18 



THE MULE. 



they came to camp. The three year old mules would 

 lie down and not eat a bite, through sheer exhaustion. 

 I also noticed that nearly all the three year old mule? 

 that went to Utah, in 1S57, froze to death that winter, 

 while those whose ages varied from four, and up to ten, 

 stood the winter and came out in the spring in good 

 working condition. In August, 1855, I drove a six- 

 mule team to Fort Eiley, in Kansas Territory, from 

 Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri Eiver, loaded with 

 twelve sacks of grain. It took us thirteen days to make 

 the trip. When we reached Fort Kiley there were 

 not fifty mules, in the train of one hundred and fifty, 

 that would have sold at public sale for thirty dollars, 

 and a great many gave out on account of being too 

 young and the want of proper treatment. In the fall 

 of 1860, I drove a six-mule team, loaded with thirty 

 hundred weight, twenty-fixe days' rations for myself and 

 another man, and twelve days' forage for the team, 

 being allowed twelve pounds to each mule per day. I 

 drove this team to Fort Laramie, in Nebraska Territory, 

 and from there to Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri 

 River. I made the drive there and back in thirty-eight 

 days, and laid over two and a half days out of that. 

 The distance travelled was twelve hundred and thirty- 

 six miles. After a rest of two days, I started with the 

 same team, and drove to Fort Scott, in Kansas Terri- 

 tory, in five days, a distance of one hundred and twenty 

 miles. I went with Harney's command, and, for the 

 most part of the time, had no hay, and was forced to 

 subsist our animals on dry prairie grass, and had a 

 poor su[)ply of even that. Notwithstanding this, I do 



