488 PILOT AND HIS DESCENDANTS. 



influence of this invasion upon the horse stock of subsequent centuries 

 may be estimated by supposing that the Moslem power of to-day 

 should traverse Europe from Constantinople to Moscow, to Berlin and 

 Paris, with ten thousand Arab and Barb cavalry, mostly stallions^ 

 and leave by the wayside only the aged, the infirm, and those maimed 

 or crippled by the mishaps of war. The blood of the European horses 

 would show the results of the invasion centuries after every other mon- 

 ument recording the event had passed away. The footprints of the 

 invader would pass away and become obliterated before the advancing 

 civilization of a superior race, but the blood of the Arab steeds would 

 never totally disappear. 



Such was the origin of the French horse, and in that remote germ, 

 we recognize the antecedent of the so-called French Canadian of 

 to-day. 



A climate of severity, and ill-usage, have not tended to develop 

 them in size or fineness of quality, but the original traits of docility, 

 hardiness and speed have been transmitted from generation to gen- 

 eration. The hair has grown coarser, the manes and tails heavy and 

 displaying a peculiar curly or wavy and long flowing fullness, while 

 the legs have come to display a shaggy growth at the fetlock, giving- 

 the appearance of hardiness and adaptation to long and severe winters, 

 which have, in great part, stunted and impoverished the fare on which 

 they have subsisted for so long a period. 



The characteristics of this race were seen in Pilot, in perfection. 

 He was a black stallion, under fifteen hands in height. He had a 

 plain head — not in any sense a coarse one, a neck of fair length, but 

 thick and somewhat heavy about the throat and windpipe. His mane 

 was coarse, heavy and long, and of that wavy curl which characterizes 

 the true French Canadian. His tail was of the same quality. He 

 was closely built, possessing an exceedingly muscular conformation in 

 every part — a sloping rump — the reverse of the goose rump so com- 

 mon in other families. He Avas long in his quarters, and his hock was 

 low down. He possessed a vigorous constitution and a very earnest, 

 positive temperament — qualities which he transmitted to his own off- 

 spring, and which his descendants possess and transmit in great force. 

 He was a horse of cast-iro)i materials, and not in any sense one of the 

 handhox variety. 



He had come from a stock that knew hard usage, and to him 

 hafd knocks were the fare on which he had been reared. Though a 

 small horse he had great power, both to carry weight and to endure 



