and the cost of the mares that were brought from England. The English company charged the colony six pounds each for the horses sent from there, and ten pounds freight. I have labored assiduously to get at such data as would afford a safe basis upon which to determine the size and other qualities of these Dutch horses. They were larger than the English horses of that period and they were more muscular, with greater weight of bone. They were, doubtless, better adapted to the various offices of the “general purpose” horse than their English contemporaries, in every respect, except the saddle. There is no distinctive evidence that they were pacers or could go any of the saddle gaits, in their own right. It is probably safe to conclude that the original importations would not average more than fourteen and a half hands high, and very likely the exact truth, if it could be reached, would place them below that figure rather than above it. The process of reducing the size commenced as soon as they arrived: for the English horses had saddle qualities which the Dutch did not possess, and everybody wanted a saddle horse. Still the Dutch blood was highly prized, and a hundred and fifty years afterward it was no uncommon thing, especially in the valley of the Connecticut, to meet with the advertisements of stallions seeking patronage on the strength of “Dutch blood.” This, for a time, was a puzzle to me, but as we consider the horse interests of the region of the Hudson and the Mohawk Valley extending eastward and that of eastern Massachusetts extending westward along with the current of emigration, it is not difficult to understand how the blood of the Dutch horse should have become so generally diffused. On the one hand we had the much-desired saddle qualities, and on the other we had the much-desired increase of size without deterioration in appearance. Thus owners were accommodated and the horse stock of the country was improved by the interbreeding of the two nationalities. It is not necessary to further particularize different importations. It is sufficient to say that they were very numerous, and the multiplying of the stock was carried forward with vigor and success. Five years later—1640—the colonists not only had all the horses they needed, but they shipped a cargo of eighty head to Barbadoes. From the colony of Massachusetts Bay all the plantations of New England secured their foundation stock of horses, hence they are here considered collectively.