THE MULE. 27 



prove on the experience of the Greaser, and have made 

 wliat they called an improvement on the Mexican pack- 

 saddle. But all the attempts at improvement have 

 been utter failures. The ranchero, on the Pacific side 

 of the Sierra Nevadas, is also a good packer ; and he 

 can beat the Mexican lassoing cattle. But he is the 

 only man in the United States who can. The reason 

 for this is, that they went into that country when very 

 young, and improved on the Mexican, by having cattle, 

 mules, and horses round them all the time, and being 

 continually catching them for the purpose of branding 

 and marking. 



There is, in Old as well as New Mexico, a class of 

 mules that are known to us as Spanish, or Mexican 

 mules. These mules are not large, but for endurance 

 they are very superior, and, in my opinion, cannot be 

 excelled. I am not saying too much when I assert, 

 that I have seen nothing in the United States that could 

 compare with them. They can, apparently, stand any 

 amount of starvation and abuse. I have had three 

 Spanish mules in a train of twenty-five six-mule teams, 

 and starting from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on 

 Colonel (since General) Sumner's expedition, in 1857, 

 have travelled to Walnut Creek, on the Santa Fe 

 route, a distance of three hundred miles, in nine days. 

 And this in the month of August. The usual efi^ects 

 of hard driving, I noticed, showed but very little on 

 them. I noticed also, along the mai'ch, that with a halt 

 of less than three hours, feeding on grass that was only 

 tolerably thick, they will fill up better and look in bet- 

 ter condition for resuming the march, than one of our 



