. Roosevelt's African trip; the story of his life, the voyage from New York to Mombasa, and the route through the heart of Africa, including the big game and other ferocious animals, strange peoples and countries found in the course of his travels . , travels over manydifferent kinds of ground, some of whch are sprinkled with sharpflints, and others with piercing thorns, and, if his feet were not fur-nished with some hard and strong covering, the poor animal wouldcertainly be lamed before very long. Many people think that the hoof is only a solid mass of horn; but,it is not so at all. Besides
. Roosevelt's African trip; the story of his life, the voyage from New York to Mombasa, and the route through the heart of Africa, including the big game and other ferocious animals, strange peoples and countries found in the course of his travels . , travels over manydifferent kinds of ground, some of whch are sprinkled with sharpflints, and others with piercing thorns, and, if his feet were not fur-nished with some hard and strong covering, the poor animal wouldcertainly be lamed before very long. Many people think that the hoof is only a solid mass of horn; but,it is not so at all. Besides possessing all the elastic springs, it is soformed that it is equally useful for standing and running alike upon THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS 177 hard and soft ground, for traveling over rocks and stones, and forclimbing steep ascents, over which it would seem impossible that suchan animal as the horse could ever pass. If you could examine a horsewhich had never been touched by the shoer or blacksmith, you wouldlind that there is not only an outer ring of horn, but also an innercushion, called the frog, which rests upon the ground, and gives thefoot a wonderfully secure hold. A horse which has never been shod can gallop over ice and never. THE HORSE—AN ARAB STEED Noted for its beauty, strength, speed and its affection for its master slip, and can climb the side of a steep mountain which man himself canscarcely ascend. He can travel for scores of miles over the roughestand hardest ground, or can live in a soft and marshy district in whichhis feet sink deeply into the soil at almost every step. And yet,although they are in continual use, his hoofs will never wear out fasterthan they are renewed by nature; and, if we could examine them onthe day of the horses death, we should find that they were just assound and useful as when their owner was but just beginning life. 178 THE GREAT THICK-SKINNED ANIMALS There is really no need for horses to be shod at all. They wouldwork far b
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgameandgamebirds
