Scaling Instruments.
We have already seen how the Battering-ram could be worked against the walls of a fort, or how the assailants could scale them by means of the Testudo. There must, however, be occasions when it would be impossible to bring together a sufficiently large body of men to form the Testudo, or even to place ladders, and in such instances it would be necessary that each soldier should be furnished with an instrument by which he could haul himself up the wall.
There are many examples still extant of such weapons, which were called “Scaling-forks,” and their general appearance may be known by the two right-hand figures of the cut. The handles of these weapons were very long, and by them the soldier hauled himself to the top of the wall. In some of these instruments the shafts were armed with projecting pegs, set at regular intervals, so that they acted as the steps of a ladder, and rendered the ascent comparatively easy.
Many of the long-handled partisans, such as the well-known Jedwood axe, were furnished with a hook upon the back of the blade, so that the weapon served the purpose of a scaling-fork as well as a battle-axe.
The Scaling-fork (German Sturmgabel), which is shown on the right hand of the illustration, was in use somewhere about A.D. 1500. That which is shown next to it is about a hundred years later.
Demmin, from whose work these figures are taken, mentions that at the siege of Mons, in 1691, the grenadiers of the elder Dauphin’s regiment stormed the walls under the command of Vauban, and, by means of the Scaling-fork, carried the breastwork, which they assaulted. As a mark of honour to these gallant men, Louis XIV. ordered that the sergeants of the regiment should carry scaling-forks instead of halberds, which had been the peculiar weapon of the sergeant until comparatively late days, just as the spontoon, or half-pike, was the weapon of the infantry officer from A.D. 1700 to A.D. 1800, or thereabouts.
The English student will remember that in the writings of Sterne, Fielding, and Smollett the half-pike is frequently mentioned as the weapon of a subaltern officer. Demmin states that the last spontoons used in France were carried by the French Guards in 1789.
Perhaps the Climbing-spur may be familiar to some of my readers, and bring back a reminiscence of boyhood. There is nothing more tantalising to a boy than to see a hawk, or magpie nest at the top of a tree which is too large to be climbed in the ordinary way, and which has no branches within many feet of the ground. However, boyish ingenuity has brought almost any tree within the power of a bird’s-nester by the invention of the Climbing-irons.
These are made so as to pass under the foot like a stirrup, and can be secured to the leg by leathern straps, the hooks being, of course, on the inside of the leg. The cut represents the Climbing-iron of the right leg. By means of these instruments, a very large tree can be mounted, the irons being struck firmly into the bark, and the legs moved alternately, and not in the usual manner of climbing. Sometimes the hook of the Climbing-iron is terminated by a single instead of a double point, but the principle is the same in all.
We will now look for similar examples in Nature.
On the right of the left-hand group is shown the larva or grub of the common Tiger-beetle, which is itself a curious creature.
It lives in perpendicular burrows, feeding upon those insects which come within its reach. Its usual position is at the upper part of the burrow, with its jaws widely extended, so as to snap up any insect that may venture too near.
When it has secured its prey, it seeks the bottom of its burrow, makes its meal in quiet, and reascends. How it does so we shall soon see. Towards the end of the body, one of the segments is much enlarged, and has a bold prominence upon the back. On the summit of this prominence there are two horn-like hooks, shaped as seen in the illustration. These hooks are used exactly like the boy’s climbing-spurs, the alternate elongation and contraction of the body answering the same purpose as the movements of the boy’s legs. When the larva has seized its prey and wishes to retreat, all that it has to do is to withdraw the hooks, straighten the body, and down it falls by its own weight.
In the nautical branch of this subject I have already treated of the curious pushing-poles by means of which the Serpula protrudes itself from its tube. As all must have noticed who have seen these creatures alive, the Serpula protrudes itself very slowly, but flies back into its tube with such velocity that the eye can scarcely follow its movements. Its difference of motion shows that there must be a difference in the means by which these movements are produced.
Referring to the illustration on page [45], the reader will see that the instruments with which the Serpula propels itself are used just after the fashion of punt-poles, and cannot act with any great swiftness. When, however, the creature wishes to withdraw itself, it employs a curious apparatus, consisting of many rows of little hooks. The points of these hooks readily catch against the lining of the tube, and by their aid the worm jerks itself back with wonderful celerity.
Three rows of these hooks are shown next to the Tiger-beetle larva.
The structure of these remarkable organs is elaborately described by Mr. Gosse in his “Evenings with the Microscope:”—
“If you look again at this Serpula recently extracted, you will find with a lens a pale yellow line running along the upper surface of each foot, transversely to the length of the body. This is the border of an exceedingly delicate membrane, and, on placing it under a high power (say six hundred diameters), you will be astonished at the elaborate provision here made for prehension.”
“This yellow line, which cannot be appreciated by the unassisted eye, is a muscular ribbon, over which stand edgewise a multitude of what I will call combs, or rather subtriangular plates. These have a wide base, and the apex of the triangle is curved over into an abrupt hook, and then this cut into a number (from four to six) of sharp and long teeth.”
“The plates stand side by side, parallel to each other, along the whole length of the ribbon, and there are muscular fibres seen affixed to the basal side of each plate, which doubtless give it independent motion.
“I have counted one hundred and thirty-six plates on one ribbon. There are two ribbons on each thoracic segment, and there are seven such segments. Hence, we may compute the total number of prehensile comb-like plates on this portion of the body to be about one thousand nine hundred, each of which is wielded by muscles at the will of the animal; while, as each plate carries on an average five teeth, there are nearly ten thousand teeth hooked into the lining membrane of the cell, when the animal chooses to descend.”
“Even this, however, is far short of the total number, because long ribbons of hooks of a similar structure, but of smaller dimensions, run across the abdominal segments, which are more numerous than the thoracic. No wonder, with so many muscles wielding so many grappling-hooks, that the descent is so rapidly effected.”
Lastly, we come to the Walrus, whose strangely elongated upper canine teeth can be used for just the same purposes as the scaling-fork or climbing-spur. As, however, reference has already been made to these tusks, in connection with another department of this work, there is no necessity for occupying space with a second description.