cult to realise that, in the oldest civilised empire in
existence, there are, outside the treaty-ports, not only no
macadamised roads, but not even roads that could possibly be compared
with our most out-of-the-way and most ill-kept country lanes, and that
consequently there are neither carriages nor dogcarts, but only
springless tumbrils, which, covered with a wain, discharge the
functions of the celestial cab, and plough through deep mud with their
massive wheels, or jolt over stone causeways to the intense discomfort
of luckless occupants.

[Illustration: THE CAB OF NORTHERN CHINA.
_To face page 75._]

There being then practically neither roads nor carriages, the demand
for draught horses is very small, while for riding purposes Chinamen
prefer either the taller and more dignified mule or the ambling pony.

This latter has a rolling, pacing gait which enables the horseman to
sit quietly in his high wooden saddle without any necessity of rising
in the stirrups. He possesses great speed and endurance, and wealthy
Chinese will give as much as four or five hundred taels for a good
one. With his rider leaning well back and pulling hard at the reins
the animal tears along at fifteen or sixteen miles an hour, but when
the reins are loosened he immediately slackens and pulls up. They are
a common sight in the neighbourhood of Peking, where ambling contests
frequently take place outside the city wall. In these contests each
pony in turn is ridden at full speed past the judges, who proclaim the
winner on his general merits and not with exclusive reference to pace.

For agricultural work the horse is not employed. In wheeling barrows
coolies perform the work of beasts of burthen. As pack-animals camels,
mules and donkeys have the preference, so that although the "noble
animal" is to be met with almost everywhere, he is not considered
indispensable as in Western lands. He is unhonoured, ill cared for and
very cheap.

There may be several breeds in China, although personally I have seen
but four, of which a small, well-shaped pony from Turkestan; a large,
stringy horse from Ili; and a weedy, cowhocked pony from Szechuan
deserve here no more than passing notice, for they are seldom seen in
the Eastern provinces, where alone the Mongolian, or, as it is
commonly called, the "China pony," is found in considerable numbers.

This China pony, with which Europeans in the Far East are so well
acquainted, is a native of the Mo