what does this english phrase mean?? "He had done it simply by killing people, personally and by proxy, with ice picks, knives, pistols, the garrote and the bludgeon." what does "the garrote and the bludgeon"mean here?? i know what the words mean but what the is"the" in the front? help~

what does "soft spot" mean here? "his plane lurching of the soft spot of the wet ground" what does "soft spot "mean here??"he entered the cockpit. At 7:52 a.m. he was roaring down the runway, his plane lurching on the soft spots of of the wet land" this passage talks about the pioneering transatlantic flight~yess . on

what does "depended" mean here?? "When I had arrived at this point, and had become as well acquainted with the theory and practice of natural philosophy as *depended* on the lessons of any of the professors at Ingolstadt, my residence there being no longer conducive to my improvements, I thought of returning to myfriends and my native town, when n incident happened that protracted my stay." from frankenstein

what does "strain " mean here?? "In rather a too philosophical and connected a strain, perhaps, I have given an account of the conclusions I had come to concerning them in my early years." and what is "connected" to what??