NATURE KNOWS BEST. 471 



ments of the aborigines who are frequently apt to 

 mistake distance, by a mere glance at your cyclometer. 

 I do not know whether a cyclometer could be fitted 

 to a mail axle. Probably not, until some alteration had 

 been made in the outside plate, and some plan contrived 

 for adapting it to such an axle ; in any case it should 

 not stand too far out, as it looks conspicuous, and is 

 apt to get injured by passing vehicles. 



There is one thing the importance of which 

 travellers on wheels passing over our high and by-ways 

 are forced to recognise, this is "horse-shoeing ; " unless 

 horses be sound on their legs the progress of vehicles 

 to which they are attached is a matter of impossibility 

 to any one who values their reputation for good sense 

 and humanity. 



I do not feel inclined to say more than a very few 

 words on this subject, for reasons which may eventually 

 appear ; but I implore coachmen not to let smiths 

 tamper with their horses' feet. For eight years I have 

 never had a single horse lame, neither hunters nor 

 carriage-horses, and I attribute this immunity merely 

 to the fact that I never allow the frog to be cut, the 

 sole to be pared, the heels to be opened, or the crust to 

 be rasped, being firmly convinced that Nature, who 

 orders all things for the best, takes under her especial 

 care the horses, whom man has subjected and subor- 

 dinated to his will and use, forcing them to quit the 

 pastures where undoubtedly they w^ould prefer to re- 

 main, in order that, upon the hard metallic surfaces of 

 the high and by-ways of the world, these patient beasts 

 may labour unceasingly in our service. 



THE END. 



I 



CHARLES DICKiNS AND EVANS, CRYSTAL PALACE PRESS. 



