BURDEN AND FURNITURE. Ill 



furnished with a rope crupper and placed upon 

 the back so as to inclose the hump. Upon this 

 cushion rests a frame consisting of two pairs of 

 flat sticks meeting at top like a chevron or pair 

 of rafters, and connected at bottom by a couple 

 of sticks two or three feet long, secured to the 

 others by thongs. The pad soon fits* itself 

 to the shape of the back and sides, and the 

 frame nestles into the pad, while the hump ris- 

 ing in the centre of the whole apparatus keeps 

 everything in place, so that no girth, or at most 

 a loose rope, is needed to confine the saddle. 

 The load stowed in sacks, or better still in rope 

 nettings, is balanced across the saddle, and the 

 water-skins are suspended beneath. 



The pack saddle of the Bactrian must of 

 course be modified to suit the different configur- 

 ation of the back, but it is substantially Like that 

 of the Arabian animal. The double hump cre- 

 ates some inconvenience in arranging the pad, 

 and an impression that the humps are too sen- 

 sitive to allow of loading the backs extensively 

 prevails. It is for these reasons, no doubt, that 

 the Bactrian is little used for burdens in Cabul 

 or the Russian provinces, on the Black Sea, but 

 the objections have not elsewhere been found 

 formidable enough to interfere seriously with 

 the usefulness of the animal. Erman says ex- 

 pressly that he saw them at Kiachta. with bales 

 on both sides of their pack-saddles. 



