179 
MISCELLANEA. 
Man v. Horse. 
After the last race of the Union Hunt Club meeting, a very 
novel jumping match, for £50 a-side, over a hurdle about four feet 
high, came off between Mr. C. H. Reynard and Mr. William 
Watts’ horse, the veterinary surgeon of Settrington, by Irish Bird- 
catcher, dam by Fungus, five years old. The conditions of the 
match were, that it should be a clear leap, and, in the event of both 
of them clearing it, the hurdles were then to be raised higher, until 
one or the other was beaten. Mr. B. B. Thompson was chosen 
umpire. The toss for choice of jumping first was won by Mr. 
Reynard, when he ordered the horse to leap first. The horse then 
came at the hurdle, ridden by William Wilson, but did not suc¬ 
ceed in clearing it, slightly tipping the hurdle as he went over. It 
was now Mr. Reynard’s turn to jump, when he cleared the hurdle 
at the first attempt, and consequently won the match. Wilson 
then tried the horse at a much greater height, when he proved 
himself a first-rate leaper. Mr. Moore, the owner of Wolf Dog, 
also mounted the horse, and took him across the hurdles in a very 
gallant manner. The horse stands about 15 hands high. 
Weekly Times. 
It is an extraordinary feature of this part of the coast (the Afri¬ 
can territory, called Liberia, lying between Sierra Leone and Cape 
Palmas) that horses and other draught animals will not live, and 
since every kind of transport, except that upon the rivers, is per¬ 
formed by manual labour. Much of the camwood which is ex¬ 
ported from Liberia is brought 200 miles upon men’s backs. It 
is seen, however, that this difficulty, which appears a great one at 
first, may have the effect not only of inuring the people to labour, 
but of stimulating them to every kind of mechanical contrivance 
by which it may be overcome. The climate of Liberia, although 
more healthy than Sierra Leone, is still deadly to the European; 
but the improvement it has undergone during the last ten years 
from the effect of clearing , drainage, $c. is stated to have been 
most remarkable. The coloured immigrants from America, who 
used invariably to suffer from fever on their arrival, are now able 
to go to work at once. The duration of life among the colonists is 
considered to be about the same as in England.— Times. 
