418 :n'ayix ox the hokse. 



the head into the chime or groove. This shaving out of the 

 upper end of the crust is a little concave, or hollowed out, and 

 furnishes the bed in which the coronary ligament lies. The 

 upper edge of the crust of the hoof, above the hollowed-out 

 place just described, is soft and yielding horn. It is also 

 marked by a little groove dividing it into two edges, all the way 

 around the border. The true skin is attached to the inner one of 

 these divisions, and so gradually does the skin seem to change to 

 horn that it is difficult to tell just where the one quits and the 

 other begins. The scarf, or outside scaly skin, is attached to 

 the outer, or outside, one of these divisions, and is lost in the 

 horny matter just as the true skin is; but the horny matter 

 in which the scarf-skin is lost is whitish and scaly, and around 

 the fore-part of the wall only extends a little below the hair ; but 

 .a little further down on the quarters, and still further down on 

 the heels and across the frog, where it is nearly an inch broad, 

 it forms a perfect band around the hoof, and its office is, jDrob- 

 .ably, to protect the young horn which starts beneath it. Its 

 .fibers run in the same direction as those of the wall, and it can 

 only be separated from it in the colt's foot, or after macerating 

 (soaking) the fully developed hoof. This band has been called 

 the coronary frog-hand. This covers the true coronary border 

 -of the hoof, and is connected with it by its fibers. 



The inferior border of the crust, or wall, is that part which 

 projects below the sole, and is the part on which the foot rests. 

 It is also the part to which the shoe is nailed. From its use 

 it is subject to great wear, and this is ordinarily sufficient to 

 compensate for the growth of the wall from above. It is thicker 

 around the toe than the quarters, but rather heavy at the heels 

 •where the crust turns in to form the bars. If not worn off, 

 .trimmed, or broken off, it will grow out in very ridiculous 

 shaix'S. This part needs to be well understood by the black- 

 .smith. 



The sole is an arched plate of horn, constituting that part of 

 the floor of the foot bounded by the wall, or crust, and its in- 



