368 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



dig into the horse's back or ribs all the day long. Do 

 not be so lazy that when you stop at noon you allow 

 the animal to wear the pack for an hour or so instead 

 of taking it off and giving him a rest too. If you can 

 do it, make your journey all in one march and get it 

 over with and the pack off for the day. Keep the ropes 

 tightened up. After going a mile or two in the morn- 

 ing, make it a plan to stop the outfit and go over the 

 packs and see how everything is riding. With this 

 overhauling the average pack should ride all the rest of 

 the day. 



For regular traveling in the mountainous country 

 200 pounds is all an animal should ordinarily carry. Its 

 pack is a dead load and carries heavier than the load 

 your saddle animal carries. 



Hitches. There is a good deal of glamour about the 

 "throwing of the diamond hitch." To many people it 

 is believed to be a sort of patent of frontier nobility. 

 This may be so to a certain extent, but there are many 

 old-time westerners who never knew how to throw the 

 diamond and still have spent many years of their lives 

 in handling pack outfits. The truth is that the diamond 

 hitch is rather a professional tie to be used with an apare- 

 jo. It can be and of course is used with other packs 

 and outfits, but to learn it is not an easy matter and 

 unless one is using it all the time and in constant practice 

 one is apt to get mixed on it and end up with what is 

 frequently called an "Oregon wind." (Make that word 

 rhyme with "find.") There are an endless number of 

 hitches used by western men, as the squaw, the stirrup, 

 the bed and the basco; all are good and for their pur- 

 poses quite as satisfactory in every way as the diamond. 



Of these there are but two to which I shall call at- 



