, he
is soundly kicked in the ribs by the rightful mule, and sent bruised
and battered to his place. He rarely makes a mistake in relation to the
position of his own pack the second time.

This method of transportation was so cheap, because of the low rate of
wages, that wagon-freighting, even in the most level region, could
not compete with it. Five dollars a month was the amount paid to the
muleteers, but it was oftener five with rations, costing almost nothing,
of corn and beans. Meat, if used at all, was found by the arrieros
themselves.

On the trail the mule-train is under a system of discipline almost as
severe as that on board of a man-of-war. Every individual employed is
assigned to his place and has certain duties to perform. There is a
night-herder, called the savanero, whose duty it is to keep the animals
from straying too far away, as they are all turned loose to shift for
themselves, depending upon the grass alone for their subsistence. Each
herd has a mulera, or bell-mare, which wears a bell hanging to a strap
around her neck, and is kept in view of the other animals, who will
never leave her. If the mare is taken away from the herd, every mule
becomes really melancholy and is at a loss what to do or where to go.
The cook of the party, or madre (mother) as he is called, besides his
duty in preparing the food, must lead the bell-mule ahead of the train
while travelling, the pack-animals following her with a devotion that is
remarkable.

Sometimes in traversing the narrow ledges cut around the sides of a
precipitous trail, or crossing a narrow natural bridge spanning the
frightful gorges found everywhere in the mountains, a mule will be
incontinently thrown off the slippery path, and fall hundreds of feet
into the yawning canyon below. Generally instant death is their portion,
though I recall an instance, while on an expedition against the hostile
Indians thirty years ago, where a number of mules of our pack-train,
loaded with ammunition, tumbled nearly five hundred feet down an almost
perpendicular chasm, and yet some of them got on their feet again, and
soon rejoined their companions, without having suffered any serious
injury.

The wagons so long employed in this trade, after their first
introduction in 1824, were manufactured in Pittsburgh, their capacity
being about a ton and a half, and they were drawn by eight mules or the
same number of oxen. Later much larger wagons were employed with nearly