462 PORTAGE OF HEADS. 



for Tibet, where wood is not procurable, about two dozen 

 light iron ones will be necessary, and made so that when not 

 in use they can be chained together and secured with a pad- 

 lock, otherwise they are apt to stick to " light-fingered " hands 

 like needles to a magnet. 



The best kind of camp-bed is that made like the native's 

 common "charpai" (bedstead, literally meaning four legs), 

 constructed so that the side and end poles can be removed 

 from the holes made for them in the legs. A piece of strong 

 " durrie " (coarse Indian canvas) is laced tightly to one of the 

 end and one of the side poles, the other two having first 

 been passed through loops made to receive them by doubling 

 over the canvas, thereby saving time and trouble in lacing. 

 The great advantage of such a bed is its simplicity, as, if a 

 pole is broken, it can easily be replaced with a stick from the 

 nearest wood ; besides its convenience of transport. 



For whatever else in the way of travelling equipments the 

 sportsman may deem necessary, I may refer him to ' Galton's 

 Art of Travel ' and ' Hints to Travellers,' published by the 

 Eoyal Geographical Society. But the less he takes with him, 

 beyond what is absolutely required, the better, more especially 

 on the higher ranges, where carriage for his traps and his 

 trophies is often difficult to obtain. 



The following will be found a good way of dealing with 

 large-horned heads, as rendering them more portable. When 

 skinning a head, which should be cut off as near the trunk as 

 possible without disfiguring the rest of the skin, commence 

 by slitting up the skin on the top of the neck towards the 

 nape, almost as far as the space between the burrs. From 

 thence cut a short lateral slit to the base of each horn. Then 

 peel off the skin bodily from the neck and head, severing the 

 cartilages of the ears from the head as they are reached. 

 After the skull has been thoroughly cleaned, and the lower 

 jaw removed from it, saw it in two down the centre. When 

 required to be set up, the divided skull is refastened together 



