should embrace a little more than half of the diameter of the trunk to be
climbed. Now, being at the foot of the tree, fix the feet well into the
loops, and opening the legs a little, embrace the tree as high up as you
can. Raise your legs, and pressing the cord against the tree with your
feet, stand, as it were, in your stirrups, and raise your body and arms
higher; hold fast again by the arms, open the legs, and raise them a
stage higher, and so on to the top. The descent is effected in the same
way, reversing, of course, the order of the movements. The ruggedness of
the bark, and the weight of the body pressing diagonally across the trunk
of the tree, prevent the rope from slipping. Anything, provided it be
strong enough, is better than a round rope, which does not hold so fast."
A loop or hoop embracing the body of the climber and the tree, is a
helpful addition. Large nails carried in a bag slung round the waist, to
be driven into the bare trunk of the tree, will facilitate its ascent.
Gimlets may be used for the same purpose. High walls can be climbed by
help of this description; a weight attached to one end of a rope, being
first thrown over the wall, and the climber assisting himself by holding
on to the other end. Trees of soft wood are climbed by cutting notches
two feet apart on alternate sides. Also by driving in bamboo pegs,
sloping alternately to left or to right; these pegs correspond to the
"rungs" of a ladder.

Ladders.--A notched pole or a knotted rope makes a ladder. We hear of
people who have tied sheets together to let themselves down high walls,
when making an escape. The best way of making a long rope from sheets, is
to cut them into strips of about six inches broad, and with these to
twist a two-stranded rope, or else to plait a three-stranded one.

Descending cliffs with ropes is an art which naturalists and others have
occasion to practise. It has been reduced to a system by the inhabitants