234 DRAUGHT AND HARNESS. 



haggle about inches m the latter. In like manner, in 

 carriage draught the inclination of the traces to the 

 longitudinal axis of the vehicle, which depends to a 

 certain extent on their length, cannot be safely neg- 

 lected, as a pair of over-fatigued or over-weighted 

 draught-horses point out to us clearly enough by put- 

 ting their heads together and pulling towards the 

 central line. Let us consider again the case of railways, 

 where we see engines drawing trains of forty Avaggons, 

 of course not so easily as shorter ones of ten or 

 twenty, on account of the difference of weight, but 

 still without difficulty, because the rails keep the 

 engine and the train mostly on a straight line, 

 whilst in curves the traction becomes always 

 more difficult. If 1 or 2 feet more in a carriage- 

 trace could possibly make such a difference against 

 the horse as is pretended, what must the last wag- 

 gon of a train that is 100 or 250 3^ards long do to 

 an engine 1 Finally, we have lasso harness, in which 

 the single trace is much longer than any used with the 

 collar — 8 and 12 feet — and horses that have never been 

 in draught take to this kindly at the very first trial.* 



Now we, of course, do not mean to say that short 

 traces are in themselves an imjDcdiment to draught ; on 

 the contrary, we say that it would be in many respects 

 preferable to use them, if, on the one hand, the con- 

 struction of the horse, and, on the other, that of our 

 carriages and the mode in which the horse is neces- 

 sarily attached to them, did not create obstacles that 

 must necessarily be surmounted at the expense of the 

 horse's legs, &c. For, to return to the canal-boat illus- 

 tration, if the towing-rope be made very short, we have 

 * See Sir Francis B. Head's 'Horse and its Eider.' 



