If you would make speed be smart in unloading the canoe and making up your packs on the portage, and equally smart in reloading the canoe. Delays in loading, unloading and making up packs are the chief causes of slow progress.
When it is found necessary to "track," give the rear end of the tracking line a turn around the forward thwart, on the land side of the canoe, then pass the end back and secure it to the middle thwart. This distributes the strain between the thwarts. While one man at the farther end of the line tows the canoe, the other man with a pole may walk upon the bank, and keep the canoe clear of snags, if the water is deep. Should the water be shallow it will usually be found necessary for him to wade and guide the bow through open channels.
[CHAPTER VII]
TRAVEL WITH SADDLE AND PACK ANIMALS
Under this head we shall consider: (1) Saddles and pack equipment; (2) Animals best adapted to pack work; (3) Outfit and provisions and how to pack them; (4) How to throw some practical hitches; (5) Equipment of the traveler who has no pack animal and whose saddle horse is required to transport both rider and equipment.
Comfort on the trail depends to a very large degree upon the animals of the outfit. A mean horse is an abomination, and a horse may be mean in many respects. A bucking horse, a horse that shies at stumps and other objects or at every moving thing, or one that is frightened by sudden and unexpected sounds is not only an uncomfortable but unsafe animal to ride upon rugged mountain trails; and a horse that will not stand without hitching, or one that is hard to catch when hobbled and turned loose, will cause no end of trouble.
In choosing a horse, then, avoid so far as possible one with these tendencies, and also observe the manner in which he handles his feet. He should not be subject to stumbling. He should be sure-footed, steady and reliable, to qualify him for work on dangerous trails; this is of the first importance. A horse that does not keep his eyes on the trail and select his footing with care is wholly unsuited to mountain work. He should be gunwise. A gunwise horse will not be easily frightened by sudden and unexpected noises.
Whether intended for mountain or plains work, the horse should be a good camp animal—that is, one that will not wander far from camp. It is more than aggravating to find upon arising in the morning that your horse has disappeared and one always feels that time consumed in searching for a roving horse is time worse than wasted. Of course this tendency of an animal can be forestalled by picketing him, but a picketed horse unless forage be particularly good will not do well, for it rarely happens in these days of sheep-ravaged ranges that an animal can find sufficient food to meet his requirements within the limited length of a picket rope.
Some horses need much persuasion before they can be induced to ford streams, and I have had them lose their nerve and decline the descent of precipitous trails. An animal possessing this trait of timidity is not suited to trail work, for he is likely to cause trouble at a critical moment.