SOME MEXICAN TRANSPORTATION SCENES 989 



The mule-back method of transporting 

 sectionaHzed mining machinery is not an 

 unfamiliar sight in the mountain districts 

 of the western United States; but some 

 of the loads handled in this way by the 

 Ventanas Mining and Exploration Co. 

 (Ltd.), in western Durango, Mexico 

 (with which the writer was assistant 

 manager), are worthy of illustration. 



The ''time-honored" mule load was 300 

 to 350 pounds — a ''carga" consisting of 

 two pieces or packages weighing about 

 150 pounds apiece, one being lashed on 

 either side of the pack saddle. A "cuar- 

 teo" is a box or single piece, which by 

 reason of bulk or weight can only be 

 handled singly. In sixteen months we 

 took into Ventanas, over 105 miles of 

 rough mountain trails, some 1,500 tons 

 of heavy, awkward machinery and 1,000 

 tons of stores and supplies. Every ounce 

 of this went in on either mule or burro 

 back. 



It is possible, by exercising judgment 

 in assigning loads best suited to certain 

 animals, to handle over rough trails 

 loads of 475 to 500 pounds, and when 

 necessary as much as 680 pounds, in one 

 piece. 



Picture 6 shows a piece of shafting 

 3 15-16 inches diameter, 13 feet 6 inches 



long and weighing 580 pounds. Thirteen 

 of these shafts were thus transported to picture 8. The ancient burden bearer 

 the mine on picked mules, two men being in the mines 



PICTURE 9. transporting by MUEE train : MEXICO 



