SOUTH AFRICAN HORSES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 744, 24 December 1859, Page 4

SOUTH AFRICAN HORSES.

Loll a Lilo m London ' contains extracts of an admirable letter on Capo horses, written by Colonel Apperloy. and addressed to Major Hope. The letter was transmitted with official dispatches from the Capo of Good Hope.

"We recommend it to the .consideration of our headers, as it contains ad vice calculated to be of importance to horsebreeders in tins country. Captain Apperley purchased in the Capo for'the Indian army : his authority therefore is undeniable. When we consider that seven to ten thousand horses are bought yearly for the Indian market, and shipped from the Cape and Australia, it becomes a matter of pecuniary interest to the whole colony that we should study the requirements of that market, to which we must eventually look. We quote the principal points of his letter. First are his opinions of Cape horses generally :— " \ou very justly observe that Capo horses are peculiar animals ; but I beg to differ with you when you assert their points of excellence are not those laid down in books. I admit they are not handsome, but they surpass any horses I have ever seen out of Europe in the following points ; and I will commence with the fact of their untiring and unflinching endurance through the longest and hottest days of the year. Their journeys are always calculated by the farmers, not by the number of miles they can travel, but the number of hours of daylight: If you ask a farmer how far he is going, he replied eight or ten hours, which journey will average nearly seven miles an hour, the only refreshments being art' occasional drink of water and a, roll in the sand, which is supposed to make Cape horses quite fresh again. This is no overdrawn character of the animal, and I mention it first, as I consider good bottom the great quality in horse flesh. The Cape colonists can never sufficiently "express their gratitude to the late Lord Charles Somerset, and the present Mr. T. B. Bayley. It is to the valuable English blood imported by these gentlemen that the Cape horses date their excellence, and the farmer dates his prosperity. He now trots his produce to market behind eight well-bred horses, instead of the old slow and cumbrous span of eighteen pair of oxen. Good legs and feet, plenty of bone below the knee, depth of chest, with well-placed shoulders, great substance and broad hips, sound wind and eyes, with generally good action and temper, form the remaining good points possessed by the Cape horse to an extent hardly known elsewhere; to which may be added wonderful soundness of constitution, in proof of which I may mention, amongst all the horses I have examined, I have only seen one whose feet had suffered from fever, although hundreds, in regular work had never been shod in their lives; even Cape race-horses generally run barefooted on the very worst of race-courses. It may be argued that leaving the hoofs in a state of I nature, unbound by iron, produces this general soimdness, but that will not hold good at Cape Town, where some df the shoeing-smiths are the worst I ever beheld, and I see horses travel sound on shoes, that would astonish an English farrier. Blindness and broken wind are almost unknown in the colony. At first I. was led to suppose that the almost-total absence of inflammatory diseases arose from the spare diet on which Cape horses are reared and kept; but such is not the case, I have purchased hundreds of horses in very bad condition, and it being essential that they should, as far as possible, reach India fit for immediate work., I forced them (in crowded stables) with as much corn as they could eat, and being unable to procure the required quantity of bran for the voyage, have been obliged to feed highly on corn and oat hay (which is one third grain) at sea. Under this treatment the casualties have been very few; only three dead horses have been dragged out of fhe remount stables, and the mortality at sea only 2 per cent, out of the 10 crowded ships that have already reached India." And then come extracts from his recommendations to Cape horse breeders for the improvement of their stocks:—"l-have a' very high opinion of the present Cape horses, particularly with reference to their fitness for the ranks of the Indian army; but there is much for the breeders to consider with reference, to the parent stock, and I strongly deprecate; the use of Arab stallions. I have rejected great numbers of horses said to be half Arabs, that were too slight and weedy for any army purpose. * £ # * : circumstance connected with the success of any remount agency that may ever be established at the Cape of Good Hope is the miserable condition the farmers keep their horses in during many months of the year. No remount agent is justified in buying a single horse if he is not in proper condition for immediate shipment. Although I have done so, consequent upon the urgency of the present demand, I shall never do so again. This is the great drawback to the success of horse-dealing in this country. An old and true English saying is,' the value of a horse goes down his throat;' hence the superiority of the English horse over any other. If the Cape farmers could be induced to feed their stock liberally, their horses would be much larger and stronger, aud their returns certain. lam obliged, at this moment, to ' suspend operations, because all the horses in the country are out of condition, and as thin as hurdles. I trust, as immigration increases, more acres may fall under the plough. If each farmer sowed an acre of oats over and above what is intended for sale, for each horse he had to dispose of, it would ensure good condition at a very trifling cost all the year round and enable the remount agent to give him-a liberal price for his colt, when required for immediate shipment, which is rendered impossible if the expenses of a depot for a couple of months are to be thrown unon the horses before they can be shipped. * * * Jf the Cape gentlemen will accept my humble advice, I hope they will continue to breed from as much good English blood and bone as their money will procure, and cross their mares that have Aral) blood with the best description of Norfolk trotting or Cleveland stallions procurable. No other cross will restore size and substance from that description of mare until the Arab blood becomes absorbed in many successive generations. ■ By paying a little more attention to the feeding of their horse stock generally, the breeders will find a ready market, and remuneration unsurpassed by any other speculation that this colony is capable of."

The Australian Snake Hunter.—lfc was announced that Mr. Undprwood, who some months ago electrified Melbourne by his astonishing property in resisting the poison of the most deadly snakes, would exibit some newly caught ones, at the "Victoria hotel, and experimentalise with them on dogs and on himself. He obtained the loan of a brown and tiger snake from Dr. Hutchinson, who had kept them in a glass case, perforated at the sides for nearly three weeks. Their snakeships were sent to the Victoria in the courseof the afternoon, the -doctor retaining the key in his own possession, in order that the slightest attempt at tampering with them might be foiled, if such was intended. They were both fine specimens, measuring about five feet long, and the parties who caught them were present during the exhibition. A large number of persons inspected them during the afternoon. Shortly after,eight o'clock at night Mr. Underwood prepared for his interesting experiments. Dr. Hutchinson and Dr. Stuart were present, and were requested by Mr. Underwood to take particular notice of his movements. He first manipulated a tiger snake belonging to himself, put its head into his mouth, twisted and twirled it about in all manner of shapes and forms, and eventually put it in his .cap and placed it wider the table. We may mention that two fine healthy dogs were given for the experiments to be tried upon, and that Dr. Hutchinson, previous to enlarging the reptiles, made Underwood's promise not to allow them to bite him on Saturday night, which ■ t TTnderwood consented to. He then took the key oi'%%> glass case in which the new snakes were,

and having opened it, took out the brown snake and handled it as fearlessly as ho had done his own, and concluded by tying it round his nook. Ho then took out tho tiger snako and treated it similarly. He then returned them to tho ertse, and again displayed his own snake. Ho afterwards took the brown one out again, and gave it some water to drink, after which he put it boldly into his mouth, and kept it thoro some time: on taking, it out he took up the tiger snako, and having given it somo water, was in the act of manipulating it in order to got its head in his mouth, when it unexpectedly made v dart at him and seized his left cheek, the upper fangs having penetrated tho hollow of the cheek, and tho lower ones, that portion just over the lower jawbone. The> snap of tho bite was distinctly heard and tho dart of the reptile was as quick as lightning. Underwood immediately exclaimed, "That's a bite," and, folding tho snakes np, deliberately put them into the case, and, locking it, handed the key to Dr. Hutchinson. As some persons seemed to doubt the fact of his being the genuine Underwood who exhibited some months ago in Melbourne, he recognised Mr. P. Deehan on the stage, to whom he had given a portion of his invention, and asking him for the bottle which Mr. Deehan had with him, he applied some to the wound about two minutes after he received the bite. By tins time the blood was flowing profusely from it, and trickling down his neck. In about a minute he complained of his heart, and on observing bis eyes, they bore the appearance of two balls of fire, and shortly afterwards became insensible to light. The bite was a most fearful one, the punctures being plain and distinct. Previously to vomiting, the wound began to swell. On awaking yesterday niorning, the swelling had increased, and about 11 o'clock the neck began to swell, and a report was prevalent in town to the effect that he was dying. On proceeding, about half-past eight o'clock last night, to the Eagle Restaurant, Mundy-street, where he is at present residing, our reporter found that all danger was over, the swelling had nearly subsided, and the fatal twenty-four hours were over. He was particularly cheerful and chatty, and we are happy to announce will be ready to-day to go through what he promised on Saturday night. The question has arisen here as to whether this is the Charles Underwood.; many who have seen them both say he is not, and others as strongly aver that he is.— Bendigo Mercury.