Means of Transportation 
163 
transportation, for in cities it costs about fifty cents to haul a ton a 
mile by horse power. ‘Horses or other beasts of burden are used some- 
what in all parts of the world, but chiefly in the temperate zone and 
especially in the United States and western Europe. 
The traveler in the mountain regions of Utah, for instance, some- 
times meets horse after horse winding up a narrow trail, each carrying 
on his back a load of provisions for a mine. In countries like Persia, 
Turkey, China, and Siberia, such pack trains or caravansare commor 
in both mountains and plains. Often they consist wholly of horses; 
but in Turkestan, Arabia, and North Africa, many are composed of 
camels tied together by ropes running from the pack saddle or tail of 
one animal to the nose of the next. In Mexico and many other tropi- 
cal countries, pack trains of mules are more numerous than those of 
horses; while in Greece, Spain, and other Mediterranean countries, 
trains of donkeys are common. In Siam and India the elephant is 
often used for such work ; in the Himalayas the grunting yak with his 
sharp horns, and grinding teeth, and slow, steady tread is the safest 
and surest animal ; in the Andes the llama, a little cousin of the camel, 
carries the commerce of the high, cold upland. 
Even in the countries where pack animals are the main means of 
transportation, there are usually some roads where wagons can be used. 
In our own desert regions great mule teams of ten or even twenty ani- 
mals haul supplies to mines and come back with a wagon and several 
trailers loaded with ore or borax. In Siberia each wagon usually has 
Ellsworth Hunlington 
Fra. 121. In Central Asia transportation is still entirely dependent on animal power. The 
traveler has his choice of the ox. the camel. or the horse.