68 PONIES — THEIR DIFFEEENT BREEDS. 



some of the largest dogs of the Newfoundland and lab- 

 rador, or Great St. Bernard breeds. Their characteristic 

 form is a round, closely ribbed-up barrel ; a well-laid, slop- 

 ing shoulder, but thick rather than tine, and with little 

 elevation of the withers ; a short, thick neck, covered with 

 redundant masses of coarse mane, scarcely inferior to that 

 of the lion ; a well-shaped, lean and bony head, wide in 

 the brow and not seldom showing something of the char- 

 acteristic basin-face of the Arab. The ears are unusu- 

 ally small, erect and well-placed; the eyes large, clear 

 and intelligent. Their loins are superb so that their 

 breadth bears no small proportion to the entire height of 

 the animal. Sway backs and flat sides are unknown to 

 the race. Their quarters are scarcely large in proportion 

 to their other muscular developments, but their legs and feet, 

 which are not so densely matted with hair as would be ex- 

 pected from their flowing tails and abundant manes, are, 

 like those of the Canadians and Normans, to which they 

 have many strong points of similitude, literally made of iron. 

 Splints, curbs, spavins, windgalls, thorough-pins, ringbones 

 and navicular disease seem to be things utterly foreign to 

 the Shetlander. Out of many hundreds which we have 

 seen, — sometimes in droves of fifty or sixty at a time trav- 

 elling down from their native moors and mountains, the 

 raggedest, rustiest, most comical-looking little quadrupeds 

 eye ever dwelt upon, driven by a gigantic six-foot High- 

 lander, perched on the back perhaps of the smallest of the 

 number, — we never saw a lame Shetlander. Their hardi- 

 hood and spirit is wonderful. In their native isles they 

 run wild on the hills as the ragged, black -faced sheep, with 

 which they keep company, never herded, sheltered nor fed, 

 but picking up a hardj livelihood from the tender shoots 

 of the heather, and the coarse, innutritious grass which 

 grows among it. In very severe winters, when in that 



