THE EXCELLENCE OF THE ARAB HORSE 119 



gramme ; so that the weight was, therefore, over 

 25 stone, more than 2 stone in excess of the 22^ 

 stone carried by the little Persian troop - horse 

 mentioned by Captain Nolan, and was not excep- 

 tional. Therefore the stories of the Arabs, related 

 with the poetic imagery of an Eastern people, are 

 verified, so to speak, and corroborated, by the 

 business accuracy and actual measurements of a 

 French soldier of responsibility and repute, and the 

 facts of the French General are fortified by the 

 account given by Mr. Steevens of the marching 

 forth of the British cavalry, mounted on Arabs, 

 for Omdurman, as mentioned in Chapter VIII. 



There is an Australian work on pure saddle- 

 horses by Edward M. Curr (Melbourne, 1863), 

 which deserves attentive study, the more especially 

 that he writes entirely for Australians. The author 

 is a native of Australia, who during twenty years 

 had passed more time in the saddle than falls to 

 the lot of most men. He describes his great ex- 

 perience in numerous countries, and had witnessed 

 the performance and sufferings of the horse under 

 almost every phase of labour, accident, and hard- 

 ship, except the battlefield. 



Mr. Curr unhesitatingly pronounces for the Arab, 

 and denounces the system which has ruined the 

 English horse ; but as it is an Australian book on 

 the same subject as that upon which I am writing, 

 my readers can easily have recourse to it. But 

 I must cite some of the statements which Mr. 



