ZEBRAS 35 



rest of the horse tribe, they prefer rather a dry climate, 

 and are accustomed to roll in dust or sand. They are 

 regular drinkers, and are seldom found at any very great 

 distance from water. 



Various experiments have at different times been con- 

 ducted with a view to the domestication of zebras, but 

 these cannot be said to have been eminently satisfactory 

 so far as they have gone. The deficiency in the zebra's 

 forehand puts him to a great extent out of court as a 

 riding animal, and for continuous traction he has been 

 found to be incapable of competing with mules, or even 

 donkeys ; in fact, he has shown himself " soft " by com- 

 parison. On the other hand, he has proved perfectly 

 tractable, even when captured neaily half grown. Captain 

 Hayes relates having handled and broken into saddle 

 within two days an old zebra belonging to the True or 

 Mountain type, a species generally believed to be much 

 less amenable than the Burchell variety. Mr. Zeedeberg. 

 of Pietersberg, in the Transvaal, for some years used 

 zebras in the stage-coaches running to Tuli, and found 

 them satisfactoiy, except for their serious want of stamina. 

 As is well known, the Hon. Walter Rothschild used to 

 drive a team of zebras in London, and at various times 

 and places these animals have been so made use of. 



The underlying weakness of all these experiments, in 

 so far as they were designed to supply an answer to the 

 question as to the permanent utility of zebras as beasts 

 of burden, seems to lie in the fact that they were not 

 persisted with for a long enough time. Horses and 

 asses have thousands of years of domestication behind 

 them, and have inherited from a long line of ancestors, 

 specially trained and often artificially fed, traits of 

 endurance which it would be unfair to expect to find in 

 purely wild animals. The mule unites in himself many 



