276 THE MUSTANG. 



the others in intelligence, capable of bearing fatigue, 

 and possessed of great powers of enduring the fluctua- 

 tions from heat to cold peculiar to their habitat. 

 The Timber-Indian may be regarded as the highest 

 type of the red man, the Horse-Indian next, and 

 lowest those whose principal support is fish. 



The mustang, a pony in size, which is the horse of 

 the Western wilds, is descended from European pro- 

 genitors introduced into America at the period of 

 the Spanish invasion. They are occasionally used 

 by the Timber-Indians, possessed in herds by Horse- 

 Indians, and are almost unknown to the Fish-Indians. 

 But even among those possessed of steeds, that 

 type of the noble savage which schoolboys and the 

 uninitiated delight to gaze on, decked out with 

 gorgeous plumes and. handsome ornaments, so fre- 

 quently represented on tobacco-boxes, or in mammoth 

 figures outside the doors of dealers in the Nicotian 

 leaf, has never yet come under my observation. 



This night we had a more picturesque camp 

 than can possibly be imagined. It was on the 

 summit of an acclivity, with a beautiful stream 

 flowing around three sides of it. At sunset I 

 seated myself on a rock, perpendicular on all sides 

 except where it joined the bank, and from this perch 

 overlooked a long, placid pool, the surface of which 

 was incessantly disturbed by trout rising at the 

 ephemera that floated upon the surface of the 

 water. 



One fish that broke water several times almost 



