Sleeping bag

“ Being sack-like the sleeping bag retains the heat within and keeps the cold out. It is easy to unroll, keeps out dirt and wind and the contents may remain dry and one has full protection in any kind of weather.
The objectionable feature is that the bag cannot be drawn up closely to the body and the resulting air space is difficult to warm up. It is hard to adjust the top to keep the air from the sleeper’s shoulders and the inevitable twisting and turning of the sleeper bunches the blanket up around the limbs. ”

“ Even the gentleman camper, scornfully referred to above, chooses the lightest, warmest blankets he can find; the pedestrian can do no better. However, he does not take so many. But, respecting the outer covering, the pedestrian refuses the heavy water-proofed duck of the ordinary sleeping bag, and selects instead water-proofed balloon silk.
The simplest sleeping bag may be made by folding a six by six wool blanket within a cover of water-proofed balloon silk and sewing together the bottom edges, and the side edges, too, from the bottom upward, to within a foot or so of the top. ”

“ A hot-water bag, also, takes up no room and is heavenly on a freezing night when the wind is howling through the trees and snow threatens. N.B.—See that your husband or brother has a similar outfit, or he will borrow yours.
The sleeping bags should be separated and dried either by sun or fire every other day.
Always keep all your sleeping things together in your bed roll, and your husband's things together in his bed bundle. It will save you many a sigh and weary hunt in the dark and cold. The tent and such things, you can afford to leave to your guide or to luck. ”

“ A mode of rolling blanket and tarpaulin and of securing the roll to the knapsack is suggested on page 18.
Blanket pins are worth carrying. By using them one may keep himself snug, nearly as well as in a sleeping bag.
A small cotton bag, useful in a pack, may be stuffed with clothing and serve as a pillow.
A satisfactory sleeping bag will hardly be found in the shops; those that are serviceable are too heavy for the pedestrian. And yet the idea embodied in the sleeping bag, the idea of attaining maximum warmth from the materials used, jumps precisely with the pedestrian’s needs. ”

“ Barker that I would not need them, that there was "hy-iu mit-lite pa-se-se" (plenty of covering on the bed) . I told them, however, that I could sleep better in my own blankets and preferred to use them. I took the bundle into my room, spread the sleeping-bag on the bed and crawled into it. The outer covering of the bag being of thick, hard canvas, I hoped it would prove an effectual barrier against the assaults of the vermin, and that they might not find the portal by which I entered, and so it proved. ”

“ Daily we had learned to appreciate more and more the joy of the sleeping bag. It was the only animal comfort which afforded a relief to our life of frigid hardship, and often with the thought of it we tried to [Pg 238] force upon the weary body in the long marches a pleasing anticipation. ”

“ Cut out your two main bag pieces, or top and bottom, to the shape of two large sleeve boards such as tailors use, now cut out two long narrow slips, about twenty inches wide, and long enough to go the whole length of both sides and round the tapered rounded bottom of the bag, and up to the end-borders of the mouth, these strips are sewn in exactly as the leather is attached to the upper and lower boards of a pair of common bellows. Sleeping-bags should be made very strong, in order that they may be used to carry a variety of odd articles in. ”

“ If when sleeping a man is not wearing all that he carries, then he is carrying more than is necessary. He may, indeed, have stuffed in his pack woolen underclothes, for night wear only. For another thing, in making choice between one material and another, the weight of the material is important in far greater degree to the walker than to the gentleman camper. With these considerations in mind, the pedestrian contrives his sleeping bag of the lightest material available to serve the ends in view. ”

“ I have tried many kinds of beds, and many kinds of blankets, and sleeping bags, too, even the Eskimo sleeping bag of double skin—hairless sealskin on the outside and hairy caribou skin on the inside—and many a night I have slept out in the snow when it was fifty degrees below zero, and experience has taught me that the rabbit skin blanket is best for winter use in the northern forest. A sleeping bag that is large enough to get into is too large when you are in it ”

“ It is an unpleasant trap to be in when a squall springs up suddenly at night or the tent catches fire. No less famous an explorer than Peary discarded the sleeping bag for the reason that, aside from its being a weighty extra item of outfit, when sleeping in snow igloos he was in constant danger of a break in the icy floor from the formation of pressure ridges and if encumbered in the bag he would have extricated himself with difficulty. ”

“ For outdoors, he should not be bundled until the minute before he departs. A thin cap of cotton, linen, or silk may be worn in warm weather (or none at all after three months) and a double one for winter, not thick enough to cause perspiration. For the first twelve months a kimono-sleeved coat, with drawstrings at shoulder and wrist, will provide protection, with the blankets, for cold weather. The nightgown pattern may be used to make a sleeping bag of eiderdown, broadcloth, or flannel. This allows much more freedom than the usual type of sleeping bag, and is better ventilated. ”

“ Our luggage, by the way, consists of a sleeping bag, in which much of our stuff is packed, and a kit sack—for an immediate change and toilet articles one carries a haversack hung across the shoulder. Well, as I say, we alighted and coaxed a military wagon to come to our rescue. ”

“ In fact when I creep into my Mummery tent and take my boots off and pull on a pair of special long sleeping-socks over my dry stockings, and put on a dry shirt and pull down my Balaclava cap, and then creep into my swan’s-down sleeping-bag, and finally have a nice hot pull out of my thermos bottle, I have often wondered myself why the coolies should complain of feeling unwell in the morning. ”

“ A sleeping bag or blankets must be taken for each person, and if blankets are used, three pairs of four-point Hudson Bay blankets if properly arranged will suffice to keep a man fairly warm, even with the thermometer 10° below zero. ”

“ An inflatable air-cushion is light to pack, and handy either as a pillow or as a seat in camp. The air-cushion makes a better seat than pillow, for which the writer always uses a canvas bag packed with spare clothes, flannels, &c., carried inside the roll of blankets. The sleeping bag made of blankets, with an outside covering of tarpaulin to lace up over the blankets, and with a hood or pillow-case of tarpaulin attached to hold pillow or canvas clothes-bag, is the most convenient outfit of the kind for America. ”

“ The beds were made by first clearing away the ground, then piling in hemlock boughs fully three feet deep. Over this was placed the sleeping bag, and no softer bed ever held a tired camper. The bed had also the merit of raising one from the ground, out of the water, provided there should be rain in the night. ”

“ These thin patches remain damp whenever one is in the bag, and in a short time they lose their hair. The damp spreads, like decay in wood, and continually attacks the surrounding skin, with the result that one fine day you find yourself with a hairless sleeping-bag. ”

“ The down of waterfowl, especially that of the eider duck, when stitched between any suitable fabric and quilted, forms a most powerful non-conductor of heat. A very useful and cheap form of sleeping-bag can be made by pasting a number of old newspapers together, giving them a coat of boiled linseed oil, and then stitching them between two sheets of any tough durable fabric. The person about to be measured for a sleeping bag should have the extreme breadth of the shoulders, width across hips, and height taken, adding eighteen inches to the head of the bag to form a flap. ”

“ The wet swells up the fibres of the plaid, and makes the texture of it perfectly dense and close. It is also of importance that the outer covering should have a certain weight, so as not to be too easily displaced, either by the person fidgeting in his sleep or by the blowing of the wind. In dry weather there is nothing like furs; but in a rainy country I prefer a thick blanket bag (see "Sleeping Bags") , a large spare blanket, and a macintosh sheet and counterpane. ”

“ The lower one can be rolled with your spare clothes inside it to form your pillow, while the upper one can be supported by a crossbar to form a little roof over your head. In a sleeping bag of this kind, if waterproof, you can sleep out without a tent at all.
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HOW TO MAKE A CAMP BED. A very simple and comfortable form of camp bed-and one which you can easily rig up and use in your home, or at an inn, if a bedstead is not available-is this: Make a "hasty stretcher" with two staves and a sack, and lay the ends of the staves on a couple of logs, stones, or boxes. ”

“ Good bedding, beds, and proper shelter are very important both for comfort and health. Blankets or sleeping bags are essential, and the blankets should be of pure wool. Some blanket safety pins should be included in the equipment for the night. In cold weather sleeping bags are a decided advantage over blankets. A comforter, especially one filled with wool, is warm and provides a satisfying protection against the chill of a cold night. ”

“ It should protect the sleeper from the cold which is greatest near the tent’s floor and from the winds whose greatest force is spent when it contends against the properly pitched shelter overhead. Provision must be made for keeping the bedding off the ground and for allowing an egress of moisture in the summer and a retention of heat in winter. One has a variety of styles to choose from, ranging from sleeping on the warmed bare ground to luxuriating on the latest invention for creature comfort when camping—the combined pneumatic mattress and blanket bag. ”

“ Then they had a double sleeping bag, and blankets that were light and warm both, and a lot of condensed foods and that little alcohol stove, and a complete kit of aluminum cooking and188 eating ware that closed together—and everything went into those two packs. ”

“ What tried us more than anything else was thick weather and the fearfully bad light on days when no landmarks were visible to guide us to the depot. Our sleeping-bags also were frozen and uncomfortable, thick rime collecting on the insides of our tents which every puff of wind would shake down in a shower of ice. When sitting round on our rolled-up sleeping-bags at meal times we could not help our heads and shoulders brushing off patches of this frost rime, which soon accumulated in the fur of the sleeping-bags and made life at night a clammy misery. ”

“ A great secret of sleeping comfortably in camp is to have a canvas bag about two feet long by one foot wide into which you pack odds and ends—or carry empty and fill up with grass or underclothing to form your pillow at night. ”

“ A convenient laundry bag for use in each sleeping apartment is easily made of a square piece of stout material of desired size, hemmed round the edge, and having a two-inch strap of the material securely sewed to each corner. ”

“ Both are the same
1 Thin mattress for sleeping bags having tag #GAL-2652 and manufactured by Wilber and Son, 590 Howard Street, San Francisco
1 Army-type sleeping bag cover, contractor, Seattle Quiet Mfg. Company, stamped "Quartermaster, Seattle General Depot."
1 Sleeping bag with red air mattress, all around zipper on bottom and side
1 Mandolin with pick, "Nick Lucas"
1 Violin, bow and case, leather, cloth package containing resin by the A.B. Rosin, and flexible cover made in England, W.E. Hill and Sons, 140 New Bond St., W. Violin bow has name "Tourte". ”

“ The contents of the larger bag usually are the sleeping mat, the fire-stick and rattan, and tobacco. The sleeping mat is a fabric of pandanus leaves, which can be used either as a mat to lie upon or as a shelter from the rain; it measures usually about six by three feet and is neatly folded to be carried in the bag. The manufacture of these mats is always the work of the women and is a very ingenious process. The long ribbon-like leaves of the pandanus are split horizontally into two strips; the shiny upper one alone is used and the lower is thrown away. ”

“ The difficulty with the sleeping bags on the market is that they are made for gentlemen campers, and not for those who take up their beds and walk. For one thing, the gentleman camper has abundance of clothing, with changes of all kinds. But the pedestrian sleeps in his clothes. Of course he does. It would be folly for him to carry in his pack the equivalent of what he wears on his back. His day clothes should be serviceable as night clothes, too. All he need carry is the additional protection required when he is resting on the ground in the colder night hours. ”

“ The proper covering for head and feet is no slight affair, and will be found worth some attention. Be careful that the boots are not too tight, or the hat too loose. The above rig will give the tourist one shirt, one pair of drawers and a pair of socks to carry as extra clothing. A soft, warm blanket-bag, open at the ends, and just long enough to cover the sleeper, with an oblong square of water-proofed cotton cloth 6×8 feet, will give warmth and shelter by night and will weigh together five or six pounds. ”