THE BAY STOCK. 261 



placed on newspaper report, we shall find the 

 achievement of the horses at the races of Ouralisk, 

 such as the fleetest and stoutest of English thorough- 

 bred steeds will scarcely equal; for it is therein 

 stated, that on the 29th September, 1838, a contest 

 of speed took place between the Oural Cossacks 

 and the Kirguise Kaisaks, over a course of eighteen 

 versts, said to be equal to thirteen and a half Eng- 

 lish miles ; the winners, for they were twins, on the 

 course, ran neck and neck the whole distance, ar- 

 rived at the winning-post in twenty-four minutes, 

 thirty-five seconds, and a Kirguise Kaisak black 

 horse, ridden by the Sultan's son in person, went 

 over the same distance in nineteen minutes ! * - 

 These achievements, we may remark, took place in 

 the very centre of the principal region where, in 

 our view, horses were first subdued, and where all 

 the original stocks appear to have sojourned at one 

 time or oth&r, in the first ages of our present zoolo- 

 gical distribution. 



Of the old bay stock, we have seen at Munich 

 the Life Guard Cuirassiers, mounted upon horses of 

 Normandy selected by the Bavarian government, 

 and taken in part of the indemnity paid by France 

 in 181516 to the allied armies, and we never ob- 

 served the royal guards of France so well mounted, 



* If we continue the present practice of wearing our noblest 

 horses before they are fully arrived at maturity, it will be diffi- 

 cult to prevent the reality of a degeneracy, which many sur- 

 mise is already commenced. 



