riage, kind and gentle in disposition. French Napoleon is one of the largest Canadian stallions in the United States. He was sired by Duke of Normandyimported by Captain Hallman, of Chester Springs, Chester county, Pennsylvania a horse which took the premium as a draught horse at the United States fair held in Philadelphia, the State fairs at Harrisburg, Norristown, Reading, &c. French Napoleon's dam was the fast travelling mare Byon Roan-owned by James B. McFarlan, of East Brandywine township, Chester county-she being sired by the far-famed Pilot Lyon horse, and he by the Pennsylvania Bellfounder. This horse, after a thorough examination by several of the most prominent and experienced horsemen, was pronounced the best horse in the country for the purpose of crossing with other breeds. This breed is not only noted for enormous bone and muscle, but also for kind disposition and quickness of action. THE HORSE-FROM PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN THE ARMY. BY COLONEL SAMUEL RINGWALT, OF DOWNINGTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA. ORIGIN AND USEFULNESS. THE attachment of the Arabs to the horse has led their prophets to invent a fabulous account of his creation, which poetically expresses their admiration of this useful animal. Abd-el-Kader, in reply to the inquiries of the French government about the Arabian horse, thus described this fanciful theory: "When God wished to create the horse, he said to the south wind, 'I wish to form a creature out of thee-be thou condensed! Afterward came the angel Gabriel, and took a handful of that matter and presented it to God, who formed of it a light brown or sorrel horse, saying: 'I have called thee Horse, I have created thee an Arab, and I have given thee the color Roummita, (red mixed with black;) I have bound fortune upon the mane which falls over thine eyes; thou shalt be the lord of all other animals; men shall follow thee whithersoever thou goest; good for the pursuit as for flight; thou shalt fly without wings; riches shall repose in thy loins, and wealth shall be made by thy intercession.'" Fossil remains have demonstrated to paleontologists that the horse existed, in the New as well as the Old World, before the flood. He traversed our soil as the contemporary of the mastodon; but while his race here became extinct, and he was unrepresented in the western continent at the time of its discovery by Columbus, in the Old World he was fortunately preserved. As he was specially designed for the use of man, he thrives best under man's protecting care, and renders incalculable service in meliorating the condition and promoting the interests of the human race. Barbarous tribes recognize his utility as readily as civilized nations, and he is even more indispensable to, and more highly prized by, the former than the latter. While the Indians of our plains have imbibed little or none of our culture, they learned to subdue the wild horses descended from the stock taken to Mexico by the Spaniards, and thus displayed the same ready appreciation shown by every people in ancient and modern times, and which has led to the diffusion of horses over nearly every habitable portion of the globe. THE HORSE IN WAR. The equine race furnishes the only animals generally useful alike in peace and war, and the horse is thus rendered an effective coadjutor in an infinite variety |