SPANISH CATTLE. 19 



and the rapid increase of these animals in South America, 

 is also worthy to be noted. For when the Spaniards first 

 landed on the Plate River, (about 1515) the horse did not 

 then exist in South America; yet the recent discovery 

 of the bones of an ancient fossil horse proves that in 

 remote times horses had existed there, but from some 

 cause, not now apparent, became extinct, until re- 

 introduced by the Spaniards. It is to them therefore that 

 the honour of stocking the New World with both horses 

 and cattle, is justly due: the horse of the pampas, 

 which thus far has not been much changed by the 

 admixture of foreign blood, still retains all the character- 

 istics of its Spanish origin, and remains to all intents 

 and purposes a "Spanish Barb/ 



Then, on the bovine side, the wild cattle of Texas, 

 both in appearance and disposition, still exhibit strong 

 traces of their Iberian extraction, as indeed the whole 

 of the native cattle may be said to do, throughout 

 La Plata and other parts of South America, and also 

 in Mexico. Texas, California, etc., where they have 

 not yet been graded by the admixture of short-horn blood. 



On the other hand, the far-famed Buffalo of the 

 North American prairies is now practically extinct in 

 its wild state, and must henceforth be struck off the 

 game list of the prairie country. In the chapter on 

 great herds of game however, details will be found, 

 giving an idea of the vast numbers in which this 

 splendid animal used, within quite recent years, to 

 roam over the then supposed boundless Western Wilds. 

 For we have the high authority of Colonel Dodge, 

 U.S.A., for asserting that, up to " 1871-2 there was appa- 

 rently no limit to the number of buffalo." * 



* Our Wild Indians, by Col. R. J. Dodge, U.S.A., 1882, p. 294. 



