The herald., 1898-02-13
HINTS FOR TRAVEL TO KLONDIKF
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valley, who go every year to the high
Sierras to escape the heat. Amng the
| latter you will see no diamond cinch
| used. The MeXicans know it, but rarely
use 1T. never used it again after seeing
the Mexican hitch, because it takes such
toughness and hardness of the hands to
draw the ropes tight enough.
For the Mexican hitch the pack is ar
ranged in the ordinary way, with the
heavier stuff in the large pouches on
each side the pack saddle and the
blankets, etc, folded once) on the top.
| Over the top single rope is then thrown
| across the center. On one side and high
up a single loop is then turned in the
rope exactly like the first half of the
common square knot. The lower edge
of this loop is then passed through the
cinch ring Just far enough to run the
| loose end of the rope through the part
| passed through. The sides of the loop
are then adjusted around the ends of
the pouches and the rest of the pack in
the ordinary way before drawing tight
Then the loose end of the rope is brought
down from above and run through the
new loop just made by passing the lower
part Of the big loop through the cinch
ring. This loose end of the rope
is drawn slightly and then Sc
cured. Going to the other side the
same operation is repeated, but the rope
is now drawn more tightly before Sc
curing. Returning to the first side, the
rope is made tighter and well secured
and then you may put the final pull on
the other side and secure that. You can
| hardly miss it il you try few times and
| do not allow the loops on the sides to be
| more than twelve or fifteen inches apart
at the top of the pack.
This hitch will save you a vast amount
of trouble, and you can put draw rope
across the top between the two main
loops and tighten there if you WISH
| More loss of time and annoyance come
from bad packing than from any other
thing in travel, and if you can find some
one to show you all this, you will do well
to take a few lessons. And if your eX-
perience in knots is limited to the world
renowned granny knot" and the slip
| knot, by all means go and spend a week
with some sailor and have him teach
you the square knot, the boWline, the
Glove hitch and the timber hitch, until
you can make any of them quickly. Not
that you need these to fasten a pack,
but there is great loss of time and some
| times loss of stock from not knowing
how to tie good knots. You can choke
a horse to death on a rainy night with
the silly knot so common in our livery
stables, and have to cut it to get it off.
You can slacken or tighten a proper
bowine in almost a second, and it will
never slip or bind. The Glove hitch is
Invaluable for the picket stake and many
| Shot1I1 ha in6ipt
able to tie granny knot in anything.
Green hands are apt to be too fast
with the horses and in the end lose
more time than is gained by pushing
them. Pushing horses too hard on
scanty feed is very unwise, because if
they fall off 1t is very hard to get them
up. And you cannot overcome this very
long by the brilliant expedient of feed
ing them plenty of water. If you are
travelling in very rough ground, and es-
pecially in bad windfalls, where the
horses must climb many logs, they must
be kept as strong as possible and in good
| cheer, or they will not make half-t time
and may at any time fail.
| Almost every camper gets left" two
or three times on the horse that "never
leaves camp" and especially the horse
that never leaves the other horse" or
the "bell mare" There are such horses,
but they are like the inside ring in
| political deal. The trouble is to know
when you are in it. After being left on
foot few times, one concludes that it is
| not safe to bet on such faithful ami
mails. The perversity with which a horse
will leave the best of grass and wander
| mile after mile in search of still better
nothing is one of the marvels of the
brute world, although it is possible to
| get stock into a country so outlandish
that they will not attempt to move un-
| less made to.
| There are a thousand tricks about the
details of camping that make vast diff
| ference in the pleasure and comfort of
| all parties, but are too long to detail.
| Such, for instance, as the fact that two
| small fires on very cold night will keep
a man warm between them, whereas
with one large one, it Will be alternate
roasting and freezing on one side or the
other. 1t is simply a question of which
is the more easy to make and keep going
But it is often better to get up frequently
| to fix two small fires than to turn over
at big one every five minutes to roast
the freezing side. A big fire is also a
nuisance to cook by, but the tenderfoot
is quite sure to make as large one as
the fuel will justify. He is also quite apt
to pitch tent in a hollow, and then for
get to drain it until the rain has proved
it needs draining. He is quite likely, too,
to have tent pins that will go in just far
enough to come out easily as soon as
the ground is wet and the wind blows a
little. And stretching the tent so tight
that it will not sag and leak where it
touches anything is something he seems
to learn only by experience.
If there are blow-flies or similar in
sects there, you should carry among
your medicines calomel or similar stuff,
so that you can keep the flies out Of
sores on the animals. have seen hun
dreds of sores doctored with calomel on
man and beast and never saw it fail to
heal. A fly will never touch sore that
has little poydered on it and it is death
to every egg if any are laid. 1 have
saved two horses in my time that would
surely have died but for the calomel !
had brought along, but one should know
how to throw horse with ropes for its
application in the worst cases. 1t seems
sure cure for all kind Of festered or
liberated wounds of any kind and there