LOADING AND TRAININTG. 37 



all necessary preUminaries systematically 

 gone through, the trader begms the difficult 

 task of loading his wagons. Those who under- 



stand their busmess take every precaution so 

 to stoAV away their packages that no jolting 

 on the road can afterwards disturb the order 

 in wliich they had been disposed. The 

 ingenuity displayed on these occasions has 

 frequently been such, that after a tedious 

 journey of eight hundred miles, the goods 

 have been found to have sustained much less 

 injury, than they would have experienced on 

 a turnpike-road, or from the ordinary hand- 

 Ung of propert}" upon our western steam-boats. 

 The next great difficulty the traders have to 

 encounter is in training those animals that 

 have never before been worked, which is fre- 

 quently attended by an immensity of trouble. 

 There is nothing, however, in the mode of 

 harnessinsT and conductin'i teams in nrnirie 



travelling, wliich differs materially from that 

 practised on the pubhc highways throughout 

 tlie States, — ^the representations of certain 

 travellers to the contrary, notA\dthstanding. 

 From the amusing descriptions which are 

 sometimes given by tliis class of writers, one 

 would be apt to suppose that they had never 

 seen a wagon or a team of mules before, or 

 that they had just emerged for the first time 

 froni the purlieus of a large city. The pro- 

 pensity evinced by these writers for gi^'ing 

 an air of romance to everj-tliing they have 

 either seen or heard, would seem to imply a 



conviction an their part, tliat no statement of 



4 



