I40 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



three holes on each side, each hole having a kind of 

 groove, twice as long as it is wide, to receive the similarly 

 elongated head of the nail, and to protect it from wear, at 

 the same time that it permits it to project considerably; 

 the outline of the shoe is wavy (Je.stomie), and its contour 

 marks the situation of every hole ; each branch terminates 

 in a calkin (eponge a crampon), the whole of the project- 

 ing nail-heads and the calkins forming a level bearing- 

 surface. The wavy outline seems to disappear quickly after 

 the period of the destruction of ancient Besan(^on ; five 

 to six specimens, all having the holes counter-sunk in an 

 oblong manner, resemble more the even margin of 

 modern shoes. One of these pieces, the bed of which 

 was not so accurately determined, terminates by two 

 rapidly tapering branches, on the under surface of which 

 the calkin was represented by a protuberance a little way 

 from the points of the heels. Two very small shoes were 

 pierced by only four holes each. These may have be- 

 longed to asses or mules. The metal is extremely ductile, 

 like that of all antique horse-shoes, and very white. Some 

 nails remaining in the holes had been curved round in the 



hoof, so as to form more than a circle The 



number of shoes collected has been one hundred ; many 

 escaped our possession, and yet it was in an excavation of 

 4 feet wide that so large a quantity of these objects was 

 found. From this numerous collection, an important fact 

 relating to the ancient breed of horses in Sequania was 

 immediately recognized. It is, that towards the 4th cen- 

 tury, the size of the shoes indicate excessively small feet ; 

 not a shoe exceeds a total width of 4! inches. These be- 

 longed to the fine breeds of which the various provinces 



