2i6 THE WILD PONIES OF SABLE ISLAND 



are a few ' duns/ blue greys and mouse colour on the island. At one 

 time there were some blacks, but this colour appears to have a 

 tendency everywhere, among feral breeds, to become scarce, and 

 finally disappears altogether. 



Summing up the lesson of this narrow page of natural history 

 we find that, following the laws of natural selection, the descendants 

 of a few individuals have returned to the type of the only stock 

 of wild horses known in the world ; that they have wonderfully 

 reproduced the ancient forms of whose general appearance we are 

 aware from antique sculptures of Nineveh and the friezes of the 

 Parthenon. In these freizes are found the luxuriant tail and mane 

 either close-cropped or tied, and plaited to prevent its encumbering 

 the rider, and one notices the hairy jowl and horizontal head, and 

 in some figures the short croup and low-set tail. In the immense 

 mane of the Sable Island pony (one is known to have measured three 

 yards) we are reminded of the breed of the Ukraine, a stuffed specimen 

 of which now in Dresden is said to carry a mane measuring the 

 incredible length of twenty-four feet. As all the ponies are under 

 thirteen hands, their usefulness is restricted. None seem to reach 

 the standard of the polo pony, which must be upwards of four- 

 teen hands. The price obtained at the auction sales in Halifax 

 in the past has been all the way from i up to 8 arid 10. The 

 nearest type is probably the familiar New Forester which Youatt 

 describes as 'hardy, safe and useful'. Some turn out extremely 

 serviceable animals, easily kept, with fair speed and great endurance, 

 especially under the saddle. As a rule when once broken and 

 well cared for they become affectionate and docile, with an occa- 

 sional display of their old free spirit, but without serious vice. 

 There always remains, however, an absolutely untamable minority. 



