

V EKTElili ATA. 



A COSSACK TROOPER OF THE DON OX HIS MARCH TO PARIS. 



into England for the last four hundred years. And finally, since the time of James I. — that is, 

 for two hundred and fifty years — the very best horses and mares that Arabia, Persia, and Bar- 

 bary could produce have been brought to England and bred with the best English stock. All 

 this has been done with the advantage of unbounded wealth, and the use of the most profound 

 and persevering skill, directed to the single object of bringing the horse to the highest pitch of 

 perfection of which it is capable. The result of all this is to be found in the finer British breeds, 



which the Race-Horse is considered the highest type. The history of the British horse is 

 therefore analogous to that of his master: both are the produce of a diversified crossing from two 

 great Btreams of migration, one northern ami one eastern, but both proceeding originally from 

 the greal central nursery of men and horses, ami both improved by the amalgamation. 



In order to comprehend how it is that such distinct and remarkable breeds as we have men- 

 tioned have pr seded from the same original stock, we need but reflect upon a few notorious 



facts. The fir-' is, that climate and food have a powerful influence in modifying the size, form, and 

 character of animals. Accordingly, we see that the horse bred for a series of ages in the mount- 

 ains of Wales, or amid the rocks of the Shetland Isles, or in the chill atmosphere of Sweden and 

 Norway — and thus subjected to a harsh temperature and stingy fare — dwindles into a pony. The 

 same animal on the Bteppes of Tartary and Siberia, fed on coarse herbage, and sweeping in wild 

 herds over almosl illimitable plains, becomes coarse and shaggy in form and covering, but at the 

 Bame time possessing a remarkable tenacity and vigor of life and character. A living example 



the Tartar breed, thus modified, was made familial- to Europe by the Cossacks of the Don who, 

 • ompanying the Russian armies in their march which ended in the overthrow of Napoleon — 

 poured like an avalanche upon Southern Europe, and finally bivouacked in wild hordes in the 

 delicious gardens of Paris. We can easily Bee from these instances how it is that amid the ample 

 pastures of Middle Europe we Bhould, in the breeding of centuries, obtain such large and power- 

 fid r those of Hanover, Flanders, and Normandy, and also how it is that in the fine, pure, 

 spiritualizing atmosphere of Arabia and Syria we should, in the course of ages, obtain the light, 



