Cross-Breeding in Horses. 151 



two miles an hour, never failed to command attention. It was a 

 sight to behold these leviathans settle into their work after a 

 short respite in the midst of a steep hill ; the burly waggoner, 

 too heavy to Avalk, and scorning to ride in his waggon, was 

 mounted on one of those strong sure-footed ponies, usually white 

 or pie-bald, which have long since disappeared. A crack from 

 his long whip would send in to the collar with a 20-horse 

 power the ten hairy-legged but powerful brutes whose broad 

 backs were rendered still broader in appearance by the absence 

 of tails, for each horse was docked nlose to the stump, under the 

 absurd idea that their strength would thereby be increased. 



It is difficult to imagine that this waggon, which seemed to the 

 people of the day to be one of the institutions of the country, was 

 itself formerly looked on as a newfangled novelty, which super- 

 seded the once universal, now well-nigh forgotten pack-horse. 



There are but few specimens remaining of the pure pack-horse 

 breed which has been quite neglected and overlooked by agri- 

 cultural societies ; and, consequently, whilst the mares have for a 

 while proved valuable for breeding half-bred hunters with the 

 thorough-bred horse, the males have been gelded and used up. 

 This original or ancient race has no doubt been modified con- 

 siderably in size, according to the fertility of the soil on which 

 it might be raised ; being sometimes developed into the strong 

 upstanding harness-horse, and at others dwindling down to the 

 plain but useful galloway, as seen in many remote districts, and 

 particularly in the little horses used in the Irish cars. The Welsh 

 pony and the Clydesdale cart-horse, the latter enlarged by rich 

 pasturage and perhaps a cross, probably represent the opposite 

 extremes of this same breed. 



In less civilised ages the most useful horse was that which 

 could most readily be adapted to all purposes ; and there is no 

 good reason why, even in modern days, the more ancient breed, 

 equally pure and more serviceable than the blood-horse or dray- 

 horse, should be altogether neglected, not only by our sporting 

 men, but by the patrons of our agricultural societies ; particularly 

 since magnificent hunters have been the result of the cross 

 between the thorough-bred horse and the old pack-horse mare. 

 It will be useful to point out the peculiarities which distinguish 

 the two breeds, with a few explanatory remarks on the component 

 parts of the animal which by their varying proportions constitute 

 those peculiarities. 



The skeleton is formed of bone, which owes its solidity to the 

 fact that it is composed of one- half or upwards of earthy matter, 

 so deposited in cartilaginous cells as to render the bones strong 

 and resisting, and adapted not only to support the weight of the 

 animal, and to protect from injury the vital organs, but to serve 



