190 RIDING 



towns recall to mind the scenery of the midland counties. 

 The climate of Tasmania is equable ; there are no extremes 

 of heat and cold, neither are there hot winds, such as there are 

 in Australia, to burn up the pastures ; whilst the mountainous 

 configuration of the country, with its surroundings of sea, has 

 a tendency to keep the air cool and agreeable. The land is of 

 great fertility, and is well suited for agriculture. The greater 

 portion of the island is, however, still covered with vast 

 forests, which have to be cleared before the land is available 

 for pasture or cultivation. The horses are mostly bred for 

 agricultural work. In that class they are excellent, and, being 

 fed on oats, develop in size and strength above those of 

 Australia. Some breeders send their produce to the sale-yards 

 in Melbourne, whence some doubtless find their way to India. 



Young horses bred in a l bush ' country take to jumping as 

 young ducks take to water. In New Zealand, to transform a 

 hundred acres of the densest forest imaginable, evergreen, matted 

 and tangled with every sort of binder creeper and parasite, and 

 in every depression of which is a thick wet growth of moss and 

 giant ferns, is not an encouraging-looking task. All has to be 

 cut down, and when as dry as may be, to be fired in innumerable 

 places. Some of it burns ; that which is either too stout or too 

 wet to burn lies where it has fallen till it rots, but between the 

 logs a sweet grass soon springs up from a soil luxuriating in 

 unaccustomed sunlight and dryness. A foal dropped among 

 these logs has to use his hind legs as soon as he can stand, to 

 follow his dam ; and it is no matter of wonder, therefore, that 

 every horse bred under such circumstances has the makings of 

 a hunter, especially if, as is commonly the case, he has an here- 

 ditary disposition that way. 



It is fortunate for a sport-loving community that young 

 untried horses should be so cheap and their keep equally in- 

 expensive. A few pounds will buy any good-looking youngster 

 without antecedents or reputation, and, like the shilling razors 

 which many men swear by, out of half-a-dozen you can generally 

 find one good one. In New South Wales and Victoria, where 



