Tenting & Camping in 1876
The more desirable form of Tent—The Lodge of the Savage— The Sibley Tent—The Bell Tent—The 
Gable-ended Tent—The Miner's Tent—Half-shelter Tent—Poles and Pegs—How to pitch a Tent and 
make it secure.

A TENT of some kind should always form part of every wanderer's equipment, if he can by any possibility carry it on 
his pack animals. 'Camping out' is all very well in theory; sleeping with your head on your saddle, with no other 
protection than the 'blue canopy of the heavens,' or 'the cloudless expanse gemmed with twinkling stars,' sounds 
remarkably sensational, 'lionises' the intrepid explorer, elicits delightful little scraps of sympathetic pity, and at the 
same time coaxes delicious compliments from fair lips, to earn which the 'lone hunter,' or he who would be such, 
thinks at the time he would not mind sharing a cave with the tallest kind of a grizzly to earn a tithe of the praise; but
when far away from fair faces, loving eyes, and rosy lips, no man who had a single grain of experience would 
voluntarily sleep in the open air, if a tent or covering of any kind were procurable.

The form which is most desirable for a, tent is a question on which opinions vary greatly. For military purposes the 
'bell-tent' seems to me to be the more convenient pattern. The circle round the supporting pole affords more room 
for sleeping than does any tent wherein there are necessarily angles.

Indians always adopt the circle for their lodges, when moving about; but for their large permanent residences they 
choose the square, and roof it with a single slant; immense sheds are thus made from rough cedar slabs by the 
Coast, Eraser, and Vancouver Island savages, for winter quarters. For easy transport, a 'bell-tent' is too heavy, 
requiring two men to pitch it, and in close timber its height is an objection, whilst in very hard wind it is easily blown
over, if not secured by 'guy' ropes.

The United States Commission, working jointly with us on the Boundary-line, used to a great extent the Sibley tent, 
which is most commodious and comfortable. In form it is conical, and the apex is constructed on the principle of the 
'cowl' or 'Presbyterian' frequently placed on the top of smoky chimneys as a curative agent. This contrivance leaves
an opening always in the course of the wind, which ventilates the tent and allows the smoke to escape, without any 
risk of its being blown back again into the interior.

An iron tripod with a short chain fixed to it, and so constructed as to fold up with the 'tent-gear,' is for the purpose of
being placed over the fire, which should be built on the ground in the centre of the tent during cold or wet weather, 
but outside if fine and warm. The 'camp kettle' hangs from the chain—a contrivance that considerably facilitates the
process of cooking.

The Bell and Sibley tents, the latter of American invention, are both admirable, as affording convenience in height, 
room to move about, and perfect shelter from the heaviest rain if well pitched. By turning up the 'apron' encircling 
the bottom, so as to allow a current of air to blow through, they can be made cool and enjoyable in the hottest 
sunshine. 

If occupied by soldiers, I think a 'Sibley-tent' will sleep twelve, or more, arranged as the spokes are in a wheel, the 
men's heads being towards the canvas, and their feet to the fire, or the centre pole, which stands on the top of the 
tripod. This is one great advantage the Sibley has over our ordinary military 'bell-tent:' it permits a fire in the centre 
of the tent, which is impossible in ours, unless a small stove is used, and the tent pitched on the edge of a hole 
excavated for the purpose, so as to allow the stovepipe to pass through the ground beneath the canvas, a system 
never available unless at a depot or a camp intended for long occupation. Not that I think a fire in a tent is so very 
desirable, unless it be in continuous wet weather, or during a heavy fall of snow; then being able to sit by a fire, 
protected from the weather, is undeniably a great luxury.

Against these several advantages must be placed as a counterpoise, the weight and cumbersome size of the 
package, when either the Bell or Sibley tents are rolled up for transport. Although the centre pole may be ferruled, 
and divided into two parts, nevertheless, the length is even then very obstructive to convenience of 'packing' on the
backs of mules, and they are further extremely liable to get broken. The tents themselves are particularly heavy 
and bulky, and should it be necessary, as it constantly is, when travelling, to roll them up wet, the weight is 
enormous.

For wagon or ambulance transport, where the addition of a few pounds weight is of no material consequence, these
tents are admirable, indeed all the most fastidious campaigner could desire; and if well and judiciously pitched, 
afford comfort and protection equal to log-houses. 

The gold-diggers have a very simple plan of protecting themselves from the weather whilst sleeping. They provide
themselves with a long strip of light cotton canvas, which is easily carried even on one's own back. When camping, 
two sticks, each about four feet long, are cut with a small fork at the ends. These are driven into the ground six feet 
apart. Then a third and a lighter pole is placed on the forked ends of the uprights — this one should be rather more
than seven feet long.

Over it the cotton awning is placed, and then pegged firmly to the ground. One end, that towards the wind, is 
fastened together, either with pieces of string, or what I prefer, wooden skewers. The other end is left open for the 
occupant to creep in at, and skewered together when he is in. 

By making the ridge-stick rather longer than the supports, the cotton covering can be fastened so as to leave the 
forked sticks outside, a plan that affords more room, and enables you to bring the edges of the cover slightly to 
overlap.

A very capital protection against heavy rain may be conveniently rigged up by using the aparejo covers, a piece of 
canvas, or slabs of bark, if nothing better is procurable. This half-shelter tent is exceedingly useful when on hunting
or trapping excursions. An additional pound weight upon these occasions is of great consequence; the lighter a
hunter can make his equipment the better for himself and his horse, hence the knowledge of any expedient by 
which he can add to his comfort and keep his cloths dry, without carrying the material to do it with, is sure to prove 
useful.

Bark and branches of wood are generally procurable; either of these materials laid first against the frame, shown in 
the cut, and then covered over with grass or rushes, will make a slant nearly if not quite waterproof. I have 
frequently slept under a contrivance erected in this fashion during a night of pouring rain, and kept myself quite dry.
It is almost superfluous to say, this ' half-shelter ' should be always on the weather side.

I have tried these contrivances at the diggings; lived in a Sibley tent in Northwest America, in a Bell-tent in the 
Crimea, in a Turkish tent with eight sides in Asia Minor, in a Bedouin Arab's tent, in Indian wigwams east and west of
the Rocky Mountains, and in Palmetto shantees in the tropical world, and I have camped in the open air, much 
oftener than I thought agreeable, at times when I could not avoid it, but after all, the tent I prefer is the 'dog-kennel,' 
or 'gable-ended tent;' the size a 10-ell. The 'upright poles' should be six feet, and the 'ridge-pole' seven feet long. 

Each of these three poles must be ferruled in the centre with a strong ferrule of galvanised iron. The ends of the 
two uprights should be made sharply conical, and then shod with iron thimbles, forged to fit on to the conical ends,
and each thimble must be firmly fixed by two iron pegs, passed through it and the pole, and then securely riveted. 

The usual plan adopted by tent-makers is to drive a small iron wire peg into the ends of the uprights, which pegs 
pass through holes in the 'ridge poles' and canvas, and serve as a means for attaching the 'guy' ropes to the 
outside of the tent. But in 'packing' it will be found that these slender pegs are continually broken or bent, and 
added to this, there is always a good deal of bother in finding the hole in the canvas when pitching a tent, and for 
'gable-ended tents' I contend that 'guy' ropes are perfectly non-essentials.

By using the conical ends shod with iron, it matters not which end of the pole is uppermost, and all that is required 
in the ridge-pole is a small cone-shaped hole for the end of the upright to fit into; the other end slightly penetrating 
the ground, holds firmly, and keeps the tent steady. One man unaided can, with a very small amount of practice, 
pitch this three-pole gable-ended tent in from eight to ten minutes.

I hear some one exclaim, 'Why carry poles at all, when travelling through the very midst of a thickly wooded 
country? Surely you can cut them whenever and wheresoever you camp?' So I thought once, until experience 
taught me lessons of wisdom, and then I discovered that tent-poles were not so easy to procure, and cut at a 
moment's notice — although one was travelling through a country densely timbered — as most persons would a
priori be disposed to believe.

I advise all travellers to carry their tent poles with them; trusting to the mere chance of finding poles 'all a growing,' 
fitted for your purpose, and needing only to be chopped down, is a bad plan. Supposing you are fortunate enough
to find what suits your purpose, long delay is necessitated in cutting, fitting, and adapting the green poles to fit the 
canvas, the tent is never steady, and you are in a perpetual fidget that it may at any moment fall in upon you whilst 
you are sleeping. If, on the other hand, poles are not procurable, and this, let me assure all young 'wanderers,' is 
by far the more probable contingency, then your tent is useless, and you may have to lie and moan over your 
disappointed hopes, cooled, if not refreshed, by a shower-bath of rain, which serves alike to damp your courage 
and your clothes; and begets a wise resolve, ere morning comes, never to venture on another march without 
carrying tent-poles along with you. 

Exactly the same advice applies to the 'tent-pegs;' it is utter misery having to cut pegs at camping-time, and sticks 
cut green with a crook at the end never 'drive' well, or hold when driven; old barrel staves form the best materials 
out of which to saw 'tent-pegs;' the pegs stow easily in the bag with the tent, and do not, in any appreciable degree,
increase its bulk as a package. Spare ones should always be carried, when travelling, as tent-pegs, like clothes-
pegs used by laundry women, or pins employed by everybody, are from some cause difficult of explanation
constantly diminishing in numbers. A light wooden mallet for driving the pegs is also another essential, which should
be packed in the bag which contains the tent and pegs.

When we were equipping the Boundary Commission, prior to our leaving England, her Majesty's Commissioner
deemed it expedient to adopt the form of tent used, and strongly recommended, by the Honourable Hudson's Bay 
Company, which is the 'gable-ended' tent I so strongly advocate. We had them made at Limehouse of three sizes, 
12-ell, 10-ell, and 8-ell, but the poles were not ferruled, and only fitted with a wire peg in the end. 

It certainly at that time seemed to my mind the height of folly to take tent poles from England to Vancouver Island, 
on which the finest pine timber in the world grows in prodigal abundance, but from the experience I subsequently
gleaned, I found it was by far the wiser plan; and had I to go out there, or anywhere else, where a tent was
desirable to-morrow, I would take the whole thing completed. 

In some measure to repeat what I have previously said, I should take a 10-ell tent, fitted with a seven-foot ferruled 
ridge-pole, made of good pine, and two six-feet uprights also ferruled, and capped with conical iron thimbles; three 
dozen tent-pegs, made of seasoned oak, and two ash-mallets. The tent-pegs and mallets to be fitted into a painted 
canvas bag, made round at the bottom, and finished to tie like a corn-sack at the top, by plaiting the canvas, and
fastening the cord round the plaits. When the string is 'run in,' so that the mouth may be 'drawn up,' an orifice is 
generally left sufficiently large to allow the tent pegs to escape at, and when reaching the camping ground one has 
to waste an hour foraging for new pegs, which are not worth a straw when compared to those this stupid system of 
— I cannot say fastening tent bags — has caused one to lose. 

The tent-poles we carried with us from England — although I dare say many of my readers will even now say it was 
vastly like, to use an every-day simile, 'taking coals to Newcastle,' made very little difference to the weight or cubic 
measurement of baggage necessitated for the supply of so large a party, and for accomplishing such a laborious 
undertaking as was that of marking the forty-ninth parallel of latitude — the 'Boundary-line' —  dividing British
Columbia from the lands of the United States.

On landing our party, about seventy-five persons, on Vancouver Island, it was imperative that all should at once go 
'under canvas.' Poles and pegs being ready, the tents were all pitched in no time, tools were not required, and our 
tiny canvas city was built and occupied in less time than it would have taken to cut and fit a dozen poles. After 
commencing our work of cutting the Boundary-line, to accomplish which a corps of fifty American axemen was 
required, it was found desirable to have very much larger tents made for the chopping gangs than those we 
brought from England, tents sufficiently capacious to accommodate twelve or fifteen axemen. 

When several men were working together, a large tent was easily pitched by their united labour, and as they did 
not 'shift camp' more frequently as a rule than once in every twelve or fourteen days, one large tent was found to 
answer far better than three or four smaller ones. These large tents were generally slung; the poles in this case 
have to be cut, as they were required to be large and strong; five are needed for one large tent. The 'ridge-pole' 
rests on the fork made by the ends of the other four poles. Two of the lateral poles should be cut with a natural 
fork; by resting the ends of the two other poles in these, all trouble of tying is dispensed with, and the tent when 
pitched will be firmer and steadier than if poles lashed at the top were employed. More than this, rope, cord, or 
raw-hide, cannot always be obtained at a minute's notice. The poles so arranged are then placed at either end of 
the tent, the bottoms of the poles being pulled as far apart as it is desirable to get them. The canvas is first thrown 
over the ridge-pole thus kept up, and then it is pegged firmly into the ground. If I am clearly understood, it will be
seen that in this mode of 'pitching a tent' the supporting poles are out side the canvas, instead of inside, where the 
poles must always be, if only two uprights are used.

End of Excerpt.
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