But Before Day Breaks He Will Feel Under Him The
Roots And Stones, And When He Awakes He Is Stiff, Sore And
Unrefreshed.
Ten minutes spent in digging holes for hips and
shoulder-blades, in collecting grass and branches to spread beneath
his blanket, and leaves to stuff in his boots for a pillow, will give
him a whole night of comfort and start him well and fit on the next
day's tramp.
If you have watched an old sergeant, one of the Indian
fighters, of which there are now too few left in the army, when he
goes into camp, you will see him build a bunk and possibly a shelter
of boughs just as though for the rest of his life he intended to
dwell in that particular spot. Down in the Garcia campaign along the
Rio Grande I said to one of them: "Why do you go to all that
trouble? We break camp at daybreak." He said: "Do we? Well, maybe
you know that, and maybe the captain knows that, but I don't know it.
And so long as I don't know it, I am going to be just as snug as
though I was halted here for a month." In camping, that was one of
my first and best lessons - to make your surroundings healthy and
comfortable. The temptation always is to say, "Oh, it is for only
one night, and I am too tired." The next day you say the same thing,
"We'll move to-morrow. What's the use?" But the fishing or shooting
around the camp proves good, or it comes on to storm, and for maybe a
week you do not move, and for a week you suffer discomforts. An hour
of work put in at the beginning would have turned it into a week of
ease.
When there is transport of even one pack-horse, one of the best helps
toward making camp quickly is a combination of panniers and bed used
for many years by E. F. Knight, the Times war correspondent, who lost
an arm at Gras Pan. It consists of two leather trunks, which by day
carry your belongings slung on either side of the pack-animal, and by
night act as uprights for your bed. The bed is made of canvas
stretched on two poles which rest on the two trunks. For travelling
in upper India this arrangement is used almost universally. Mr.
Knight obtained his during the Chitral campaign, and since then has
used it in every war. He had it with Kuroki's army during this last
campaign in Manchuria. {6}
A more compact form of valise and bed combined is the "carry-all," or
any of the many makes of sleeping-bags, which during the day carry
the kit and at night when spread upon the ground serve for a bed.
The one once most used by Englishmen was Lord Wolseley's "valise and
sleeping-bag." It was complicated by a number of strings, and
required as much lacing as a dozen pairs of boots. It has been
greatly improved by a new sleeping-bag with straps, and flaps that
tuck in at the ends. But the obvious disadvantage of all sleeping-
bags is that in rain and mud you are virtually lying on the hard
ground, at the mercy of tarantula and fever.
The carry-all is, nevertheless, to my mind, the most nearly perfect
way in which to pack a kit. I have tried the trunk, valise, and
sleeping-bag, and vastly prefer it to them all. My carry-all differs
only from the sleeping-bag in that, instead of lining it so that it
may be used as a bed, I carry in its pocket a folding cot. By
omitting the extra lining for the bed, I save almost the weight of
the cot. The folding cot I pack is the Gold Medal Bed, made in this
country, but which you can purchase almost anywhere. I once carried
one from Chicago to Cape Town to find on arriving I could buy the bed
there at exactly the same price I had paid for it in America. I also
found them in Tokio, where imitations of them were being made by the
ingenious and disingenuous Japanese. They are light in weight,
strong, and comfortable, and are undoubtedly the best camp-bed made.
When at your elevation of six inches above the ground you look down
from one of them upon a comrade in a sleeping-bag with rivulets of
rain and a tide of muddy water rising above him, your satisfaction,
as you fall asleep, is worth the weight of the bed in gold.
My carry-all is of canvas with a back of waterproof. It is made up
of three strips six and a half feet long. The two outer strips are
each two feet three inches wide, the middle strip four feet. At one
end of the middle strip is a deep pocket of heavy canvas with a flap
that can be fastened by two straps. When the kit has been packed in
this pocket, the two side strips are folded over it and the middle
strip and the whole is rolled up and buckled by two heavy straps on
the waterproof side. It is impossible for any article to fall out or
for the rain to soak in. I have a smaller carry-all made on the same
plan, but on a tiny scale, in which to carry small articles and a
change of clothing. It goes into the pocket after the bed, chair,
and the heavier articles are packed away. When the bag is rolled up
they are on the outside of and form a protection to the articles of
lighter weight.
The only objection to the carry-all is that it is an awkward bundle
to pack. It is difficult to balance it on the back of an animal, but
when you are taking a tent with you or carrying your provisions, it
can be slung on one side of the pack saddle to offset their weight on
the other.
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