without regard
to roads. Mountains and broken ground may easily be traversed, and
exemption is gained from many of the troubles and detentions attendant
upon the transit of cumbersome wagon-trains.

One of the most essential requisites to the outfit of a pack train is a
good pack-saddle. Various patterns are in use, many of which are mere
instruments of torture upon the backs of the poor brutes, lacerating
them cruelly, and causing continued pain.

The Mexicans use a leathern pack-saddle without a tree. It is stuffed
with hay, and is very large, covering almost the entire back, and
extending far down the sides. It is secured with a broad hair girth,
and the load is kept in position by a lash-rope drawn by two men so
tight as to give the unfortunate beast intense suffering.

[Illustration: GRIMSLEY'S PACK-SADDLE.]

A pack-saddle is made by T. Grimsley, No. 41 Main Street, St. Louis,
Mo. It is open at the top, with a light, compact, and strong tree,
which fits the animal's back well, and is covered with raw hide, put on
green, and drawn tight by the contraction in drying. It has a leathern
breast-strap, breeching, and lash-strap, with a broad hair girth
fastened in the Mexican fashion. Of sixty-five of these saddles that I
used in crossing the Rocky Mountains, over an exceedingly rough and
broken section, not one of them wounded a mule's back, and I regard
them as the best saddles I have ever seen.

No people, probably, are more familiar with the art of packing than the
Mexicans. They understand the habits, disposition, and powers of the
mule perfectly, and will get more work out of him than any other men I
have ever seen. The mule and the donkey are to them as the camel to the
Arab--their porters over deserts and mountains where no other means of
transportation can be used to advantage. The Spanish Mexicans are,
however, cruel masters, having no mercy upon their beasts, and it is no
uncommon thing for them to load their mules with the enormous burden of
three or four hundred pounds.

These muleteers believe that, when the pack is firmly lashed, the
animal supports his burden better and travels with greater ease, which
seems quite probable, as the tension forms, as it were, an external
sheath supporting and bracing the muscles. It also has a tendency to
prevent the saddle from slipping and chafing the mule's back. With such
huge _cargas_ as the Mexicans load upon their mules, it is impossible,
by any precautions, t