102 THE MIJLE. 



carefully observed the different effect of shoes, while 

 with troops on the march. I accompanied the Seventh 

 Infantry, in 1858, in its march to Cedar Yalley, in 

 Utah, a distance of fourteen hundred miles, and noticed 

 that scarcely a man who wore regulation shoes had a 

 blister on his feet, while the civilians, who did not, were 

 continually falling out, and dropping to the rear, from 

 the effects of narrow and improper shoes and boots. 

 The same is the case with the animal. The foot must 

 have something flat and broad to bear on. The first 

 care of those having charge of mules, should be to see 

 that their feet are kept in as near a natural state as 

 possible. Then, if all the laws of nature be observed, 

 and strictly obeyed, the animal's feet will last as long, 

 and be as sound in his domestic state as he would be in. 

 a state of nature. 



The most ordinary observer will soon find that the 

 outer portion or covering of the mule's foot possesses 

 very little animal life, and has no sensibility, like the 

 hair or covering of the body. Indeed, the foot of the 

 horse and mule is a dense block of horn, and must 

 therefore be influenced and governed by certain chemical 

 laws, which control the elements that come in contact 

 with it. Hence it was that the feet of these animals 

 was made to bear on the hard ground, and to be wet 

 naturally every time the horse drank. Drought and 

 heat will contract and make hard and brittle the sub- 

 stance of which the feet is composed ; while on the 

 other hand cooling and moisture will expand it, and 

 render it pliable and soft. JSTature has provided every- 

 thing necessary to preserve and protect this foot, while 



