234 



RECREATION 



elude potatoes in their provisions, which 

 now, in their evaporated form, may be 

 carried with the greatest ease ? In fact, 

 the "grub-pile" nowadays may include 

 about everything for which a man with 

 a trail appetite has any desire, and 

 usually one finds the guides very ready 

 to adopt any luxury in food that is put 

 up in any easily portable form. 



are used, the packing is simplified, as 

 these may be filled until of equal 

 weights, but when basket or sling ropes 

 are used more care must be taken. 

 When the horse is ready the guide 

 designates two things that he has 

 found to be of about equal weight, 

 from fifty to sixty pounds each, and 

 these are put on as side packs. Between 



A PACK TRAIN. 



Photograph by J. Brewster. 



But to return to our camp. When 

 the tents are down and everything is 

 in shape the real business of packing 

 begins. While one man is bringing up 

 a horse and tightening the cinches, the 

 head guide or packer is stepping about 

 among the packs, lifting one here and 

 one there in an apparently aimless 

 fashion, as though undecided what to 

 take first, but in reality he is weighing 

 them and sizing them up, that he may 

 as nearly as possible balance the loads 

 and thus avoid giving his horses sore 

 backs. If alforjas, bags made either 

 of heavy canvas or leather, with straps 

 to hook on to the horns of the saddle, 



these is put a top pack, with perhaps 

 a pair of blankets or a tent over all, 

 the ends of the sling ropes are tied, the 

 pack cover or mantle is thrown over 

 and we are ready for the diamond hitch 

 of which everybody, whether they 

 have ever seen a pack-train or not, has 

 heard. 



Contrary to the usual belief, there is 

 more than one diamond hitch. I know 

 one man who has been packing almost 

 all his life that throws eight different 

 hitches, the one he uses depending on 

 the size and shape of the pack to be 

 secured. The throwing of a hitch is 

 a thing that must be seen to be under- 



