C A. If PS, TRANSPORT, ETC 379 



The first matter to be considered upon reaching your start- 

 ing point, the point I mean at which the locomotive leaves 

 you, is the question of transport, a very serious matter to the 

 man who has been ' dumped ' down for the first time in his 

 life at a frontier station with a huge pile of belongings and not 

 even a friendly porter to carry them under shelter for him. 



In North America (indeed, in most countries) the commonest 

 method of transporting freight from . one point to another 

 in regions where the railway does not run is by pack animals, 

 for which reason we will treat of ' packing ' with pack ponies 

 first. 



In all the countries known to the writer the cheapest way 

 is to buy your ponies, taking your chances of selling them when 

 you don't require them any longer. Hiring your animals is an 

 expensive plan, especially in America, where the hire of a pack 

 pony is at least one dollar per diem, whereas his cost would 

 not exceed thirty dollars. Thus even if you gave your ponies 

 away (and you cannot always do much better) at the end of a 

 two months' trip, you would have saved thirty dollars by pur- 

 chasing outright. In buying your pack animals don't leave 

 the purchase of them until the last moment. If you do, there 

 is no one in the world who better understands the art of ex- 

 tracting the highest price from a man who must buy than the 

 ' untutored savage.' 



Choose animals of short cobby build rather than those 

 which are more 'leggy,' and in addition to all the ordinary 

 precautions observed in dealing with horse-flesh, take care 

 to examine your purchases to see whether they have ever 

 had sore backs. If you find scars, however well the wound 

 has healed, don't buy the pony, as backs which have once 

 been sore are extremely apt to break out again at the first 

 opportunity. 



You may estimate the number of ponies wanted for your 

 expedition by the weight which you require them to carry, 

 allowing from 150 to 200 Ibs. to each pony, and although pro- 

 fessional packers will sometimes put as much as 400 Ibs. upon 



