-A traveller's wagon should be of the simplest possible
construction, and not too heavy. The Cape wagons, or, at all events,
those of a few years back, undoubtedly shared the ponderousness of all
Dutch workmanship. Weight is required only when crashing through a bushy
country, where a wagon must break down all before it: in every other case
it is objectionable. It is a saving of labour to have one large wagon,
rather than two small ones, because a driver and a leader are thereby
spared. But if a very light wagon has to be taken, I should greatly
prefer its being made on the Swiss and German fashion, with a shifting
perch as in the figure

[Drawing of fastening].

These are the simplest of affairs, and will split up into two carts--the
pole and the fore-wheels forming one, and the perch and the hind-wheels
another: now, should a great loss occur among the traveller's cattle, or
should he break a wheel, or even strain an axle-tree, in a timberless
country, it may be very convenient to him to abandon part of his stores,
and to build up a cart for carrying on the remainder. Lady Vavasour
describes one of these wagons in the following graphic manner:--"The
perch is moveable, and they can make it any length they please; it is of
so simple a construction that every farmer can repair his own, and make
anything of it. If he has a perch, a pole, and four wheels, that is
enough; with a little ingenuity, he makes it carry stones, hay, earth, or
anything he wants, by putting a plank at each side. When he wants a
carriage for pleasure, he fits it up for that purpose; his moveable perch
allows him to make it anything. I counted seventeen grown persons sitting
side by side, looking most happy, in one of them, drawn only by a pair of
small horses, and in this hilly country."

Drays.--Two-wheeled drays, and not wagons, are used very generally in
Australia. A long bar is crossed by a short one near one of its
ends,--this latter forms the axletree; the body of the dray is built
where the two cross; and the cattle are yoked or harnessed to the long
end of the bar, which acts as a pole.

Tarring Wheels.--Tar is absolutely essential in a hot country, to mix
with the grease that is used for the wagon-wheels. Grease, alone, melts
and runs away like water: the object of the tar is to give consistency to
the grease; a very small proportion of tar suffices, but without any at
all, a wagon is soon brought to a standstill. It is, therefore, most