USE IN TEXAS AND OVERLAND. 



27 



Wayne, dated respectively September 24th, and November 5th, 

 1856, and February 21st, 1857, and will be found sufficiently 

 comprehensive and conclusive : — 



" On the 28th of August I sent down six camels, under my 

 clerk, Mr. Ray, to San Antonio, for oats, in company with three 

 wagons from this post (Camp Yerde, Texas). The camels 

 could, as it turned out, have gone down leisurely in two days, 

 but, governed in their movements by the wagons (though they 

 were empty), they went down in three, the wagons being re- 

 strained in their march by the want of water along the route. 

 On Monday, September 1st, Captain McLean, assistant quarter- 

 master at San Antonio, sent back the camels to me at 12 m., 

 with 3,648 pounds of oats, an average of 608 pounds to each 

 animal. At 6 p. m. on Wednesday, the 3d of September, the 

 camels were again in this camp, and had delivered their loads, 

 having travelled leisurely, and with much less weight than they 

 could easily have transported. On Tuesday, September 2d, the 

 wagons were returned by Captain McLean at 12 m. On Sat- 

 urday, September 6th, they arrived in camp at 12|- p. m., only 

 one wagon carrying 1,900 pounds, and the others averaging 

 about 1,800 pounds ; the loads that experience has taught can 

 be safely transported in them over this rough and thinly-settled 

 country. From this trial, it will be seen that the six camels 

 transported over the same ground and distance the weight of two 

 six-mule wagons, and gained on them 42|- hours in time. Re- 

 member, moreover, that the keep of a camel is about the same 

 as that of a mule (if any difference, it being rather in favor of 

 the camel, as it eats no more, and ruminates like a cow), and 

 that there is no heavy outlay for wagons, harness, etc. (the only 

 equipment being a very rude pack-saddle, that can be made by 

 the camel-drivers themselves), and you will have all the data 

 necessary for a comparison of the two methods of transportation 

 just related. * * -x- -h- -x- ^ 



On Saturday night, October 4th, and Sunday morning, it 

 rained in San Antonio heavily, wetting the roads deeply, and 

 making them muddy and boggy. Wagoning through such 

 mud is labor lost, for the viscidity of this soil is such that it 

 packs firmly on the wheel, and as with each revolution a new layer 

 is taken up, the tire and felloes soon become incased in a thick 



