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 somewhat
 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, sometimes
 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 tropical
 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 animals
 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.