In making your roof, whether of branches of fir-trees, or of grass or reeds, etc., put them on as you would do tiles or slates, beginning at the bottom so that the upper overlap the lower ones and thus run off the rain without letting it through.
Notice which direction the wind generally blows from and put the back of your shelter that way with your fire in front of it.
The simplest shelter is to plant two forked sticks firmly in the ground, and rest a cross bar on them as ridge-pole. Then lean other poles against it, or a hurdle or branches, and thatch it with grass, etc.
Or another good way, and quicker, is to cut one pole only and lean it against a tree, binding its end there; then thatch it with branches or brushwood, etc.
Where you have no poles available you can do as the South African natives do—pile up a lot of brushwood, heather, etc., into a small wall made in semi-circle to keep out the cold wind; and make your fire in the open part.
If your tent or hut is too hot in the sun, put blankets or more straw, etc., over the top. The thicker the roof the cooler is the tent in summer. If it is too cold, make the bottom of the walls thicker, or build a small wall of sods about a foot high round the foot of the wall outside. Never forget to dig a good drain all round your hut, so that if heavy rain comes in the night your floor will not get flooded from outside.
Framework of a Bivouac Shelter, to be thatched with brushwood or grass. A second lean-to roof on opposite side of ridge pole will then make a hut.
Zulus make their huts by planting in the ground a circle of long whippy sticks standing upright, then they bend the tops all down towards the centre and tie them together, then they weave more whippy sticks round in and out of the uprights horizontally until they have made a kind of circular bird-cage, this they then cover with a straw mat or thatch, or with straw woven into the sticks. Sometimes a small hole is left at the top where all the sticks join, to act as a chimney.
