Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/198

I70 passing continuously from toe to heel—in having four nail-holes on one side and three on the other, and showing also a toe-piece with six marks proceeding from it (fig. 28). The Roman camp on Mount Terrible has also furnished a number, which are in the private museum of M. Quiquerez. M. Bieler thus sums up the general characteristics of the shoes he has examined: 'The shoes of the Roman epoch have usually six holes (étampures), and very rarely the largest have eight. These rectangular holes are generally distributed along a groove analogous to that of the Enlish shoes, and without interruption at the toe; but the holes are much larger than the grooves, and cause bulgings on the external border. The ajusture (fitting to the shape of the foot's surface) is null, or nearly so. Lastly, the heels are rolled over in some shoes, others have rude calkins, and some have also a crampon, or toe-piece. With regard to the nails, they differ essentially from our own, and are more of the Arab form. The head is flat, about half a line in thickness; its shape is nearly semicircular, and it is from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter; the shank or body (lame) is square and rather strong. When the head has been worn to the surface of the shoe, the part buried in the cavity of the aperture is in outline like a T.'

From the excellent memoir on the horse-shoes found