202 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



passes immediately beneath his hip bone happens (which 

 it ought not) to press against his side, by shrinking from 

 it only an inch it instantly ceases to touch him ; and as 

 there then remains nothing to confine, tickle, or alarm 

 him, he refrains from kicking, simply because there is 

 nothing to kick at, and from quarrelling because he can 

 see nothing in the world to quarrel with. 



With this equipment, if a party of native riders, hunting 

 ostriches in South America, are requested to help the 

 horses of a carriage across a river, and up a steep bank, 

 similar, for instance, to that of the Alma, in a moment 

 they affix their lassos, conquer the difficulty, attain the 

 summit, and then, with tobacco smoke steaming from 

 their mouths, gallop away to follow their sport. 



The Royal Engineer Train have demonstrated by 

 public experiments in this country, that with this 

 simple equipment, which would injure neither the effi- 

 ciency nor the appearance of the cavalry, any number 

 of horses, whether accustomed to draught or not, are 

 capable of being at once harnessed to any description of 

 carriage, not only (see sketch) in front to draw it forward, 

 but in rear to hold it back, or even sideways to prevent 

 its oversetting in short, that it is a power which can 

 be made to radiate in any direction ; and as its character 

 stands upon a much firmer foundation as it is bond 

 fide the common mode of draught in South America 



