Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-03-30

bear you anywhere and everywhere, not
merely so long as there is a well-worn
track, but also where the path has
crumbled almost entirely away
and slipped down int a gorge
some distance below. Az! he
will Chamber securely around the shelving
edge of projecting crag. where the
shoes Of his ancestors in q thousand ears
have left essentially no trace. You
learn to trust him at last, and with en-
tire confidence in his powers and pru-
denee, plunge unhesitatingly into the
swiftest, broadcast, and deepest stream,
or follow the widest, DIGEST, mountain
path.
When you reach an unknown river
milky with the earth-dust and ioe-pow-
deEof the glaciers, and there is no one
near TO point out the ford, you will send
the free horses ahead to discover the
passage and follow your leader A
| disaster may overtake you similar to that
which not rarely occurs in kindred sport
nearer home. But do not believe the
winter ducking ever does q hearty lad
any lasting injury. and where the water
is shallow, what delight there is in
| tempting the bending ice? Nor will the
momentary and partial immersion in
| shallow Icelandio stream have any more
! serious consequences.
When the time of the hay harvest
comes the ponies leave the stubble-fields
in long file, each tied to the tail of the
one in front, and supporting a weight
Of $50 to 200 pounds of hay. Across the
| river they go, unEelieYed of their bur-
dens, and halt finally at the barn-door.
| There the farmer counts his horses and
! estimates therefrom his crop.
| II you are chatting with him,
| after q cup of coffee he will,
| perhaps, tell you that his tun,
| or home-feld, proonces hay for so many
horses, giving the number. He means
| so many horse-loads. l remember my
ACCOMPLISHMENTS when, looking forth
over narrow and marshy home-fleld in
| the South of Iceland, was told that it
| produced hay for 100 horses. cone
hundred horses!'' exclaimed. 'fWhy!
a horse certainly must consume one ton
Of hay at least in the winter.
Between the bales of hay is snug
resting place, and the little farmers
lad or lass is often seen nesting there,
as the file slowly tolls up the ascent from
the river, or plods across fields home
ward
When darker presence than the sum-
mer g sun, that warns the cold, damp
earth into bounteous giving, has entered
the farmers home and closed the eyes of
some member of the family ere the
mourners leave the house for the distant
church with its environing graveyard,
the coffin is fastened upon the back OF
the pony, and in this manner the pony 5
master is bone to his last resting place.
The Icelandic lady usually employs a
side saddle. 1t is q kind of stuffed chair
placed sidewise upon the horse with sup
ports for the back and feet; but not
rarely the good peasant dame. despising
effeminacy and likewise jolting discom-
fort, prefers the more natural, the mas
culine attitude, and lowers not 81 whit
thereby her womRnly dignity and de-
corum.
As might be expected the ordinary
pony is very ordinary as regards swift
ness and grace of notion He is faith
full, but not fiery. But there are little
fellows that remind one of the broncos
of the West. well recall q ride from
AkTeyri southwark q few miles, in the
company of two Ioelspdio friends.
Madam b. had a squarely built,
spirited little gray horse which
she jestingly invited me to mount We
had left the town well behind, forded q
river, and an open plain stretched be-
fore US with good, broad meadow path.
Wearied by the struggles. Of my pony,
who was tossing his head up and down
and fretting against the rein, 1 let him
take his own pace. I thought for time
should never be able to check
his headlong career, but that he
would pass all rivers, deserts,
and mountains until he reached the
North Atlantic. When at last, arm
weary, l held him under control, nv
60 haa
considerable augmented. Willingly 1
yielded him to his fair mistress as soon as
ever manly pride would admit, and
listened credulously to the tale Of his
proves.
Be it known that former master, on
his way out of Akreyri, came once to
narrow bridge. A horse and rider stand
ing tranveIselV barred the way. With
one gallant bound the little gray rose in
air and showed his iron shod hoOfs TO the
astonished traveller beneath. Such
horse as this commands price ranging
from 100 to $50 crowns, and even more
(S42 to 500. But a very good riding
horse can be purchased for 100 crowns,
(S27), while pack horses are worth from
40 crowns SID down.
We are back in Reykjavik again. It
is a clear, crisp August morning. The
summer IS already WaulHSs duu the uSdE
hills are putting on their snow-caps.
There is hustle and CHATTER at the west
end of the village street, just beyond the
windmill. From around the corner.o of
the one road that leads everywhere out
of the capital comes drove OF bright
eyed ponies of all colors, roam
predominating All are apparently
in the best Of spirits. Down the hill they
rush, jostling against each other, most
of them bearing their neighbours
elbowing'' with perfect good hrmor,
only now and then spiteful, snarling
face, turned backwards or sideways.
Perhaps even that is a jest. The drovers
direct them toward the wharf. There
is a large fiat bottomed boat waiting,
and out in the harbor a steamer at an
Choir, with a derrick and suspension
ropes. A dozen OF more ponies
are driven on board the boat, and the
rowers bend in unison TO the almost
bladeless oars. Arrived beneath the ship,
the derrick ropes descend, a broad belt Is
fastened under the g1rth Of trembling
country pony, and he is soon dancing IN
mid-air. Thence to the narrow coop be-
tween decks, and thence, alas to the
mines of England, to exchange the sun,
the wind and the storms, the rare and