XXIV 
THE WAPITI 
249 
Although I liked this animal, because he carried me 
up and down hills without fail, I did not actually 
love him, because I knew that my spurs were my 
true allies, and that I could no more progress 
without them than a steamer without her screw 
propeller. Horses are contradictory creatures; some 
occasionally exhibit intelligence, especially when 
they are offered a feed of corn, and they do not 
refuse it, but they decidedly fail as examples of 
evolution ; they have been the companions of man¬ 
kind ever since the days of the creation, and they 
are no more civilised in the nineteenth century 
than when Noah took them into his ark. 
There was a member of Parliament a few years 
ago (he was not the leader of the House of 
Commons) who thus defined the horse, in some 
debate upon Army Estimates, where cavalry re¬ 
mounts were concerned—“ I have but little sym¬ 
pathy with the horse; I only know that it is an 
animal that bites you with one end, kicks you with 
the other, and makes you sore with its middle.” 
That “ making you sore with its middle ” brings 
the Mexican saddle to the front. For such coun¬ 
tries as the Rocky Mountains, where no jumping is 
necessary, there cannot be a more perfect arrange¬ 
ment for horse and man than the Mexican saddle. 
This is totally opposed to European ideas. It is 
exceedingly heavy, weighing from 25 to 30 lbs. 
There is no stuffing. It is open by a longitudinal 
slit beneath the seat, which would suggest the idea 
that you certainly would suffer from a long ride. It 
