THE ANGLE OF TRACTION, ETC. 231 



axis of the vehicle, which depends to a certain extent 

 on their length, cannot be safely neglected, as a pair 

 of over-fatigued or over-weighted draught-horses point 

 out to us clearly enough by putting their heads together 

 and pulling towards the central line. Let us consider 

 again the case of railways, where we see engines drawing 

 trains of forty waggons, of course not so easily as shorter 

 ones of ten or twenty, on account of the difference of 

 weight, but still without difficulty, because the rails 

 keep the engine and the train mostly on a straight 

 line, whilst in curves the traction becomes always more 

 difficult. If one or two feet more in a carriage-trace 

 could possibly make such a difference against the horse 

 as is pretended, what must the last waggon of a train 

 that is 100 or 250 yards long do to an engine ? Finally, 

 we have lasso harness, in which the single trace is 

 much longer than any used with the collar 8 and 12 

 feet and horses that have never been in draught take 

 to this kindly at the very first trial." 



Now we, of course, do not mean to say that short 

 traces are in themselves an impediment to draught ; on 

 the contrary, we say that it would be in many respects 

 preferable to use them, if, On the one hand, the con- 

 struction of the horse, and, on the other, that of our 

 carriages and the mode in which the horse is necessarily 

 attached to them, did not create obstacles that must 

 necessarily be surmounted at the expense of the horse's 

 legs, &c. For, to return to the canal-boat illustration, 

 if the towing-rope be made very short, we have first 

 of all a great loss of power by being compelled to 

 put the rudder hard-down to one side in order to 

 counteract the action of the horse on the boat's head, 

 * See Sir Francis B. Head's ' Horse and its Rider.' 



