464 THE TRANSIT OF HORSES 



aboard, as they intuitively dislike an unstable platfonii, and an old stager 

 has to be kept as a " leader " to induce novices to follow. 



Once on board they are packed closely together, and linked as well as 

 fastened singly to the bulwarks. 



Horses taking a long sea voyage should have their hind shoes removed, 

 and tips applied to the fore-feet. 



LAND CARRIAGE 



Horses are carried on land in "floats", railway boxes, and trucks. The 

 first vary in different districts, but the main principle is that of a box 

 on low wheels, in which sick or injured horses may be carried. Entrance 

 to these useful conveyances is obtained from behind, where the door, on 

 being let down, forms a gangway with very slight ascent, along which the 

 horse is led into the float. 



The horse-box familiar to most travellers, at least from the outside, is 

 divided into three compartments, every portion of which appears to have 

 been designed with the special object of making the mo.st alarming noises 

 calculated to frighten the inmates. 



The same description applies with even greater force to the doors, which 

 open upon the platform, or "dock" as it is called. It is too heavy for a 

 man to let it down steadily, and the traditions of the railway would be 

 altogether violated if it were not allowed to fall with great violence upon 

 the siding. Everything about a horse-box comes undone with a jerk and 

 closes with a bang. Some horses absolutely refuse to enter a box of the 

 kind, and much mioht be done to render them less fearsome to those 

 unaccustomed to travel. 



The youngster is frightened at the outset by the sound of his feet on 

 the wooden frame door, which might just as well be "dead sounded" by 

 an intervening substance that would absorb sound, or an india-rubber floor. 

 The means of securing horses when in the box is also objectionable. 



In this connection Professor Axe, writing in the Live Stock Jour'nal 

 Almanac, observes: — "No one having acquaintance with the construction 

 of our horse-boxes during the past thirty years will fail to recognize how 

 very meagre have been the alterations and improvements which have been 

 effected in them during that period; but what is still more important is 

 the striking want of uniformity, and obviously dangerous methods, which 

 continue to be practised throughout the various systems in the ftistening 

 or tethering of travelling horses. 



" That our railway companies, with all the experience before them, should 

 have fiiiled to develop a reasonably safe .system out of the half-dozen 



