CHAPTER X.

MISCELLANEOUS.--GENERAL ADVICE.


If you travel horseback, singly or in parties, a previous experience in
riding and in the care of your animal are necessary for pleasure. What
is said about overloading applies here: you must go light; let your
saddlebags be small, and packed so as not to chafe the horse. If you
have the choice of a saddle, take a "McClellan" or a similar one, so
that you can easily strap on your blankets and bags. If you have time
before starting, try to teach your horse, what so few horses in the
Northern States know, to be guided by the pressure of reins against the
neck instead of a pull at the bit.


BOATING.

I do not propose to say much about boating, as the subject can hardly
have justice done to it in a book of this sort. Parties of young men
spend their summer vacation every year in camping and boating. It is a
most delightful way,--superior in many respects to any other,--but it
requires both experience and caution, neither of which is usually found
in young men. So I hope that, if you will go in a boat, you may be an
exception to the general rule, and will, for your parents' and friends'
sake, take a small boat without ballast rather than a large one