THE DUN OR TAN STOCK. 279 



nearly allied to the curly-haired black horse before 

 mentioned : they do not exceed thirteen and a half 

 hands and are bred wild, requiring all the skill and 

 daring to subdue the colts, when captured, that is 

 evinced by the South American Gauchos. 



There is no great difference in the horses of th( 

 Cossacks of the Don, the Oural, and of Siberia, ex- 

 cept perhaps in size ; but in general they are rather 

 low, raw-boned, meagre-looking animals, ragged in 

 the extreme, and apparently unable to perform the 

 work, bear the privations, and sustain the weight 

 which they carry ; yet, taken all together, in good 

 qualities, the Cossack races have resisted fatigue 

 and all the incidents of war better than any other 

 cavalry of the Russian empire, as was fully proved 

 in the campaigns of 1812, 1813, and 1814; and 

 recently, still more signally, in the terrible march 

 towards Khiva* We have never known them en- 

 tering a stable from necessity, but in the severest 

 weather they are occasionally sheltered from the 

 blast by the Cossacks raising a bank of snow in a 

 circle, with a fire in the middle to warm themselves 

 and their ever-saddled horses behind them. The 

 Donski appeared to us in general of dark brown 

 and sooty bay colours; so also, as might be ex- 

 pected, the common breeds of Russia, descended 

 from intermixtures of the original stirps, have in 

 many cases undetermined, or what has been termed 

 foul liveries. 



The fast trotters are a breed in common use for 

 hackney carriages and winter sleighs : their move- 



