Page:California Digital Library (IA historyofkansas00hollrich).pdf/103

 five to six yoke of oxen, or five spans of mules each. One driver for every wagon is attached to the train. From four to ten extra hands also accompany it, to fill possible vacancies. One or more mess wagons, under the superintendence of cooks likewise form a part of the cortege, the whole being under the supreme command of the wagon master and his assistant. As to cooks the crew of the prairie fleet, after having traveled on the Plains a week or two, outshine the deck hands of our steamboats altogether. When ‘under sail’ the prairie schooners usually keep about thirty yards from each other, and as each of them, with its animate propelling power, has a length of eighty or ninety feet, a large train requires an hour to pass a given point.”