THE CHARTOGRAPHERS OF THE STATION 



189 



deported coastwards, stores brought inland, fencing material and grass 

 seed carried to the remotest corners of the run. Often the pack-horse 

 trail was the development of the shepherd's riding-track, a farther stage 

 of the sheep-path upon which both were based. Sometimes, however, 

 it has happened that owing to the exigencies of station work a pack- 

 trail has been suddenly and arbitrarily imprinted on virgin areas, an 

 untrodden block has been invaded by a string of eighteen or twenty 

 horses, the animals following in a general way the line of the leading 

 packman, but settling details of the route each to its own satisfaction. 

 At first, therefore, there is no single well-defined track ; a multiplicity 



i. First day in use. 



Horse-trails competing for traffic. 

 2. End of month. 



3. End of year. 



of temporary paths are set up, each of them, as if alive, appearing to be 

 competing with the others for the new traffic. At first they are faint 

 and ill-defined, the uneven ground merely brushed and bruised with 

 hoofs. Each is exactly the width of a horse's body from the other, for 

 when switched off an established track the units of the team jostle and 

 jam together. Afterwards the character of the country determines the 

 permanent nature of the track, in open flattish land parallel paths are 

 for long periods about equally patronised, in regions of high fern and 

 tangled tutu they tend to converge ; no horse wishing to waste energy 

 in causelessly tearing through entanglements, the guiding line of the 

 leading packman is thankfully followed. On dry spongy ground, too, 



