130 THE MERCIFUL MAN. 



relief to both. An active man will get on faster if he rides two 

 miles, and walks quarter of a mile, all the journey through. A 

 Tery strong man at Clifton, near Bristol, who could carry more 

 than 7001bs without injury for a short distance, undertook for a 

 wager, to carry 286lbs. for a mile. He did it, but was so injured 

 by the prolonged exertion that he never recovered his original 

 strength, and died soon afterwards. Let an ordinarily strong 

 man take lOOlbs. on his back, it seems a mere nothing to him at 

 first, but by the time he has carried it a mile it will have become 

 an oppressive burden. 



271. — In 1847 a stock owner in Xew South Wales started 

 ■with -2,500 head of cattle for Adelaide. He engaged five stock- 

 men, for four of them he was to find horses, the other undertook 

 to find his own. The distance driven w^as about a thousand 

 miles. He provided three good fresh stock horses for each of the 

 four stockmen, besides a number for himself, and was disgusted 

 to find the man who undertook to horse himself came with only 

 one. AVe overtook the party after they had travelled about 800 

 miles, and then the only horse amongst them that had a whole 

 skin, or that was fit to take a man on his back, or that could 

 yard the cattle, or overtake them when they ran away, was the 

 one horse that had never had a day's rest, and had done all the 

 fastest galloping, but whose rider never stuck on his back for an 

 hour together, but drove the horse feeding before him three parts 

 of the day. The other horses only worked about twice a week, 

 but then a man cruelly stuck on their raw backs from morning 

 till night. 



272. — There are a number of simple ways by which you can 

 :secure a horse sufficiently whilst you drive him before you, or stop 

 him for a short feed. With most hard-worked horses, it is enough 

 to simply run the reins between the stirrup leathers and bring 

 them over the stirrup iron. This does not interfere in the 

 slightest degree with the feeding or easy motion of the horse, and 

 can be made very eflFectual with a piece of very easy education. A 

 long piece of string, tied to the stirrup, and brought back in your 

 hand will, if judiciously used, soon make the horse believe that 

 you have always got him in hand when the reins are so fastened. 



