FALKLAND ISLANDS. [CHAP. ix. 



attachment which horses have to any locality to which they are 

 accustomed. Considering that the island does not appear fully 

 stocked, and that there are no beasts of prey, I was particularly 

 curious to know what has checked their originally rapid increase. 

 That in a limited island some check would sooner or later supervene, 

 is inevitable ; but why has the increase of the horse been checked 

 sooner than that of the cattle ? Capt. Sulivan has taken much 

 pains for me in this inquiry. The Gauchos employed here attribute 

 it chiefly to the stallions constantly roaming from place to place, 

 and compelling the rnares to accompany them, whether or not the 

 young foals are able to follow. One Gaucho told Capt. Sulivan that 

 he had watched a stallion for a whole hour, violently kicking and 

 biting a mare till he forced her to leave her foal to its fate. Capt. 

 Sulivan can so far corroborate this curious accoiint, that he has 

 several times found young foals dead, whereas he has never found 

 a dead calf. Moreover, the dead bodies of full-grown horses are 

 more frequently found, as if more subject to disease or accidents, 

 than those of the cattle. From the softness of the ground their 

 hoofs often grow irregularly to a great length, and this causes ' 

 lameness. The predominant colours are roan and iron-grey. All 

 the horses bred here, both tame and wild, are rather small-sized, 

 though generally in good condition ; and they have lost so much 

 strength, that they are 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 increased in size ; and they are much 

 more numerous 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 remarkable circumstance, that in different parts 

 of this one small island, different colours predominate. Bound 

 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 common in other parts of the island. Near Port 

 Pleasant dark brown prevails, whereas south of Choiseul Sound 

 (which almost divides the island into two parts), white beasts with 

 black heads and feet are the most common : in all parts black, and 



