176 BITS AND BITTING. 



is intended to act, and these are, the tongue in the 

 centre and the bars of the mouth on each side. It has 

 been already pointed out that the relative hardness or 

 softness of the mouth, so far as this depends on the 

 conformation of this organ itself, is a consequence of 

 the greater or less thickness of the tongue, and the 

 greater or less sharpness and sensitiveness of the bars. 

 The soft fleshy tongue is, of course, much less sensitive 

 to pressure than the bony bars, covered only with a 

 very thin membrane ; and consequently, if we used a 

 perfectly straight unjointed mouthpiece of a moderate 

 thickness, this resting wholly on the animal's tongue 

 would, notwithstanding a certain amount of lever ac- 

 tion, be the very lightest form of bit that could be 

 well devised ; in fact, a good snaffle would, on account 

 of the joint, be more powerful. On the other hand, if 

 by means of what is called a " port " we remove all 

 pressure from the tongue and transfer it to the pecu- 

 liarly sensitive bars, we obtain, with precisely the same 

 amount of lever action as before, a much greater 

 amount of power in fact, the sharpest form of bit that 

 it is generally advisable to use. Now between these 

 two extremes there is a wide range, and the whole art 

 of bitting consists, so far as the mouthpiece goes, in 

 determining how much of the pressure shall fall on 

 the tongue and how much on the bars, and we are 

 thus enabled, by means of an almost infinite system 

 of gradations, to obtain exactly the degree of action 

 required in each particular instance by the nature of 

 the service we demand, whatever the relative thick- 

 ness of the tongue and sensitiveness of the bars may 

 chance to be. 



But there is one essential to be attended to namely, 



