“That is my opinion, too, in spite of the reputation for stupidity that it has acquired, I don’t know why. The donkey walks, trots, and gallops like the horse, but all its movements are within a smaller compass and much slower. Although it can start out at a brisk enough pace, it cannot cover great distances or continue on the road for a long time. Whatever gait it takes, if the animal is urged to go faster it is soon exhausted. It is especially suited to mountainous countries. Its small, hard hoofs enable it to follow stony paths with the greatest ease; its prudent gait and firm and circumspect step give it access to rough places and the steepest slopes.
“The donkey is very robust. In proportion to its size it is perhaps of all animals the one that can carry the heaviest load, but as its body is small the [[382]]burden placed on it ought not to exceed moderate limits. What a useful servant would one not have in an animal having the qualities of the donkey and the vigorous development of the horse! Such a creature does not exist in the natural order, but man has obtained it by the intervention of his art.
“The species of the horse and that of the ass are unmistakably distinct from each other and never cross in the wild state. Nevertheless, since they are very nearly related, as their close resemblance in form proves, cross-breeding between them is possible with careful management. From this unnatural union comes the mule, of which the father is the ass and the mother the mare. The mule then is not a separate species of animal having its own independent existence; it is not an ass nor a horse, but a bastard creature intermediate between the two. To its father, the ass, it owes its large head, long ears, narrow and hard hoofs, thick skin, rough coat, generally dark in color and sometimes ornamented with the two black stripes in the form of a cross on the back. To the ass it also owes its temperate habits, its tenacity in work, its robust constitution, and the sureness of foot so necessary in mountainous countries. From its mother, the mare, it gets its powerful equine frame, its quick gait, its freedom of limb. Its rude strength, moderation in supplying its animal wants, power of enduring the utmost fatigue, indifference to extreme heat, make it one of the most useful animals, especially in hot climates where there are long spells of drought.” [[383]]
THE ADIRONDACKS
By T. Morris Longstreth
This is a guide to New York State’s great natural park, the story of two jolly companions on a fascinating journey, and an informal history, told in the most engaging style, of the romantic region from the days when the Indians had possession of it down to to-day, when the State Commission is doing its splendid work for its preservation.
The ground covered by the author, who gives his facts while he tells the story of his own and a friend’s wanderings through the Adirondacks, covers a section of woodland wilderness larger than Connecticut, girdled and laced with over a thousand lakes, shouldered into the skies by hundreds of mountains. The forest is swarming with deer and the waters with fish. There are sections in the Adirondacks where one may go for miles without meeting another human being; and there are clubs and hotels offering all the luxuries of the most sophisticated city. Whatever the Adirondacks section is and has been the author manages to tell in his narrative.
There is, for instance, an account of the early settlement there of Napoleon’s brother, of the different tribes of Indians and their warfare, of Trudeau, Stevenson, Dewey, Warner, and others whose names are associated with the region, and of the present-day work of the State’s Conservation Commission. There is information as to how to travel, what to expect in various localities, as to roads, hotels, etc., etc.
32 full-page illustrations and maps