THE HORSE 95 



would be so far weakened as to become useless. Thus, in 

 developing the mines in the unimproved wilderness of the 

 Cordilleras, where ores of the precious metals have to be 

 carried for considerable distances, trains of " burros " are 

 often employed. The animals quickly learn the nature of 

 their task, and will do their work with but little guidance 

 from man. 



In general we may say that the donkeys belong to a 

 vanishing state of human culture, to the time before carriage- 

 ways existed. Now that civilization goes on wheels, they 

 seem likely to have an ever-decreasing value. A century 

 ago they were almost everywhere in common use. At the 

 present time there are probably millions of people in the 

 United States to whom the animal is known only by descrip- 

 tion. In a word, the creature marks a stage in the develop- 

 ment of our industries which is passing away as rapidly as 

 that in which the spinning-wheel and the hand-loom played 

 a part. 



As the use of the ass in the economic arts began to 

 decline, the mule or hybrid progeny of this creature and the 

 horse has progressively increased. Although the value of 

 this mongrel has been known, particularly in southern 

 Europe, from very early days, its most extensive employment 

 has been found in the old slave-holding States of the Federal 

 union. The custom of using mules has been almost unknown 

 in England, and has never been generally adopted in the 

 northern part of the United States. It appears to have been 

 introduced into southern regions by the Spaniards and the 

 French, and there to have spread, because of the peculiar 

 fitness of the creature to the climate and the employment it 

 had to endure in that part of America. The mule has the 



