A durable and convenient form of waggon can be extemporised in any wild country where wood and raw hides are procurable by proceeding as follows: First from dead, but sound, trees, or seasoned wood (see “Wood, to season”), fashion the pieces for your waggon bed frame, as shown in the illustration below. Both the fore and hind axle trees are composed of two pieces of wood matched so as to lay evenly on each other. On the surface of contact of each piece-half holes are cut for the admission of the pole (A), prong piece (B), and cross prong ends (C). The perch bolt (D) should be an iron pin, but may be a hard wood treenail. Either lashings of raw hide or treenails may be used for securing the upper and lower axle pieces to each other. The lower piece of wood, or axle bar, should be composed of some hard dense, yet tough, wood, as the axles have to be formed from it. The butt end of the prong piece (E) is so adjusted as to travel forward and backward on the pole, thus lengthening or shortening the body of the waggon. There are two methods by which the regulation of the prong piece is effected. One is to have a train of holes in the pole and one hole in the butt end of the prong piece for a pin to pass through, which being driven down through one of the holes in the pole holds it at that length. We, however, prefer hollowing out the lower surface of the prong-piece butt with a gouge until it fits on the pole after the manner of a hollow slide or rider. This we lash fast to the pole with a long strip of raw hide, taking several turns both before and behind the joint. The prong piece must be cut from a natural fork of suitable size and length. The butt end should be left at least 18in. long, in order that sufficient bearing surface may be left to rest on the pole under the hide lashing. By adopting this mode of regulating the movements of the prong, a pole of moderate and convenient size may be used without fear of breakage. A very stout pole is required for the pin plan, as the auger holes bored through it tend greatly to decrease its strength. The four upright posts (F, F, F, F) are fitted into four square holes chiselled out in the upper axle piece for the purpose of receiving them; and they serve to secure the planks, hurdles, wattle work, or poles forming the sides of the waggon.
Directions for building and fitting wheels have been given in a former portion of our work; and we need therefore only repeat that slices cut from suitable-sized log ends form very fair makeshift wheels (see p. 366); but care should be taken, if native carts are used in the region where the makeshift waggon is building, to ascertain the gauge at which their wheels are set and regulate yours accordingly, or the wheel tracks on these trails will not match with yours, and so cause strains and breakages. The adjustment of the contrivance just described will entirely depend on the purpose for which it is from time to time required. For the conveyance of the packs and baggage of a large party it may be drawn out to its full length, as shown in the illustration (p. [440]), leaving only pole enough for the attachment of draught animals. By bringing the prong piece farther back a short four-wheeled waggon can be formed, and by slipping the fore axle and prong over the end of the pole you leave the perch and hinder axle to be used as a two-wheeled cart, whilst an extra pole fitted to the first axle and prong makes a second pair-wheeled cart just as handy as the other. Should there be but two available draught animals for the two carts, shafts can be used instead of poles. These are easily made by lashing on poles with raw hide, or cutting wide prong-shaped branches which spread out wide at the butt, which must be left long enough to fit into the pole hole of the axle piece, when, if cut with a good curve, these shafts will somewhat resemble those of a Hansom cab. Acting somewhat on this principle, the Californian teamsters make use at times of a sort of train waggon, which, with a powerful mule team, is, over favourable ground, worked entire; but when the vicissitudes of travel require it, they work each separate compartment of the waggon just as we should an ordinary cart.
Cape wine waggon.
About the year 1842, we were accustomed to see the primitive wine waggon of the Cape Colony toiling over the dreary waste of shifting sands known as the Cape Flats. Its wheels were large and broad, the hinder ones being often 7ft. in diameter. The fore and after carriages were connected by a long fir pole, and the sides and bottom were formed of six or eight trees of the same kind, so arranged as to form a convenient bed for two or three beakers of wine. At the hinder end would be a tent and sides of wattled work, or perhaps the sides of an ordinary waggon, with the tent attached, would be fitted temporarily on, so as to form a place of shelter for the owner and his family. It was generally drawn by twenty or twenty-two oxen.
The illustration on [p. 440] represents one of these wine waggons; and, as it may so happen that the lot of the settler may be cast in regions resembling the district we have just spoken of, it may be well that he should know how to construct a conveyance of this kind, as the fore part of the waggon affords ample space for stowing away barrels or bales. As will be seen, on reference to the illustration, the length of the waggon can, like that before described, be regulated according to the requirements of the owner.
Indian gharrie.
The illustration below represents a vehicle in which we performed some very rough travelling through Central India. Its cover, or tent, was composed of painted cotton cloth stretched over bamboo hoops and nailed to the framework. On the bottom, or bed, of our conveyance we placed a stout matress stuffed with cotton. Our rifles, guns, water barrel, and revolvers hung in pouches against the inside of the waggon tent. The door was at the rear. The windows had curtains fitted to them. The bullock teams varied in strength from one pair to three, according to the character of the country travelled through. Conveyances much like this in construction, and of admirable quality, are manufactured at Ahmednugger, in the Bombay Presidency. When travelling in this vehicle our heavy baggage followed in two hackeries, or country carts, each drawn by two pairs of bullocks. These hackeries, like the arobas of the Tartars, merely consist of an axle, a pair of rough strong wheels, a pole, and number of odd poles, sticks, and pieces of board bound together with hide. Our men were much puzzled in Crim-Tartary when we overtook, on the only road leading from passes perfectly impracticable for wheeled carriages, several of the bullock arobas of the country laden with bales of skins and bags of grain. The Tartars had simply taken their arobas to pieces by casting off the hide lashings, packed the bullocks, themselves, and their wolfish-looking dogs, with the divided loads and waggon gear, marched over the passes, and then put the whole affair in travelling trim again. With our horses and packed mules we had no such difficulty to contend against. Much like these in construction is the single-ox cart of Red River. In this the ox is harnessed very much as a horse would be, working between a pair of ordinary shafts. Each driver conducts his own train, which may consist of a dozen carts. The oxen are driven with a long-handled, heavy-thonged whip, which is a sort of compromise between the whip of a Cape waggoner and that of an Australian stock-man. Each of these primitive carts is capable of transporting about 9cwt. of buffalo flesh and hides from the hunting grounds to the depôt of the hunters.