698 



The National Geographic Magazine 



A "Push-Push" of India. Photo by Rev. 

 Wyncoop, of Allahabad 



A very common means of travel, the cart being 

 by men for hundreds of miles 



on a single rail, supported by a frame- 

 work, and operated by electricity gene- 

 rated many miles from the place at which 

 it is applied to the propulsion of the cars. 



Nor could we, in this discussion of 

 queer transportation methods, pass Ven- 

 ice, that city without a single horse. I 

 am not sure that this description of Ven- 

 ice as an absolutely horseless city is liter- 

 ally true, though I was solemnly assured 

 while there that there was not a single 

 horse in the city ; but certainly there are 

 but very few, if any, and the horse on 

 their streets would be quite as great a 

 novelty to the Venetians as a gondola on 

 the Potomac would be to us in Wash- 

 ington. 



In the Holy Land the donkey is in evi- 

 dence everywhere and furnishes the chief 

 method of transportation. 



Plis availability for application to all 

 kinds of transportation, whether for peo- 

 ple or merchandise, coupled with his 

 small cost and limited requirements for 

 food, render him especially valuable to 

 the people of this section. 



We now bid adieu to the donkey and 

 the camel and will review some other 

 curious methods which still prevail on 

 the rivers which flowed past the Garden 

 of Eden. On the Euphrates and the 

 Tigris are still retained the curious water 



transports of centuries ago — the 

 raft of skins and the circular boats. 

 These rafts are sustained by in- 

 llated skins, prepared for this es- 

 ])ecial purpose, and after the .raft 

 lloats down the river to its desti- 

 nation the inflated skins are re- 

 moved, the air permitted to escape, 

 and the skins carefully folded and 

 carried back to the upper waters, 

 where they are again inflated and 

 used as the support of another, 

 and still another raft. 



Even more curious, to the eyes 

 of the traveler from other parts 

 T. S. of the world, are the circular boats, 

 made of wickerwork and covered 

 ' pulled with skins, or made water-tight 

 with pitch, which are still in daily 

 use on the Tigris and Euphrates 

 Rivers. These curious little vessels are 

 used for the transportation of both pas- 

 sengers and freight, and the skill with 

 which they are managed by those accus- 

 tomed to their use is quite surprising and 

 interesting. Just how they get animals 

 in and out of these courious vessels seems 

 a little puzzling, though it is probably 

 no more difficult than the methods by 

 which cattle and horses are lifted from 

 a lighter and deposited in the hold of the 

 modern steel steamer. 



No feature of life in India is more 

 striking than that of the methods of trans- 

 portation. From the moment you put 

 foot on the land you find a bewildering 

 variety of vehicles, most of them drawn 

 by the humped ox, known in our zoologi- 

 cal gardens and menageries as the "sacred 

 ox." 



The elephant is still used to some ex- 

 tent in India, Burmah, and Siam, though 

 in these sections in which roads have 

 been developed his place has been taken 

 by the ox and other methods less ex- 

 pensive. 



The large quantities of food required 

 by the elephant make him available only 

 in the comparatively undeveloped sec- 

 tions, where heavy work is required in 

 handling timber, or in the military service. 

 His ability to carry heavy loads, how- 



