ON AGE AND APPEARANCE. 75 



This indelible mark may always be observed in a small 

 degree in horses above eight years of age, but at nine years 

 old it is still more perceptible. It continues growing a 

 little thinner and sharper at the bottom until twelve years 

 of age. From thence until fifteen it is still thinner, and 

 about as sharp as the back of a case-knife near the han- 

 dle. From this period, until the ages eighteen, nineteen, 

 twenty and upwards, it is exceedingly so ; and is as sharp, 

 in many subjects, as the dull edge of that instrument. 



RULES. 



FIKST. Put your three fingers about half an inch or an 

 inch immediately above the bifurcation, and grasp the 

 submaxillary bone, or the lower jaw. If it is thick at the 

 sides, and very round indeed at the bottom, the animal is 

 most certainly under nine years of age. 



SECOND. If the bone is not very thick, and it is per- 

 ceivably not very round at the bottom, he is from nine to 

 twelve years old, and so on. From twelve to fifteen, the 

 bone is sharper at bottom and thinner at the sides, the 

 bottom is generally as sharp as the back of a case-knife; 

 and from fifteen to eighteen, nineteen, twenty and up- 

 wards, without any exceptions, the bone, when divested of 

 its integuments, is as sharp as the dull edge of that in- 

 strument. 



THIRD. Allowances must always be made between hea- 

 vy, large western or wagon horses, or carriage horses, and 

 fine blooded ones. By practicing and strictly attending to 

 these rules, upon all descriptions of horses, the performer 

 in a little time will become very accurate in the accom- 

 plishment of his desires, more especially if he attentively 

 observes the lower jaw-bone of dead horses." 



The next subject we treat of is the shape and appear- 



