ROARING AND WHISTLING. 67 



twenty pounds, or a perfect one of the same class 

 at forty ; the one may, to the casual observer, 

 look as well as the other, and will answer every 

 purpose both of show and utility. If people are 

 fastidious as to having a perfect mirror or a per- 

 fect horse, they will reject any flaw in either. 

 The only difference however is, it is easy to get a 

 perfect glass, but all but an impossibility to find 

 a perfect horse ; for the last I, personally, never 

 look : though I do allow I icill have them perfect 

 as to wind, if they are, in stable phrase, " a little 

 screwy " in other ways ; but this is no guide to 

 others. And I again repeat, that horses some- 

 what defective in their wind, roarers, whistlers, 

 and grunters, may all be safely bought under par- 

 ticular circumstances. 



There is still another noise that some horses 

 occasionally make when going, and most particu- 

 larly on first starting, and often for some miles 

 afterwards. This is a kind of hollow sound, not 

 unlike that w^e should hear if an half empty barrel 

 was rolled backwards and forwards, it seems as if 

 it came from the abdomen ; but I have been 

 assured by professional men that it proceeds from 

 the sheath. Of the truth or fact of this I never 

 could assure myself by listening ever so atten- 

 tively, though I had two horses with that habit 

 in its fullest degree ; in fact, I never could quite 

 convince myself where or whence it did arise : so, 

 r 2 



