The Pack-Mule.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 99, 23 January 1900, Page 1

The Pack-Mule.

In spite of the fact that the pack horse, pack mule and pack- ass are extinct in Great Britian, and are known to the people at Homo only through the pictures of war coirespondenfcs, tha British Government is probably .the largest owner of pack-animals in the world, According to the " Westminster Gazette," the progress of our army in South Africa chiefly depends on their efficiency, because wherever there are no cart roads the speed and carrying power of the pack-beast determines the rate of advance. The art of saddle transport is one of the oldest, but it is one which Western nations have for the most part forgotten- In Europe it only just survives in Spain and Italy, and is nowbero leally understood outside the Moslems parts of Turkey. The whole furniture of a Turk's house can be packed on saddles in a very few hours. It is said, by the way, that kerosene is sent out in the familiar tins chiefly for the convenience of the pack-mule. Two tins in a wooden case make the proper load for one side of a pack-saddle ; and this is the reason why, after tobacco and gunpowder, parraffin is the product of civilisation which travels farthest from harbours and railways. The ordinary load of a mule is 2001b, and with this he will travel from eight to ten hours a day, at the rate of some three miles an hour. He is fed beforer starting, and starts at daybreak. About nine o'clock he is given a short halt in a shady place, and at noon he is fed, and resls for at least a couple of hours while his master takes the midday meal and siesta. About five o'clock ho gots a drink, if water is handy, and finally, just before sunset, he reaches a caravanserai or a campingout ground, and is fed before the men lie down to sleep. A good beast of burden will keep his pace for eight or nine days at a stretch on this systetnu and after a day's rest will repeat the performance, His pace is so uniform that all-over Turkey distances are computed in " hours," i.e., the number of hours a mule will take to cover the stretch. Maps -and mileage are deceptive, but it is very seldom that the reckoning by niule or pony hours misleads, for it actually represents the true character of the road, or rather of the track. The efficiency of this primitive transport is marvellous, for heavy loads can thus be carried along a track six inches wide, over the roughest country in the world. The packbeast is 0/ conservative animal, but he is also cunning. A badly balanced load will be " spilt " against the first convenient tree or rock, This is why the mule transport of an army always involves so .much primary expense and trouble, for expert muleteers are hard to obtain, except in Southern Europe.

Dr. Collins, in the " Electrical Seview," says consumption can be 4igcovergd in its incipient stages by means of X-rays. The signs can be detected so early that treatment is followed by prompt recovery.