Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/91

Rh Knots

Strings or ropes are used almost daily by every one in some form or other, and yet people often break their nails and teeth gnawing at their own knots to untie them. Time spent in learning a few simple reliable knots is not time wasted, but quite the contrary.

To tie a knot seems a very simple thing and yet there are right and wrong ways of doing it, and Scouts ought to know the right way. For sometimes even lives depend on a knot being properly tied, as with sailors or men in building trades, and in case of fire-rescue.

The right kind of a knot is one which you can tie easily and be certain it will hold under any normal strain, and which you can easily undo.

A bad knot called a "granny" is one which slips when you pull hard, or which gets jammed so tight that you cannot untie it.

Of course there are several ways of tying the same knot, and so if your sailor uncle can show you a good way to make a bowline don't tell him the one in this book is the only way.

The Parts of a Rope

The End.

The Bight or Loop, formed by turning the rope back on itself.

The Standing Part, or long portion of the rope.