WILD SPECIES DYING 31 



ing the lower jaw sideways while he was 

 thinking, an unusual sweetness of character, 

 and most uncommon pluck, may have been 

 primitive traits. He trotted with my pack 

 a thousand miles, until in Utah I gave him to 

 a cowboy rather than take him on into the 

 desert ahead, where he might die of thirst. I 

 did not know in those days that he was a 

 desert horse who knew a deal more about 

 finding water than ever I shall learn. 



The horse became extinct in the Americas, 

 the Quagga in South Africa, the wild Bay in 

 Northern Africa. The numbers of the wild 

 asses and of the zebras are shrinking rapidly. 

 The wild Dun, or Tarpan, whose range was the 

 whole steppe of Russia and North Asia, is now 

 represented in three small districts of MongoUa 

 by the Prejevalski herds. So far, then, as wild 

 horses are concerned, the species is dying out. 



Among tame horses, to judge from what 

 one sees in the larger stables, there must be at 

 least one hundred Bays, Browns and Chestnuts 

 to every real Dun. All breeders select from 

 the Bay type as distinguished from the Dun, 

 whose only special value is in endurance. In 

 the run-wild or feral herds, however, the Duns 

 have a fair chance, and form a large proportion 

 of the stock. They are not only hardy but 



