Fording a river with skin-floats and files of horses
Two ranks of horses set head-on to the flow shelter foot soldiers crossing between them
The sheet treats the crossing of rivers by an army. A single man is to be set on two skin-floats bound together for a manageable current, sketched with a seated figure poling across at the top of the page. For a genuinely dangerous stream, Leonardo prescribes two files of horses drawn up across the river, heads turned into the oncoming water so as to check and break its force, with soldiers passing between the ranks; the drawing shows the two lines of animals.
On this page
Skin-floats for crossing waters
One must consider how a river crossing is to be managed. A man is first set upon two bound skin-floats; if the bottom is convenient but the current swift and dangerous, the method drawn below is used. A pair of the floats is sketched at the upper left, with a figure riding across.
Double file of horses across the river
Two files of horses are set across the current, spaced six braccia apart, the animals so close within each line that they almost touch and their heads turned toward the oncoming water. The soldiers, armed and unarmed, pass between the two ranks.
Ranks set to break the water's impetus
The formation exists solely to check and break the impetus of the water. The upper rank is of the larger horses, the better to break the river's force; the lower rank holds up soldiers who fall and supports them in crossing.