ts loading, as the pole dragging
upon the ground will cause it to run heavily.

When a front wheel breaks down, the expedient just mentioned can not be
applied to the front axle, but the two rear wheels may be taken off and
placed upon this axle (they will always fit), while the sound front
wheel can be substituted upon one side of the rear axle, after which
the pole may be applied as before described. This plan I have adopted
upon several different occasions, and I can vouch for its efficacy.

The foregoing facts may appear very simple and unimportant in
themselves, but blacksmiths and wheelwrights are not met with at every
turn of the roads upon the prairies; and in the wilderness, where the
traveler is dependent solely upon his own resources, this kind of
information will be found highly useful.

When the spokes in a wheel shrink more than the felloes, they work
loose in the hub, and can not be tightened by wedging. The only remedy
in such cases is to cut the felloe with a saw on opposite sides, taking
out two pieces of such dimensions that the reduced circumference will
draw back the spokes into their proper places and make them snug. A
thin wagon-bow, or barrel-hoops, may then be wrapped around the outside
of the felloe, and secured with small nails or tacks. This increases
the diameter of the wheel, so that when the tire has been heated, put
on, and cooled, it forces back the spokes into their true places, and
makes the wheel as sound and strong as it ever was. This simple process
can be executed in about half an hour if there be fuel for heating, and
obviates the necessity of cutting and welding the tire. I would
recommend that the tires should be secured with bolts and nuts, which
will prevent them from running off when they work loose, and, if they
have been cut and reset, they should be well tried with a hammer where
they are welded to make sure that the junction is sound.

FORDING RIVERS.

Many streams that intersect the different routes across our continent
are broad and shallow, and flow over beds of quicksand, which, in
seasons of high water, become boggy and unstable, and are then
exceedingly difficult of crossing. When these streams are on the rise,
and, indeed, before any swelling is perceptible, their beds become
surcharged with the sand loosened by the action of the under-current
from the approaching flood, and from this time until the water subsides
fording is difficult, requiring great precau