THE COMMON HORSE. 433 



highly excellent. A man of ordinary size and 

 strength can lift one of them from the ground with 

 great ease ; since some of them have been seen 

 scarcely more than three feet in height,, from the 

 foot to the shoulder. They are, however, so re- 

 markably strong, for their size, that even one of 

 these diminutive creatures would carry a man of 

 twelve stone weight, a journey of forty miles in 

 the course of a single day. Their general form is 

 very elegant ; and their body is thicker and more 

 compact than that of a Blood Horse. The bones 

 are exceedingly small ; as is also their head, and that 

 part of the neck which joins TO the head. The black 

 ones are esteemed the most hardy, whilst those that 

 are pied seldom prove good. They sometimes live 

 to the age of thirty years and upwards, notwith- 

 standing the little care that is paid towards shel- 

 tering them from the cold, which, in the climate 

 of the Shetland islands, is peculiarly severe in the 

 winter. From the circumstance of their being 

 generally compelled to live out of doors dtiring 

 even the severest months of the year, great num- 

 bers are occasionally frozen to death. At this sea- 

 son, when the ground is entirely covered with snow, 

 the wretched animals are compelled to seek a sub- 

 sistence on the sea-weeds, which, once in every 

 twelve hours, are left exposed by the tide. 



G g THE 



