326 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSESHOEING. 



M. Delacroix/ since the publication of his opinion 

 adverse to these instruments being horse-sandals, has sud- 

 denly come to the conclusion that they are ox-sandals. 

 ' The number of these articles in the Besanqon Museum 

 has actually increased to thirty. They affect various 

 shapes, but yet retain a single and common feature — that 

 of an iron plate worn beneath by friction. This character 

 was so striking, that, among others, one of our able con- ■ 

 freres who superintends the archaeological museum of the 

 town, was looking out every day for some proof as to the 

 use of these hippo-sandals. One of these objects was at 

 last brought to him, having two wings bent over towards 

 each other (fig. 128), in an acute arch, and exactly repre- 

 senting the foot of an ox to which it had been moulded 

 by the hammer and wear. There could be no doubt 

 about it; M. Vuilleret had in his hands a shoe adapted 

 for the bovine species ; he had solved the problem. I 

 carried this article to the farriers' shops in the suburbs, 

 where oxen are usually shod, although after a different 

 fashion. " This," said a workman at the first glance, " is 

 a bullock's shoe." "This object," the farmers present 

 generally assented, " could not be worn by an ox at work 

 or at pasture ; it would confine their movements too 

 much. But if a convoy of oxen or cows was sent along 

 the roads, it might be of the greatest utility ; for there is 

 always in a travelling drove animals whose feet are 

 wounded, and for whom it is necessary to have recourse 

 to temporary shoeing." This last explanation put us on 

 the alert in comprehending the diversity in shape of 

 the specimens in the museum ; and M. Vuilleret was not 

 'Mem. de la Soc. d'Eniulation du Doubs, p. 143, 1864. 



