The Improvised Floor
The next feature is the canvas trough which supplies a floor on which one stands while getting into bed or dressing. This protects the feet from the ground, and keeps insects from coming up from the ground. To prepare for this trough, attach five tapes or strips of canvas about nine inches in length in a row at even intervals along the cloth of each cot about nine inches from the inner edge. Then take a piece of tent canvas fifty-eight inches wide by six feet six inches long. Along the outer edges of this attach tapes which are to be tied with the tapes attached to the cot, giving a U-shaped trough six inches in width and with a depth determined by the height of the cots from the ground, with the edges overlapping six inches on the cots. The ends of the trough are stopped by pieces of cloth eight inches wide by twenty-four inches in length, the extra length permitting a six-inch flap at the top of each end of the trough and the extra width allowing for seams (Fig. 2).