IMPOSSIBILITIES. 135 



281. — Then having overtaken him, how does he throw the 

 lasso over the hind legs of a galloping horse, unless the liorse 

 could gallop on his back and throw his legs upwards ? Then 

 having thrown the lasso on the hind legs of a galloping horse, 

 how does he persuade it to stop on them, whilst he tightens the 

 noose, and puts himself in exactly the right position to throw 

 him so artistically ? Then how does he persuade him to stay with 

 his head on the ground until he gets up to him with the poncho ? 

 and how does he put the bridle on a head completely covered up ? 

 And why does he perform all these miracles, when a lasso, thrown 

 round the horse's neck, would choke him down more gently, 

 and keep him there till hol)bled ? And how can any man get the 

 girths round a horse lying on the ground ? 



290.— Surely every writer on the horse ought to have seen 

 at once that the whole story was a pure fabrication, and one 

 calculated to convey a very false impression in favour of successful 

 brutality. We could more easily and much more harmlessly 

 believe Lady Barker's description of boar hunting in ISTew 

 Zealand, where she figures as a David on horseback without a 

 sling, and the thick skulled wild boar as a soft headed Goliath, 

 which prudently omitted to bring a sword for his own 

 decapitation. 



291. — It is quite true that the horses of South America, as 

 those of every other country where horses are excessively cheap, 

 are hastily and badly broken, and brutally treated ; and, until 

 exhausted with hard work, are proportionately uncertain and unsafe 

 to ride ; but they do not move best for spurs as big as a turnstile, 

 nor for whi])S that "horribly mangle their sides." Some of the 

 Gauchos become skilful with the lasso, so that when the wild 

 horses are driven to a corral they can do without a pole what the 

 Australians do with one, but they perform no miracles, and cannot 

 set aside the ordinary laws of motion and gravitation. We know 

 of nothing either in the humanity, the expedition, the economy, or 

 the success of their proceedings that make them worthy of 

 imitation. 



AUSTRALIA. 



292. — Australia is a vast island or continent, where the 



