336 COMM'bK HORSE* 
cassia and Mingrelia. There are sonic greatly 
esteemed in the Ukraine, in Walachia, Poland, 
and Sweden ; but we have no particular accounts 
of their excellencies or defects. 
In Norway, where the reads are most of them 
impassable for carriages, the horses, which are 
nearly all stallions, are remarkably sure-footed, 
they skip along over the stones, and are always* 
full of spirit. Pontoppidaa says, when they go up 
and down a steep cliff, on stones like steps, they 
first gently tread with one foot, to try if the ston® 
be firm ; and in this they must be left entirely 
to their own management, or the best rider in the 
world would run the risk of breaking his neck. 
When they have to descend steep and slippery 
places, and such frequently occur, they, in a 
surprising manner, like the asses of the Alps., 
draw their hind legs together under their bodies* 
and thus slide down. They exhibit much courage 
when they contend, as they are often under the 
necessity of doing, with the wolves and bears, but 
particularly with the latter. When the horse 
perceives any of these animals near him, and has 
a mare or gelding with him, he first puts these 
behind out of the way, and then furiously attacks 
his enemy with his fore legs, which lie uses so 
expertly as generally to come off the conqueror. 
Sometimes, however, the bear, who has twice the 
strength of his adversary, gets the advantage, par- 
ticularly if the horse makes an attempt, by turning 
round, to kick him with his hind legs ; for the bear 
then instantly closes upon him, and keeps such 
firm hold, as scarcely by any means whatever to be 
shaken off : the horse in this case gallops away 
with his enemy, till he fails dow n and expires from 
loss of blood. 
There are few countries that can boast a breed 
of horses so excellent as our own. The English 
