24 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



prairies and luxuriant valleys are adapted by 

 nature to be the home of the ponderous draft 

 horse. 



Prof. Low in his great work, "The Domesti- 

 cated Animals of the British Islands/' has a 

 very interesting chapter on the effect of cli- 

 matic influences upon animal life, from which 

 I quote the following : 



The effect of heat is everywhere observed, as it modifies 

 the secretions which give color to the skin, and the degree 

 of covering provided for the protection of the body, whether 

 wool or hair. In the case of the human species the effects of 

 temperature on the color of the skin, and, with this, on the 

 color of the eyes and hair, are sufficiently known. We can- 

 not pass from the colder parts of Europe to the warmer with- 

 out marking the progressive diversities of color, from the 

 light complexion of the northern nations to the swarthy 

 tinge of the Spaniards, Italians, and Greeks, and when we 

 have crossed the Mediterranean into Africa the dark color, 

 which is proper to all the warmer regions of the globe, 

 everywhere meets the eye. The Jews, naturally as fair as 

 the other inhabitants of Syria, become gradually darker as 

 they have been for a longer or shorter time acclimated in 

 the warmer countries; and on the plains of the Ganges they 

 are as dark as Hindoos. The Portuguese who have been 

 naturalized in the African colonies of their nation have 

 become entirely black. If we suppose, indeed, the great 

 races of mankind to have been called into existence in dif- 

 ferent regions we must suppose that they were born with 

 the color, as well as with the other attributes, suited to the 

 climates of the countries which they were to inhabit. It 

 accords with this supposition that the Negro remains always 

 black, even in the highest latitudes to which he has been 

 carried; and that the black races of the Eastern Islands 

 retain the color proper to them in the mild temperature of 

 Van Diemen's Land. The Mongolian, even in the coldest 



