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Show ( 22 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. P A CitiNG OVER THE PLAINS. P.robab!y the most speedy mode by which the passage of the plains can be made, with our ordinary 'lniy+,.al"" · • c lll ::s, 18 by packing ; and doubtless for all the purposes of pack-in~- if you cannot get camels-mules a~e the best, preferable even to horses ; their peculiar gait seems t • 0 adapt them admirably, for trotting under a burden. Not ~nly can ~ou pack with greater expedition, but you are hable at times to unpack with equal haste, and without the slightest effort on your part. . ON A STAMPEDE,.... Unpacking by th" IS process USUally has its ori elll in the really refractory nature of the ~ . ~ I or.. stampeding B t k" . anima , or ~rom dela th• U pac Ing W 1t h exped "I tl· on and with no y on e way ' can on IY b.e performed by those in \ I ,, I \ NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. 23 health ; for should sickness occur of a nature unfitting the person for riding on horse or mule back, he must necessarily li~ by ; whereas, had he a wagon, he might probably be able to continue his journey. Besides this, the packer is wunavoidably deprived of many of those little conveniences and luxuries that help to make the journey endurable, from his inability to convey them by that mode, without employing more animals than he can well manage. Packing, however, seems well adapted to the return ·trip, from California to the States, as all the mountain slopes, exce19t the · ra Nevada, are more abrupt and laborious of ascent from the west than the east ; render- . ~ tng the passage of wagons eastwardly far more difficult ; ~ but when the new wagon road shall have been in some degree worked, this difficulty will have been in a great measure remedied. , GENERAL OUTFIT AND DIRECTIONS. Procure six large horses or mules, and good harness for four of them, and a light saddle for each extra ani- . mal. Every horse or mule should liave a nose halter, or headstall, to which to attach a lariat or lasso of hide, rope, or cord, ten or twelve yards in length. The wagon should be an ordinary sized, two horse lumber wagon of the States ; not too heavy, but well made; with a brake, or good lock chains for both hind wheels. The brake is an admirable fixture on a V\TP gon for ·the plains, exceptionable only on account of its weight. ' |