And again: “The Norway horses are small of stature but wonderful strong and swift to pass over mountains and stony ways; but those of _Sweden_ and _Gothland_ will travel incessantly, and very swiftly with more meat, over Lakes and high Hills and deep Thickets. But those of Oeland, because they are small, are more for sight than service, though amongst them there are found of a different kind that are notable for labour. “Also the Finland horses are of good qualities.”[4] [Illustration: A SCANDINAVIAN ROCK-DRAWING.] The Scandinavian horses were not all alike in merit, for Gervase Markham says: “Next, then, I place the Sweathland horse who is a horse of little stature, lesser good shape, but least vertue; they are for the most part pied, with white legges and wall eyes; they want strength for the warres, and courage for journeying; so that I conclude they are better to look upon than imploy.”[5] These records, combined with the strong family resemblance between Norwegian ponies and certain types of Shetland pony, lead us to conjecture that there is either some extent of common ancestry in those two breeds or some cross, near or remote, of one with the other. It is probable that the Scandinavian invaders, whose literature and mythology[6] as well as their place-names display a deep interest in horses, may have brought horses with them to Orkney and Shetland. With this common element, however, we also find a real difference. While some Shetland ponies of the present-day closely resemble the Norwegian, there are others which belong to a wholly different type—ponies whose characteristics can only be described by the general term of “Oriental,” long-shouldered, fine-boned, small in head, and with an unmistakable Arab outlook. Such a type as this does not occur in the Scandinavian breeds; and its existence proves clearly the presence in the Shetland pony of some ancestral element not found in the Scandinavian horse. This is all the more clearly shown by the fact that the Shetland ponies of this Oriental type do not form pure continuous or separate strains within the breed, but crop out here and there, sometimes the parents, and sometimes the progeny, of ponies apparently purely Scandinavian. They are evidently reversions to an ancestral type which has deeply influenced the breed as a whole and remains an ineradicable element in it. No facts are yet available to show whether these Shetland ponies of Oriental character could be so interbred as to produce a race breeding true to this type. The attempt has never been made; since the general tendency of recent breeders has been rather to neglect and eliminate this kind of pony. The existence of this strain in the Shetland pony is undeniable, however we may account for it; but, in attempting to explain it, we are almost entirely in the realm of conjecture. Two possible sources of an actual Oriental cross offer themselves for consideration.