The Uzbak horses, which are smaller than the Argomak, and inferior to them in point of external beauty, have nevertheless many redeeming quali ties, of which the principal is their strength. Some of their defects arise in consequence of their being badly broken in by the Uzbaks. With these horses the pace is neither a walk nor a proper trot, but what the Cossacks term a graua or short trot. Baron de Bode hero seems to mean the amble. The second defect is that the Uzbeks never geld their horses, which renders. it impos sible to picket them together, but each horse is obliged to be attached to a separate stake,—a cir cumstance which, although trivial at first sight, is one of the reasons why the Uzbak camps take so much room, and are therefore more exposed to sudden attacks.
The strongest race of the Turko-Tartar horses is undoubtedly that of Khokand; hence they are usually employed by carriers for transporting goods from one place to another. Five batman is the usual weight of a loaded cart, although they in crease the weight sometimes to seven and eight batman from Bokhara to Samarcand. The power of these horses becomes still more apparent when they are used as pack horses. Baron de Bode had seen a horse loaded with two largo tents, some kettles flung over the back, and a man sit ting astride. It accompanied him in this fashion the whole way from Samarcand to Karshi, and from thence to I3okhara.
The Karab-airi is a very handsome nee of horses, in size equal to the Uzbak horse, but in the shape of the head and legs resembling the Argomak. They are reckoned good racing horses in Bokhara, but as they are trained for the game of kukbari, in which, after running a certain distance, the riders rest, these horses cannot hold out a protracted race, especially as they exhaust their strength from the very outset.
The horses of the Kirghiz Kozak are trained to run races, in distances sometimes from twenty live and thirty to forty and fifty versts. Every Kirghiz, in setting out on a journey, fastens to his saddle a bag of kurut or curd made from sour milk. Ile soaks some of it in water, and thus appeases his hunger and thirst together.
Two wild horses are found in the Russian steppes, the Tarpon and the .3/itsin. The latter is supposed to be a steppe horse run wild ; but the younger Gmelin, Pallas, and Middendorff think that the tarpan is a descendant of the pristine wild stock. Darwin and Wallace, however, are of opinion that the tarpan also is a steppe horse run wild.—Rolleston, p. 50.
The Muss of the Kirghiz is the wild horse of the Asiatic plains. This animal is not like the wild horse of S. America, which undoubtedly sprang from those taken into the country by the Spaniards. He is of a ,distinct race from the Asiatic horse, very small (not so large as an ass), beautiful in form, having a small head and short ears, and varying in colour from black, bay, grey, and white, the latter being the most rare. Ilis
sense of smell is very acute, which renders him most difficult to approach. He is exceedingly fleet, and few horses can run him down. In hunting him, a great number of Kirghiz assemble, and when the scouts have found the herd, the horsemen form an extended line at a considerable distance towards the steppe. When so much has been accomplished, they gradually ride up, forcing the herd towards a pass in the mountains. As they approach near to the ravine, the hunters draw closer, forming a crescent, and proceed with extreme caution till the stallions enter the pass. While this has been going on, another party of hunters have made their way into the pass, taking their stand in the narrowest part, and waiting till the herd appears. Having signalled to the hunters on the plain that the pass is secured, the whole body close up, and the wild animals'arb in a trap. They are .1113N driven onward till stopped by the hunters above, when the work of slaughter begins, and vast numbers of these beautiful. creatures are killed by their battle-axes. The Kirghiz consider their flesh the greatest delicacy the steppe affords.
Dr. Jerdon, however, says wild horses of a truly feral type are at present unknown. The Gor Khar, Equus onager, Pallas, is the wild ass of Cutch ; the Kyang, or Dzightai, or will ass of Tibet, is EqUtlfi Pallas; the E. hemippus, Is. Geofroy, which inhabits Syria, Mesopotamia, N. Arabia, is the wild ass of Scripture ; and E. asinus is of N.E. Africa and S. Arabia.
Since 1840, British India has received small batches from the Cape of Good Hope, of good figure and good temper, suitable for riding horses and for draught, but, like the Arab horse, higher priced than can easily be afforded. Australia has since taken a bold on the Madras and Calcutta markets, and its imports are termed 1Valers. What number of new horses of all sorts are needed for British India annually, is not known. The imports have been— Australia. Other Places. Australia. Other Places. 1874-75, 2072 470 Rs.5,29,270Rs.1,44,325 1875-76, 2075 175 7,06,850 37,025 1876-77, 2355 507 7,25,700 1,19,550 1877-78, 1938 487 5,99,000 2,32,820 1878-79, 2079 1271 7,07,300 5,50,525 1879-80, 2133 1473 6,89,600 4,78,350 —Hue and Gabet, p. 229 ; Yule's Cathay, i. p. 143; Animals and Plants; Tod's Rajas than, ii. pp. 162, 227 ; Powell; Gerard's Koona wur, p. 112 ; Adams, p. 269 ; Hooker, Him. Jour.
p. 118, ii. p. 131 ; Williams' Middle Kingdom; Crawfurd, Eng. Cyc. p. 383 ; Skinner's Journey, p. 70 ; Niebuhr's Travels, ii. p. 301 ; Shake speare's Wild Sorts; Palgrave, p. 97 ; Robinson's Tr. u. pp. 167, 356 ; Wellsted's Tr. i. p. 306 ; Kinneir's Persian Empire, p. 38 ; Mal rolm's Persia, ii. p. 241 ; De Bode's Bokhara, p. 198 ; Vigue's Personal Narrative, p. 455 ; Atkin son, Anwors, p. 326 ; Porter, ii. p. 536 ; Gray.