| BELMORE BROWNE PACK STRAP | ||
| Method of using pack strap and tump line | Diagram of strap | |
the accompanying diagram. The length of the breast strap depends upon the breadth of the chest of the wearer. It is composed of a piece of ten ounce canvas of say twelve inch length and eight inches wide which is folded lengthwise making it twelve by four inches and is padded by felt or cotton. To either end of this is attached the shoulder straps consisting of double thicknesses of ten ounce canvas thirty-six by six inches and folded lengthwise and cut to taper from the yoke end. To its smaller end is attached a small stout rope of the length desired for the pack you will carry. The first twelve inches of the shoulder straps only are padded. The rope is lashed about the pack and the loose ends B and D are secured in the holes A and C near the arm pits.
To enable one to use the neck muscles also in addition to the shoulder straps a head strap is used. This is simply a double piece of ten ounce canvas two inches by twelve inches at whose ends are tied ropes which are attached to the pack. Browne has carried with this rig 100 pounds all day for several days at a time.
Various styles of pack sacks are extant. The foreign sportsman has what he calls a rucksack which means a “back sack” and which is a triangular shaped affair usually of waterproofed materials which he hangs over his back by two straps passing up across the shoulders. The top is the puckered end of the sack and reaches up close to the neck, the flared out bottom hangs down to about the small of the back. It is sometimes fitted with pockets. It is very good for country road tours or for foreign sight-seeing trips where the items carried cover some such list as a noon day lunch, a raincoat, a change of underwear, photo films, notebook and guide book, but it is unsuitable for heavy weight work on the wilderness cruise.
The haversack or knapsack slung by a strap from one shoulder is out of date and never measured up to the requirements for use in heavy packing. It is handy for lunches or as a ditty or emergency kit bag. The best pack sack was originated and put out by one Poirier of Duluth some twenty-five years ago and was originally really the whiteman’s improvement of the Indian tump line and pack cloth, ingeniously folded and tied so as to serve as a sack with suspension harness. As listed today by most outfitting firms it consists of a sack with shoulder straps and head suspension. It is a very desirable article from the point of view of the wilderness voyageur as he is enabled to ease up different sets of muscles while on the hike and
