value of that elusive method of illustration. Metaphor is a figure of speech or writing which consists in a transference of thought from one idea to another. It is, therefore, not a simple substitution of synonymous expressions, nor is it merely a simile. It is in hourly use in the speech and writing of common as well as highly educated persons, and adds much to the ease of communication among us of our thoughts upon subjects which rise somewhat above the level of mere statement of obvious facts. So long as metaphors are not abused by being used as arguments to prove some proposition, but only as illustrations of our meaning, we gain greatly by their legitimate use. It is not for nothing the well-drilled Press of Germany in their journals and its histrionic Emperor in his rhetorical outbursts, make extensive use of metaphors. We are everlastingly reading of Germany’s “biological necessity,” her “iron will to victory,” the “steel ring of field-grey heroes who guard her against a world of devils,” of her “brilliant second,” her “granite walls,” her “future on the water,” the “Admiral of the Atlantic,” “grasping the trident,” and so on in nearly every public utterance of her leaders. They know well their audience and employ these harmless, if often ridiculous, expressions with a definite and legitimate purpose, and are well qualified for creating the public opinion of a nation that dearly loves a phrase. [50] _Knowledge_, January, 1903. Well, this term, Animal Pedometers, is used here not for proving anything, but for the purpose of impressing on the mind of the reader the fact of certain patterns on the horse’s skin being intimately related to its locomotive life which, I hope I may assume, has been sufficiently demonstrated in this chapter. A pedometer is one of those works of men devised for his physical and mental advancement which are marked by a precision as well as purpose often absent from Nature’s handiwork. Just as a pedestrian, cyclist, or motorist carries with him his pedometer and tells you with some pride the number of miles he has “done” in a day or hour, so the horse displays _urbé et orbi_ his rougher registers of the locomotive triumphs of his ancestors and himself, and these I call Animal Pedometers by way of metaphor, and patterns by way of fact. The less striking and rarer patterns of the horse’s hair have been fully described elsewhere,[51] and it would serve no useful end to refer to them at length, nor to multiply proofs of the position here maintained. [51] _Direction of Hair in Animals and Man._ CHAPTER X. HABITS AND HAIR OF UNGULATES. Oxen.