[CHAPTER XI]
SOME PRACTICAL HITCHES
Whether the load is made up with kyacks, alforjas, or separate packs slung to the crosstree saddle as described in the preceding chapter it must be secured in place. For this purpose various hitches are employed by packers, each hitch well adapted to the particular conditions which evolved it.
Our description will be confined to the following six hitches, which furnish ample variety to suit the exigencies of ordinary circumstances:
(1) The crosstree or squaw hitch, which is the father of all hitches because from it the diamond, the double diamond and all pack-train hitches in present-day use were evolved.
(2) A diamond hitch, adapted to the crosstree pack saddle. This is a form of single diamond.
(3) The United States army diamond particularly adapted for use with the aparejo. The true double diamond is a hitch rarely called for save in army work or freighting pack trains, and will therefore be omitted. There are several so-called double diamonds that might be described, but these near-double diamonds possess little or no advantage over the single diamond, and we shall pass them over as they are scarcely resorted to in ordinary pack work.
(4) The one-man or lifting hitch.
(5) The stirrup hitch, to be used when the packer has rope but no cinch.
(6) The saddle hitch, employed in slinging loads upon an ordinary riding saddle.