774 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 16, 1908. 
The Packer’s Art. 
Concluded from page 733. 
Tiie diamond hitch may be thrown in several 
ways, and from either side of the animal. The 
more common method, formerly employed gen¬ 
erally in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho; was 
called the “old government hitch.'” This was 
thrown over a sawbuck or an aparejo indiffer¬ 
ently. 
The aparejo consisted of two large nearly 
square leather sacks or bags laced together at 
one edge, which lacing was over the animal’s 
backbone. Good aparejos are costly, but will 
carry without injury to the animal a much 
heavier load than can be put on a wooden saddle. 
The pack trains used by the United States Army 
were usually furnished with them. The wooden 
saddle, commonly from its shape termed saw- 
buck, consists merely of two thin flat boards 
shaped to fit either side of the animal’s back, 
screwed to stout cross pieces which meet and 
pass each other and are firmly bolted together 
in front and behind. Its cheapness, lightness 
and handiness has made the sawbuck very popu¬ 
lar, and it answers very well for short journeys, 
tight to the horse’s body; there must be no pos¬ 
sibility of its working, still less of its turning. 
A load of 150 pounds of dead freight is much 
more severe on a horse’s back than 150 pounds 
of rider. There is no spring or give to the 
freight, no easing of any jar. The dead weight 
bumps up and down constantly. Therefore, it 
is important that the saddle should stick close 
to the animal and the load close to the saddle. 
There must be no motion between the various 
parts of the load, and no motion to it as a whole 
apart from the beast that is carrying it. Every 
when their loads have been removed. They ar 
usually in good condition. 
More than twenty years ago a long articl 
was published on this subject in Forest an 
Stream. Some of the cuts here given in thi 
article are reproduced from those which illus 
trated that article. The photographs were mad 
last summer in the mountains of British Colum 
bia by Mr. Rutherford Page. 
Arctic Notes from Herschel Islam 
and Eastward. 
Whaling. 
Prior to 1889 it was not considered feasibl 
for whaling ships to conduct their operation' 
east of Point Barrow, but that year ships wen 
east of that point and have continued to d( 
so, working as far east as the ice would allow 
If the ships wintered in that region, Hersche 
Island was usually the point chosen, Bailli 
Island occasionally, and one year a ship win 
tered at some point in Prince Albert Land. 
From 1889 to 1907 thirty-three vessels hav 
SAWBUCK. 
but for long trips aparejos are much better, even 
if they do cost three or four times as much. 
One of the chief secrets of successful packing 
is to have the loads which hang on either side 
of the animal’s backbone so nicely balanced 
that they will pull evenly against each other. 
If one is only a little heavier than the other, the 
continual motion will tend to drag the lighter 
load out of position, while the heavier side 
will constantly fall lower and lower, and the 
first thing one knows he will have grief ahead. 
One who is ignorant of the packer’s art will 
often wonder at the care with which the packer 
will weigh two side packs in the effort to have 
them just equal in weight. These side packs 
are hung over the saddle as stated, but first the 
saddle must be put on. 
A pack saddle, whether it be aparejo or saw¬ 
buck, requires plenty of blanket under it, yet 
not too much. There must be sufficient to pro¬ 
tect the animal’s back, yet not so much as to 
make it possible for the saddle to slip, work or 
roll. The blankets must not be kept down close 
over the animal’s backbone; they should be 
lifted up off it in the middle line, so that there 
may be some circulation of air; if this is not 
attended to there will be sore backs. There¬ 
fore, just before the saddle is cinched it is well 
to grasp the blankets over the backbone with 
the two hands, one in front and one behind the 
saddle, and pull and lift them off the animal's 
backbone and well up into the crotch of the 
saddle. 
It is essential that the saddle should be cinched 
operation of packing should tend to this condi¬ 
tion ; a compact load, firmly lashed on an ani¬ 
mal's back. 
The ropes used in packing are two; one for 
adjusting the side packs on either side of the 
animal where they balance each other, and one 
for lashing the whole load to the animal. The 
last is the more important, for if the lash rope 
remains tight the sling rope will do so also, but 
if the lash rope yields anywhere the load in time 
is sure to go. 
These ropes are sometimes difficult to handle. 
In damp or wet weather they shrink, and when 
they dry off they stretch. In cold weather they 
are often frozen at night and there are few 
things harder on hands and temper than to try 
to put on a load with a frozen rope. However 
tight you may pull a rope, it always takes a little 
away from you again. 
It is only by long practice that one learns to 
throw the diamond hitch, yet practice will give 
skill, and good packers will take their train 
along all day over rough trails with no atten¬ 
tion save an occasional tightening of the rope. 
The good packer also is careful of his animals. 
He not only loads them with judgment, but 
watches them on the trail and looks after them 
engaged in whaling east of Point Barrow, am 
of these ten were wrecked or abandoned. Th 
total number of whales killed was 1,345. Ii 
1894 three ships got 69, 68 and 50 respectivelj 
The whale is the bowhead, and the whaler 
state there are three species of them, that the; 
are still plentiful, but are being driven gradual! 
to the eastward, are almost constantly on th 
move and hard to get to. For some time th 
favorite hunting ground was about Hersche 
Island and the mouth of the McKenzie Rivet 
but is now much further to the eastward. Th 
record whale furnished 3,350 pounds of bone. 
In 1886 a whale was captured near Hersche 
Island with a harpoon head in its body markei 
“Ansel Gibbs.” The ship so named was wreckei 
at Marble Island, Hudson Bay, Oct. 13, 1871. 
In 1887 a whale was taken with a harpooi 
head in it made of native copper. It must hav' 
been placed there by some native hunter eas 
of Point Barrow. There was about half a barre; 
of pus around this harpoon head. 
A third whale was killed in 1893 with a flin 
harpoon head in it. Such heads have in the pas 
been used exclusively in Greenland, and havi 
been in disuse for 25 years previous to 1893. 
During a trip taken in a whaler starting fron 
Herschel Island on Aug. 12, 1907, and so fa 
east as to sight Prince Albert Land, and return 
ing on Aug. 21, 1907, a distance of about 1,6a 
miles was covered. Whales were seen twice 
seven on the 18th of August and three on the 19th 
Boats were sent in pursuit, but owing to th* 
calm weather on both occasions they failed t< 
