JUDGING. 



183 



instead of being thus — 



Xo2. 



From ten to fourteen there is no indication of the 

 passage of years : though Buffon speaks of telling a 

 horse's age by the gradual effacement of the ridges of 

 the palate. He has again a theory, that the duration 

 of an animal's life is proportioned to its growth ; that 

 it lives about six or seven times the period it takes 

 to grow. For instance, a colt may consider himself 

 a horse at five years of age : with good keep and 

 care he will last till from thirty to thirty-five years 

 of age. This calculation, however, seems a hasty 

 one when applied generally to all classes of animals. 



The eyepits of old horses are commonly hollow, 

 but this is an equivocal sign, inasmuch as the stock 

 of an aged sire are apt to exhibit the same defect. 

 The same vagabonds who Bishop, will inflate with air 

 the sunken eyepit of an old horse to the original 

 plumpness of youth, as the prize Ayrshire bull at a 

 Scotch show some short time ago had his bad points 



