I/O 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



fie. 28 



passing continuously from toe to heel — in having four 

 nail-holes on one side and three on the other, and show- 

 ing also a toe-piece with six marks proceeding from it 

 (fig. 28).' The Roman camp on Mount Terrible has 



also furnished a number, which are 

 in the priv^ate museum of M. Qui- 

 querez. M. Bieler thus sums up 

 the general characteristics of the 

 shoes he has examined : ' The shoes 

 of the Roman epoch have usually 

 six holes [etampures), and very 

 rarely the largest have eight. These 

 rectangular holes are generally dis- 

 tributed along a groove analogous to that of the Eng- 

 lish shoes, and without interruption at the toe ; but the 

 holes are much larger than the grooves, and cause 

 bulgings on the external border. The ajusture (fitting 

 to the shape of the foot's surface) is null, or nearly 

 so. Lastly, the heels are rolled over in some shoes, others 

 have rude calkins, and some have also a crampon., or toe- 

 piece. With regard to the nails, they differ essentially 

 from our own, and are more of the Arab form. The 

 head is flat, about half a line in thickness ; its shape is 

 nearly semicircular, and it is from one-half to three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter ; the shank or body 

 {lame) is square and rather strong. When the head has 

 been worn to the surface of the shoe, the part buried in 

 the cavity of the aperture is in outline like a T.' 



From the excellent memoir on the horse-shoes found 



' Jahn. Antiquarisch Gesellschaft. Zurich, ^^jo. 



