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126   Art of Travel.

Shavings of Wood.-Eight pounds' weight of shavings make an excellent bed, and I find I can cut them with a common spokeshave, in 3.:'F hours, out of a log of deal. 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 sleepingplace 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. This is a matter worth taking a great deal of pains about ; the oldest campaigners are the most particular in making themselves comfortable at night. They should also scrape a hollow in the ground, of the shape shown in fig. 2 (next page), before spreading their sleeping-rugs. It is disagreeable enough to lie on a perfectly level surface, like that of a floor, but the acme of discomfort is to lie upon a convexity. Persons who have omitted to make a shapely lair for themselves, should at

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