42 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



designate shoeing; is referred to in a foot-note in the 



o o 



edition of his writings from which this paragraph is ex- 

 tracted : ' Q-Liam ob causam, inquit Philos. loc. cit. in 

 bellicis expeditionibus, carbatinis calceantur, cum ipsis 

 pes dolet. Est autem xaf^^anvrj vile et rusticum calcea- 

 mentum, una sappactum solea.' The Mongol Tartars, as 

 I have before noticed, seldom if ever shoe their ponies, 

 chiefly, perhaps, because of the scarcity of iron, their 

 peripatetic mode of life, and the large numbers of these 

 animals they always have to select from ; but perhaps also 

 as much from the presence of camels in their droves of 

 animals, and which are their principal beasts of burthen. 

 In consequence of these creatures being able to traverse 

 the dreary steppes of Mongolia without suffering much 

 injury, they are preferred ; and in thus economizing the 

 labours of the horse, they diminish the need for shoeing 

 it. According to M. Hue,' however, the camel in that 

 distant region is not exempt from some of the evils which 

 are incidental to the unshod feet of horses ; and lie relates 

 that, after a long journey, when this most useful creature 

 has become footsore, the Tartars make sheepskin shoes 

 for it. 



My friend Mr Michie, who has travelled overland 

 from Peking to Siberia, across the desert of Gobi, tells 

 me that whenever a camel's feet have become tender from 

 long journeying, it assumes the recumbent position ; and 

 this being observed by the driver, an examination is at 

 once made of the soles, when, if the thick cuticle which 

 covers these pads is found raised and looking white- 

 blistered, as it were, shoeing is determined on. This is 



' Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, in 1844-5-6. 



