192 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [chap. ix. 



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 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 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 1 500 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 the herds 

 near Port Pleasant, they appeared from a long distance like black 

 spots, whilst south of Choiseul Sound they appeared like white 

 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 cattle 

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

 all probability ultimately prevail over the others, if the herds 

 were left undisturbed for the next several centuries. 



