[Fig 5-7—­sketches of tents].

A pyramidal tent (fig. 6), of seven or nine feet in the side, is remarkable for its sturdiness:  it will stand any weather, will hold two people and a fair quantity of luggage besides; it weighs from 25 to 40 lbs.  It is not a good tent for hot weather, for it is far too stuffy, though by taking an additional joint to the tent-pole, and using tent-ropes (as may also be done with any other kind of tent), it may be made more airy by being raised up, and by having walls added to it (fig. 7).  In default of canvas, the walls may be constructed of other materials. (See “Materials for Huts.”)

Tent Pitched over an Excavation.—­A hole may be dug deeply beneath the tent floor, partly for the purpose of a store-room, and partly for that of a living-room when the weather is very inclement.  This was practised before Sebastopol in the manner shown in the fig. p. 158.  The notched pole acts as a ladder for ascending from below.

Jourts.—­The Kirghis-jourt is a capacious, solid, warm, and fireproof structure, that admits of being pitched or taken to pieces in an hour, and withstands the cold and violent winds of the steppes of Central Asia, in a way that no tent or combination of tents could pretend to effect.  A jourt of from 20 to 25, or even 30 feet in diameter, forms two camel-loads, or about half a ton in weight.

[Fig. 8].

One camel carries the felt, the other the wood-work.  Fig. 9 shows the jourt half-covered; and fig. 10 gives an enlarged view of a portion of the side.  There are four separate parts in its structure:—­1.  The door-way, a solid piece of ornamental carpentering, that takes to pieces instantly. 2.  The sides, which consist of lengths of wood-work, that shut up on the principle of the contrivance known sometimes as “lazy-tongs,” and sometimes as “easy-back scissors:”  they tie together and make a circle, beginning and ending with the doorway; a tape is wound round them, as shown in fig. 9, about one-third from their tops. 3.  The roof-ribs.  The bottom of each of these is tied to the sides of the jourt (A, fig. 10), and its top fits into a socket in—­4, the roof-ring, which is a hoop of wood strengthened by transverse bars.  Over this framework broad sheets of felt are thrown:  their own weight makes them lie steadily, for they are quite an inch in thickness; however, in very stormy weather, if I recollect aright, they are weighted with stones, or they are stitched together.  There is no metal in the structure:  the laths of willow-wood that form the sides are united, where they cross, by pieces of sinew knotted at either end; these act as pivots when the sides are shut up.  I am indebted to the late Mr. Atkinson for my information on these interesting structures.  Further particulars about them, the native way of making the felt, by continually rolling sheepskins with the wool between them, and numerous pictures, in which jourts form a striking feature, will be found in his beautifully illustrated work on Siberia.