94 HEAVY AND LIGHT 



heavy traffic. The London General Omnibus 

 Company owns about thirty-eight thousand 

 horses, purchased at an average of £28 per 

 horse, and the North Metropolitan Tramways 

 Company employs some sixteen thousand, 

 contracted for at £30 per horse. Considering 

 that these are but two, if probably the two 

 largest, companies of this kind in London, 

 and that similar companies exist in every 

 large town in the United Kingdom, and 

 bearing in mind also the comparatively short 

 period for which horses so employed last, we 

 gain some idea of the enormous number 

 which must somewhere be bred to keep all 

 these Avheels going. To speak of " light " 

 draught horses in this connection may be 

 somewhat of a misnomer — the horses must 

 be light ones to get along at the pace re- 

 quired, but the work is heavy enough in all 

 conscience, and it is only by the most gener- 

 ous feeding they can perform it at all. 

 The kindly but inexperienced passenger 



