JAPAN AND CHINA. 93 



which skirt the bay, and soon came upon some roads as 

 bad as any " Camincha real " in Spain. My horse's straw 

 shoes, having already been half shuffled off, were tripping 

 him up at every step, and compelled me to dismount in 

 order to get rid of them altogether. An Englishman 

 riding with the fore-feet of his horse muffled in straw slip- 

 pers, might furnish a subject for "Punch." I am happy to 

 say that at both the legations this absurdity has been got 

 rid of, and means found of teaching the Japanese to shoe 

 our horses properly with iron ; and more than one of the 

 Daimios, I was told, had followed the good example.' ' 



High, black, and small hoofs are with the Japanese, as 

 with the Greeks and Romans, in most favour, and for the 

 same reasons. 



The massive, powerful black bulls of Japan, which 

 carry immense loads on their backs, often have their feet 

 encased in strong, half-tanned buskins, which lace round 

 the leg ; probably these resemble the hippopodes of Ap- 

 syrtus. 



Captain Blakiston informs us, that near Chung-King, 

 province of Sz'chuan, on the upper waters of the Great 

 Yang-tsze, the cattle wore straw shoes to prevent their 

 slipping on the wet ground.^ 



In the far north of China, as we will have occasion 

 to notice hereafter, horses and cattle are shod with iron 

 shoes and nails. 



Colonel Smith^ mentions, that in Iceland horses are 

 occasionally shod by the peasants with sheep's horn ; cer- 



' The Capital of the Tycoon. London, 1863. 



^ Five Months on the Yang-tsze, p. 214. London, 1862. 



' Naturalists' Library, vol. xii. p. 129. 



