MARLING HITCH (Fig. 44).—Employed to make a running binding which can be put on and removed quickly.
Camping in the mountains, fields, and forests is one of the most delightful features of life in the summer-time. But a good deal of the fun depends upon doing things the right way.
To experienced campers many of the following ideas and descriptions may be familiar, but among them there may be some suggestions that will be found of value.
The tent is the all-important thing, and to make one large enough for two or three boys is not a difficult matter. What the boy does not know on his first camping expedition, necessity will teach him, and much satisfaction may be had in constructing bunks and tables and the other varied paraphernalia of camp life.
Fig. 1 shows a serviceable and roomy tent and fly of medium size, which measures eight feet wide, ten feet long, and seven feet high to the peak or ridge. The side drops or aprons are thirty inches high, and against them on both sides of the tent cots may rest on the ground as shown in the illustration.
The fly is ten feet wide and fifteen feet long, and is an extra covering for the tent in case of a hard rain-storm; while in clear weather and with another ridge-pole and upright, it can be used to lengthen the tent by extending it out beyond the front, where it is to be held fast with stakes and stanchion-ropes.
The plan shown in Fig. 2 gives the dimensions of canvas, and when the final sewing is done the edges C C at both ends of the tent are brought together and securely overcast with stout waxed cord.
The only openings are at front and back, and they can be closed by means of tabs and button-holes at one side, and large bone buttons made fast to the other edge in a corresponding position to the tabs.
Where the iron pins of the uprights project through the canvas, make a circular patch at least six inches in diameter with two or three thicknesses of the canvas, and sew it fast both at the hole and around the outer edge. This will strengthen the canvas at the most vital point, and prevent it from tearing if a heavy wind should strain the tent.
Twilled cotton sail-cloth is the proper material of which to make the tent, but if this cannot be had, then a stout quality of unbleached muslin will answer very well for clear weather; but in wet weather it will not shed the water so well as the twilled duck. The seams can be sewed on a machine, but they will be much stronger if sewed by hand with white cotton cord well waxed. All the edges of the cloth should be bound with rope about the size and strength of clothes-line, so that any attachments made to the edges will be borne by the rope instead of all the strain coming on the canvas.