20 THE HORSE 



campaign, only twelve died from disease, and this he 

 attributes, firstly, to the climate of the Soudan being most 

 suitable for horses ; and, secondly, to the Arabian horse 

 having a wonderful constitution, and being admirably 

 suited for warfare in an Eastern climate. The distance 

 marched, irrespective of reconnaissances, &c., was over 

 1,500 miles, and the weight carried averaged over 14 

 stone. The weather during the last four months was 

 very trying, food was often very limited, and during the 

 desert march water was very scarce. When General 

 Stewart's column made its final advance on Metammeh 

 the 155 horses the 19th had with them marched to the 

 Nile without having received a drop of water for fifty-five 

 hours and having had only 1 lb. of grain, while some fifteen 

 or twenty had no water for seventy hours. At the end of 

 the campaign, and after a week's rest, the animals were 

 handed over to the 20th Hussars at Assouan in as good 

 order as when they left Wady Haifa nine months 

 previously. 



Such a record compares very favourably with the 

 experience of the mounted troops during the South 

 African War ! 



Professor H. F. Osborn, of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, has formulated the distinctive features 

 of the Arabian horse as having a relatively short skull, 

 very wide between the eye-sockets, which are high and 

 prominent, giving the eyes a wide range of vision ; while 

 the profile of the face is concave, due to a relatively large 

 brain. 



There is a slight depression in front of the eye-socket. 

 The lower jaw is slender in front, and deep and wide-set 

 behind. The chest is rounded ; the back and loins well 

 ribbed up, due to the fact that there are only five, instead 

 of the normal six, lumbar or ribless vertebrae. The pelvis 

 has a nearly horizontal position — a characteristic connected 

 with great speed. The croup, or tail region, is com- 

 paratively high, while the tail has only sixteen instead of 

 eighteen vertebrae. 



In the limbs the shaft of the ulna, or small bone of 



