496 
ACTS OF RUNNING AND LEAPING. 
and hind feet are raised and advanced together. Now, if we 
consider the fore-feet of a horse as constituting the four angles 
of a parallelogram, it is easy to see that the base of support, 
when the feet are thus raised, will he one of its diagonals ; 
and as the feet are alternately advanced, the weight will 
alternately he thrown upon these two lines. But the centre 
of gravity in the horse, especially when carrying a rider, is in 
a point almost exactly above that at which the two diagonals 
cross ; so that it is always supported either by the one or the 
other. The gallop of greatest speed is a run performed on 
the same plan as the trot;—that is, the right fore and left 
hind feet leave and reach the ground together, and then the 
left fore and right hind feet are advanced. The canter is a 
kind of step altogether different. The four legs strike the 
ground successively, the left hind foot reaching it first, the 
right hind foot second, the left fore foot third, and the right 
fore foot fourth.—The celebrated race-horse Eclipse, when 
galloping at liberty and with his greatest speed, passed over 
the space of 25 feet at each stride or leap ; this he repeated 
21 times in a second, so as to pass over 58 feet in that time, 
which was at the rate of nearly 4 miles in six minutes and 
two seconds. But this performance was completely surpassed 
by that of Flying Childers, who was computed to have 
passed over 82 \ feet in a second, or nearly a mile in a 
minute. 
661. In leaping , the body is projected into the air by the 
sudden extension of the joints, especially those of the hinder 
part of the body which had been previously bent; and having 
traversed a greater or less distance, the body comes again to 
the ground and may be again projected. This is a kind of 
motion usually practised by many animals whose structure is 
expressly adapted to it. Thus among Mammals we find se¬ 
veral in which the hind legs are enormously elongated, for 
the purpose of giving greater quickness to the motion of the 
body; and their muscles are developed to an extraordinary 
degree in order to supply the necessary force. This is the 
case among most of the animals of the order Rodentia, such 
as the Hare, Rabbit, Squirrel, &c.; but particularly in the 
Jerboa or Jumping Rat, and in the Kangaroo and its allies. 
In these animals the fore feet, which are little used for pro¬ 
gression, are comparatively small; and in the last they are 
