A tent is the favorite abode of all campers. They are transported with much greater ease than the most simply-constructed portable house. A tent may be erected with the expenditure of less labor than any of the preceding camps, and furnishes a comfortable shelter all the year round. Even in the bleak mountains of Alaska tents are often used by miners, wintering near their mines. A good wall-tent, with a fly and a wooden floor, is protection enough for the most delicate of persons.
Standard drills and yacht twills are better adapted to the camper’s purposes than heavier materials, and besides are less expensive. The list prices of wall-tents, from nine by nine feet to sixteen and a half by fourteen feet, are from $14 to $26. The flies are listed at from $4.50 to $9.70.
The Amazon tents are in the form of a lean-to, with a roofed veranda, so to speak, in front.
Shanties are small houses of plank, roofed with plank, and are built by the natives, at costs varying with the price and accessibility of the lumber. A good, water-tight shanty ought to be erected in most sections for about $25. Bunks of planks are built in the shanties, one above the other, and, when filled with straw and covered with a blanket, make comfortable sleeping-quarters.
Portable houses are now manufactured of all forms and sizes, from a child’s small playhouse to a two-story frame store. These buildings are made in sections; all parts are numbered and labelled, and may be put together and taken apart at will. Many of these houses are designed especially for camps, and may be shipped to the camping-ground with little trouble and erected with little loss of time. At the same factory may be purchased terra-cotta chimneys, in sections, ready to be stacked up for use. Some people prefer to build a chimney of stone or brick and leave it standing when the house is moved, others making stovepipe serve for a chimney.
For table furniture select white blue-rimmed cups and saucers, and plates of granite-ware. The gray enamelled ware is not as good, for many reasons. These enamelled or granite-ware dishes are as easily cleaned as china, but, unlike china, they will not break. Nickel-plated teaspoons are in every way as good as silver for camp purposes, and should not cost more than three cents apiece. Knives and forks to match can easily be found. Be sure they are modern ones with three tines.