OGO 
MISCELLANEA. 
How to keep a Horse from Straying. 
The Icelanders have a most curious custom, and a most ef- 
fectual one, of preventing horses from straying, which I believe 
is peculiar to this island. Two gentlemen, for instance, are 
riding together without attendants, and, wishing to alight for the 
purpose of visiting some objects at a distance from the road, 
they tie the head of one horse to the tail of the other, and the 
head of this to the tail of the former. In this state it is utterly 
impossible that they can move on either backwards or forwards, 
one pulling one way and the other another ; and, therefore, if 
disposed to move at all, it will be only in a circle, and, even then, 
there must be an agreement to turn their heads the same way. — 
Barrow's Visit to Iceland. 
Method of discovering the seat of Inflammation 
in the Foot of the Horse. 
Some years since I was hunting in the neighbourhood of 
Dartmoor, and in the course of a severe run my horse sprung 
a shoe, to replace which I was obliged to go to Ridgway, the 
nearest smith’s shop I could find. Just as the shoe was re- 
placed, a boy brought a horse belonging to a farmer in the neigh- 
bourhood, complaining that the smith had pricked him in shoe- 
ing two days before. The common method of applying the 
pincers and hammer was tried without effect. An old infirm 
pauper of the parish standing by, observed, that if it was in the foot, 
he thought he could find the place. He requested some water to be 
brought him : the horse’s foot (being of the near fore leg) was 
held out forwards ; he poured some of the water from the coronet, 
running over the hoof, a part of which dried instanter. Being re- 
peated, the same effect was again produced : it of course shewed 
that there was fever just at that part, and by tracing it to the nearest 
hole inside, the mischief was discovered, it having already fes- 
tered. On asking the old man what made him think of such an 
experiment, he said, he recollected his master did it when he was 
a boy. I thought it shewed that our forefathers had some 
clever ideas about them. I have found it occasionally useful 
during my travels both to myself and those I have recom- 
mended it to, and if it is worth insertion in your work, it is at 
your service. 
New Sporting Mag. Jan. 1835, vol. vii, p. 205. 
Babbicombe, Dec. 1834. 
