errors you must be careful to avoid. It is a simple matter of arithmetic
to calculate what is best for you to do; but I hope on this horse
question you may have the benefit of advice from some one who has had
experience with the ways of the world. You will need it very much.


WAGONS.

If you have the choice of wagons, take one that is made for carrying
light, bulky goods, for your baggage will be of that order. One with a
large body and high sides, or a covered wagon, will answer. In districts
where the roads are mountainous, rough, and rocky, wagons hung on
thoroughbraces appear to suit the people the best; but you will have no
serious difficulty with good steel springs if you put in rubber bumpers,
and also strap the body to the axles, thus preventing the violent
shutting and opening of the springs; for you must bear in mind that the
main leaf of a steel spring is apt to break by the sudden pitching
upward of the wagon-body.

It has been my fortune twice to have to carry large loads in small
low-sided wagons; and it proved very convenient to have two or three
half-barrels to keep food and small articles in, and to roll the bedding
in rolls three or four feet wide, which were packed in the wagon upon
their ends. The private baggage was carried in meal-bags, and the tents
in bags made expressly to hold them; we could thus load the wagon
securely with but little tying.

For wagons with small and low bodies, it would be well to put a light
rail fourteen to eighteen inches above the sides, and hold it there by
six or eight posts resting on the floor, and confined to the sides of