268 THE BLACK STOCK. 



low, the back hollow, the barrel small, the mane 

 heavy, but the quarters and limbs remarkably firm 

 and clean. They were clearly of the same race as 

 the specimen described by Frederick Cuvier under 

 the denomination of " cheval a poll frize" which 

 came from the stables of the Emperor of Austria, 

 having been plundered by the French at the cap- 

 ture of Vienna. We saw the individual in Baron 

 Cuvier's possession at the Jardin du Roi, where the 

 groom said it was a cross between a Bashkir horse 

 and a French black. None of those that fell under 

 our notice exceeded in stature a large mule, but 

 they had much greater breadth at the hips, and 

 with their short ears and sunken eyes, really looked 

 like a low caste of French horses, excepting the 

 legs, pasterns, joints, and hoofs. We attach no 

 great importance to the character of the hair, having 

 ourselves possessed a powerful roan with a similar 

 coat, which had been purchased from a drove of 

 horses, said to have come from the mountains above 

 the Magdalena in Columbia : but regarding the co- 

 lour and structure, if the original type of the stirps 

 should be sought in High Asia, it is to this race 

 that we would refer it. * 



In the West, that type is unquestionably the 

 large-boned heavy Flemish or Belgian breed, almost 

 invariably black, without any mark of white ; with 

 a large head, clumsy limbs, short pasterns, broad 



* Johnstonus de Quadrupedibus seems to have intended a 

 figure of this stock in his tab. v., under the name of Equus 

 Ursutus. but it is not described. 



