SHETLAND PONIES. 



543 



say that, by preference, it does nothing of the kind. As far as our 

 experience enables us to judge, a straying pony, wherever it may 

 be, traverses the line of least resistance. 



We have said that they are exported in large numbers annually. 

 The wonder, in our opinion, is that they are not still more exten- 

 sively purchased. They are singularly affectionate and repay any 

 amount of attention. Their uses are manifold, as they are capital 

 saddle animals one of forty-seven inches being quite up to an 

 ordinary riding weight are as a rule sure-footed and reliable, go 

 well either singly or paired in harness, make the best of hill ponies, 

 give little trouble, and are the most captivating of all possible 

 pets. Take them all in all, they are by far the best of the pony 

 race. Perhaps their only drawback is their almost infinite teach- 

 ableness, which tends to make them acquire bad as well as good 

 habits ; but this is a question of training. In nine cases out of ten 

 their breaking-in is intrusted to inexperienced boys, with the usual 

 result of developing a tendency to shy or to throw their rider, at 

 which latter manoeuvre they may become perfect adepts. These 

 tricks are never unlearned. But, with an ordinary amount of 

 skilled attention from the first, they may be perfectly disci- 

 plined. 



Mr. J. Sands is the poet of this special subject perhaps the 

 only singer the Shetland pony ever had. In touching verse he 

 pictures the mother pony with her downy foal feeding together 

 on the wind-swept grassy hills of Shetland, the latter soon to be 

 parted from her to go to work in the grimy coal-mine. A fine 

 touch of nature this, but not without its share of, apparently in- 

 evitable, fallacy. For mine-ponies, though certainly condemned 

 to life-long imprisonment, are well looked after and carefully 

 tended. Assuredly their lot underground is preferable to ill-treat- 

 ment above ground, and though a pony may suffer from something 

 like " home-sickness " for a few days in a new dwelling, the attack 

 seldom lasts long. Our pony, though somewhat of a pessimist, is 

 a philosopher, and adapts itself with wonderful facility to a change 

 of home and ownership. Cornhill Magazine. 



One of the traits of recent historical investigation, which is well illustrated in 

 "Welzhofer's History of the Early Greek People, is its reaction against the skepti- 

 cal school of inquirers. The disposition to disbelieve the old stories, or to resolve 

 them into poetical fancies, is giving way to speculations concerning the real facts 

 on which they may or are supposed to have been founded. Mr. F. T. Richards 

 suggests, in the Academy, that anthropology has done something to bring about 

 this change of mind, by finding, still existent, institutions, incidents, legends, and 

 states of mind closely parallel or akin to early Greek and Roman affairs ; while 

 the credit of many of the old stories is strengthened by incidents in which the un- 

 lettered traditions of savages have been found to be true. 



