Therefore, by entering the
stream at one promontory, with the intention of leaving it at another,
you ensure that at all events the beginning and end of your course shall
be in shallow water, which you cannot do by attempting any other line of
passage.
[Sketch of river as described].
To Cross Boggy and Uncertain Ground.--Swamps.--When you wish to take a
wagon across a deep, miry, and reedy swamp, outspan and leg the cattle
feed. Then cut faggots of reeds and strew them thickly over the line of
intended passage. When plenty are laid down, drive the cattle backwards
and forwards, and they will trample them in. Repeat the process two or
three times, till the causeway is firm enough to bear the weight of the
wagon. Or, in default of reeds, cut long poles and several short
cross-bars, say of two fee long; join these as best you can, so as to
make a couple of ladder-shaped frames. Place these across the mud, one
under the intended track of each wheel. Faggots strewn between each round
of the ladder will make the causeway more sound. A succession of logs,
laid crosswise with faggots between them, will also do, but not so well.
Passing from Hand to Hand.--When many things have to be conveyed across
a piece of abominably bad road--as over sand-dunes, heavy shingle, mud
of two feet deep, a morass, a jagged mountain tract, or over
stepping-stones in the bed of a rushing torrent--it is a great waste of
labour to make laden men travel to and fro with loads on their backs.
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