Page 81 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

440. To tump or tote a bear without ruffiing the fur: Place a small

hardwood stick across the mouth, where the teeth will grip best,

./ . generally in back of the two fangs, and lash the mouth tightly around

the snout and jaw with a CONSTRICTOR KNOT ('/I: 1249). Lobster twine

is excellent for the urpose. Then loop a rope over the nose and

around the ends of t e stick.

441. To secure game across a saddle: Middle a rope and make a

CLOVE HITCH ('/I: II 77) around the pommel. Draw taut and make a

CLOVE HITCH around the neck, and, if the animal is small, take a

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MARLINE HITCH ('/I: 2030) above the knees and make fast to the girth

ring. Secure the other end of the animal in the same manner, taking a

CLOVE HITCH around the small and a MARLINE HITCH above the hocks.

If the animal is small the hitches around pommel, knees, and hocks

may be omitted and the lashing secured to the rings of the girth only.

442. To lash to a tote pole: Lay the pole along the belly and clove
441

hitch the legs together close above the knees and hocks. Lash the

animal to the pole, and secure the end with a CLOVE HITCH to any

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convement part.

44'2. 443. A buck lashed "right side up": This will kee the antlers from

snagging in the brush. Tote him "tail first." Tie all our feet together,

clove hitch the dock to the pole, and lash each ham and shoulder

singly. Next lash the antlers, then neck, knees, feet, and hocks. Last,

pass stout turns around the lashings between the animal and the

pole, and seize any turns that show a tendency to work loose.

Marline or lobster cord makes a better lashing than rope, and is easier

to pack on a trip.

444, 445. In hanging large game, the CLOVE HITCH and Two HALF
443

HITCHE~ are commonly used. Sometimes a CLOVE HITCH is slipped

over a hock or foot (or feet), the other end is tossed over a high limb,

the animal is hauled aloft, and the end secured to a convenient

branch. Dressed game is usually hung by sharpened crossbars impaled

under the hamstrings.

The Skater

There is a club on the Wissahickon Creek named the "Philadelphia

Skating Club and Humane Society." It has existed so long and so

much water -has passed down the stream since the club was founded

that it may no longer be the duty of each member to wear, around

his waist in skating season, a light knotted rope with which to rescue

careless and unfortunate fellow skaters. Nevertheless, to this day the

"FIRE-ESCAPE KNOT" ('/I: 564), which appears to be the earlier name, is

often termed by our firemen the "PHILADELPHIA KNOT," and it is, of

course, quite possible that it was some eminent and skate-minded

Philadelphian who first recognized the possibilities of this method

of tyin the OVERHAND KNOT ('/I: 515)' But as the knot was tied in jib-

boom ootropes at a much earlier date, the method probably belongs

41-5' to the sailpr. It is described at the beginning of Chapter 4 just as I

learned it in Philadelphia thirty years ago, and the story that accom-

panies it was told to me by an octogenarian while sitting in the oriel

window of the Philadelphia Art Club.

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