In the Tent
Where the camper prefers to do his sleeping in a tent, he has the choice of the tent floor for a bed, a bed made for the occasion by laying blankets over [[144]]straw, leaves, cedar boughs, hemlock fans, or other browse, or, finally, a camp cot.
If the ground is dry with a gravel or sandy foundation a sleeper can be quite comfortable lying on a canvas spread directly on the ground itself. This is true particularly during July and August in those regions where the nights are warm. The writer has been very comfortable with nothing under him but a canvas tarpaulin spread on the ground of his tent over the gravel surface of the tent floor. This, with a single blanket, has been all that he found necessary for comfortable sleep.
Many prefer to make up a bed of leaves, cedar boughs or other springy material, which is thrown upon the tent floor and covered with blankets. To properly confine this foundation within the bounds of the bed it is well to stake out the map of the bed, and then lay poles cut to the right lengths within these stakes to bound the bed and keep the bedding of boughs or leaves in place under the blankets. In the autumn leaves can easily be gathered in quantities, and these certainly make a fine easy bed. Boughs form a more problematical material for bedding. Small cedar branches or twigs well covered with blankets make a good springy bed with a refreshing balsamic odor. Hemlock fans are a little rougher than cedar and so do not make as soft a bed. Sometimes where evergreens are not found, other browse, such as male fern, is used. The male fern will make an easy bed, but its odor is offensive to some. [[145]]