38 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 



has this child been found lying asleep on the neck of 

 the horse, when he had laid himself down in his stall, 

 and so long as she continued to sleep, so long the 

 horse invariably remained in his recumbent position." 

 There is something almost mysterious in the man- 

 ner in which the horse contrives to pick his way in 

 safety through dangerous and deceitful ground, and 

 to discover and avoid perils of which his master is 

 quite unsuspicious. In all doubtful cases the animal's 

 head should be left free, that he may put his nose to 

 the ground, and examine it by touch, as well as by 

 sight and hearing (the muzzle is the peculiar ,organ of 

 touch in the horse), and he will then seldom fail to 

 judge promptly and unerringly whether or not he may 

 venture to proceed. But even when the animal is 

 confined in harness and restrained from the free use 

 of all his faculties, he sometimes exercises his won- 

 derful instinct in the happiest manner. In the very 

 month in which we are writing (January, 1846), seve- 

 ral hundred feet of the viaduct of Barentin over the 

 Rouen and Havre railway came down with a sudden 

 crash. Just before the fall, Monsieur Lorgery, flour 

 merchant of Pavilly, was about to cross one of the 

 arches in his cabriolet, when the horse stopped short 

 and refused to pass. M. Lorgery struck the animal 

 with his whip, but all in vain he refused to stir. At 



