192 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [chap. ix. 



ne has several times found youn-j foals dead, whereas he lia-s 

 never found a dead calf. Moreover, the dead bodies of full- 

 grown horses are more frequently found, as if more subject to 

 di.sease or accidents, tlian those of tlie cattle. From tiie softness of 

 the ground their lioofs 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 necessarj- 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 Slietland breed. 

 Tiie 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 in- 

 forms 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 thev 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 : in all parts black, and some spotted animals may 

 be observed. Capt. Sulivan remarks, that the difference in the 

 prevailing colours was so obvious, that in looking for tlie herds 

 near Port Pleasant, they appeared from a longdistance like black 

 si)ots, whilst south of Choiseul Sound they appeared like v»hito 

 spots on the hill-sides. Capt. Sulivan thinks that the herds do 

 not mingle ; and it is a singular fact, that the mouse-coloured 

 cattle, though living on the high land, calve about a month 

 earlier in the season than the other coloured beasts on the lower 

 land. It is interesting thus to find the once domesticated cattlo 

 breaking into three colours, of which some one colour would in 

 ill probability ultimately prevail over the others, if the herds 

 were left undisturbed for the next several centuries. 



