EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURE. 37 



at Mr. Miller's place that the judiciousness of their choice was 

 amply justified by their robust health and good condition. 



The horses reared on the steppes of Little Russia for the 

 Russian dragoon regiments have a strong dash of Arab and 

 thoroughbred blood ; yet they show no ill effects, as far as 

 their health is concerned, from having lived in the open during 

 the extreme cold (often below 30 F.) of their winter, 

 provided they get a sufficiency of food. In England, a 

 temperature of 5 F. would be regarded as extreme cold. 

 In almost all cases, before these intended remounts are 

 taken up and finally selected for cavalry purposes, they have 

 much difficulty in obtaining grass in winter, and consequently 

 they are stunted in growth. In fact, the minimum dragoon 

 height for remounts, which are " taken up " when they are 

 either three off or four off, is only 15 h. ^ in. During an 

 official tour I made to the Dragoon Remount Depots in 1898, 

 I learned that when these young animals are well supplied 

 during winter with hay, the effect of cold on their growth is 

 not apparent. Even those which are not thus artificially fed, 

 show excellent " bone," and are compact and very useful 

 saddle animals. All the remounts for the fifty-four Russian 

 Dragoon regiments and for all the Cossack cavalry regiments, 

 are taken from horses reared in the open, and the bigger 

 horses required for the twelve cavalry Guard regiments, are 

 brought up in ordinary horse-breeding studs. From the 

 principles already discussed, we know that as the internal 

 temperature of horses has to be sustained by the combustion 

 of food in the body, the severer the cold to which they 

 are exposed, the better should they be fed. The lowest 

 temperature which has been recorded in Arctic regions is 

 -58.7 C. (-73-6 F.). We may regard -35 R. (-47 F.) 

 as an extreme degree of cold in Russia. 



Mr. T. B. Drybrough, in Polo, tells us that " Montana has a 

 perfect climate for eight months of the year, but the weather of 



