Use of a Pendent Bough 63 
climber. For there were scores of other trees all round it some 
higher and with fewer branches and apparently more formidable 
but as regards security from attack none of them could be compared 
to the one the Ravens had built in. 
There are very few large trees which cannot be climbed with 
CLIMBING A BIG SPANISH OAK TREE BY THE AID OF A PENDENT BOUGH. 
greater ease and rapidity with the aid of ropes than without. Now 
and again some of the largest trees, which are unscalable without 
the aid of some artificial means of reaching the lower branches can 
be successfully tackled by ascending from the extreme end of some 
pendent bough which enables the climber to effect a lodgment well 
up in the tree, likely enough in some part whence a further ascent 
is an easy matter. 
