ENCOMIUMS ON THE ARAB TAKEN AT RANDOM 131 



Arab as a sire calculated to improve the stamina of 

 our horse stock. The most interesting of these 

 letters is one received from Mr. R. R. Hogarth, a 

 resident of the north-west coast of Tasmania. He 

 gives the following instance of the powers of endur- 

 ance of the high-grade Arab : "In December, 1900, 

 my brother, weighing about 10 stone 7 pounds, rode 

 a pony standing 12.2 hands from this place to Evan- 

 dale Junction in one day. The distance is ninety- 

 two miles. He left here at 4 a.m., and arrived at 

 Evandale Junction at 8 p.m. He stayed an hour at 

 Latrobe for breakfast, and another hour at Dunorlan 

 for dinner, leaving the main-road a mile to call on 

 Mr. W. Wyatt." To show that the pony was not 

 injured by his long journey Mr. Hogarth rode him 

 into Launceston and back — a distance of twenty-two 

 miles — the next day. The road Mr. Hogarth de- 

 scribes as macadamized, and exceptionally hilly in 

 parts. The pony was taken out of a grass paddock 

 the day before he did the journey, having been run- 

 ning there for some time. The pony was by 

 Dagobert, imported from New South Wales from 

 a three-quarter-bred Arab mare by Maharajah, an 

 Arab horse well known in the Evandale district. 

 The feat performed by this pony far exceeds the 

 European military race of seventy miles, in which 

 no less than thirteen of the competitors were killed. 

 Of the pony himself Mr. Hogarth says : " His walk 

 and canter were perfect, while as to his trot — well, 

 it was indescribable." ' 



9—2 



