WILD CATTLE. 247 



unfit to be used in taking wild cattle with the lazo : 

 in consequence, it is necessary to go to the great 

 expense of importing fresh horses from the Plata. 

 At some future period the southern hemisphere 

 probably will have its breed of Falkland ponies, 

 as the northern has its Shetland breed. 



The cattle, instead of having degenerated like 

 the horses, seem, as before remarked, to have in- 

 creased in size ; and they are much more numer- 

 ous than the horses. Capt. Sulivan informs me 

 that they vary much less in the general form of 

 their bodies and in the shape of their horns than 

 English cattle. In colour they differ much ; and 

 it is a remai-kable circumstance, that in different 

 parts of this one small island different colours pre- 

 dominate. Round Mount Usborne, at a height of 

 from 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea, about half 

 of some of the herds are mouse or lead-coloured, 

 a tint which is not cominon in other parts of the 

 island. Near Port Pleasant dark brown prevails, 

 whereas south of Choiseul Sound (which almost di- 

 vides the island into two parts) white beasts with 

 black heads and feet are the most common : in all 

 parts black and some spotted animals may be ob- 

 ser\'ed. Capt. Sulivan remarks, that the difference 

 in prevailing colours was so obvious, that, in look- 

 ing for the herds near Port Pleasant, they appear- 

 ed from a long distance like black spots, whilst 

 south of Choiseul Sound they appeared like white 

 spots on the hill-sides. Capt. Sulivan thinks that 

 the herds do not mingle ; and it is a singular fact 

 that the mouse-coloured cattle, though living on the 

 high land, calve about a month earlier in the sea- 

 son than the other coloured beasts on the lower 

 land. It is interesting thus to find the once domes- 

 ticated cattle breaking into three colours, of which 

 some one colour would in all probability ultimate- 



