Horse and mule waggons.
Horse and mule waggons and carts vary so much in construction according to the nature of the country they are used in, and to the purpose for which they are intended, that it would be impossible to describe one-tenth of their number. The mode of harnessing, too, differs in almost every country. Whilst we, in England, usually content ourselves with a team harnessed in pairs, the Russians not unfrequently work three and four a-breast. The Spanish and Portuguese race, in their devious wanderings about the world, have taken the enormously high wheel of the Peninsula with them, and delight to see a big-booted postilion, black or white, acting as pilot to the lumbering old-world conveyance they journey in. Scarcely any two artillery services in the world correspond in their draught arrangement—some making use of the pole, whilst others, England amongst the number, use the shafts. Our province being to deal more particularly with vehicles calculated to bear the rough usage and vicissitudes of travel, we naturally turn to vastly extensive countries—where long journeys over hill, plain, and valley are commonly performed—for the best form of waggon to do it with. Experience in these matters is always the best guide. The constant demand almost invariably brings about the required supply. We have no long waggon journeys in England; and, as neither the artillery or military train waggon of this country, nor the “equipage militaire” of France, is in accordance with our notions of what travellers’ mule waggons should be, we go a little farther a-field, and select the Wilson waggon of the United States of America, the subject of the full-page [illustration]. The American mode of harnessing is also shown. All these waggons have wheel friction breaks fitted to them, as had all the Sardinian waggons used during the Crimean war.
THE WILSON MULE WAGGON (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA).
Wheel drags.
In travelling over rough passes and steep acclivities great attention should be paid to the application of proper break power to the wheels. The use of the skid and common drag-chain are too well known to need comment here, only that it may not be amiss to remark, en passant, that, conducting your waggon down the edge of a steep hollow, or ravine, you must have your shoe placed on the wheel away from the drop side. Never use your drag-chain when you can safely do without it, as, by confining the wheel in one position during the descent of steep pitches, the portion of the tire in contact with the ground will be seriously ground and cut up. All comparatively light carts and waggons should have the lever friction breaks before mentioned attached to them. These contrivances are simple in construction, powerful in action, and, by allowing a certain amount of retarded action to the wheel, many advantages are gained. The detail of the break arrangement varies greatly in the different countries in which it is used; but the illustration on [p. 443] will serve to show the principle on which it is constructed. The roller (A) has two stout pieces of hide rope wound round it. These are attached to the break-bar (B), which slides forward and back under the staples (C). By depressing the end of the lever (D) and hooking down its end, the friction blocks (E) are drawn against the surfaces of the wheel tires and retained there with just as much force as is thought requisite. The movements of a waggon train furnished with these contrivances are not retarded and rendered irregular by the constant and harassing stoppages consequent on the leading waggoners skidding and unskidding. On the crest of a steep descent being reached, all the teamster has to do is to heave down his lever to the required pitch, and hook on without stopping his team. On getting near the bottom he unhooks, and is prepared to move smartly up on the rise before him, all the other waggons following his example. In this way there is no check. In going down dangerously-steep inclines it is a good plan to attach a short bushy tree of good weight, root end forwards, by a strong rope or chain to the hind axle.