Whilst on the subject of bags, it will be well to mention a most convenient description of sack used by the Tyrolese chamois hunters for carrying food, dead game, ammunition, &c. It is best made of light tanned canvas or flax cloth. A square bag of the required size is made from either of these materials, the mouth of the bag is made to draw in the usual way and tie, but to the loop of the neck string are attached two leather shoulder straps, to the ends of which wooden toggles and stout line loops have been sewn. Each lower corner of the bag should have a wooden or cork ball the size of a billiard ball, securely stitched into it. When the bag is placed on the back with its burden in it, the shoulder straps are passed over the shoulders, under the arms, and down to the ball-furnished corners, over which the slip-knots and loops of the toggle strings are now secured. The above illustration will serve to explain the nature of the arrangement, anything can be conveniently carried in this contrivance, from a single partridge to a full grown chamois or roebuck. A sack of this kind carefully fitted and made, is very superior to an ordinary knapsack.
CHAPTER XXII.
ROPES AND TWINE.
Ropes and twine of different sizes and lengths should always form part of the equipment of the traveller or explorer. These may be either home-made or manufactured from such suitable materials as may be obtainable in the regions travelled through. A great number of productions, vegetable and animal, are available for cord-making purposes; and not unfrequently it will be found in tropical regions that nature has herself formed the rope ready to the hand of him who will take the trouble to gather it. The rattan, which is a species of palm, although commonly and incorrectly called a cane, is a noteworthy example; it possesses extraordinary flexibility and toughness, is light, porous, covered with a waterproof glaze, and grows to a considerable length, often to the extent of 300ft. Rattans, when simply laid together, can be at once converted into ropes of almost any length and strength. Numbers of native suspension-bridges are supported by cables formed entirely from rattan. Warping ropes, used by the raftsmen of the Malay coast, are formed from this material; these curious ropes are not unfrequently the eighth of a mile in length, and possess immense strength. The “lianas,” “monkey ropes,” or parasitical creepers, too, which grow in such profusion in the tropical jungles, need little preparation to suit them for use as cordage. Willows and other tough flexible sticks or twigs are readily converted into rope by simply twisting them together; they should, however, be well soaked in water before twisting. An almost endless number of trees, shrubs, and plants yield fibre well calculated for cord or rope-making purposes. The bark of some of the mimosas is as tough as the finest hemp, and can be stripped from the trees in any quantity. Bast, or matting fibre, as it is called, is yielded by a number of trees, amongst which may be mentioned the linden or lime of our own country.
For some purposes bast strips may be used without twisting by merely soaking them in water, and then dividing them into ribbons of the required strength. The inner bark of the elm, when well soaked, becomes extremely tough, and twists well. The long flag-like leaves of the Phormium tenax, or New Zealand hemp, can be used as ties or lashings without any treatment or preparation; separated from the juices and leaf-pulp by maceration and scraping with a muscle-shell, the fibre is found to be beautifully fine, and adapted for either spinning or weaving.
