The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-10
HAULING ON THE DESERT.
METHOD OF TRANSPORTATION
 TRIED IN THE SOUTHWEST.

to Use Cameis-Hugh Traction En-
 zines Haul Salt wagOns-Automo-
 bile in Gold Fields.
 The history of desert transportation From the beginning of time has been the history of success and failure, princi- pally failure, says the Los Angeles Times. Few efforts within the realm Of commercial life have been attended With so many complications and dis dressing situations as the question of desert traffic.
 Exclusive of the railroad four specific methods of transportation have been mployed-Arabian camels, traction en- zines, mules and burros, and within the last year and half the automobile has come into use to some extent. The steam traction engine passed reverently over into the valley of sublime an- tiquity years ago; the jolting, rambling camel, with his automatic patience, also long since paused by the roadside with his heavy burden and fell asleep, and the burro and mule only remain to tell the story of the long ago.
 After 200 years of faithful service, however, the wise men of Washington, during the administration of Pierce, when Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, said one to another: I've must have canels for our desert work; the mule and burro are all right they have stood by us when every one else had taken to the tall timber; but the time has come when we must have the trusty camel" So, in the early eos High Jolly" a Grecian camel driver arrived In California with half a hun dred hactrian and Arabian camels di- rect from Smyrna. Great was the re- joicing.
 Fort Wilmington on the Pacific, Fort Yuma and Fort Mojave on the Colorado River, were now to be brought into such close communication as to promote sociability on the part of the command ing officers. Fort Mojave, lying north of the Needles, was 800 miles away by way of Yuma, and over one of the driest, sandiest deserts that ever in- vited traveller out into It's bewildering depths; but, bah, the Syrian driver with the red cap said: What Is that when a camel can go six or seven days without water and remain perfectly happy each day on few mesquite beans and a handful of carob pods" All of that was indeed true. The bumped beast would also close his nostrils as High Henry represented when the desert blow.
 Great, indeed, were the expectations of the commanding officers especially at Fort Wilmington ad Fort Mojave and there was likewise hope born of an- ticipation at Washington. So far the plan had worked immensely, but like the majority of plans woven in the brain of ambitious man, 1t had its weakness and it's little vulnerable points that lay hidden away from the f6yv EtfFfaoss fiiae eameis, II was ob. served, after the first trip to Fort Mo- jave were not as rugged as they had formerly been among the sand of far away Smyrna. Instead or making three miles an hour under their heavy burden they failed to average more than one and a half or two. True they paid no more attention to the blazing heat and burning sand than ar Indian does to social etiquette at 8 massacre but there was that some- thing in the climate that caused a par. +foI Of HtbA a1Ou record was discouraging to the com. rtlanding officers, but still the great cir. GUS moved on like a mighty phalanx or the desert sands.
 At last the feet of the trusty beasts began to grow worse. It was found that the hard sand on some parts of the des- ert soon affected the heavy pads o1 their feet, gradually cutting them into small threads After a thorough tria of six or eight months, the Govern n1ent abandoned the experiment ant the camels were turned loose upon tht desert along the Colorado River. While the herd is almost extinct, there are a few long haired shaggy specimens ye remaining along the Sonora and Ari' zona borders, existing in a wild state and whose appearance frequently stam pedes horses and cattle to an alarming extent.
 After the decline of the camel as a means of transport, the burro and mule again returned to favor Then came the heavy borax wagons with their twenty and twenty-two mule regi- mental line.
 Soon these great ponderous wagons propelled by an army of mules began to outlive their usefulness, at least in the minds of the enterprising men en- gagged in desert traffic, and in obedience to 6 general demand for a faster and more economical method of transit the steam traction engine, with it's enor nous bulk, huge iron tires and tre- mendous horse power was introduced on the scene. Not the small traction engines that we have been accustomed to see hauling thrasher machines over the country roads, but gigantic iror structures weighing twenty to thirty thousand pounds and resembling muct the appearance of a railroad locomo. tive.
 The first serious attempt to introduce these great iron monsters in the solu- ton of desert traffic was made by J. W Sullivan. Col. Osborne and Maier Lewis at Danby, Cal, in 1894. This particular effort will go down in history as the most important, the most spectacular