When The Colony Was For A Time
Deserted These Horses Were Suffered To Run Wild.
Those animals so
multiplied and spread over such a vast area that they were found,
forty-three years later, even down to the Straits of Magellan, a
distance of eleven hundred miles.
With good pasture and a limitless
expanse to roam over, they soon turned from the dozens to thousands,
and may now be counted by millions. The Patagonian "foot" Indians
quickly turned into "horse" Indians, for on those wide prairie lands
a man without a horse is almost comparable to a man without legs. In
former years, thousands of wild horses roamed over these extensive
plains, but the struggle of mankind in the battle of life turned
men's attention to them, and they were captured and branded by
whomsoever had the power and cared to take the trouble. In the more
isolated districts, there may still be found numbers which are born
and die without ever feeling the touch of saddle or bridle. Far away
from the crowded busses and perpetually moving hansoms of the city,
they feel not the driver's whip nor the strain of the wagon, as, with
tail trailing on the ground and head erect, they gallop in freedom of
life. Happy they!
In all directions on the prairie ostriches are found. The natives
catch them with boliadoras, an old Indian weapon, which is simply
three round stones, incased in bags of hide, tied together by twisted
ropes, also of hide. When the hunters have, by galloping from
different directions, baffled the bird in his flight, they thunder
down upon him, and, throwing the boliadoras round his legs, where
they entangle, effectually stop his flight. I have seen this weapon
thrown a distance of about eighty yards.
The ostrich is a bird with wonderful digestive powers, which I often
have envied him; he eats grass or pebbles, insects or bones, as suits
his varying fancy. If you drop your knife or any other article, he
will stop to examine it, being most inquisitive, and, if possible, he
will swallow it. The flesh of the ostrich is dry and tough, and its
feathers are not to be compared in beauty with those of the African
specimen. Generally a very harmless bird, he is truly formidable
during breeding time. If one of the eggs is so much as touched he
will break the whole number to shivers. Woe to the man whom he
savagely attacks at such times; one kick of his great foot, with its
sharp claws, is sufficient to open the body of man or horse. The
Gaucho uses the skin from the neck of this bird as a tobacco pouch,
and the eggs are considered a great delicacy. One is equal to about
sixteen hen's eggs.
As all creation has its enemy, the ostrich finds his in the iguana,
or lizard - an unsightly, scaly, long-tailed species of land
crocodile. This animal, when full-grown, attains the length of five
feet, and is of a dark green color.
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