des. How to prevent them. Corraling
Wagons.

MARCHING.

The success of a long expedition through an unpopulated country depends
mainly on the care taken of the animals, and the manner in which they
are driven, herded, and guarded. If they are broken down or lost, every
thing must be sacrificed, and the party becomes perfectly helpless.

The great error into which inexperienced travelers are liable to fall,
and which probably occasions more suffering and disaster than almost
any thing else, lies in overworking their cattle at the commencement of
the journey. To obviate this, short and easy drives should be made
until the teams become habituated to their work, and gradually inured
to this particular method of traveling. If animals are overloaded and
overworked when they first start out into the prairies, especially if
they have recently been taken from grain, they soon fall away, and give
out before reaching the end of the journey.

Grass and water are abundant and good upon the eastern portions of all
the different overland routes; animals should not, therefore, with
proper care, fall away in the least before reaching the mountains, as
west of them are long stretches where grass and water are scarce, and
it requires the full amount of strength and vigor of animals in good
condition to endure the fatigues and hard labor attendant upon the
passage of these deserts. Drivers should be closely watched, and never,
unless absolutely necessary, permitted to beat their animals, or to
force them out of a walk, as this will soon break down the best teams.
Those teamsters who make the least use of the whip invariably keep
their animals in the best condition. Unless the drivers are checked at
the outset, they are very apt to fall into the habit of flogging their
teams. It is not only wholly unnecessary but cruel, and should never be
tolerated.

In traveling with ox teams in the summer season, great benefit will be
derived from making early marches; starting with the dawn, and making a
"nooning" during the heat of the day, as oxen suffer much from the heat
of the sun in midsummer. These noon halts should, if possible, be so
arranged as to be near grass and water, where the animals can improve
their time in grazing. When it gets cool they may be hitched to the
wagons again, and the journey continued in the afternoon. Sixteen or
eighteen miles a day may thus be made without injury to the beasts, and
longer drives can never be ex