THE BURMAN HORSES.

THE horses in Burman are generally of Indian breed, no notice being taken of their own. In the provinces of Pegu a remarkably-fine pony is reared, and these are much esteemed in India and the east. Though small, they will travel day after day many miles; they are most untiring animals, and display great spirit, strength, and perseverance.

THE TARTAR AND COSSACK HORSES.

In the immense plains of Tartary are found innumerable herds of wild horses. Their mode of ranging about is curious. Two stallions congregate a number of mares, and thus they travel from pasture to pasture. When foaled, the young stallions, as soon as they are grown up, are driven from the herd, and after straggling about for some time, and having acquired sufficient strength, they form herds of mares for themselves. The Tartars live on the flesh and milk of their horses. The Cossack horses are strong and large, but void of beauty they are admirably adapted for the service in which they are employed. Their Russian general, Platoff, when he visited England, rode a horse of this class, which was twenty years old, and had been in the severest campaigns; he was still strong and active: at the same time, a Cossack follower of the general sold his horse for one hundred guineas. In 1825, a race was set on foot between two English thoroughbred horses, and some of the best breed of Cossacks:

the distance was about forty-seven miles. The English horse (Sharper), carried off the palm; the other (Mina), fell lame. In Ukraine, Tartary, the wild horses are rather unmanageable, and not easily tamed. Their food is exposed for public sale. The foal's flesh is very tender, and as white as veal. The older animals eat very like beef.

THE AFRICAN HORSES

ARE not held in such estimation as those of Asia. Some in Dongola are mentioned by the traveller Bosman, who reckons them as fine and symmetrical as any in the world, and particularly swift in their motions one of this breed was purchased at Cairo for a sum valued at one thousand pounds sterling.

In central Africa there are herds of wild horses, as in Tartary. The kingdom of Barnon has a fine specimen, of which travellers speak in high terms. In the northern provinces, the Barb is much esteemed; in form and beauty his is superior to the Arab, but wants his courage, perseverance, and speed, nor is he so tall, being seldom more than fourteen hands high. The Barb first contributed to the excellence of the European studs. On the east and west coast, the horses are generally weak, small, and vicious. Towards the south, and in the Cape colony, the breed is excessively superior, and the horses very fine, strong-built, and handsome many are exported hence to the East Indies. The great African traveller, Mr. Bruce, after speaking of the horses of the country, and the pertinacity of the inhabitants, in asserting that they are all

sprung from one of the five on which Mahomet and his successors fled from Mecca to Medina, on the memorable occasion of the Hegira, thus states the difference in the customs of the Africans and Arabs :

"No Arab ever mounts a stallion: on the contrary, in Africa they never ride mares. The reason is plain : the Arabs are constantly at war with their neighbours, and always endeavour to take their enemies by surprise in the grey of the evening, or the dawn of the day. A stallion no sooner smells the stale of the mare in the enemy's quarters, than he begins to neigh, and that would give the alarm to the party intended to be surprised. No such thing can ever happen when they ride mares only. On the contrary, the Funge trusts only to superior force. They are in an open, plain country-must be discovered at many miles distantand all such surprises and stratagems are useless to them."

THE AMERICAN HORSES

APPEAR to have been of European extraction: in the States, the breed is generally a mixture of the French and English; however, many of the best English bloodhorses are found in some of the provinces, and the breed in Virginia, and the Jerseys, is preserved unmixed. The American trotters are often of Canadian origin, and these again sprung from the French breed. The wild horses of South America are very numerous, herding together frequently to the number of ten thousand, and oftentimes they prove very dangerous. They seem to be of the Andalusian and Spanish breed.

The inhabitants take them with the lasso.

Herds of wild-horses are sometimes found in the island of St. Domingo. Horses are not known in the islands of the Pacific. Wild horses are not equal to the domesticated ones in beauty, strength, or rapidity of motion.

THE SPANISH HORSES.

THE Spanish horse of the present day is of a very inferior description; and most travellers view them in the same light, being defective in every point which determines a good horse. In the days of chivalry and romance, the Andalusian war-horse was particularly famous. The introduction of the Barb into Spain, after the conquest of a great portion of that country by the Moors, served materially to improve the breed. The Spanish jennet was also very celebrated, but now there are few to be found in the country superior to our half-bred horse.

THE FRENCH HORSES,

LIKE our own, have of late years been considerably improved, but they have not yet reached our excellence in speed, strength, or beauty. Normandy has many very fine draught and cavalry-horses; and many of the French troops are mounted from this part. The ponies of Poiton are well known, and some excellent hunters are bred in Limonsin.

THE ITALIAN HORSES.

THESE, like the Spanish, were once esteemed; the Neapolitan horses are the only ones which have at all retained any portion of their reputation; and this is mainly by means of the English horses which have been taken thither. The common breed of Italian horses are but very indifferent. Racers are occasionally introduced in this country, but on a very different style to those of England.

THE FLEMISH AND GERMAN HORSES.

THE Flemish are large, stout-built, and very excellent draught-horses, and have been very much used of late years in this country to improve the breed. The German horses, which were once noted as very heavy and slow, have recently been bettered by the intermixture of English and eastern blood. Hanover and Holstein produce very fine cavalry-horses; the latter place furnishes the greater portion of the Prussian army; these horses are strong, active, and of good size; their action is very grand and stately, and present a noble front. The horses in Hungary are remarkably light and fast in their movements.

THE SWEDISH AND OTHER NORTHERN HORSES.

IN Sweden the horses are small, but very spirited, quick, and beautiful. Russia gets her horses from