Ascending very Big Trees 67 
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possible, to get the rope over some bough above the lowest one, by 
which means a man can be hoisted right on to the lowest. If this 
cannot be done, the party below must handle the rope gently at 
the instant the climber mounts on to the top of the bough, for any 
carelessness at this juncture might result in him being pulled over 
the bough and out of the tree! When a footing among the branches 
has been secured, the bowline (or sling) should be removed and 
made fast to a bough and the ascent continued in the ordinary 
way. But in a big tree, especially a huge oak or cork tree, it may 
happen that the final victory is by no means assured when the 
first bough is reached. For between it and the next one above 
there may be many feet of thick trunk, utterly unscalable. Now 
comes the opportunity for the man who is accustomed to work 
at heights and who, further, is skilful in the handling of ropes. 
For, after hauling up and making a coil of what he may require, 
he makes a cast with the rope over the next bough above and 
either swarms up with the aid of the hand-hold thus afforded, by 
hoiding the two pieces of the rope, or, in more awkward situations, 
drops the fall of the rope to his comrades below and makes himself 
fast to the hoist and repeats the operations already described. 
Sometimes it may be necessary to do this several times before the 
tree diminishes in size enough for the climber to proceed by 
ordinary methods. The uninitiated may imagine that such a process 
requires an endless amount of rope but this is not so. Assume for 
example that the climber has been hoisted to a convenient bough 
40 ft. up. This requires about go ft. out of the hundred available. 
He now sees that until he has ascended another 30 ft., he cannot 
do without a rope and that half-way up, say 15 ft. above him, there 
is another good bough. To reach this next stage but 8o ft. is 
required and for the second under 95 ft. (always allowing 10 ft. 
spare as described). Of course in descending it would be quicker 
were he to be provided with 150 ft. and thus come down in one 
