232 Art of Travel.
fixed to each keg, and made to catch on to hooks which are let flush into the sides of the pack-saddle, will effect this. The sketch represents a section of the pack-saddle, at the place where one of the hooks is situated on either side, but
the front of the kegs themselves, and not their section, is given. Above and between the kegs lies a bag, and a strap passing from the near side of the saddle goes over the whole burden, and is buckled to a similar short strap on the other side. It is of importance that the bung-hole should be placed even nearer to the rim than where it is drawn, for it is necessary that it should be convenient to pour out of and to pour into, and that it should be placed on the highest part of the keg, both when on the beast's back and also when it stands on the ground, lest water should leak and be lost. According to the above plan, when water is ladled into it, the rim keeps it from spilling; and in pouring out water, the rim acts as a spout. In making the bung-hole, a metal plate, with a screwhole in it, is firmly fixed in the face of the cask ; into this a wooden stopper, bound with iron, is made to screw (natives would probably steal a metal one). The stopper has a small head and a deeply-cut neck, by which it is tied to the cask, and its body has a large hole bored in it, which admits of a stick being put through, to prize it round, if it should become jammed. A spigot, to screw into the bung-hole on arriving at camp, might be really useful; but if used, a gimlet-hole must be bored in the cask to act as an air-vent. A large tundish is very convenient, and a spare plug might be taken ; but a traveller, with a little painstaking, could soon cut a plug with his own knife, sufficiently well made to allow of its being
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