. 2). Two sheets, A and B, are buttoned together and
thrown over the cord, and then two other sheets, C and D; and C is
buttoned to A, and D to B (fig. 3). Lastly another sheet is thrown over
each of the slanting cords, the one buttoned 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, faggots 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, scrape 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 shingle, the increase
is less rapid. It varies under different circumstances; 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 shingle of wide extent: the shingle is supposed to
consist of smooth hard spherical balls, all of the same size. Let s be a
dáterám buried in x; and T the string to which it is tied. Now, on
considering fig. 2, where a series of balls 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
balls 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 balls above them, and so on. Consequently,
the uplifting of a single ball in fig. 2, necessitates the uplifting of
the triangle of balls 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 balls 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 dáterám, 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 dáterám 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
circumstances. 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 shingly beach or sand.
Bushing 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 lashing 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 shifted, 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.)
Permanent Camp.--The accompanying sketch shows a tent pitched for a
lengthened habitation. It has a deep drain, a seat and table dug out, and
a fireplace. (See the following paragraphs.)
Lost Articles.--Small articles are constantly mislaid and trampled in the
sand of the floor of the tent. In searching for them, the ground should
be disturbed as little as possible: it is a usual plan to score its
surface in parallel lines, with a thin wand. It would be well worth while
to make a small light rake to use for this purpose.
Precautions against Thieves.--Natives are apt to creep up to tents, and,
putting their hands under the bottom of them, to steal whatever they can:
a hedge of thorn-bushes is a protection against this kind of thieving. In
some countries a net, with three or four bells attached to it, is thrown
over the packages inside a tent. Strings tied horizontally, a foot above
the ground, from package to package, are found effective in tripping
intruders, See also "Guns set as Spring-guns."