96 Horses on Board Ship. 



losing his footing, in which case he will pro- 

 bably either get dashed from side to side, 

 until he is killed, or he will struggle until he 

 dies, as horses will often do, when they get 

 down and cannot regain their feet. As a 

 quadruped has a far larger base of support than 

 a biped, he can keep his footing much better 

 on a rocking surface, like the deck of a ship 

 which is rolling and pitching, provided that 

 his feet do not slip. Yet horses, as a rule, find 

 it far more difficult to keep standing in bad 

 weather than men ; because of the small 

 amount of friction which exists between the 

 floor of their box or stall and the ground sur- 

 face of their feet. The superiority of the 

 four-legged form of support over the two- 

 legged one, is well shown by the ease with 

 which a dog can stand on the deck of a ship 



