THE NECK, THE HEAD, ETC. 137 



kind, we find that, out of some 400 horses belonging 

 to certain squadrons of light cavalry, measured some 

 eight or nine years ago, the width of the mouth was 

 for the smaller ones exactly 4 English inches, and 

 for nearly the whole of the remainder 4.2 inches, one 

 or two only reaching 4.3 inches. A great number of 

 bits were put down for alteration as being a-half to 

 one inch too wide, and some thirty or forty went 

 to the heap of old iron, as being utterly useless 

 from their immense size. Some officers will perhaps 

 smile at this as a piece of pedantry; but if they had 

 witnessed the results obtained, they would probably 

 adopt the same plan. As it is, let any cavalry 

 captain in the British service take the trouble of ascer- 

 taining, which he may easily do, how many bits in 

 his troop are half-an-inch, a full inch, or perhaps 

 still more, too wide ; he will probably then find a 

 clue to many little annoyances he meets with during 

 drill. 



The width of the channel in which the tongue lies 

 always bears a certain proportion to the height of the 

 bar, measured as above described ; we must therefore 

 take this latter in the first instance. 



Lieutenant-Colonel von Oeynhausen says that the 

 height of the bars is If inch- with the very great 

 majority of horses, and that it is very unusual to find 

 it either more or less. The author has certainly never 

 found bars that exceeded 1.8 English inch in height, 

 but he has seen some that were less perhaps about 

 two to three per cent, of the horses he has had to do 

 with. Now this is a very important discussion, because 

 the upper part of the cheek of the bit should never exceed 

 * Equal exactly to 1.81 English inch. 



