WILD HORSES. 2f)l 



on which the fossil horses were found have been rather in a circle. 

 It has constantly been assumed that the occurrence of remains of 

 horses implies vegetation and climate resembling those of the 

 Steppes or, again, that wide grassy plains imply suitability for 

 horses. As a matter of fact, we know that horses thrive in a 

 remarkable variety of climates and on many soils, but a tendency to 

 dryness with heat is favourable, heat with moisture and an alluvial 

 soil are conditions unfavourable in the extreme, and indeed often 

 suffice to produce extermination. When one comes to think of it 

 and to compare America and Australia with South Africa, the 

 question naturally arises, why have not horses gone wild in the 

 latter place, where many must have escaped, just as in Australia 

 and America ? If we may judge from the presence of the zebra, 

 quagga, and Burchell's zebra, the climate and soil is everything 

 that could be required for the production of a wild race in South 

 Africa, and yet one has not appeared ! It seems to me that 

 this is the result of one of two causes or, perhaps, of a combination 

 of each. The South African territory was originally occupied, 

 indeed fully populated, by equines before importation of the horse, 

 and the latter has had to contend with that terrible enemy, the 

 Horse Sickness, not to mention animals of prey and such small but 

 serious foes as the Tsetze fly. Youatt seems to have had a suspicion 

 that wild horses were found at the Cape. He had probably heard 

 the Dutchmen and other travellers talking of the Wilde Paarde, 

 the Boer name for the zebra. He says : "At the Cape of Good Hope 

 we find that the horse, if a native of th^t country, is only occasion- 

 ally seen in its wild state. * * * The wild have long disappeared 

 from the colony, and we have no authentic record that any of them 

 were even taken and attempted to be domesticated.'' This was 

 written about fifty year* ago. Darwin noted some curious facts 

 about the non-spread of horses in the Falkland Islands to the 

 degree that might have been anticipated. Firstly, he attributes 

 some influence to the fact that the hoofs, on account of softness of 

 the soil, become overgrown, and so limit progression ; secondly, the 

 stallions insist ou the mares accompanying them often before the 

 recently born foal is able to move sufficiently fast. Wherever 

 the horse runs wild, there seems to be what we may fairly consi- 

 der as a recurrence to ancestral manners. Each stallion has his 

 following of mares ranging from a few up to forty or even fifty, 

 and these parties may be separate or banded together into 

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