THE WILD HORSE. 149 



subsequent writers, who, not satisfied with acquies- 

 cence in these conjectures, have actually pronounced 

 them to be settled conclusions. Yet, knowing from 

 personal experience, how little a traveller can see 

 and determine by his immediate single observation, 

 even in favourable regions, and taking into consi- 

 deration the jealous character of the authorities, his 

 confined condition in a sleigh or Russian travelling 



o o 



carriage, where he must pass over great distances in 

 haste in order to reach a secure asylum, be constantly 

 in the hands of the post officers, among a scanty po- 

 pulation, strangers to the language of government, 

 and still more to his own (the German) ; where, 

 with rare exceptions, all are exceedingly ignorant 

 and indifferent, and the climate three-fourths of the 

 year prohibiting going abroad, we question whether 

 under snch circumstances, opinions expressed with 

 doubt should be adopted as conclusive. Now, if 

 we examine the extent of the travellers' own imme- 

 diate means of judgment, we find that they have 

 occasionally seen troops of wild Equidas at a dis- 

 tance, and been enabled to give one drawing of a 

 living colt recently captured, besides two or three 

 more species from living specimens or stuffed skins : 

 surely a sweeping conclusion upon such scanty data 

 may be convenient, but is scarcely deserving of ac- 

 quiescence ; particularly when we take into account, 

 that, including the collected opinions of those upon 

 the spot, in themselves of only conditional value, the 

 field of observation explored is scarcely a hundredth 

 part of the surface whereon this zoological problem 



