THE OOLOGIS'J . 



31 



iioe — about oue hundred to two hun- 

 dred feet long should he used as fol- 

 lows: Tie on to the end of the rope an 

 iron nut or stone and throw over the 

 tirst strong limb letting it slide back to 

 the ground, and fasten to climber just 

 under his arms. Then his companion 

 grasping the other end steadies him as 

 he ascends. 



From experience I know that theie is 

 a great advantage in this mode, for I)h- 

 sides securing absolute safety to the 

 •climber he can advance much more rap- 

 idly and will not be so tired as he would 

 l)e without the aid of the rope. If ad- 

 ditional safety is desired it may be had 

 l)y embracing both the body of the 

 <'limber and the trunk of the tree with 

 a strong strap, long enough to permit 

 abundance of space between the climb- 

 er and tree. He leans i)ack to keep the 

 strap rigid and as he advances raises 

 the strap above him. 



An old and well es'ablished method is 

 by using the strap alone in the manner 

 above described. I could never lea-n 

 to use this method but other's have used 

 il with good results. 



There has been vai'ious devises in 

 the way of light ladders, but my opin- 

 ion is that they should not be used ex- 

 cept in case the person collecting is by 

 himself, for when two are together 

 there is a much better substitute, which 

 though vei'y simple is not practiced as 

 it coulii be. 



It consists only in one climber mount- 

 ing the other's i-iioulders. To be ex- 

 plicit let me call one of our collecting 

 party number one and. the other num- 

 ber two. Number one bends his back 

 low enough for number two to stradle 

 his neck. Number two obtains this po- 

 sition by advancing with his back to 

 number one's face. Now number one 

 raises to an erect position by pressing 

 hard on his knees with his hand. Ten 

 to one this brings number two high 

 enough to reach the lower branches. 

 This position is easily and quickly ob- 



tained doing away with the short lad- 

 der. 



To show the etl'ectiveness of this sys- 

 tem I will cite an actual case. While 

 out collecting with a friend we found a 

 Cuckoo's nest in one of those trouble- 

 some thorn trees which could not be 

 ascended by way of the trunk. We 

 were about to pass by, but being very 

 desirous of the eggs we stopped and 

 took a survey. There was directly un- 

 der the nest a stout limb ten feet from 

 the ground; three feet above and a little 

 to one side was another. This Jimb 

 divided into two smaLer bi'anches 

 which would give a good foothold to 

 one standing on them; six feet above 

 was the nest. The situation and ques- 

 tion was: — A nest was far out from the 

 trunk of an "unclimbable" tree, and 19 

 feet from the ground. How was it to 

 be reached? Easy enough. My com- 

 panion bent his back and in a trice I 

 could reach the first limb spoken of. 

 Breaking off a few thorns I easily climb- 

 ed onto lit and was soon standing on 

 the forked one three feet above. Now 

 the nest was easily reached. 



Oftentimes thei'e are nests far out on 

 slender bi^anches which are left because, 

 the branches will not bear the weight. 

 Many such nests could be taken by this 

 method. If they can not be reached by 

 sitting on the shoulders then stand or if 

 needs be stand on the supporter's head. 



To obtain this position is a little diffi- 

 cult but can soon be mastered by prac- 

 tice. In this number one does noc bend 

 so far as before. Number two firmly 

 grasps the shoulders and placing the 

 right knee on number one's backlijihtly 

 springs upward, placing the left knee 

 on number one's left shoulder, then the 

 right foot on number one's right should- 

 er he arises to a standing position. Now 

 number one slowly arists,steadies num- 

 ber two by holding firmly to his legs. 

 In doing this the shoes should be le- 

 nioved and it should be practiced at 

 first at the tree trunk using it as a sup- 



