44-0 LENGTHS OF STAGES CH. XIX 



A long stage, with two teams to work it, may be 

 convenient in the middle of a route, if the stables are 

 so situated that a uniform division is not possible. 



Inasmuch as street work in a large city is more 

 trying to the horses than work in the country, and 

 since the horses of the end stage have only a short 

 rest between their work, these two stages (in a city, 

 and at the end) should be shorter than the stages 

 of the middle ground. 



The divisions have been, thus far, considered as 

 if the road were of the same character throughout, 

 but four miles of bad or hilly road may be as tiring 

 as eio;ht of the best, and the distribution of stages 

 must be made accordingly. On a hilly road, where 

 the pace must be slow, a long stage may be made, 

 for ' it is the pace that kills.' 



Four Swiss vetturino horses will take a laro-e car- 

 riage thirty-five miles a day, over heavy mountain 

 grades, at a slow walk when going up, and they will 

 travel twenty-five miles a day regularly, but they go 

 very slowly ; while an average coach team, timed at 

 ten miles an hour, will find two seven-mile stages 

 a day quite enough. 



An active team to a drag; should be able to do 

 nine miles an hour steadily for two hours on good 

 level roads without fatigue, but that is too much 

 work to be continued, at that pace, day after day. 

 Three hours at seven miles an hour, would not be so 

 much work, although the distance would be greater. 



On a hilly road, the time of any one stage need 



