The tents we used on the North Australian expedition were very light, convenient, and easily set up. They were simply four-sided pyramids of calico, eight feet square in the base, and from 9ft. to 10ft. in height (see [p. 65]). They were lightly roped at the angles, and would set up with four principal pegs, though there were loops for intermediate ones along the sides. Poles could not conveniently be carried on the packhorses, but there were few places in Australia where we could not cut them if needed; and in fine weather, we mostly dispensed altogether with the tents, except as mere sun-shades, and slept only in our blankets. Their weight, dry, was trifling, but, on account of their bulk, they formed the greater part of the load of one horse, and when we had to travel—after a rainy night, without drying them—we found that two wet tents, with the farrier’s tools and a few horseshoes, were quite heavy enough as a load for one animal.
Cape-waggon tent.
A very favourite form of tent in the Cape colony is made like the longitudinal half section of a ridge-pole tent. This is fastened to the roof of the travelling waggon and stretched beside it. When the traveller has two of these, one on each side his vehicle, he will find it of the greatest possible convenience. The waggon, with its own aristocratic kap-tent, or humble but more durable wattled roof, serves as the sleeping chamber; while the half tent on one side may serve as a dining or general reception room, and the other as a working or retiring apartment. These may either be raised or lowered according to the position of the sun or wind, or may be completely closed in at night; or, if required, the two halves can be taken away from the waggon altogether, laced together, and, with poles cut upon the spot, set up at once as a double-pole tent, as shown on [p. 65].
THE CAPE-WAGGON TENT.
Extemporary tents.
We have found in Australia and Africa, that the possession of a large square of duck or canvas, eylet-holed at the corners and sides, or a couple of good sized sheets of stout unbleached calico, with loops of tape or cord stitched at the sides and angles, have enabled us to construct extemporary screens from sun or wind, or even rain, and when not so required have served admirably as the basis for our bedding. In boat parties the sails or awnings of the boat may be stretched upon the mast or oars, two oars at each end may be lashed crosswise, and set up as shear legs, while the mast is used as a ridge pole, and the sail drawn across them; there is, however, the objection that the blades of the oars if projecting upward will hold wind, and they should therefore be “feathered” toward the quarter whence it may be expected to blow; but never forget that the making of a tent is only a secondary and exceptional use for a boat’s gear; if the sail is chafed or cut, its proper usefulness will be much deteriorated; and if the oars are allowed to sag or bend, by undue strain, they become worse than useless. You can no more pull effectively with a warped or twisted oar than you can shoot well with a crooked gun. In a boat voyage on a river, or where you can make fast and shelter your boat at night, if you set up two stanchions three or four feet higher than the gunwale, one at the after and another at the bow thwart, and then make fast a line to the ringbolt in the stern post, and lead it over the stanchions to the other ring in the stem, it will form a ridge rope on which the boat’s awning with the yards or stretchers removed may be laid, and the sides sloped down tent fashion to the gunwales, and made fast either to the rowlocks or, still better, to a stout line passed tightly all round the boat outside of and just below the gunwale streak.
If you build a hut, and have not time or material to make it weather proof, the tent may with great advantage be pitched as a lining to it, and it is wonderful what effective shelter may be obtained from very imperfect hutting done in this manner.
We have frequently heard of officers and men setting up their tents or marquees, then building the framework of their hut over them, covering it roughly, and finishing at their leisure, so that, by the time the tents have been worn out, very efficient thatched houses have taken their places.
We should think that a bell tent (such as may be purchased at any town where military stores are kept), cut in half, and supplemented with a couple of squares of canvas, eylet-holed at two inches or more from the edge, so as to lace between the two halves of the bell tent, and used as a double-pole tent, either with a ridge pole or with a rope extended at either end as a stay, would form a very commodious habitation, and would be specially useful where the number of occupants is subject to changes.