202 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
other liquors in propertion. These statistics 
only show the propensity of the human species 
in reference to their gastronomic character, and 
so far as our figures go in regard to drinking, 
the number of arrests made for drunkness 
substantially demonstrate them. 
THE HORSES OF THE SAHAHA, 
The French General Dumas, director of affairs 
in Algeria, has just published an interesting and 
original work on the Horses of the African 
desert, in which he gives all the experiences of 
Abd-el-kader and other Arab chiefs, as well as 
his own. The Journal des Debats contains a 
summary of this work, from which the following 
passages are translated: 
The hoi’se of the true breed (boor) has his 
position amongst the Arabs of the desert like 
the date tree. According to his age he bears a 
different name, and is even more famed for his 
exploits than for his genealogy. The horse is 
of the true race, which after a long journey 
shakes himself, paws the ground, neighs when 
a feed of barley is offered to him, which he 
begins to eat eagerly after smelling it three or 
four times. It is of the horse of this kind that 
Arabs say, “ Give him barley and abuse him.” 
If a horse neighs with joy at the sight of an oasis 
and seems to salute, with graceful movements of 
his head, the green trees and the flowing waters; 
if he never drinks without bending his knee, and 
so as to mark by an undulating line from the 
croup to the head, the flexible curve of his body; 
if his nostrils dilate continually; if his^eyes are 
always in movement; if his ears rise and fall 
alternately; if, at the least noise, he quivers 
without changing place, he is of noble blood. 
He can bear thirst, hunger, and fatigue. “Give 
him barley and abuse him.” 
But if the Tell, the region of grain, is closed 
against the horse of the Sahara, he is able to 
pass the whole year without barley; and yet, to 
perform journeys of 30 leagues a day, without 
any other nourishment than dates and the coarse 
herbage of the desert—the alfa which makes 
him travel, the guetof which makes him fight, 
and the guetof which is even better than barley. 
It was thus that Abd-el-kader, driven from the 
Tell, passed like a flash of lightning from one 
extremity to the other of Moghreb, without 
making a single halt, and often at the head of a 
thousand horsemen. 
Abd-el-kader himself, in his letter to General 
Dumas, gives examples of the powers of endu¬ 
rance of the desert horses, which would be 
incredible, if he had not proved them to be true 
at our expense. He speaks, amongst others, ol 
a gallop of five or six hours a day, continued 
for 25 successive days, which suppose a distance 
of 25 leagues (75 miles) traversed every day. 
This is not all, adds the Emir; a horse travel¬ 
ling every day, and which eats as much barley 
as it pleases, can continue this for three or four 
months, without resting a single day. 
As to the swiftness of the Barbary horse, a 
fact is cited by General Dumas which will give 
an approximate idea of it. A French General 
suddenly arrested at Oran, required to see certain 
papers which he had left at Tlemcen. Tlemcen 
is 35 leagues (105 miles) from Oran, and the 
route which separates them is cut up by the 
mountains and ravines. The arrested general 
confined his barb to an Arab messenger, who 
promised to return on the following day. He 
arrived in fact, at the same hour the following- 
day with the documents in question. The horse 
had travelled 70 leagues (210 miles) through a 
difficult country, having halted only once and 
been fed once. 
As some mention is made of the greater or 
smaller difference which exists between the 
Barbary and the Arab horse, let us speak, in 
passing, of the manner in which the breed of 
horses is tried in the two countries. The nejdih 
(the horse of Arabia) is tried by being made to 
gallop seven leagues (21 miles) in a certain time, 
and then to eat a measure of barley. In Alge¬ 
ria the trial is the same in result, but different 
in the manner. The horse under trial must 
race with three relays of fresh horses, over 
distances of three leagues each, and arrive first 
at the goal each time. If he is successful, and 
after that eats barley, his master is reputed a 
fortunate man throughout the whole of Sahara, 
and the horse’s renown is without rival. 
It is curious to compare, in point of view of 
the locomotion gained by means of the horse, 
the habits of the South American horsemen 
with those of the Arab. Here we have, in place 
of the desert of sand, the Sahara, the desert of 
grass, the Pampas. The Pampas are 800 leagues 
across, and in these almost limitless plains live, 
in an almost wild state, innumerable herds of 
horses. The Guacho, in the midst of the 
wilderness, selects the horse which he deter¬ 
mines to ride, throws the lasso over it, drags the 
horse thus caught to him, saddles it, and gallops 
along. After three or four hours of furious 
riding the horse falls, and the rider continues 
his course on another caught in the same way. 
Thus the Guacho, mounting horse after horse, 
performs a journey of 100 leagues in 24 hours. 
The Arab has not the resource of the Sahara 
in changing his horse at will, and the nature of 
the soil of Africa renders this mode of riding 
impossible. In the Pampas the horse is seldom 
worth more than 50f. The price of a horse 
sometimes rises to 20,000f. in the Sahara. The 
former horse only performed two or three jour¬ 
neys of 30 leagues in his life; the latter can 
recommence on the morrow a journey of 60 
leagues. 
-o-Co- 
TRAVELLING ON HORSEBACK AND ON FOOT. 
Men never see the country who fly through 
it at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour; 
even if the usual path of railroads lay through 
the most interesting portions. The very best 
method of travelling is upon horseback. Next 
best, if you are young and hearty, or if you wish 
to become so, is foot-travelling. The pedestrain 
is, in all respects, the most independent; and if 
time is of no importance, all the details of ex¬ 
ploring trips should be made on foot. 
If you are on horseback, you can do more in 
a shorter time. You abbreviate the time and 
labor of passing over the intermediate space be¬ 
tween you and the point of interest. Then 
there is good company in a spirited horse—a 
thousand times more than in a flat man. You 
sit in your saddle at ease, giving him his own 
way, the bridle loose, while you search on either 
side the various features of the way. Your nag 
becomes used to you and you to him; till a sym¬ 
pathetic connection is established, and he always 
seems to do, of his own reflection, just what you 
wanted him to do. Now a leisurely swinging 
walk; now a smart trot, then a spirited bit of a 
canter, which imperceptibly dies out into an 
amble, pace, and walk. When yon rise a hill 
to overlook a bold prospect, can anybody per¬ 
suade you that your horse does not enjoy the 
sight too? His ears go forward, his eye lights 
up with a large and bright look, and he gazes 
for a moment with equine enthusiasm, till some 
succulent bough, or grassy tuft, converts his 
taste into a physical form. A good horse is a 
perfect gentleman. He meets you in the morn¬ 
ing with unmistakable pleasure; if you are near 
the grain-bin, he will give you the most cordial 
invitation, if not to breakfast with him, at least 
to wait upon him in that interesting ceremony. 
There is no hoggish haste in his meals. His drink 
is particularly nice. He always loves running 
water in the clearest brook, at the most spark¬ 
ling place in it. No man shall make me believe 
that he does not observe and quietly enjoy the 
sunflash on the gravel beneath, and on the wavy 
surface above. He arches down his neck to the 
surface, his name falls gracefully over his head, 
he drinks with hearty earnestness, and the trob- 
bing swallows pulsate so audibly and musically 
that you feel a sympathetic thirst. Now he lifts 
his head, and iooks first up the road to see who 
is coming, and then down the road, at those 
work-horses, turned loose, affecting gayety with 
their old stiff legs, and hard and hooped bellies, 
and then, with a long breath, he takes the after 
drink. Once more lifting his head, but now 
only a few inches above the surface, the drops 
trickle from his lips back to the brook. Finally 
he cleanses his mouth and chews his bit, and 
plays with the surface of the water with his lithe 
lip, and begins to paw the stream. Guiding 
him out, you propose to yourself a real boy’s 
drink. Selecting a favorable place; on a dry 
bank, where the stones give you a suitable rest, 
you lie flat down, at full length, and begin. 
Your luck will depend upon your judgment of 
places and skill of performance. Should you 
be too dignified to lie down, you will probably 
compromise and kneel, awkwardly protruding 
your head to the edge, where a little pool breaks 
over its rim and then you will send the first 
drops down the wrong way. Musical as is crys¬ 
tal water, softly flowing over silver gravel, be¬ 
tween fringed banks, its passage down the 
breathing tubes is anything but musical or 
graceful; and you will have an episode with 
your handkerchief behind the bushes—cough¬ 
ing, crying, and greatly exercised in various 
ways. But if you arc willing to be a real boy, 
(and no one is fit to be a man after he has lost 
all the boy,) and lie level with the stream, care¬ 
less of grass or gravel on vest, apply your lips 
gently just above the point of the ripple, where 
it breaks over the gravel, you shall quietly and 
relishfully quench your thirst; and, if you be 
handsome, or think yourself so, regale your 
eyes, too, with a fair face, seen in that original 
mirror in which, long before quicksilver or pol¬ 
ished metal, Adam and Eve made their toilet. 
There is yet another mode; with both your 
hands form a cup, by lapping the little finger of 
the left hand upon the corresponding part of the 
right, and then curving the whole to a bowl-form. 
A little practice will enable you to lift and drink 
from this bucket with ease, where the ground 
does not permit recumbency. A good pair of 
hands, such as ours, ought to hold two large 
and one small mouthfuls. But that will depend 
somewhat on the size of the mouth. 
But it was not to tell you how to drink, nor 
how good and companionable horses drink, that 
this sheet was begun. But to urge those who 
can command September or October leisure to 
avoid all beaten paths of pleasure, to make a 
tour through the mountain country of Western 
Connecticut and Massachusetts. If you are 
young, and not abundant in means, and can get 
a friend to accompany you, go a-foot. If you 
are able, go on horseback. If you wish to take 
your wife, or a sister, or your mother, or other 
fair friend, then a light four-wheeled covered 
buggy is to be elected. If there be three or four 
of you, two horses and a two-seat light carriage, 
with a movable top. Limit your articles of 
dress to a few, and those not easily torn or 
soiled ; for it is good and most morally whole¬ 
some for Americans once in a while to dress and 
to act, not upon the rule of “what will people 
think ?” but according to their own real necessi¬ 
ties and convenience. And, above all; let every 
woman have a bloomer dress, for the sake of 
foot-excursions. We are not ultra on Bloom¬ 
ers. 
In the city or town, our eye is yet in bond- 
dage to the old forms. But in the country, 
where the fields are to be travelled, the rocks 
climbed, brooks to be crossed, and fences scaled, 
bushes and weeds navigated, a woman in a long 
dress and multitudinous petticoats is a ridicu¬ 
lous abomination. Something is always catch¬ 
ing ; the party is detained till each woman can 
gather up her flowing robes, and clutch them 
in her left hand, while a shawl, parasol, and bon¬ 
net strings fill up the right. Thus she is engi¬ 
neered over and around the rocks or logs; and in 
spite of all pains and gallantry, returns home 
bedrabbled and ragged. A Bloomer costume 
leaves the motion free, dispenses with half the 
help from without, and, above all, avoids need¬ 
less exposure of the person. If ignorant of 
what is,best, a fair friend is caught in the country 
without such suitable dress, she is to be pitied, 
