850 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



even mention the places where they are to he found. Herodotus 

 takes notice of white savage horses in Scythia ; Aristotle says 

 they were to be found in Syria ; Pliny, in the northern regions ; 

 and Strabo, in Spain and the Alps. Among the moderns, Cardan 

 says, that wild horses are to be found in the tlighlancls of Scotland 

 and the Orkney Isles ; Olaus, in Muscovy ; Dapper, in the island 

 of Cyprus ; Leo and Marmol, in Arabia and Africa, &c. But as 

 Europe is almost all inhabited, wild horses are not to be met with 

 in any part of it ; and those of America were originally transported 

 from Europe by the Spaniards ; for this species of animal did not 

 exist in the new world. The Spaniards carried over a great 

 number of horses, left them in different islands, &c. with a view 

 to propagate that useful animal in their colonies. These have 

 multiplied incredibly in the vast deserts of those thinly peopled 

 countries, where they roam at large without any restraint. M. 

 de Salle relates, that he saw in the year 1635, horses feeding in 

 the meadows of North America near the bay of St. Louis, which 

 were so ferocious that nobody durst come near them. Oexmelin 

 says, that he has seen large troops of them in St. Domingo run- 

 ning in the valleys ; that when any person approached they all 

 stopped ; and one of them would advance till within a certain dis- 

 tance, then snort and take to his heels, and the whole troop after him. 

 These relations sufficiently prove, that the horse, when at ful. 

 liberty, though not a fierce or dangerous animal, has no inclination 

 to associate with mankind ; that all the softness and ductility of his 

 temper proceeds entirely from the culture and polish he receives 

 in his domestic education, which in some measure commences as 

 soon as he is brought forth. 



The wild horse is hunted in North and South America and 

 taken for the purpose of being domesticated ; and this, notwith- 

 standing his natural wildness, is easily accomplished. The favo- 

 rite mode of hunting him is with the lasso, which is a long leather 

 or raw-hide thong with a noose at the end. This the mounted 

 hunter swings round his head and then throws over the head 01 

 round the legs of the horse. The inhabitants of Buenos Ayrea 

 and Mexico are particularly expert at this exercise. 



