542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



valley of the occurrence of a break. A canal has been built to reduce 

 the level of the lake, but it is not sufficient for the purpose. 



The irrigation-canals of Lombardy and Lucca are more scientifically 

 constructed, and display more technical skill, but they are net laid out 

 on a more extensive scale than those of the Canton Valais. It is a fact 

 deserving admiration that all of these colossal works have been and 

 are still being built without the aid of technical knowledge, without 

 any expensive instruments, by the people of the country ; and that 

 these people not only make great sacrifices of money and labor, but 

 put their lives at stake, to assure themselves of a supply of water. 

 Certainly a real struggle for existence is going on here ; for, without 

 a system of water-supply, there would be in many of the villages no 

 grass, no vegetable crops, no corn, and no wine. Translated for the 

 Popular Science Monthly from Das Ausland. 







WORKING CAPACITY OF UNSHOD HOESES. 



By AETHUE F. ASTLEY. 



I SEND herewith a photograph of the near fore-foot of my unshod, 

 white-hoofed, low-heeled chestnut horse " Tommy." This photo- 

 graph was taken after I had driven the old horse (he may be twenty 

 years old), in a phaeton, a hundred miles on hard roads in and around 

 London. This does not include drives for exercise. It is impossible 

 to say that the hoofs of this old horse (bought chiefly in order to test 

 this question) are exceptionally good. The reverse is the case, as any 

 of your readers, who may favor me with a call, shall see for them- 

 selves. That this animal, after having been for years " the victim of 

 the farrier," should work, as he does, barefoot, is, I think, remarkable. 

 As the old horse is nearly, if not quite, thorough-bred, he must have 

 been shod (as is the vicious custom on the turf) very early ; yet over 

 all these evil influences, incidental to " the miserable coerced shod 

 foot," the unshod foot has triumphed. Shod, my horse " brushed " 

 and stumbled badly, but barefoot he does neither. 



In Africa, a horse working in a post-cart does barefoot, over bad 

 ground, twenty-four miles in two hours. In New Mexico, horses are 

 ridden barefoot forty miles day after day, and perhaps twenty miles 

 of this will be over a rough mountain-track. In Brazil, little horses 

 (they seldom exceed fourteen hands) carry, slung across pack-saddles, 

 barefoot (they have never been shod) some thirty-tico stone ! Thus 

 loaded (or, rather, overloaded) they do twenty to thirty miles a day. 

 Their journey may be some three hundred miles, and they load back 

 the same. In England, even race-horses are shod ! To gallop over 

 a race-course, which no doubt may be hard at times, it is actually 



