Chap. III. AND PRAIRIE ROADS. 237 
ing a new corral is formed, with great trouble, perhaps 
scarcely a thousand yards distant from the former. The 
animals are unyoked, and driven to grass and water ; and 
the men, after lighting their fires, set about satisfying their 
hunger and thirst. 
The next morning matters are somewhat improved ; in 
many the obstinate nature of the animals is subdued, and 
the men have begun to learn their disposition. The yoking 
and harnessing is accomplished in three to four hours, and 
the caravan succeeds in proceeding a few miles. Under 
the most favourable circumstances, however, the yoking a 
caravan of twenty to thirty waggons takes at least an hour 
and a half. 
The waggons have their fixed order in the camp as well 
as on the road. No one is allowed to pass another, and 
those in advance are ordered to wait for those behind. The 
danger of an attack from the Indians obliges the caravan 
to keep together as much as possible, and for this reason, 
it sometimes travels in double column ; a great part of the 
Santa Fe road has, in consequence, double tracks. I must 
here observe that the roads over the prairies are for the 
most part well marked out, and it would be quite erroneous 
to imagine these journeys made over trackless wilds. Now 
and then, it is true, a daring caravan-conductor attempts a 
new route, with a view to cut off an angle to reach some 
watering-place, or to avoid a hill, and in these cases he has 
of course to make his own path. The wheel-tracks of a 
waggon-caravan are distinguishable for several years in the 
prairie : a different vegetation springs up on them — herba- 
ceous plants, for instance, supersede the grasses, and not 
unfrequently the course which waggons have many years 
ago followed may be traced by a line of tall sunflowers, 
extending for miles over the grassy plain. 
