Page:Scouting for girls, adapted from Girl guiding.djvu/95

Rh Half Hitch

The half hitch is a very useful thing to know. It is not really a knot, but a loop used in tying many of the harder knots. A double half hitch is needed to make a secure knot and is used for fastening awning ropes, flag rope, etc. The more it is strained the faster it holds. It is a simple way of making a rope fast in a hurry, where a long continued strain is not expected, thus it is used in tying a boat's painter, which is not a man but a rope fastened to the bow of a small boat.

Bowline

A Bowline makes a noose that is permanent, neither jamming nor slipping. It is useful in hoisting and lowering, as in case of fire, rescuing from drowning, a painter's chair, etc. It is also used in a guard line, as a halter for animals, or wherever a safe loop is needed.

Take end in right hand: measure with your left sufficient rope for the loop you want; make a bight in your left hand and hold it. Now take the end of the rope in your right hand, put it up through the bight, round the standing part, and down through the bight again: pulling the end and both sides of your permanent loop with the right hand against the standing part in your left hand; (three against one).

Sheepshank

A scout would not waste a rope by cutting it but would shorten it by making a sheepshank. This will stand a