TRICKS OF THE PONIES 



he being greatly addicted to the practice ; if he were given 

 the smallest opportunity down would go his head and he 

 would be crunching a mouthful of the loose volcanic 

 material. 



Grisi was our best-looking pony, with a very pretty 

 action and in colour a dapple grey; his conduct in 

 the stables, however, was not friendly to the other 

 ponies and we had to build him a separate stall in the 

 far corner, as on the slightest provocation he would 

 lash out with his hind feet. He became rather ner- 

 vous and high-strung during the dark months, though 

 we kept a lamp continually burning in the ponies' 

 quarters. Socks was a pretty little pony, shaped 

 something like a miniature Clydesdale, very willing 

 to work and always very fiery. After leading him 

 along when out walking, it seemed a great change to 

 take great raw-boned good-natured old Quan, who, 

 in spite of his ugly appearance, was a general favourite. 

 The last of our remaining ponies, Chinaman, was a 

 strong beast, sulky in appearance, but in reality one 

 of the best of the horses; he also had a penchant for 

 biting through his head rope, but a chain stopped this. 

 When we first landed we had an idea of not building a 

 stable, as information from people in Siberia suggested 

 that the ponies were able to resist cold unsheltered, 

 but after the first blizzard it was quite obvious that 

 if they were to keep any sort of condition it would be 

 necessary to stable them. It was not till nearly August 

 that we were forced to take away part of their house to 

 feed them with. Our windows on that side of the hut 

 where the stable stood had been planked over last, 

 the weather side of the hut having been done much 

 earlier. The lower half of the lee side windows had been 

 boarded up, which Grisi put his head through, but the 

 tops had been left. Amongst the duties of the night- 

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