scorned; and any one who is possessed of a good one prizes him more than even he does his wife. I have no hesitation in saying that if the horses of this country were used with our thorough-bred mares, they would produce such fast and safe cover-hacks as are seldom to be met with. Let me now transport you to the northward, three thousand three hundred miles to Mazatlan, whither we went to collect freight. Along this coast there is, in the Gulph of California, good sport to be obtained. But, to effect this, it is necessary to make a trip of a day or two at a time, taking all things necessary, not only for sport, but also for defence; for you have to guard against surprise of the Indians, who sometimes come down in great numbers, and commit murders and depredations on unsuspecting travellers and sportsmen. I will attempt to describe to you one day's sport which we had during our stay here. The party consisted of our captain, Lieut. the purser, and myself, six seamen, and two of the marines, one of whom had been an old gamekeeper, and who was obliged to decamp in consequence of unlawfully becoming a papa. We started in the afternoon, in order to select a nice place, before dark, for pitching our tent, and making a comfortable restingplace for the night. The completion of this brought six o'clock, when we sat down to a cold repast, the only hot things being hermetically sealed soup and boiled rice: we fared most sumptuously and passed the bottle merrily, sang our song, and laid us down to sleep by eleven o'clock. We were up and dressed in the morning by daylight, and having fortified the inward man with a good breakfast, and a proper guard having been left with the tent, we marched off, big with expectation, upon our adventures. Before we had travelled three hundred yards, our luck brought us upon a huge monster of an alligator, upwards of eleven feet long. These brutes are easily mistaken for large logs of timber, and one might easily stumble unconsciously over them, and become a prey; for directly a person approaches within reach of one, he attempts to knock you down with his tail, and then to turn round and swallow his victim. The captain's "coxn" luckily twigged this fellow in time, and gave the alarm, otherwise some of the party would have gone clear over him. As it was, the old dog "Pilot," to whom I introduced you upon a former occasion, very nearly fell a prey to the huge beast; for when the alligator began to move, the dog set up his bristles and prepared himself for an attack, and was only restrained by forcible measures. A visit to the Cave of Trophonius could not have more effectually sobered the merriment of the party than did for a moment this unexpected encounter. Our object was now to dispatch him, and as the animal himself began to show evident symptoms of uneasiness, and to smell a rat, we held a short council of war, when it was thought best to fire a volley at him; however, when this was just being carried into effect, we considered it better to fire one ball at him under his arm, whilst our captain (who had a single-barrelled shoulder duck-gun, which threw two ounces and a half of shot) was to give him the contents of his tube down his throat upon his opening his mouth, which he did most energetically as soon as the bullet entered his coat of mail, and the plan succeeded most admirably. His head was the only part taken as a trophy, which, however, failed in preserving, and was thrown overboard. Having finished our alligator, or broken him up," as you used to express yourself with hounds, we commenced hunting for game, and I do assure you that we trod very cautiously, and kept a sharp look out for man-traps, of which we saw no more. Having proceeded some little distance, we discovered that there was game in the shape of hares and deer: of the former we killed five or six; they were half as large again as the English hare, and of a lighter colour, and the flavour of them, when dressed, excellent. The deer, which were numerous, were not so easily to be circumvented; however, by manoeuvring round them, and thus contriving to drive the broken herd past each other, we succeeded in killing three, one affording a scrambling chase for upwards of an hour, through the broken ground and brushwood, when, by the assistance of old Pilot, we succeeded in running into him. To get all these heavy animals down to our tent was the work of the whole afternoon, and required two trips. A welcome, though rough, repast closed the evening of this eventful day; and after enjoying the social glass, enlivened by a few melodious chaunts, we betook ourselves to our beds, or rather boat-cloaks, for the night, and on the following morning returned to our ship. There are several small islands off this coast, which are much frequented, at certain seasons of the year, by the deer; which swim over for the purpose of dropping their young, and where they are more safe from snakes, alligators, and other vermin, than they would be upon the main land. (To be continued.) THE HORSE. BY G. W. B. "A horse, a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" "Animals of the horse kind deserve a place next to man in a history of nature. Their activity, their strength, their usefulness, and their beauty, all contribute to render them the principal objects of our curiosity and care-a race of creatures in whose welfare we are interested next to our own." Such is the opinion of Goldsmith, one who passed the best part of his life in the dull garrets of London, and whom most persons will believe to have been incapable of forming a correct opinion on an animal whose possession is attended with so much expense. To poets are usually assigned animals (like the cat) which can keep themselves; for such is the single-mindedness of the true poetic nature-and who could deny it to Goldsmith ?-that it shares its last bit with a companion, even though that companion be a dog. However, that he was once master of a horse is attested by a trifling epigram, written in revenge against the Mayor of Drogheda, for having impounded his Rosinante. On a fine evening, in that beautiful city, while taking too much care of himself, he neglected his horse, which strayed forth into an adjoining pasture, and being found guilty of trespass, was sentenced to fine and imprisonment. His master had a lodging that night also at the king's expense; and before he left the town, he pasted on the pump the following morceau : "Was ever horse so well befitted His master drunk, himself committed? From the earliest ages, the horse, as well as the dog, seems to have been domesticated with man. Like the dog, he has been most prized in civilized countries. In pastoral or agricultural communities, either his real value to man was not sufficiently known, or, if known, his price was too high to employ him in agricultural drudgery. The oldest book being the bible, we naturally turn to its pages to learn if the horse was subjected to man; and if so, for what purpose was he used. Alas for man, cruel man! in its earliest records we find he was even then employed by the Egyptians, the most polished and learned nation of the age, in the bloody art of war. When the Jews were escaping from the land of bondage, they were not suffered to do so quietly" But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen and his army." It is probable that until the days of Solomon the horse was not domesticated amongst the Jews; and this king seems to have introduced them into the kingdom for the first time-" And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt."..." And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen" (Kings). This opinion seems to be corroborated by the chronicler stopping to tell us the value of a chariot, and also of an Egyptian horse-" And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred and fifty" (Kings). The value of a horse was, therefore, one-fourth the price of a chariot. haps this high price was the cause of our not hearing of them before, while we continually hear of the ass. When the famine was raging, Jacob sent to Egypt his sons; and they were afraid of Joseph," that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses.' When Abraham was seeking for a wife for Isaac, he sent presents-"And the servant to ok ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed." Nor are horses enumerated amongst Jacob's wealth-" And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and man-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses" (Genesis). وف Per Even in the neighbouring nation of the Philistines, the horse must have been unknown as a domesticated animal; for when terrified by the omens and frightened at the evils brought on them after the capl ture of the ark, and although warned by the soothsayer to pay it al honour and respect, they employed to draw it home two milk-whit kine, whose necks had never known a yoke. The horse was certainly always regarded as the noblest beast of burthen; for the Grecians, in their mythology, have assigned horse s only to the chariots of their gods: and Homer, in his "Iliad," never harnesses mules or asses to the chariots of his heroes. Horses are without doubt the fleetest animals to escape with from an enemy, should "discretion" be "the better part of valour." That the ass was regarded as an inferior animal may be easily surmised, since we know that it was expressly chosen by the meek and humble Saviour of mankind, even in the hour of his triumph. There is no circumstance more worthy the investigation of the Christian philosopher than the mark of the cross on the back and shoulders of the ass. It is said, but I cannot recollect the authority, that it was not visible on the asinine tribe until after it bore the Saviour of mankind. I have not Aristotle's Natural History near me at present to consult; but whether it has always existed or not, it is singular that this, the only animal ever employed by the Saviour, should so distinctly bear the impression of the instrument on which he voluntarily surrendered his life. The species, we know, are more or less striped; but the ass alone has the cross perfect. What a forcible although silent rebuke to those who continually ill-treat him! Homer is one of our earliest profane writers, and his accurate description of the customs and manners of his countrymen make him an excellent and indisputable authority. Amongst this polished people the horse was held in high estimation; and we need not be surprised to learn that this warlike race had early trained him to their assistance in war- not backed by a horseman, as our modern cavalry are formed, but harnessed to a chariot, either in pairs, or three or four abreast. Their celebrated Olympic races were run by horses also harnessed to a chariot. The chariot, either for war or the circus, was of simple construction, as may be seen in antique representations. The body of the carriage was not unlike a wheelbarrow, excepting that it was high in the fore-part, and quite open at the back, to permit the charioteer to mount or get down with facility. It was placed on two wheels, and raised not more than a few feet from the ground. Before a circus was built, they ran straight forward to a certain point, round which they turned sharply: here was the great test of skill. Homer tells us these points were various : "Mark then the goal: 'tis easy to be found- So intimate is the blind bard's acquaintance with chariot-racing, that it is not difficult to believe that he himself must have been occasionally a competitor in the Olympic games. Had the race of "whips" been still in existence, I would have given his course of lectures in full on handling the ribbons; but my profound learning would be lost on the degenerate race of cabmen and omnibus-drivers of the present day. I must content myself therefore with extracting a few lines from his immortal pages: "Bear close to this, and warily proceed, A little bending to the left-hand steed; But urge the right, and give him all the reins, The wheels' round naves appear to brush the goal." The whole description of the ancient race might be taken for a modern Derby-day at Epsom. The race-stud then was generally of a white colour; for then, as now, it was supposed that swiftness was a quality belonging to a white animal. The old hunting song has it"But the horse of all horses that rivalled the day Was the squire's neck-or-nothing, and he was a grey." Sir Walter Scott, who was no mean judge of either horse or dog, in his delightful poem of "The Lady of the Lake," makes Fitzjames say "Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, However, I have no recollection of ever having seen the portrait of a favourite white racer; and it is a colour, I believe, almost unknown on the turf. Physiologists consider white as a sign of debility white-haired persons are weak. The Spaniards have a strong aversion to white legs or snip, and will never breed from such as have them. This prejudice may be traced to a Mahomedan superstition when the Moors occupied Spain. Mahomed laid it down as a doctrine, "that prosperity is with sorrel horses;" that certain white marks on the head are advantageous, but that white marks on the legs are signs of ill luck. There probably is, however, some truth in the idea; for even English grooms consider a white foot as a blemish. There is no occasion to enact a law against cruelty to animals in Arabia, for the Koran commands the horse to be well treated; but in order to have the command obeyed, he tells them that God created them from a condensation of the south-west wind, wind being occasionally very swift; and then apostrophises the horse himself"Thou shalt be for man a source of happiness and wealth; thy back shall be a seat of happiness and honour, and thy belly of riches: every grain of barley given to thee shall purchase indulgence for the sinner!" As he conquered with his cavalry, these directions were necessary, in order that the horses should be well cared for. We may laugh at the credulity of his followers; but our own Cromwell played the same game when he ordered his fanatical troops to "put their trust in the Lord, but to rest on their matchlocks." Notwithstanding Mahomed's love of the horse, he preferred riding to the third heavens on a camel, perhaps to hold on by the hump. It is curious that the colour of the camel has never been ascertained, although several learned volumes have been written on the important question. A pied horse with white spots has never been objected to. They have been favourites in Italy since the days of Virgil "Turnus maculis Improvisus adest quem Thracius albis This colour was in war: here we have it in the course "Quem Thracius albis Portat equus bicolor maculis; Vestigia primi Alba pedis, frontemque ostentans arduus albam." ENEID, V. 565. |