148 THE WILD HORSE. 



may be entertained respecting the real source of the 

 wild horses roaming from the Ukraine, in Europe, 

 eastwards to the northern extremity of Chinese 

 Tahtary : those about the Don, it is asserted, are 

 sprung from domesticated animals sent to grass 

 during the siege of Azof in 1696,* which could 

 not again be entirely recaptured. Forster was dis- 

 posed to consider all the wild horses in Asia de- 

 scendants from strayed animals belonging to the 

 inhabitants ; and Pallas, who had likewise travelled 

 in Asiatic Russia, inclined to the same conclusions. 

 He thought the horses from the Volga to the Oural 

 the progeny of domestic animals; and again, that 

 all from the Jaik" and Don, and in Bokhara, were of 

 the Kalmuck and Kirguise breed, remarking, that 

 they are mostly fulvous, rufous, and Isabella ; while, 

 on the Volga, he noticed them as usually brown, 

 dark brown, and silver-grey, some having white 

 legs and other signs of intermixture. Undoubtedly 

 men of science, so well trained to observation as 

 both these learned naturalists, carry with their opi- 

 nions a weight of authority which is evinced by 



the shoulders, more slender and weak behind, with a large 

 head, short thick paws, and very long claws, spreading wide ; 

 the skin almost bare, excepting on the hind legs, where the 

 hair was very long, and therefore called a kind of bear : it was 

 slow, but killed women and children, unless they escaped on 

 rocks, trees, or in the water, and then swam fast and far : the 

 last was killed in an attempt to climb a rock where the hunters 

 were posted. See " Legends of the North American Indians." 

 Many of these characters will apply to a giant armadillo. 

 * Or, as in other authorities, 1 657. 



