XXXIX 



THE Algerian cavalry horse is a very attractive fellow. 

 He stands from fourteen and a half to fifteen and a half 

 hands, not often higher ; weighs, as I gauge him, eight to 

 nine hundred pounds though they claim that he actually 

 weighs one-fifth less than this and is able to carry his 

 man with sixty pounds of baggage, say two hundred and 

 ten to twenty pounds in all, a strong day's journey and re- 

 peat. I have been unable to find good proof of many won- 

 derful performances, such as our cavalry on the plains with 

 American horses, or cowboys on broncos often enough 

 exhibit; but there is not the same call for exceptional 

 performances in Algeria ; and if one were to believe the 

 Arab when he is boasting of his pet's ability to go, one 

 would set the average Arabian down as equal to a trifle 

 more than a Baldwin locomotive. Great tests of distance 

 and speed have to be called out by trying circumstances ; 

 they are rarely needed among a people to whom time is 

 absolutely nothing. 



More can be told about camels. There is one desert 

 postal route that I heard of in Algeria, but that, though I 

 have no reason to doubt its accuracy, I cannot vouch for, 

 which a camel covers between sunup and sundown, one 

 hundred and seventy-five kilometres or one hundred and 

 eight miles, and back again next day, month in month out, 

 carrying not exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds, or 

 half its full load. I have found but one record of what I 

 call great work by horses. About eighty miles a day, act- 



