49 



when they are brought into better management, they are with flifficulty 

 tauglit to eat ! There are indeed no mile stones, or judges to see that 

 all is fair, where these great journeys are said, or supposed to be per- 

 formed. If any confutation of such fooleries could be necessary, it 

 would be sufficient to observe, that vast numbers of these famous Horses, 

 more especially the Arabians, have been tried in this country, and 

 it has always proved, that speed, not continuance, has been their forte; 

 and that the stoutest of them, compared with an English I lor^e, is a 

 mere jade. The Russian trotter above cited, was good but for tv/o 

 miles, and he had all the appearance of the Kalmuck Horse, or of ha\- 

 ing much of that blood. This matter would have been passed with a 

 word or (wo of notice, but I observe the old stories are yet repeated in 

 print, and I heard them repeated with apparent belief, by gentlemen 

 on their return from Egypt. Even the old hoax of the trotter of 

 Billiter Square, has been again of late started in print. 



The Kalmuck Horses are purchased in the country at a few roubles, 

 or under twent}^ shilling each; formerly it was said, at even a rouble, 

 or under five shillings. They subsist in the steps, or deserts, which lie 

 betAA-een the rivers Don, Volga and Jaik. In the long, drear}^ and 

 severe season of winter, they support themselves upon the dead grass, 

 which they fhid, by scraping away the snow with their feet, and upon 

 the tops of j^oung trees and shrubs. It may be supposed their con- 

 dition is low, kept on such scanty fare ; yet it is certain, they soon re- 

 cover upon the summer grass, as is the case with worn-down Horses in 

 this country, sent to the salt marshes. They move in great herds of 

 some hundreds, or even a thousand, from place to place, as led by 

 instinct to the best keep; and such herds are denominated, in both the 

 Tartarian and Russian languages, tahoon. They are excellent swim- 

 mers, and it is reported by the Russians, that these Horses will swim 

 over the Volga, which is from one to two miles in breadth, with great 

 ease; and thai after being purchased and taken one hundred miles 

 from home, they have found their way back, and repassing the river, 

 have again joined their former Kalmuck masters, a thing which I can 

 without hesitation credit. 



II The 



