258 [Assembly 



hood. In every jiarticiilar, the male for faimers' rise is supei-ior 

 to the horse. Mules, if badly used, Tvill resent it, and from t^is 

 fact they have the unenviale character of kicking. They cer- 

 tainly exhibit bad taste in ohojc€of food, for they will eat agrees 

 thistle on top of a peck of oats, and qccaslonally will eat tlieir 

 bedding while f )dder of a better kind placed in front of them, is 

 retained for a de.sert. 



President Tallmadge. The work of Joan de Cuba presents a 

 very early specimen of good printing, for the art was only in- 

 vented (that is printing on separate types of metal) about the 

 year 1450. This work was printed on metal types, and those 

 good, too, in 1485, only thirty-five years after the first attempt 

 was successfully made. The singular mark called a cross on the 

 shoulders of the ass is formed by one stripe of hair lengthwise 

 his spine, and one crossing it at right angles ; the hair in this 

 cross is somewhat longer tlian the hair of the animal generally. 



Mr. Browne. The numerous engravings in this work of Joan 

 de'Cuba are done on wood, and are the first used except in the 

 Bible. Joan de Cuba was a Dutch naturalist, and traveled in 

 Turkey, Syria, and the Holy Land. 



D. J. Browne was requested to add some remarks to those he 

 had presented from Joan de Cuba, relative to the mule and ass. 

 He called for the reading of another volume from his library, 

 the Natural History of Quadrupeds of British and Foreign Pro- 

 ductions, by James H. Feunell, London, 1843. 



The mule cr moj le, is produced by the union of the male ass 

 and the mare, and is much more esteeuietT^than the hinny, by 

 which name the progeny of the horse and female ass is distin- 

 guished, -f 



The mules of Spain, and other countries in .which they are ex- 

 tensively employed, are far superior to those of Britain. They 

 are often sixteen hands high, ^nd can carry seven or eight hun- 

 dred pounds weight on their backs. They are patient, indefatig- 

 able, and unrivalled in being sure-footed, and these excellencies 



