Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/496

480 inside the doorway; it is, however, very objectionable, and should not be practised more than is absolutely necessary, as the steam condensing covers every thing near it with fine particles of frozen vapor, and the soot from the stearine-lamp blackens every thing. The furniture for a tent consists first of a water-proof floor-cloth, made of a light description of mackintosh; this should be used with care, and only over snow. The coverlet should be made of the Hudson's Bay three-point blanket or thick duffle, its upper side covered with glazed brown holland. Three stops should be sewn on one end of this coverlet, for tying it when rolled up, and when in use for tying it to the lower robe at the upper end or head of the tent. The knapsack forms the pillow.

The canvas floor-cloth, though not absolutely indispensable, is, however, very useful. It is made of very light unbleached duck, and is also used as the sledge-sail, which is only set when the wind is abaft the beam. It should be laid down over the water-proof floor-cloth, when the men are taking off their boots and taking their suppers. In severe weather, when the breath condenses in the tent and falls in minute frozen particles, the canvas floor-cloth is useful to spread "over all" after the men have laid down, as it catches all this fine snow, which would otherwise penetrate into the coverlet, where it would thaw by the heat from the men's bodies, and be frozen into them again when exposed to the air. "So rapidly," says Sir Leopold McClintock, "does frost accumulate, that in eighteen days of traveling during the month of October I have known the coverlet and the lower robe to become more than double their original weight."

The lower robe or blanket should be of the same material as the coverlet, namely, three-point Hudson's Bay blanket or thick duffle. It should have a covering of brown holland on its underneath side, having stops on its upper side to tie to similar stops on the coverlet when spread for the night: probable weight of the lower robe about seventeen pounds. This robe has sometimes been of fur, but it has its disadvantages, as in the first place it is more absorbent; a skin will when wet emit a disagreeable smell; the hairs come out, and they shrink very much; they are also more stiff and unmanageable when frozen. The above-mentioned woolen materials are on the whole preferable, as they are quite as warm as fur, when covered with the brown holland, in addition to which evaporation from the body will generally make its way through woolens, and escape into the air, but in the fur robe is arrested and condenses in it. The coverlet, lower robe, and sleeping-bag, answer well when the temperature is no lower than-30°, but should it fall lower, an additional coverlet should be supplied, as well as a small blanket bag to put into the sleeping-bag to keep the feet warm. Should the temperature continue to fall, snow huts should be used, they being very much better and warmer than tents. A party of four men can, after a little practice, but themselves