THE WILD HORSE. 161 



Buffon's information obtained from M. Sanchez, to 

 direct the questions to most of the points at issue. 

 From the answers of Russian officers of this irregu- 

 lar cavalry, who spoke French or German, we drew 

 the general conclusion of their decided belief in a 

 true wild and untameable species of horse, and in 

 herds that were of mixed origin. Those most at- 

 quainted with a nomad life, and in particular an 

 orderly Cossack attached to a Tahtar chief as Rus- 

 sian interpreter, furnished us with the substance of 

 the following notice. 



" The Tarpany form herds of several hundred, 

 subdivided into smaller troops, each headed by a 

 stallion; they are not found unmixed, excepting 

 towards the borders of China; they prefer wide, 

 open, elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines 

 or files, usually with the head to windward, moving 

 slowly forward while grazing,— the stallions leading 

 and occasionally going round their own troop; 

 young stallions are often at some distance, and 

 single, because they are expelled by the older until 

 they can form a troop of young mares of their own ; 

 their heads are seldom observed to be down for any 

 length of time ; they utter now and then a kind of 

 snort, with a low neigh, somewhat like a horse 

 expecting its oats, but yet distinguishable by the 

 voice from any domestic species, excepting the woolly 

 Kalmuck breed : they have a remarkably piercing- 

 sight; the point of a Cossack spear, at a great dis- 

 tance on the horizon, seen behind a bush, being 

 sufficient to make a whole troop halt ; but this is 



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