M. Roulin on Domeatic Animals. 329 



New Spain. This was in the sixty-fifth year after the taking of 

 Mexico, previous to which event, the Spaniards who came into 

 that country, had not been able to engage in any thing else than 



war. 



So long as the cattle were in small number, and grouped 

 around the dwellings, they thrived equally well in all places ; 

 but, when they had multiplied, it was perceived that, in certain 

 places, they could not dispense with the assistance of man. 

 This 'arose from the circumstance, that a certain quantity of 

 salt in their food was absolutely necessary for them; and, if 

 they did not find it in the plants, the waters, or in certain soils 

 of a saltish taste, common in many parts of America, they re- 

 quired to be supplied with it directly, failing which they be- 

 came lean, many of the females died, and the herd quickly pe- 

 rished. 



Even in places where cattle can exist without this assistance, 

 it is found advantageous for large herds to distribute salt to the 

 animals at fixed intervals. It is a means of drawing them to- 

 wards the place where they have customarily been visited ; and 

 their avidity for salt is such, that after it has been given them two 

 or three times in the same place, they are seen running to it 

 the moment they hear the horn which the herdsmen blow, 

 beating the bushes at the same time. 



If it be neglected to bring the herd together from time to 

 time, and the country supply the quantity of salt necessary for 

 their existence, they become entirely wild in a few years. Such 

 an occurrence has happened, to my own knowledge, in two 

 places ; the one in the province of San Martin, on a tract be- 

 longing to the Jesuits, when these people were expelled ; the 

 other in the province of Mariguita, at Parama de Santa Isabel, 

 after the abandonment of certain gold mines. In the latter 

 place, the animals have not remained in the places where they 

 had been stationed, but have ascended into the Cordillera in 

 search of the region of graminea?, and live in a nearly constant 

 temperature of from 48° to 50° Fahr. The peasants of the villa- 

 ges of Mendez, Piedras, &c. situated in the plain, sometimes go 

 out to hunt them ; they catch them by means of nooses, driving 

 the small herds into the places where the snares are laid for 

 them. 



