468 THE HORSE. 



by the agencies of food and climate, and, it may be, by other 

 causes unknown to us. He sustains the temperature of the 

 most burning regions ; but there is a degree of cold at which 

 he cannot exist ; and, as he approaches to this limit, his tem- 

 perament and external conformation are affected. In Ice- 

 land, at the arctic circle, he has become a dwarf ; in Lap- 

 land, at latitude 65, he has given place to the Rein-deer ; 

 and in Kamtschatka, at latitude 52, he has given place to 

 the Dog. As he approaches to the limit of his natural habi- 

 tat, he loses much of the fiery spirit and swiftness which he 

 possessed in more genial climes. He may be hardy, saga- 

 cious, and enduring ; but he needs the whip and the spur, 

 and is rarely roused to continued action by his natural energy 

 and love of motion. The nature and abundance of his food, 

 too, greatly affect his character and form. A country of 

 heaths and innutritious herbs will not produce a horse so 

 large and strong as one of plentiful herbage. The horse of 

 the mountains will be smaller than that of the plains, the 

 horse of the sandy desert than the inhabitant of the watered 

 valley. By a combination of these, and, it may be, of other 

 less apparent agencies, the Horse, like the Ox, the Sheep, 

 and other creatures formed for the companionship of man, 

 becomes suited to the conditions under which he is called to 

 exist. In the mountains of the colder countries he is small, 

 hardy, short, and muscular in his limbs, and covered with 

 abundant hair. Such is the little horse of Norway, of a great 

 part of Sweden, and other mountainous countries of the north 

 of Europe. In countries of abundant herbage, such as Hoi- 

 stein, Jutland, Flanders, he becomes enlarged in his form, 

 and fitted for the exercise of physical strength, with a dimi- 

 nution of the powers of speed. When he passes into coun- 

 tries where, from the heat of the climate, his natural food is 

 burned up for a part of the year, he becomes of smaller bulk, 

 and suited to subsist on scantier food. Thus, the horses of 

 the south of Europe are of lighter form, and more easily 

 nourished, than those of England and other countries where 



