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Tents.

161

Boating Tent.-Further on, in the chapter on Boats," the way is shown by which sailors make a tent out of their lugsail, 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.

The gipsies in England use the following excellent contrivance to save the trouble of tying the sticks together.

Fig. i.

Fig. 2.

They carry a light bar of wood, 22 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

Fig. 3,