Year: 1879

The California ranchmen have wonder
full aptitude for driving, and one sees
some pretty good examples among the
hills. The road down the mountain
sides is entirely unguarded upon the
outer edge, and the descent in most
places is precipitous. A balky horse, or
fractured wheel, or slight careless
ness in handling the reins, might easily
send carriage-load of people to destruc-
tion-and an awful destruction, too.
The path is wide enough for one pair of
wheels only, but at intervals, in favor
able places, it broadens SO that teams
may pass each other. To drive in such
manner as not to meet another traveller
midway between these places is a special
branch of the art. The huge lumber
teams which carry wood from the mills
in the mountains to the yards in the
valleys, being unwieldly and very heavy,
are especially hard to manage. Yet the
drivers always seem easy and nonchalant.
First there is large four-wheeled oaken
truck, with a seat in front ten feet above
the ground; behind it is another truck,
something shorter, but still enormously
stout. These are fastened together, and
loaded with from ten to fifteen tons of
freshly-sawn lumber-boards and joists


This mass is drawn by six or eight mules
or horses, guided by reins and a pro-
.ligiously long whip. The first wagon
has powerful brake, worked by long
iron lever by the driver upon his seat.
The driver is man of nerve and cour-
age. His skill must be of the highest
order. 1t will not do for him to take
fright, even if in imminent danger, and
he must know to hairs breadth where
he can 60 and where he cannot. Tower
ing up far above the road, overlooking
the most stupendous depths, and guiding
with few slender lines a tremendous
force, he must needs be an adept and a
tireless one. But a beholder, ignorant
of the danger that constantly surrounds
him, would say his work was simple, and
that he managed matters with ease.
True, he seems SO. With his broad
brimmed hat shading his sun-burned
face, his sinewy hands holding the reins
with carelessness, his legs outstretched,
with one foot feeling the all-important
brake, he jogs onward with his monster
charge without trouble or concern; the
bells upon the horses breasts jingle a
little tune; the great wheels crush the
stones in the path; the load creaks like
ships hull in a sudden gust; wild birds
sweep down into the hazy, sunny depths
below; yet the driver seems to take no
heed. But let scare" take place; let
herd of runaway cattle appear at a
bend and set the horses wild, and then
see what will happen. The day-dreamer
will become giant of strength he is up
in a flash; he shortens his hold upon the
reins, and feeling his wagon start up
beneath him, places a foot of iron on the
brake. The horses snort and rear and
surge; the harnesses rattle, the dust
arises, the load shrieks again, and the
huge wheels turn fatally faster and
faster An instant may hurl the wagon
down into the valley with its struggling
train-a mad rush to the other side Of
the way may end all in one horrible
plunge. Muscle, eye, brain, skill are
then brought to work so splendidly
together that the peril is averted, and
the looker-on, who knows not the ways
of the land, regards the teamster with
profound respect thereafter.