IV] THE ORIGIN OF THE LIBYAN HORSE 429 



persecute the wild droves and drive them away from their 

 neighbourhood to prevent the domesticated horses from joining 

 the wild ones. " Men on horseback drive the baguals before 

 them until they are tired ; when fresh men and fresh horses 

 continue the chase, press upon and urge them on both sides, 

 killing vast quantities of them with chuzos or spears, without 

 ceasing to gallop or slackening their pace." The same observer 1 

 points out that "all horses run swifter when mounted than 

 when galloping loose, especially if ridden without a saddle." 

 North America offers very valuable instances of a similar kind. 

 Dr Richardson 2 states that "herds of wild horses, the off- 

 spring of those which have escaped from the Spanish possessions 

 in Mexico, are not uncommon on the extensive prairies that lie 

 to the west of the Mississippi. They were once numerous on 

 the Kootannie Lands, near the northern sources of the Columbia, 

 on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountain ridge, but of late 

 years they have almost been eradicated in that quarter. They 

 are not known to exist in a wild state to the northward of the 

 fifty-second or fifty-third parallel of latitude. The young 

 stallions live in separate herds, being driven away by the old 

 ones, and are easily snared by using domestic mares as a decoy. 

 The Kootannies are acquainted with the Spanish-American 

 mode of taking them with the lasso." 



Major Long 3 says that the Osages hunted the wild horses, 

 which are exceedingly fleet. " They go in large parties to the 

 country of the Red Canadian River, where they are to be found 

 in considerable numbers. When they discover a gang of the 

 horses they distribute themselves into three parties, two of 

 which take their stations at different and proper distances on 

 the route, which by previous experience they know the horses 

 will most probably take when endeavouring to escape. This 

 arrangement being completed, the first party commences the 

 pursuit in the direction of their colleagues, at whose position 

 they at length arrive. The second party then continues the 



1 Azara, op. cit. p. 29. 



2 Fauna Boreali- Americana: or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British 

 America (1829), pp. 231-2. 



3 Fauna Boreali-Americana, pp. 232-3. 



