10 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



there were many importations as well as much 

 breeding, for on horseback was the only way a 

 journey could be taken, except by foot or in a 

 canoe. They needed good serviceable horses, and 

 they obtained them both by importation and 

 breeding. I suspect that the general run of horses 

 in the Colonial era in New England and along 

 the Atlantic seaboard was very similar to the 

 horse that is now to be found in the province of 

 Quebec, Canada. Every one who has visited this 

 province knows that these habitant horses are 

 very serviceable and handy, besides being quite 

 fast enough for a country where the roads have 

 not been made first class. Harnessed to a calash, 

 an ancient, two-wheeled, French carriage, they 

 take great journeys with much satisfaction to 

 their drivers and small discomfort to themselves. 

 Then the Colonists had the Narragansett pacer, a- 

 horse highly esteemed not only for speed but for 

 the amble which made his slow gait most excel- 

 lent for long journeys. When Silas Deane was the 

 colleague of Benjamin Franklin at the French 

 Court during the Revolutionary War, he pro- 

 posed getting over from Rhode Island one of 



