474 AMERICAN COACHING CH. XX 



required, take a good deal out of a conscientious 

 and careful coachman. A cool temperament is an 

 immense advantage to a driving man. 



AMERICAN COACHING 



The great extension of railroads in the United 

 States has restricted public stage-coaching to a few 

 mountain districts in the East, and to California 

 and the far Western States, where it still flourishes. 



The following notes on coaching in the White 

 Mountains, as conducted at the present time, are 

 applicable, in the main, to all American coaching. 

 The coach itself has been described in Chapter VII. ; 

 there is nothing peculiar about the harness, which is 

 usually plain and made of single leather, the wheel- 

 horse harness having breechings. The wheel-reins 

 run through the pad-terrets, but the Icad-rems go 

 straight to the hand from the wheelers' heads, and 

 consequently reach the hand at a different angle from 

 the wheel-reins. Since they do not pass through 

 the pad-terrets they swing about in a disagreeable 

 manner. The lead-reins pfo through rino-s on the 

 throat-latch on the inner sides of the wheelers' 

 heads. If there are six horses, the lead-reins go 

 through the throat-latch terrets of the swingf-team 

 and of the wheelers, but not through their pad- 

 terrets ; sometimes the swing-horses have head- 

 terrets. 



With six horses, a chain is frequently used instead 

 of a middle pole, and the swing-team is sometimes 



