ARTISTIC HORSE-SHOEiKG. 33 



the hoof to adapt itself to the altered conditions it has 

 to meet : hard horn to hard ground, soft horn to soft 

 g-round. 



' In this way Ave can account for the influence of local it\^ 

 upon the shape of the foot. On hard, dry ground, the hoof 

 is dense, tenacious, and small, with concave sole, and a 

 little but firm frog ; in marshy regions, it is large and 

 spreading, the horn soft and easily destroyed by wear, the 

 sole thin and flat, and the frog an immense spongy mass 

 which is badlj' fitted to receive pressure from slightly 

 hardened soil. In a dr}^ climate, we have an animal small, 

 compact, wiry, and vigorous, traveling on a surface which 

 demands a tenacious hoof, and not one adapted to prevent 

 sinking ; in the marsh}^ region we have a large, heavy, 

 lymphatic creature, one of whose primary requirements 

 is a foot designed to ti'avel on a soft yielding surface. 

 Change the respective situations of these two horses, and 

 Nature immediately begins to transform them and their 

 feet. The light, excitable, vigorous horse, with its small 

 vertical hoofs and concave soles, so admirably disposed to 

 traverse rocky and slippery surfaces, is physically' incom- 



■ petent to exist on low-ljing swamps ; while the unwiekl v 

 animal, slow-paced and torpid, with a foot perfectly adapt- 

 ed to such a region — its ground face being so extensive and 

 flat that it sinks but little, and the frog developed to such 

 a degree as to resemble a ploughshare in form, which gives 

 it a grip of the soft, slippery ground— is but indifferently 

 suited for traveling on a hard, rugged surface. In pro- 

 cess of time, however, the small concave hoof expands and 

 flattens, and the large flat one gradually becomes conceu- 



