82 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the zoological observations which they published on 

 their return. The feral descendants of the wild 

 horses which the French had in 1864-67 liberated on 

 the islands multiplied rapidly — rough dun-coloured 

 brutes, which if required for breaking-in had to be 

 pursued and lassoed like veritable beasts of the 

 chase. In 1834 there were said to be at least 

 4,000 of them, besides some 1 2,000 cattle. From 

 the mainland there came Gauchos, Spanish rough 

 riders, who hunted the wild horses and cattle. They 

 settled on the Falklands ; the advent of these men 

 heralded the beginning of the end of the Antarctic 

 wolf. 



Had the wolves limited their depredations to attacks 

 on the penguins whose skins littered the mouths of 

 their burrows, to the wild geese, the sea fowl, and 

 the seals, perhaps the colonists might have spared 

 them; there was no lack of food, for the sea-birds 

 swarmed in such numbers that as late as 1821 eight 

 men in about five days collected over 60,000 eggs ! 

 But the insatiable curiosity which had in earlier times 

 alarmed the crew of the " Dolphin " now prompted 

 them to steal meat from the Gauchos. Numbers 

 were killed in retaliation, for with a strange supine- 

 ness unlooked for in beasts so nearly related to foxes 

 the wolves allowed themselves to be approached 

 and stabbed in open daylight. In 1836 they had 

 already become extinct in the eastern portion of 

 East Falkland. Facile decensus Averni; from this 



