are simply hobbles by
which a hind foot and a fore foot are shackled--may work. I have had
pretty good success by fastening a short heavy chain to one fore leg. As
long as the animal fed quietly, he was all right, but an attempt at
galloping or trotting swung the chain sufficiently to rap him sharply
across the shins.

Very good hobbles can be made from a single strand unraveled from a
large rope, doubled once to make a loop for one leg, twisted strongly,
the two ends brought around the other leg and then thrust through the
fibers. This is the sort used generally by cowboys. They are soft and
easily carried, but soon wear out.

CHAPTER X

HORSE PACKS

[Sidenote: Generalities]

ALMOST any one can put together a comparatively well made back pack, and
very slight practice will enable a beginner to load a canoe. But the
packing of a horse or mule is another matter. The burden must be
properly weighted, properly balanced, properly adjusted, and properly
tied on. That means practice and considerable knowledge.

To the average wilderness traveler the possession of a pack saddle and
canvas kyacks simplifies the problem considerably. If you were to engage
in packing as a business, wherein probably you would be called on to
handle packages of all shapes and sizes, however, you would be compelled
to discard your kyacks in favor of a sling made of rope. And again it
might very well happen that some time or another you might be called on
to transport your plunder without appliances on an animal caught up from
the pasture. For this reason you must further know how to hitch a pack
securely to a naked horse.

In this brief resume of possibilities you can see it is necessary that
you know at least three methods of throwing a lash rope--a hitch to hold
your top pack and kyacks, a sling to support your boxes on the aparejos,
and a hitch for the naked horse. But in addition it will be desirable to
understand other hitches adapted to different exigencies of bulky top
packs, knobby kyacks and the like. One hitch might hold these all well
enough, but the especial hitch is better.

[Sidenote: Pack Models]

The detailment of processes by diagram must necessarily be rather dull
reading. It can be made interesting by an attempt to follow out in
actual practice the hitches described. For this purpose you do not need
a full-size outfit. A pair of towels folded compactly, tied together,
and thrown one each side over a bit of sto