California route, they are and will be used as pack animals, and in a minor degree as beasts for the saddle, both for travellers and for the trappers of those wild solitudes; but this is the exception and not the rule.
Now, any person who has travelled on the continent of Europe, in those countries where mules are in use, especially Spain and Portugal—for the mules of Italy and Switzerland are of an inferior kind—cannot have failed to observe that it is the medium and even the small-sized mules, which are the most highly esteemed; that the great majority of the race do not exceed fourteen hands in height, so that one of fifteen is a rarity; and that those nearest to the standard first named, are most prized for their hardiness, while they consume far less provender, in proportion to the amount of labor which they are capable of performing, than the loftier animals of the same breed. In the United States, the ratio of value in the mule is exactly the reverse of the above in general estimation—the largest mules being the most highly prized; and, as a matter of course, all pains are taken to raise the standard, and to breed them of the greatest possible height. In this aim the breeders in the United States have been eminently successful,—if that can properly be called a success, the effect of which is to produce what one aims at producing, though in fact he had done better to produce something else. And it may be said that the average size of the mule of the United States is not inferior to that of the ordinary working horse, while that of many is vastly superior.
We have at present within our own knowledge many teams of working mules, employed in drawing iron from the New Jersey foundries and in carting coal and ore, which vary from sixteen to seventeen hands in height, while some exceed by half a hand the latter standard, which, it may be said, is never attained by any horse,
