148 ANIMALS IN THE DARK 



kept in stables ; but near Colchester some years ago the 

 horses of several troops of cavalry, picketed for the night, 

 took fright, pulled up their pickets, and suffered most 

 severely in their gallop with the picket ropes and pins 

 still attached. It is very doubtful whether the absence 

 of daylight contributed much to the injuries received 

 by the horses. The celebrated midnight steeplechase 

 of the officers of a cavalry regiment stationed at Ipswich, 

 in 1839, shows that horses can see by night when 

 ridden at full speed. This freak, in the performance 

 of which, though there was moonlight at intervals, 

 the riders wore white night-gowns and night-caps that 

 they might be able to see each other, led to no serious 

 disasters either to horses or riders. As the latter could 

 have done little to guide their mounts, or to pull them 

 together for jumps the size of which they could not 

 judge, we must assume that the horses could see as well 

 as was necessary to clear a hedge and ditch. They also 

 jumped a turnpike-gate on the main road, though this 

 was perhaps more easily distinguished than the fences. 

 On the pampas at night wild horses often try to 

 stampede trained animals tethered round camps, and the 

 Indians of the plains constantly avail themselves of the 

 nervousness of horses at night to effect the same object. 

 They either drive a mob of their own horses down on 

 the camp, or creep up and suddenly scare the herd. 

 Cattle are not affected in the same way. We have 



