The latter word was hardly out of his mouth, and most certainly could not have reached the roof of the stable, when all of a sudden, and for no apparent cause, John-Baptist, tossing his head in the air, and kicking violently, gave a most tremendous squeal, that really quite electrified mc.

Ah, sacré cochon !"* exclaimed his keeper, with raised and uplifted eyebrows, as with both hands he raised his long wooden-pronged pitchfork perpendicularly above his head, qu'as tu donc, vieux coquin ?" John made no answer, but at once, whatever might have been the point in dispute, gave it up, and then, nestling like a lamb towards his comrade, shared with him in a mouthful of clean straw.

While I was ruminating at the hurricane which had so suddenly subsided, a bell rang, and at the same moment I observed that all the horses on one side of the stable began to prick their ears, move their feet, look behind them, and show little outward signs of inward satisfaction, such as occasionally may be seen very slightly to flit across the countenances of fine ladies and gentlemen when, after a dull, tedious, protracted period of waiting, their ears are suddenly refreshed by the sound I have just mentioned-the dinner-bell. In less than a

minute the feeder entered, carrying on his shoulder a sack of corn, which he placed on the ground, and he had scarcely commenced to measure out three or four double handfuls into a large round sieve beside it, when all his ten horses began some to scream, some to bite at each other, and all more or less to stamp on the ground. I asked M. Denault why the ten animals before us remained perfectly quiet?

"Ah," muttered the keeper in blue," c'est qu'ils connaissent bien que ce n'est pas pour eux!" In about five minutes, however, when in his turn he went away for his sack of oats, his own horses, Jean Battiste, Fou, and all, became so excited that a good many "sacrés," some long drawn and some sharp, were expended to subdue them; indeed, I never saw a set of animals feed with greater voracity.

While the twenty horses in profound silence, with their twenty mouths in the manger, with nothing about them moving but their jaws, save occasionally an ear that very viciously

*Ah, abominable hog.

What is the matter with you, you old rogue?

Ah, because they know well enough it is not for them.

lay back whenever a comrade of the neghbouring couple ventured to look at what they were eating-were thus busily occupied, I asked M. Denault whether they did not fight at night? Pointing to a large lamp suspended from a rafter in the centre of the stall, he told me that the two men before us were always required to sleep in the stable.

"Voilà nos plumes là bas !"* said my blue satellite, pointing to some straw on a wooden frame at the end of the stable. "Ah, sacré "the exclaimed, through his teeth, to a fine, sturdy, brown horse, that a few seconds ago had begun to nibble the mane of his comrade, and was biting harder and harder every instant.

"En place!" said the opposite stableman to a pair of horses, warm and dirty, that had just entered from their work. "En place!" he repeated; the animals obeyed, and walked between a pair of vacant bails to their own two halters.

"Of the three descriptions of horses in your establishment, which," I said to Monsieur, "do you prefer?"

6.

He answered that, although entire horses are the most liable to catch cold, and altogether are the most delicate, they are nevertheless the most enduring, and consequently the best adapted for long distances, pour les diligences;" in short, for "vitesse et vigueur." || For 'bus work, where they are liable constantly to be stopped, the ordinary horse is only preferable on account of his being more calm and of his more docile temper: "ils se fatiguent moins, ils durent plus longtemps." T He said that mares were considered worst of all; and when I told him that almost an opposite opinion existed in England, he explained to me that it is the habit in Belgium, and in the departement des Ardennes, to sell mares in foal, in order that they should appear stout: and that, on being deprived of their offspring, they are usually assailed by a milk fever, in consequence of which they become weak.

I asked him how he managed to persuade his entire horses to live close together in pairs, with nothing but a swinging bail between each couple? He told me, with considerable animation, that, when first put together in couples, " ils cherchent

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dispute, ils se battent pour quelques jours."* With a great deal of very expressive action, which made him quite warm, he showed me how they bit, how they fought, how they pawed, and how they kicked out behind at each other. Mais," he added, with great calmness, good sense, and good nature, après que chacun a compris le caractère de son voisin ils deviennent bons camarades !"t

He added that as soon as a young, horse lately purchased has been found to be sound, besides being branded as described, “On lui fait la toilette;"‡ that is to say, they cut off his beard, pull his mane, remove any long hairs about his fetlocks, and, by other little delicate attentions, smarten him up for Paris work. He told me, however, they never docked a horse's tail, as it was highly valuable, not only for flapping flies from himself, but from his comrade in harness; indeed, he said it was observed that horses at Paris which had no tails usually grow lean in summer. In the winter they adopt the English custom of singeing the roughest.

I asked M. Denault what was the meaning of sometimes a little bit of straw, and sometimes of hay, which I here and there observed to be plaited in a lock of the tail of several of the horses? He replied that the stablemen, in washing over the horses' feet, were directed every day very attentively to observe whether any of them wanted either shoeing or nailing; that in the former case they were required to insert in the tail a piece of straw; and in the latter a piece of hay; and thus, when the blacksmith made his daily visit, without being at the trouble to examine the feet of every one, he saw at a glance not only those that stood in need of him, but, by the bit of hay or straw, exactly what each wanted; under this ingenious arrangement the stableman, and not the blacksmith, is very properly held responsible for a horse casting a shoe at work.

On proceeding to the smith's shop, I found him engaged in shoeing a horse in the old French fashion of forty years ago; that is to say, his assistant was holding up the animal's foot while he was driving in the nails. I told him, as he was

*They look out for a quarrel, and fight for some days.

But after each has comprehended the character of his neighbour, they become good comrades.

They arrange his toilette for him.

hammering away, that in England both operations were performed by one man, upon which he looked at his assistant,who looked at him—both grinned at each other-shook their black locks and then proceeded with their work. The shoes he was putting on were very little heavier than those used in England, a set of four weighing six pounds. The nails, however, are in France not only driven into the foot at a different angle from that in which they are inserted in England, but the head of each is forced into a square hole, made exactly to fit it, by which arrangement, being flush with the shoe, they do not, it is urged, wear off; on the other hand, they of course cannot, as in England, prevent the horse from slipping. Above the bent bodies of the smith and his mate I observed, suspended to the forge, a quantity of artificial roses, mixed up with an assemblage of smart ribands, blue, white, and red, which, I was informed, had been placed there on the fête de St. Eloi, the patron of blacksmiths, and that according to custom they would remain until the annual return of the same fête, when they would be replaced by new ones.

"In England," thought I to myself, "the patron of a blacksmith is whoever has last given him a pot of beer."

There are two sorts of water in the establishment, one from pumps, used for washing the harness and carriages, the other from the Seine; the latter, every four-and-twenty hours, is turned into large open tanks, to which the horses are led to drink three times a day, it being a rule that no one is allowed to approach it until he has been in the stable two hours after his work.

On entering the infirmary I found a veterinary surgeon, with a pair of very long yellow mustachios, with his coat off, and with a sort of apron round his body, busily employed in drenching a sick horse with an enormous quantity of warm bran tea, his assistent being quite as vigorously occupied with the animal elsewhere. The poor thing's head was tied to a ring in the wall, and a noose having been passed round his upper jaw, it was, by a third assistant, hauled upwards towards another ring, inserted at a great height, by which means the doctor was enabled with perfect ease to pour wholesale down his throat the smoking draft; in fact, there was no resisting the double treatment to which he was simultaneously subjected; and as I could evidently do no more than earnestly hope it

might cure him of whatever were his afflictions, I walked away, and was conducted by my obliging attendant to an immense magazine, five stories high, in which, piled on each floor, four or five feet high, I found a stock of black, sweet, but light chaffy oats, sufficient to keep the whole establishment for more than a year; indeed, the building was so ingeniously and so admirably ventilated, that I was assured, with common precautions, corn could be kept in it for ten years. At some distance from this building was, also under cover, a very abundant supply of hay, tied up in bundles, "bottes," ready for use.

It is under the treatment I have described that the omnibus horses of the west end of Paris serve the public. The establishment reflects great credit upon the community in general, and upon M. Denault and M. Moreau in particular. By their unceasing care the horse's life is a wholesome, healthy, and happy mixture of enjoyment and work; indeed, sweet, clean, and comfortable as are their stables, their harness is so easy and loose, the Paris air is so fresh, everything is so gay, there is so much for them to look at, and, apparently, wherever they go, and especially wherever they stop, there are such innumerable subjects all apparently of such vast importance--for them to neigh about, that I really believe they are, if possible, happier in the streets than at home. It is true they do not go as fast as the omnibus horses of London, and that at Paris a man is considered to estimate time at somewhat more than its real value who, to purchase a few minutes, would inflict pain and suffering upon a race of animals, especially created for his happiness and enjoyment. But, without checking fast driving in England, it is surely the duty of the public, if they determine to enjoy it, to obtain, by dint of a few moments' reflection, sweet air, pure water, and kind attentions for those noble creatures whose superior physical strength it is alike their duty and their interest to foster rather than exhaust.

With this moral in my mind, I very gratefully thanked M. Denault for the obliging attention he had shown me, to which he replied by insisting on giving me an introduction to the manufacturer of the company's omnibus carriages, as also a note to the principal superintendent of the company's largest establishment of horses at the opposite or east side of