ers of
the West: one with a strap about two feet long buckling around the fore
legs above the fetlock joints; the other is what they term the "_side
hopple_" which is made by buckling a strap around a front and rear
leg upon the same side. In both cases care should be taken not to
buckle the strap so tight as to chafe the legs. The latter plan is the
best, because the animal, side-hoppled, is able to go but little faster
than a walk, while the front hopple permits him, after a little
practice, to gallop off at considerable speed. If the hopples are made
of iron connected with chains, like handcuffs, with locks and keys, it
will be impossible for the Indians, without files, to cut them; but the
parts that come in contact with the legs should be covered with soft
leather.

"A horse," says Mr. Galton, "may be hoppled with a stirrup-leather by
placing the middle around one leg, then twisting it several times and
buckling it round the other leg. When you wish to picket horses in the
middle of a sandy plain, dig a hole two or three feet deep, and, tying
your rope to a fagot of sticks or brushwood, or even to a bag filled
with sand, bury this in it."

For prairie service, horses which have been raised exclusively upon
grass, and never been fed on grain, or "_range horses_," as they are
called in the West, are decidedly the best, and will perform more hard
labor than those that have been stabled and groomed. The large, stout
ponies found among some of our frontier settlements are well adapted to
this service, and endure admirably. The same remarks hold good in the
choice of mules; and it will be found that the square-built, big-bellied,
and short-legged Mexican mule will endure far more hard service, on
short allowance of forage, than the larger American mule which has been
accustomed to grain.

In our trip across the Rocky Mountains we had both the American and
Mexican mules, and improved a good opportunity of giving their relative
powers of endurance a thorough service-trial. For many days they were
reduced to a meagre allowance of dry grass, and at length got nothing
but pine leaves, while their work in the deep snow was exceedingly
severe. This soon told upon the American mules, and all of them, with
the exception of two, died, while most of the Mexican mules went
through. The result was perfectly conclusive.

We found that, where the snow was not more than two feet deep, the
animals soon learned to paw it away and get