THE CANADIAN PACER 243 



This important testimony of Mr. Pickering we found sustained in a 

 book entitled, "Travels through Canada and the United States in the Years 

 1806-7-8," by John Lambert, who says (Vol. I, page 128) : 



"The cattle in Canada are rather diminutive, being mostly of the small 

 Norman breed. If they have not degenerated in size by their emigration 

 they have certainly not improved. The horses are strong and swift, many of 

 them handsome, but they are mere ponies compared with the English horse. 

 There is a large breed about ninety miles below Quebec, which are gen- 

 erally brought up for heavy work. The first horse seen in Canada arrived in 

 the ship Le Havre, July 16, 1665. It appears that neither sheep nor horned 

 cattle were in the Province long before that time. Their cows and oxen are 

 small, lean and poor. The sheep are small and have but little fleece. Poul- 

 try are very good. 



" The Americans from the States carry on a lucrative traffic with the Cana- 

 dians for their horses. The latter are very fond of a horse which runs with 

 a quick shuffling pace, and the Americans bring in with them a parcel of 

 rickety animals which have that accomplishment. The Canadian willingly 

 exchanges his fine little horse for the pacer and often gives a few pounds to 

 boot. The Americans return with the Canadian horses to Boston, or New 

 York, and there obtain thirty or forty pounds for each, according to their 

 value, which in Canada rarely sell for more than ten or twelve pounds. The 

 Canadians are reckoned very adroit at a bargain ; but they sink in compari- 

 son with an American horse-dealer". And again, while traveling in Ver- 

 mont, he says : 



" The Vermonters are clean traders and are seldom outwitted in a bargain ; 

 on the contrary, they have often displayed their dexterity as horse jockeys in 

 Canada, and exchange their weak and rickety pacer for the hardy little Cana- 

 dian horses". 



From this it is evident that when he wrote, "The Americans from tha 

 States carry on a lucrative traffic with the Canadians", etc., he referred to the 

 Vermonters, and it should be remembered that at this time the land traffic 

 between Lower Canada and the States was almost entirely across the Ver- 

 mont line. 



It thus appears that the Canadians had a passion for pacers, about the 

 beginning of this century, which they gratified, not from any supplies of their 

 own, but by means of those brought in from the States, especially from Ver- 

 mont. These were generally pacing mares, and of course were frequently in 

 foal to stallions of the locality whence they came. But it was precisely at this 

 time that the Morgan horse began to flourish in Vermont, and it is a curious 

 fact in this history that the Mr. King whose exploits in taking these mares 

 into Canada each year has thus been handed down, lived at Williston, Ver- 

 mont, where, in 1795 (the precise time when he was thus engaged) the Jus- 

 tin Morgan was advertised to stand. 



Let us now consider the difference of gaits. Numerous writers have 

 sprung into the arena, some of them quite recently, to tell exactly how it 



