PACK-TRAINS.
Gen. Holabird says: A pack-mule carries on an average 200 pounds. Allow one pack-mule to six or seven men for detachments out scouting from five to eight days; twelve mules to two officers and sixty or seventy men for six days; eight mules to one officer and fifty men of cavalry for six days.
The above allowance does not contemplate the carrying of forage.
Cavalry drill-regulations state: With fifty packs there should be twelve packers. Each troop should have four mess-boxes, seven-eighths inch lumber, dovetailed, 11 inches by 18 inches by 26 inches, and, when packed in pack-cover, without lids.
In camp or garrison, logs of wood, 26 inches long, and sacks of corn, double-sacked and lashed to avoid breaking sacks, having the weight it is intended the mule should carry, are kept on hand for drill purposes.
Each pack should be provided with two coils of three-eighths inch rope, 18 to 28 feet long, for lashing packs.
The pack-saddle consists of the saddle proper; two pads; crupper; corona; manta or pack-cover; two pieces of canvas, each 84 inches by 22 inches, stitched together on the long edges; halter and strap; canvas cincha, 10 inches wide; sling-rope, half-inch best hand-laid manilla whale-line, 20 to 32 feet long; and leather cincha, with lash-rope, five-eighths inch whale-line 42 feet long. There should be one blind for every five packs.
The size of rope is given by the measurement of its diameter.
A "full-rigged" saddle has sling-straps and cargo-cincha; the sling and lash ropes are then dispensed with.
While saddling, loading, or readjusting the packs, the animals should be blinded. The mules should be trained to stand perfectly quiet while the blind is on; they should never be led or forced to move without first removing the blind.
TO FIT THE SADDLE.
The pack-saddle is fitted to the animal in a manner similar to that of the riding-saddle; it is so constructed that it can be placed one and one-half inches farther forward than the riding-saddle.
If the pads are not square, draw the screws, unlace the pads from the skirts, then square and fit them to the animal by placing the canvas cincha immediately around the animal's girth, the front edge touching the breast-bone (cartilages of true ribs), the middle of the cincha being exactly in the middle of the lower edges of the pads; then screw the pads to the saddle-bars, keeping the cincha in place till the adjustment is made; then remove the cincha and replace the pads.
Adjust the canvas cincha so as to be long enough to go nearly around the girth of the mule, over the saddle.
Adjust the crupper by lengthening or shortening the lace-strings that attach it to the saddle, taking care not to make it too tight.
TO SADDLE.
Place the corona on the mule's back, about two to two and one half inches in front of where the pommel end of the saddle is to rest; place the folded saddle-blanket over the corona; take the saddle by both yokes and place it squarely in position, a little in rear of its proper place; place the crupper under the dock and gently move the saddle forward to position; pass the ring end of the canvas cincha over the saddle from left to right and under the belly; pass the latigo through the ring and tighten the cincha; when cinched, the ring end of the cincha should be above the lower edge of the near pad.