CANADIANS. 47 



learly to the knee, and of their fetlocks. In height tha 



Canadian rarely exceeds fifteen hands, and in fact seldom 



attains to that standard ; from fourteen to fourteen hands 



and a half being their usual size. They are not generally 



speedy, even at ordinary road speed ; still less often are 



they fleet, or what would be called /as<; though there are 



exceptions, as for instance the celebrated trotting stallion 



St. Lawrence, who has gone fast among fast horses, and 



has been so long. on the trotting turf as to show that ho 



possesses in a high degree the hardy endurance of his race. 



Their best rate of going, for fair, ordinary travellers, — not 



select specimens, — does not, perhaps, exceed six or seven 



miles the hour ; but at whatever rate they can go at all, at 



that rate they can go before or under a heavy load, and 



for a long, continuous distance. Many Canadians will do 



fifty miles a day for seveiral successive days ; and not a 



few can be found which will accomplish sixty, seventy, 



eighty, and even ninety, for one day ; and the lesser ratea 



for a proportionate length of time. 



It seems remarkable that such should be the case, but 

 we are strongly disposed to believe that, even in these 

 days of horse improvement, horse fairs and agricultural 

 progress, no systematical attempts have ever been made 

 to improve the Canadians themselves in their pure form ; 

 although many have been made, with great success, to 

 create improved crosses by the intermixture of them with 

 other races. No race, probably, is more susceptible of 

 -direct improvement than this ; and, as their excellence is 

 aniversally acknowledged, both as the small poor farmer's 

 working and draught horse, for which they are adapted 

 above all American breeds, and as brood mares, from 

 which to raise a highly improved and useful general 

 working roadster, by breeding them to thorough-breds, 



