IS PACINO HORSES OF CANADA. 



mation. The country is also more undulating, better 

 inhabited, more generally cleared — bearing corn or useful 

 herbage — and has a less humid and changeful climate 

 than the Atlantic slope of the Ardoise hills. Here I first 

 saw a field of growing Indian corn ; and, as we stopped to 

 change horses, had an opportunity of walking into and 

 examining it. But I could not repress a feeling of melan- 

 choly as we drove along, and saw vegetable life every- 

 where suiFering from the excess of drought. Herbage 

 for the cattle was scarcely to be obtained ; the grass fields 

 were burned up, and displayed one universal brown. 

 The hay crop had almost entirely failed, and how to obtain 

 winter food for the stock had already become a matter of 

 most difficult consideration. The reader who Is possessed 

 of an agricultural eye will judge how far it was possible 

 for a stranger passing through it, to form, under such 

 circumstances, an idea of the agricultural capabilities of 

 the country. I afterwards saw much of the same effect 

 of drought in New Brunswick and the north-east- 

 ern States ; and I was informed by those who had 

 known the province for forty years, that nothing equal 

 to the drought of 1849 had been experienced in their 

 time. 



On starting with our new team of horses, my attention 

 was arrested by the peculiar gait of the off leader. It 

 slipped and waddled along, alternately lifting and rest- 

 ing upon the fore and hind feet of the same side, a pace 

 I had never seen before. It proved to be a Canadian 

 horse, trained, as they frequently are in that province, to 

 this peculiar pace. It is a sort of shufiling, awkward- 

 looking gait, but is very easy for riding. It is said that 

 a person may ride a whole day at this pace without any 

 fatigue. I hoped to have been able during my sub- 

 sequent visit to Canada to make a trial of this alleged 

 easiness to the rider, but the opportunity did not fall in 

 my way. Horses so trained are known as pacing horses, 



