“ Figures of railway trains and other objects sometimes take the place of horses. In recent years there has been a tendency to supplant the petits chevaux at French resorts by the boule or ball game, on the same principle of gambling, in this a ball is rolled on a basin-shaped table so that it may eventually settle in one of a number of shallow cups, each marked with a figure. ”

“ The bystanders having staked their money according to their choice on a board marked in divisions for this purpose, the horses are started revolving rapidly together by means of mechanism attached to the board, and the horse which stops nearest a marked goal wins, every player who has staked on that horse receiving so many times his stake. ”