172 HORSESHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



modified by crossing with strange breeds during the 

 Roman and barbarian conquests. A more attentive study 

 of these shoes, and of the localities from whence they were 

 procured, permits their being divided into at least two 

 classes, belonging, if not to different epochs, at least to 

 people shoeing their horses diversely in the same country. 

 These differences of form correspond also to an augment- 

 ation in size, thickness, and weight, and in such a way 

 that those we look upon as the most ancient weigh 

 scarcely more than from 90 to 120 grammes;' while 

 those of the following ages also increase in weight and 

 dimensions, so that for the time of the Romans they reach 

 from 180 to 245 grammes; then to 2>^$'-> and lastly, in 

 our own days, they weigh from 490 to 850 grammes, 

 and even more. These modest objects of antiquity thus 

 reveal facts no less interesting to archaeology than to 

 agriculture. Under the last head they seem to indicate 

 a progressive augmentation in the height of the horses, 

 and an amelioration in the indigenous species, arising 

 from the progress of agriculture and commerce, as the 

 two began to require horses with more strength than 

 elegance or lightness. In an archaeological point of view, 

 they furnish a material proof of the persistence of the 

 usages of a country in its mode of shoeing horses ; so 

 that the invasions and foreign occupations could not 

 cause them to be entirely abandoned by our native 

 farriers. This last fact also testifies to the existence of 

 the same people in these regions, and their surviving the 



' The gramme is etjual to 15.4 grains troy, or 16.9 grains avoirdu- 

 pois. 



