prevents the rider from being thrown forward.
The tree is covered with raw hide, put on green, and sewed; when this
dries and contracts it gives it great strength. It has no iron in its
composition, but is kept together by buckskin strings, and can easily
be taken to pieces for mending or cleaning. It has a hair girth about
five inches wide.

The whole saddle is covered with a large and thick sheet of
sole-leather, having a hole to lay over the pommel; it extends back
over the horse's hips, and protects them from rain, and when taken off
in camp it furnishes a good security against dampness when placed under
the traveler's bed.

The California saddle-tree is regarded by many as the best of all
others for the horse's back, and as having an easier seat than the
Mexican.

General Comte de la Roche-Aymon, in his treatise upon "Light Troops,"
published in Paris in 1856, says:

"In nearly all the European armies the equipment of the horse is not in
harmony with the new tactics--with those tactics in which, during
nearly all of a campaign, the cavalry remains in bivouac. Have we
reflected upon the kind of saddle which, under these circumstances,
would cover the horse best without incommoding him during the short
periods that he is permitted to repose? Have we reflected upon the kind
of saddle which, offering the least fragility, exposes the horse to the
least danger of sore back? All the cuirassiers and the dragoons of
Europe have saddles which they call _French saddle_, the weight of
which is a load for the horse. The interior mechanism of these saddles
is complicated and filled with weak bands of iron, which become
deranged, bend, and sometimes break; the rider does not perceive these
accidents, or he does not wish to perceive them, for fear of being left
behind or of having to go on foot; he continues on, and at the end of a
day's march his horse has a sore back, and in a few days is absolutely
unserviceable. We may satisfy ourselves of the truth of these
observations by comparing the lists of horses sent to the rear during
the course of a campaign by the cuirassiers and dragoons who use the
French saddle, and by the hussars with the Hungarian saddle. The number
sent to the rear by the latter is infinitely less, although employed in
a service much more active and severe; and it might be still less by
making some slight improvements in the manner of fixing their saddle
upon the horse.

"It is a long time since Marsha