on broken or stony ground; as well as assisted in retaining healing applications to the soles when these were injured. At any rate, there would be no difficulty in employing it; as a rider or driver, when apprehending injury to his horse or mule, could easily apply the solea, whether of broom, leather, or other materials; though he would always have to guard against the evil results incidental to the too prolonged use, or the constriction of the bands which bound it to the limb.
From such inquiries, and from the knowledge that a large portion of their stable management was devoted to making the horn of the foot tough, and the edges of the crust round and smooth, so as to obviate splitting and chipping, together with the known fact that no horses in any part of the world will bear severe and continuous labour without shoes,[1] we appear to be justified in con-
- ↑ Major Rickard, speaking of the district of San Juan, near the Cordillera, in Peru, describes it as very stony. ‘For such districts the mules ought to be shod, as otherwise they will soon become foot-sore, and consequently worthless. I mention this because it is not usual to shoe horses or mules in the ordinary transitable districts of South America; and I would strongly recommend the traveller to insist upon his own mule, at least, being shod, irrespective of place or distance.’—A Mining Journey Across the Great Andes, p. 144.
And Tschudi, describing the village of San Geronimo de Surco, in the valley of Lima, says that the horses are shod, and that shoeing must be extremely valuable, if we may judge from its price. ‘In this village there is an old Spaniard who keeps a tambo, and at the same time exercises the calling of a farrier. One of my horse's shoes being loose, I got him to fasten it on. For hammering in eight nails he made me pay half a gold ounce, and at first he demanded twelve dollars. Shortly after my arrival in the Sierra, I got myself initiated in the art of horse-shoeing, and constantly carried about with me a supply of horse-shoes and nails, a plan which I found was generally adopted by travellers in these parts. It is only in the larger Indian
