Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/626

 bearing upon the ground, and this bearing is interrupted by portions of the margin being cut away, so as to leave a central toe-calk, and two smaller calks on either side.

The elevation of these calks is inconsiderable, and their general level is the same, so that they may be compared to a series of short claws on the under surface of the shoe (fig. 200). In the notches, or spaces between the calks, the nail-holes are bored and counter-sunk, so that the nail-heads are completely buried in the shoe. For frost, shoes are made in which the calks have no flat bearing, but are brought up to a feather-edge. The inner margin of the shoe is thin, so that its outline passes insensibly into that of the sole, and presents no projections by which stones or snow can be retained.' A reference to our notice of Cæsar Fiaschi's work, and the drawings of shoes which he gives, as well as the mention Blundevil makes of foreign shoes, will be sufficient evidence to prove that these groundsurface projections were in use in the 16th century, while the shoe on which they were formed differs but little, if at all, in principle from the one now under discussion. A reference also to Mr Goodwin's method of shoeing, which was in use before 1821—to Mr Mavor's and Colonel Fitzwygram's shoes,—will likewise demonstrate that there is nothing novel in the American shoe, so far as either the ground or foot surface is concerned. Several