Mattress.—­Making a mattress is indeed a very simple affair.  A bag of canvas, or other cloth, is made of the size wanted.  It is then stuffed full of hair, wool, dry leaves, or cotton, and a strong stitch is put through it every few inches.  The use of the stitching is to prevent the stuffing from being displaced, and forming lumps in different parts of the bag.

Palliasse.—­Straw, well knitted or plaited together, forms a good mattress, commonly called a palliasse.

Shavings of Wood.—­Eight pounds’ weight of shavings make an excellent bed, and I find I can cut them with a common spokeshave, in 3 1/2 hours, out of a log of deal.  It is practicable to make an efficient spokeshave, by tying a large clasp-knife on a common stick which has been cut into a proper shape to receive it.

Oakum.—­Old cord, picked into oakum, will also make a bed.

Various Makeshifts.—­If a traveller, as is very commonly the case, should have no mattress, he should strew his sleeping-place with dry grass, plucked up from the ground, or with other things warm to the touch, imitating the structure of a bird’s-nest as far as he has skill and materials to do so.  Leaves, fern, feathers, heather, rushes, flags of reeds and of maize, wood-shavings, bundles of faggots, and such like materials as chance may afford, should be looked for and appropriated; a pile of stones, or even two trunks of trees rolled close together, may make a dry bedstead in a marshy land.  Over these, let him lay whatever empty bags, skins, saddle-cloths, or spare clothes he may have, which from their shape or smallness cannot be turned to account as coverings, and the lower part of his bed is complete.

If a night of unusual cold be expected, the best use to make of spare wearing-apparel, is to put it on over that which is already on the person.  With two or three shirts, stockings, and trousers, though severally of thin materials, a man may get through a night of very trying weather.

Preparing the Ground for a Bed.—­Travellers should always root up the stones and sticks that might interfere with the smoothness of the place where they intend to sleep.  This is a matter worth taking a great deal of pains about; the oldest campaigners are the most particular in making themselves comfortable at night.  They should also scrape a hollow in the ground, of the shape shown in fig. 2 (next page), before spreading their sleeping-rugs.  It is disagreeable enough to lie on a perfectly level surface, like that of a floor, but the acme of discomfort is to lie upon a convexity.  Persons who have omitted to make a shapely lair for themselves, should at least scrape a hollow in the ground, just where the hip-bone would otherwise press.

[Sketch of person sleeping and bed; Fig. 1 and 2].

The annexed sketch (fig. 1) represents a man sleeping in a natural attitude.  It will be observed that he fits into a concavity of about 6 inches in greatest depth. (The scale on which he is drawn is 6 feet long and 1 foot high.)