The double-peg anchorage is better than a single one, and with this new rope-fastener it will be an easy matter to stay a tent to withstand any wind-storm.
Canvas Cots and Hammocks
Cots are very necessary parts of the camping outfit, and may be made either of canvas and poles or of boughs and leaves. The canvas cot is, of course, much more comfortable than the one of boughs, but sometimes it is not possible to transport them, and then the bough bed must be resorted to.
A simple canvas cot is easily made from two pine or spruce sticks seven feet long, two inches in diameter, and free from knots or sappy places. A piece of light canvas or twilled cotton duck fifty-four inches wide and seventy-two inches long is sewed together so as to form a cylindrical case thirty-six inches wide and seventy-two inches long. Lay it flat and crease it along the edges, then run two or three lines of stitching along both sides four inches in from the edges. This forms the sleeve through which the poles are to be passed.
Crotched sticks are to be embedded in the ground to support the ends of the poles as shown in Fig. 18. These are to extend a foot or eighteen inches above the ground, and should be three inches in diameter and quite strong, so as to avoid breakage and a possible fall.
If a folding-cot with portable ends is desired, it can be made to appear as shown in Fig. 19 by constructing two folding ends, a middle pole, and four iron brace-hooks.
To make the cot twenty-six inches wide, procure the canvas and poles as directed for the first cot. Bind the ends of the poles with wire or have a blacksmith band them with iron ferrules, then bore the ends and drive threaded pins in, having nuts at the ends as shown at Fig. 20 A. From maple or oak two inches wide and an inch thick cut four legs thirty-two inches long, and bore holes at one end and midway between ends, as shown in Fig. 20 B, to receive the bolt ends in the poles. Bevel off the lower ends of the sticks and place them in opposite directions, so that when opened, in the form of an X, the ends will lie flat on the ground as shown in Fig. 19. From pine or spruce cut a stick two inches square, and provide the ends with bolts and nuts as shown in Fig. 20 C. This is for the under brace, and extends from end to end where the bolt passes through both legs, and is attached with a nut and washer.
From iron an inch wide and less than a quarter of an inch in thickness have a blacksmith cut four hook-braces eighteen inches long with a hole at one end and a notch at the other. With round-headed screws attach two of the braces near each end of the pole, as shown in Fig. 20 C, so that when the cot is set up the notches will hook over screws driven in the upper edge of each leg near the bottom as shown in Fig. 19. These will steady the cot, and prevent it from rocking from end to end as it would do if not braced.
A hammock that can be swung between the uprights of a tent is made of canvas thirty inches wide and seventy-two inches long. It is lapped over at the ends and sewed with several lines of stitching, so as to receive a two-inch bar to which the three ropes are made fast as shown in Fig. 21. The end ropes should be twenty-four inches long and the middle one eighteen. From the bars at each end they are brought together and bound to rings which slip over hooks made fast to the tent uprights, or they can be lashed fast to the uprights. Any number of these hammocks may be made and easily carried, as they roll up snugly and occupy very little room in a bedding-kit. They are much easier to handle than a woven or braided hammock, the strands of which are forever catching in everything and anything with which they come into contact.