134 BITS AND BITTING. 



Our own experience, which has been considerable, 

 though not to be mentioned in comparison with Yon 

 Oeynhausen's, confirms this very accurately; and on 

 referring to old pocket-books devoted to notices of this 

 kind, we find that, out of some 400 horses belonging 

 to certain squadrons of light cavalry, measured some 

 eight or nine years ago, the width of the mouth was 

 for the smaller ones exactly 4 English inches, and 

 for nearly the whole of the remainder 4.2 inches, one 

 or two only reaching 4.3 inches. A great number of 

 bits were put down for alteration as being a half to one 

 inch too wide, and some thirty or forty went to the 

 heap of old iron, as being utterly useless from their im- 

 mense size. Some officers will perhaps smile at this 

 as a piece of pedantry ; but if they had witnessed the 

 results obtained, they would probably adopt the same 

 plan. As it is, let any cavalry captain in the British 

 service take the trouble of ascertaining, which he may 

 easily do, how many bits in his troop are half an inch, 

 a full inch, or perhaps still more, too wide, he* will 

 probably then find a clue to many little annoyances he 

 meets with during drill. 



The width of the channel in which the tongue lies 

 always bears a certain proportion to the height of the 

 bar, measured as above described ; we must therefore 

 take this latter in the first instance. 



Lieutenant-Colonel von. Oeynhausen says that the 

 height of the bars is 1|- inches* with the very great 

 majority of horses, and that it is very unusual to find 

 it either more or less. The author has certainly never 

 found bars that exceeded 1.8 English inches in height, 

 but he has seen some that were less perhaps about 

 * Equal exactly to 1.81 English inches. 



