482 FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



Falklands, their Spanish terms for all matters connected with 

 cattle and horses survive, and are in full use among the Scotch 

 shepherds. Such a maimed animal as above described is 

 accordingly called a " Chapina " (chapina, a woman's clog). 

 The band of horses, which is called the "Tropija," never 

 deserts the " Chapina." 



A man, after riding 30 or 40 miles and about to change 

 horses, merely takes the saddle off, gives the animal's back 

 a rub with his fingers to set the hair free where the 

 saddle-cloth pressed, and lets the horse go. The horse never 

 fails to return to its "tropija" and feeding-ground. We 

 changed horses several times on the route, since we were the 

 guests of the Company, and were treated most hospitably. 

 We always simply turned our tired horses loose, to find their 

 own way back for 20 miles or so. 



An experienced guide is required, in order to traverse the 

 Falkland Island wastes and find the Passes. To a stranger 

 every hill and mountain appears alike, and many persons have 

 lost their way and their lives on the moors. The most ex- 

 perienced "camp " men (Spanish campo) get lost sometimes, 

 especially when a thick fog comes on, and then they trust 

 entirely to their horses, which, when left to themselves, make 

 their way back to their accustomed feeding-ground. 



Mr. Fell, the head man of the Company at Darwin Harbour, 

 told me that a band of horses will always stay with a mare that 

 has a foal. Mr. Darwin has described a degeneration in the 

 size and strength of the horses which have run wild in the 

 Falkland Islands,* ascribing the degeneration to the action of 

 the climate on successive generations. Mr. Fell, and other 

 persons brought in constant relation with the horses, hold the 

 opinion that it is only the wild horses, occupying a particular 

 district in the neighbourhood of Port Stanley, which are small 

 and pony-like. 



Further, they believe that the reason why these particular 

 wild horses are small, is that they are sprung from a stock 

 originally inferior in size when imported. The wild horses 

 which are abundant in the large peninsula, known as Lafonia, 

 were said to be of full size and vigour, and to show no signs 

 of degeneration, and to be preferred for all purposes to those 

 bred in domestication. I saw several of these horses which 

 had been wild, and rode one. They were not at all undersized. 

 My guide rode a sturdy pony, which he said was one of the 

 smaller wild breed. I give these opinions merely as a sugges- 

 tion for further inquiry. 



* "Journal of Researches," p. 192. "Animals and Plants under Do- 

 mestication," Vol. I. 



