THE MULE. 49 



sixty days. Eight Imndred pounds, Mr. Skinner, is a 

 trying weight for a horse to drag any distance. What, 

 then, must we think of it on the back of a mule ? The 

 officers of our quartermasters' department, who have 

 been out on the plains, understand this matter perfectly. 

 Any of these gentlemen will tell you that there is not 

 a pack train of fifty mules in existence, that can pack, 

 on an average for forty days, three hundred pounds to 

 the animal. 



I will now give you the experience of some of the 

 best mule packers in the country, in order to show that 

 what has been written in regard to the mule's strength 

 is calculated to mislead the reader. In 1856, William 

 Anderson, a man whom I know well, packed from the 

 City of Del Korte to Chihuahua and Durango, in Mexi- 

 co, a distance of Hve hundred miles or thereabout. 

 Anderson and a man of the name of Frank Roberts 

 had charge of the pack train. They had seventy-five 

 mules, and used to pack boxes of dry goods, bales, and 

 even barrels. They had two Mexican drivers, and 

 travelled about fifteen miles a day, at most, though- 

 they took the very best of care of their animals. JS^ow, 

 the very most it was possible for any mule in this train 

 to get along with was two hundred and seventy-five 

 pounds. More than this, they did not have over 

 twenty-five mules out of the whole number that could 

 pack two hundred and fifty pounds, the average weight 

 to the whole train being a little less than two hundred 

 pounds. To make this fifteen miles a day, they had to 

 make two drives, letting the animals stop to feed when- 

 ever they had made seven or eight miles. 



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