a "jamming" knot and will seldom succeed in making a recognized and
"ship-shape" knot of any sort.

The number of knots, ties, bends, hitches, splices, and shortenings in
use is almost unlimited and they are most confusing and bewildering to
the uninitiated. The most useful and ornamental, as well as the most
reliable, are comparatively few in number, and in reality each knot
learned leads readily to another; in the following pages I have
endeavored to describe them in such a manner that their construction
may be readily understood and mastered.

THE AUTHOR.

JANUARY, 1917.




CHAPTER I

CORDAGE


Before taking up the matter of knots and splices in detail it may be
well to give attention to cordage in general. Cordage, in its broadest
sense, includes all forms and kinds of rope, string, twine, cable,
etc., formed of braided or twisted strands. In making a rope or line
the fibres (_A_, Fig. 1) of hemp, jute, cotton, or other material are
loosely twisted together to form what is technically known as a "yarn"
(_B_, Fig. 1). When two or more yarns are twisted together they form a