66 SHORT-LEGGED ANIMALS. 



lieve long legs would be the most popular candidates 

 for farmers' favor, both for the yoke and for the dairy ; 

 and we should conclude that the horse especially could 

 not travel so fast with short legs as with long ones ; 

 but, on considering the subject well, we find a philo- 

 sophical reason in favor of short legs for travelling, 

 and this applies to animals of all descriptions. If you 

 will revert to an extract in our last number from Bige- 

 low's Technology, you will see a partial explanation of 

 our theory. In moving forward, a man cormnonly 

 advances one foot at a time : if he takes a long step 

 his body sinks, for his supporters are not perpendicular 

 when he brings up the other foot : his body rises, 

 then sinks again, as he advances it forward of the 

 first foot ; thus, at every step, his body rises and sinks ; 

 that is, moves in a curved line : it describes the arc of 

 a circle, of which the leg is the radius, or spoke, as 

 the wheelwright says. Now the farther he strides, the 

 lower his body sinks, and the greater must be the effort 

 to bring it up again : his wliole body is continually 

 rising and falling while he walks, so that he loses 

 ground by his deviation from a straight line ; and, the 

 longer his legs are, the more he deviates from that line, 

 and the greater effort is required to raise the body 

 again. Take a wheel with only four spokes and no 

 rim ; it will be constantly rising and falling while you 

 roll it on. Take one, now, with eight spokes, and its 

 deviation from a right line will not be half so great as 

 that of the first ; and the longer these spokes are, the 

 greater the deviation in either case. With four spokes 

 and no rim, the hub of your wheel, in passing, describes 

 a track much like that of our improved new roads, 

 that require no other deviation from a right line than 

 the mounting of hills and the sinking into valleys. 



Horses, or other animals with long legs, naturally 

 take longer steps than others ; thus their bodies have 

 farther to travel, and a greater effort is required to 

 bring them up again after sinking below their level. 



