•j6 WILD TRAITS IN TA^IE ANMALS. 



When we consider how exceedingly different 

 are the present surroundings of the horse from 

 those to which it was at first adapted by nature, 

 it is rather difficult to understand how his legs 

 stand the perpetual wear and tear of work in our 

 great cities, where every step is upon a hard un- 

 yielding pavement. There is no other creature 

 living, with the exception of the donkey or the 

 mule, whose legs and feet could long bear the 

 constant battering and shaking entailed by rapid 

 locomotion over paved roads. Of course no 

 hoofs would stand the continual abrasion caused 

 by a granite or flinty surface unless they were pro- 

 tected by shoes. The horny matter of which the 

 hoofs consist is extremely tough and grows very 

 rapidly ; but its rate of growth was calculated, in 

 the first place, to the needs of the wild horse, 

 which spent most of its time on sandy or grassy 

 plains, where the hoofs would not wear away any- 

 thing like so quickly as on a rasping macadamised 

 roadway. Nature never reckoned on the ruinous 

 expenditure in hoof material involved in modern 

 road traffic, and, as a matter of fact, the feet of an 

 unshod horse are soon reduced to a state of bank- 

 ruptcy if in constant contact with a stony surface. 

 Man has got over this difficulty by fastening. 



