ffs and will answer for
that purpose. Set the boughs upside down so that they will shed the rain
and not hold it so as to drip into camp. Use your common sense and
gumption, which will teach you that all the boughs should point downward
and not upward as most of them naturally grow. I am careful to call your
attention to this because I lately saw some men teaching Boy Scouts how to
make camps and they were placing the boughs for the lads around the
shelter with their branches pointing upward in such a manner that they
could not shed the rain. These instructors were city men and apparently
thought that the boughs were for no other purpose than to give privacy to
the occupants of the shelter, forgetting that in the wilds the wilderness
itself furnishes privacy.

Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10.

[Illustration: The half-cave shelter.]

The half cave was probably the first lean-to or shelter in this country,
but overhanging cliffs are not always found where we wish to make our camp
and we must resort to other forms of shelter and the use of other material
in such localities.

III

HOW TO MAKE THE FALLEN-TREE SHELTER AND THE SCOUT-MASTER

NOW that you know how to make a bed in a half cave, we will take up the
most simple and primitive manufactured shelters.

Fallen-Tree Shelter

For a one-man one-night stand, select a thick-foliaged fir-tree and cut it
partly through the trunk so that it will fall as shown in Fig. 11; then
trim off the branches on the under-side so as to leave room to make your
bed beneath the branches; next trim the branches off the top or roof of
the trunk and with them thatch the roof. Do this by setting the branches
with their butts up as shown in the right-hand shelter of Fig. 13, and
then thatch with smaller browse as described in making the bed. This will
make a cosey one-night shelter.

The Scout-Master

Or take three forked sticks (_A_, _B_, and _C_, Fig. 12), and interlock
the forked ends so that they will stand as shown in Fig. 12. Over this
framework rest branches with the butt ends up as shown in the right-hand
shelter (Fig. 13), or lay a number of poles as shown in the left-hand
figure (Fig. 12) and thatch this with browse as illustrated by the
left-hand shelter in Fig. 13, or take elm, spruce, or birch bark and
shingle as in Fig. 14. These shelters may be built for one boy or they may
be made large enough for several men. They may be thatched with balsam,
spruce, pine, or heml