Shipping Horses. 189 



receive some permanent injury. My advice is, don't have 

 anything to say to such ' wasters.' 



The voyage from the Colonies takes from twenty-five to fifty 

 days, according as it is direct, or via Singapore and Penang. 

 Unless in the case of animals of considerable value, the 

 horses have to stand the whole time, and when the entire 

 vessel is given up to them, they occupy the lower deck, main 

 deck, and upper deck. An ordinary cargo steamer, called 

 in nautical language a 'tramp,' could carry from three 

 hundred and fifty to four hundred horses. The chartering 

 of vessels from the Colonies to Calcutta, is greatly facili- 

 tated by the fact that the tonnage of the imports into 

 Australasia greatly exceeds that of the exports, and 

 that there are large shipments of grain and other ' country 

 produce ' from Calcutta to England. Hence, there are always 

 a fair number of vessels at Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and 

 other Colonial ports, which, having come out with a full cargo 

 are unable to get one on the homeward voyage, and conse- 

 quently their owners or agents are glad to hire them to take 

 horses at a cheap rate to Calcutta, at which port they will be 

 certain to get a cargo for England. Sooner than send them 

 home empty, the agents, acting for the owners, often advance 

 the money to a dealer for the purchase of a shipload of horses, 

 which they consign to one of the Calcutta firms to whom the 

 account of the sales is duly rendered, or the agents may ad- 

 vance a portion of the money. Only a few of the shippers 

 work with their own money ; although they all naturally like 

 to appear before their customers as men of independent 

 property. 



When shipping valuable horses singly, I have found that 

 the chief requisites to their comfort is a flooring of thick coir 

 matting with long fibres projecting upwards (of the door- 

 mat pattern) ; a roomy box, at least j\ feet by 5 feet, placed 

 athwart ships to live in ; good ventilation ; and protection from 

 heavy seas coming on board. The coir matting not alone 

 affords firm foothold, but also gives the frogs of the feet that 



