398 EFFECTS OF CLIMATE AND SOIL ON CONFORMATION. 



body than weedy thorough-breds. This conformation being 

 a result purely of climate, is not accompanied by a corre- 

 sponding increase of speed. Fig. 442 shows an Indian 

 Country-bred race-horse, whose English sire and dam were 

 of fairly good "substance." Although these very leggy 

 and light-bodied animals are allowed, like all horses bred 

 in India, 2st. when competing against EngUsh and 

 Australian horses on Indian race-courses, they seldom if 

 ever win in " good company." 



While the Bengal studs were in existence, the Indian 

 Government spent large sums of money for many years in 

 trying to breed horses for cavalry and artillery purposes, 

 which they were able to do in that hot climate, only by 

 the constant importation of fresh blood from England and 

 Arabia; the breeding of Artillery wheelers being their 

 greatest difficulty. To overcome this obstacle, the Indian 

 Government imported many English cart stalHons, the 

 progeny of which rapidly lost their ancestral type, and 

 turned into " country-breds," pure and simple, in a few 

 generations. While I was in India for eighteen years, 1 

 had ample opportunities of seeing that the climate of that 

 country has the effect of entirely altering the type of the 

 offspring of imported horses. We see a similar result in 

 Arabs that are bred on the Continent and in England, the 

 Arabian type of which can be maintained only by artificial 

 selection, and by the frequent introduction of stallions or 

 mares that have been bred in Arabia. In this case, the 

 chief difficulty is the well-marked tendency to increased 

 height, which is caused by the climate being colder than 

 that of Arabia. The relatively warmer chmate of England 

 produces a similar effect on imported Shetland ponies. The 

 artificial conditions under which horse-breeding was con- 

 ducted in the Indian Government studs, raised the average 

 cost of the remounts to about £200. Consequently, these 

 breeding operations were suspended, and stud-breds were 

 replaced by Australian horses, at about a quarter the cost. 



