exact directness of explanation. Whether a packer 

 sings out, "Kill 'em." or "Cinch!" is a matter of no im- 

 portance — I have no intention of offering a mere vocab- 

 ulary — but that, at certain stages of throwing a hitch, 

 some signal facilitates the work, is a matter of im- 

 portance. So I have given an apparent formality to 

 methods solely for purposes of clearness. When 

 two men understand each other — as I have seen a team 

 of packers work in loading an Army mule — there ap- 

 pears a conjurer's rope that seems to fairly flow in 

 even coils through the mazes of an intricate hitch, sud- 

 denly to grow rigid as the mule grunts while the watch 

 has ticked off but fifty seconds. 



I am also under obligations to War Department 

 Document No. 360, a most interesting compila- 

 tion of pack transportation in the Army, and to 

 the able contributions that Mr. H. W. Daly, Chief 

 Packer of the Quartermaster's Department has made 

 to that Document, and to Col. Hugh L. Scott who 

 assisted in its preparation. Colonel Scott describes 

 Mr. Daly as one of the last of the old-time packers 

 who grew up with the pack service under General 

 George Crook. He ascribes to him the study that re- 

 sulted in the discovery of the cause of the bunches that 

 arise on the pack animal's body; to him also the method 

 of curing the bunches and various inventions that have 

 added greatly to the service and development of sci- 

 entific pack transportation in the United States Army. 

 I have given the detailed specifications for the aparejo 

 from this document so that, if necessary, the aparejo 

 may be made when needed. 



I wish also to make my acknowledgment of appre- 

 ciation to Sergeant Wiman of the Quartermaster's De- 

 partment in charge of the pack transportation at West 



