CHAPTER III. 



HABITS OF OUTDOOR HORSES. 



I. THE RANGE. 



The North American range of the run-wild 

 herds enlarges northward out of Mexico and 

 covers the region between the Mississippi and 

 the Pacific Ocean up to the edge of the North- 

 ern Forest in Canada. This gives an area of 

 three milhon square miles, a range much the 

 same size as Europe, the United States, Aus- 

 tralia, Brazil, or Canada. The eastern half is 

 a prairie, the western a desert shaped like a 

 swell of the sea about eight thousand feet high 

 at the top, and laced all over with a skein of 

 mountain ranges thrown like fisherman's net 

 and broken all to pieces. Moreover, the 

 southern or higher half of this desert is cleft 

 to the roots by sheer abysmal chasms known 

 as the Canons. 



It has been my good fortune to ride from the 

 edge of the Canadian forest along the general 

 line of the Rocky Mountains to a place just 



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