It Is A Curious Fact, That The Horses Have Never
Left The Eastern End Of The Island, Although There Is No Natural
Boundary To Prevent Them From Roaming, And That Part
Of The Island Is Not More Tempting Than The Rest.
The Gauchos
whom I asked, though asserting this to be the case,
were unable to account for it, except from the strong attachment
which horses have to any locality to which they are
accustomed.
Considering that the island does not appear
fully stocked, and that there are no beasts of prey, I was
particularly curious to know what has checked their originally
rapid increase. That in a limited island some check
would sooner or later supervene, is inevitable; but why had
the increase of the horse been checked sooner than that of
the cattle? Capt. Sulivan has taken much pains for me
in this inquiry. The Gauchos employed here attribute it
chiefly to the stallions constantly roaming from place to
place, and compelling the mares to accompany them, whether
or not the young foals are able to follow. One Gaucho told
Capt. Sulivan that he had watched a stallion for a whole
hour, violently kicking and biting a mare till he forced
her to leave her foal to its fate. Capt. Sulivan can so far
corroborate this curious account, that he has several times
found young foals dead, whereas he has never found a dead
calf. Moreover, the dead bodies of full-grown horses are
more frequently found, as if more subject to disease or
accidents, than those of the cattle. From the softness of
the ground their hoofs often grow irregularly to a great
length, and this causes lameness. The predominant colours
are roan and iron-grey. All the horses bred here, both tame
and wild, are rather small-sized, though generally in good
condition; and they have lost so much strength, that they
are unfit to be used in taking wild cattle with the lazo: in
consequence, it is necessary to go to the great expense of
importing fresh horses from the Plata. At some future
period the southern hemisphere probably will have its breed
of Falkland ponies, as the northern has its Shetland breed.
The cattle, instead of having degenerated like the horses
seem, as before remarked, to have increased in size; and
they are much more numerous than the horses. Capt. Sulivan
informs me that they vary much less in the general
form of their bodies and in the shape of their horns than
English cattle. In colour they differ much; and it is a
remarkable circumstance, that in different parts of this one
small island, different colours predominate. Round Mount
Usborne, at a height of from 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea,
about half of some of the herds are mouse or lead-coloured,
a tint which is not common in other parts of the island.
Near Port Pleasant dark brown prevails, whereas south of
Choiseul Sound (which almost divides the island into two
parts), white beasts with black heads and feet are the most
common:
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