In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the color of mules.  I will, in closing, make a few more remarks on that subject, which may interest the reader.  We have now at work three dun-colored mules, that were transferred to the Army of the Potomac in 1862, and that went through all the campaigns of that army, and were transferred back to us in June, 1865.  They had been steadily at work, and yet were in good condition, hardy, and bright, when they were turned in.  These mules have a black stripe across their shoulders, down their backs, and are what is called “dark-colored duns.”  We also have the only full team that has gone through all the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac.  It was fitted up at Annapolis, Md., in September, 1861, under Captain Santelle, A.Q.M.  They are now in fine condition, and equal to any thing we have in the corral.  The leaders are very fine animals.  They are fourteen hands high, one weighing eight hundred, and the other eight hundred and forty-five pounds.  One of the middle leaders weighs nine hundred, the other nine hundred and forty-seven pounds, and fourteen hands and a half high.

CHAPTER IV.  DISEASES MULES ARE LIABLE TO.—­WHAT HE CAN DRAW, ETC., ETC.

The committee also say that the mule is a more steady animal in his draft than the horse.  I think this the greatest mistake the committee has made.  You have only to observe the manner in which a dray or heavily-loaded wagon will toss a mule about, and the way he will toss himself around on the road, to be satisfied that the committee have formed an erroneous opinion on that point.  In starting with a load, the mule, in many cases, works with his feet as if they were set on a pivot, and hence does not take so firm a hold of the ground as the horse does.  I have never yet seen a mule in a dray or cart that could keep it from jolting him round.  In the first place, he has not the power to steady a dray; and, in the second place, they never can be taught to do it.  In fine, they have not the formation to handle a dray or cart.  What, then, becomes of the idea that they are as steady in drays or teams as the horse.

The committee also say that mules are not subject to such ailments as horses—­spavin, glanders, ringbone, and bots.  If I had the committee here, I would show its members that every other mule in the quartermasters’ department, over fifteen and a half hands high, is either spavined, ringboned, or ill some way injured by the above-named diseases.  The mule may not be so liable to spavin as the horse, but he has ringbone just the same.  I cannot, for the life of me, see how the committee could have fallen into this error.  There is this, however, to be taken into consideration:  the mule is not of so sensitive a nature as the horse, and will bear pain without showing it in lameness.  The close observer, however, can easily detect it.  One reason why they do not show spavin and ringbone so much at