No. 133] 2C7 



what they do at this day. Both animals with proper treatment are 

 kind and docile, easily disciplined by man for his various uses, 

 either to carry burdens on tha back or move heavy loads behind 

 them. The mule shows much sagacity as well as activity in tra- 

 velling over rough mountain roads, he will carry his rider safer 

 and faster, up the highest hills and down ths steepest precipices, 

 than any other animal. Vlloa the Spanish historian and traveller, 

 says he never could have performed the long and arduous jour- 

 neys in South America and collected the numerous and important 

 facts which he did, without the aid cf the niiTible, hardy and sure- 

 footed mule. His guides, who knew the animal well, instructed 

 him to give free rein, not to check him in the slightest degree, his 

 natural sagacity and experience, would select the safest route in 

 ascending or descending the most dangerous and difficult passes. 

 The least inclination of the rider on either side would disturb the 

 animal's balance and most lil^ely precipitate both into an abyss 

 where they would be sure to perish. Vlloa states that in arriving 

 at the foot of a high mountain or the brink of a steep deep preci- 

 pice, he would stop for a few moments and deliberately survey 

 the routes before him and make his selection, and he never found 

 him to err in judgment, he always seemed to select the best, and 

 of this he had manv proofs. Some of these routes cr paths were 

 not only rough and narrow, but long and crooked, and when de- 

 scending, he would slide down upon his fore and hinder feet and 

 sometimes with great rapidity. 



The extract from Cub's natural history is an exaggerated pic- 

 ture of the dtformities and faults of the ass, written nearly or 

 quite fonr centuries ago ; it shows evidently the prejudices, which 

 existed against t]je animal at that day, society was in a rude and 

 barbarous state, compared with wliat it is at present. All our 

 ablest modern naturalists in speaking of the ass, give a very 

 different character of him — his defects, most of these say, are 

 owing in a great degree to ill treatment and abuse from man, the 

 latt.T say he ij stupid, excessive hibor makes him so, they say he 

 is obstinate — no wonder, he is half-starved, he is fed with the 

 coarsest food, and that sparingly, he is cruelly beaten, because ho 

 will not freely do the hardest work. Any animal, the horse, the 

 ox, and even man himself would show similar habits when thus 



