XXXV. 



THE TRANSPORT RIDER. 



THE wagon is one evolved in South Africa 

 a long, heavily-constructed affair, with 

 ingenious braces and timbers so arranged as to 

 furnish the maximum clearance with the greatest 

 facility for substitution in case the necessity for 

 repairs might arise. The whole vehicle can be 

 dismounted and reassembled in a few hours ; so 

 that unfordable streams or impossible bits of 

 country can be crossed piecemeal. Its enormous 

 wheels are set wide apart. The brake is worked 

 by a crank at the rear, like a reversal of the 

 starting mechanism of a motor car. Bolted to 

 the frame on either side between the front and 

 rear wheels are capacious cupboards, and two 

 stout water kegs swing to and fro when the craft 

 is under way. The net carrying capacity of such 

 a wagon is from three to four thousand pounds. 

 This formidable vehicle, in our own case, was 



