518 THE HORSE. 



Nevertheless, all the islands of any magnitude produce 

 horses in considerable numbers. Those of the Outer He- 

 brides are small, round-shouldered, muscular, and thickly 

 clad with long hair. Those of the Inner Hebrides are usu- 

 ally of somewhat larger stature. The best of them used to 

 be produced in Mull, Barra, and Islay ; and here, too, tradi- 

 tion refers to changes produced by the horses of the wrecked 

 Armada, a part of which having rounded the North Cape, 

 found its way to these dangerous coasts. It is abundantly pro- 

 bable that here, as elsewhere, some of the stranger horses 

 were left behind ; but no such traces exist in the present 

 horses of the country as can enable us to refer them to 

 Spanish lineage. They are mostly of a brownish-black 

 colour, some brown, bay, or dun, some of a dull cream colour, 

 and some gray. They have the common characters of round 

 shoulders, stout limbs, and short upright pasterns. They are 

 hardy in a high degree, but they have little speed. They have 

 lost much of the reputation which they once possessed. Be- 

 ing employed in carrying loads when young, they are gene- 

 rally bent in the back, and otherwise thrown out of shape. 

 No care is bestowed in selection, and the best of them being 

 picked up by dealers, those that remain suffer continued de- 

 terioration, so that it is now difficult to obtain a tolerable 

 pony in places where a few years ago they were numerous. 

 It will scarcely be credited, that numbers of them have been 

 recently bought by dealers to be fattened and sold as Irish 

 beef. Yet the demand for a better class of them exists, suf- 

 ficient to induce attention to the breeding of them, and they 

 would become a valuable production of the country, were the 

 most ordinary care bestowed on their improvement. But it is 

 painful to state, that the condition of the greater part of these 

 lonely islands is far from being orie of much advancement, 

 notwithstanding that the extended communication by steam 

 is eminently calculated to promote their industry and pros- 

 perity. The proprietors are generally non-resident ; the 

 farms, as in Ireland, are divided into miserable possessions, 



