HOW TO HOBBLE AND ANCHOR HORSES. 209 



as it would be impossible for them to charge men in 

 squares, or even in position armed with muskets of un- 

 erring aim, they could be of little use until after the battle 

 was won, by following up the enemy in their retreat. 



Now, instead of being the dearest and the most useless, 

 they would become the cheapest and most efficient branch 

 of the army, if, besides occasionally using their lassos to 

 help our Armstrong guns, &c., they had power to skim 

 along hollow roads, &c., to the vicinity of the summit of 

 a hill or any other position, from which, half or wholly 

 hidden, they could, with short Minie rifles, direct a 

 deadly fire upon an overwhelming amount of advancing 

 troops, from whom they could gallop away only to re- 

 attack them the instant it became prudent to do so. 



But to enable cavalry or volunteer mounted yeomanry 

 to act in this manner, how, it will be asked, could they 

 manage to leave their horses ? 



To this important question we will reply, not by any 

 theoretical project, but by a statement of facts, which, 

 though generally unknown in England, have for many 

 generations been in constant practice in other parts of the 

 world. 



1. Throughout Russia, the Cossacks, whenever for any 

 reason, small or large, they have wished to leave one 

 horse, or a regiment of horses, to stand alone, to ruminate 







