Cematjr; 



WILD HORSES. 



" He looked as though the speed of thought 

 Were in his limhs ; but he was wild, 

 Wild as the deer, and untaught, 

 With spur and bridle undefiled. 

 With flowing tail, and flying mane. 

 Wide nostrils — never stretched by pain, 

 Mouth bloodless to the bit or rein; 

 And feet that iron never shod. 

 And flanks unscarred by spur or rod; 

 A thousand horse, the wild, the free, 

 Like waves that follow o'er the sea." 



T is very doubtful whether at the present 

 day any true descendants of an original 

 wild stock of horses exist. 



Dr. Gray observes that the wild horse, 

 as depicted by Gmelin, very much resem- 

 bles the ponies left at liberty on the 

 commons of Cornwall, and on the moun- 

 tains of Scotland, and are rather domestic 

 animals which have become deteriorated. 



The wild horses of America, although 

 they retain their size and form, and have not deteriorated, 

 are the descendants of the domestic horses taken to America 

 by the Spaniards. 



Hordes were first landed at Buenos Ay res m 1537, and 

 that Colony having been for a time deserted, the horses 

 were allowed to run wild. In 1580, forty-three years after- 

 wards, they were found wild at the Straits of Magellan. In 

 the Pampos they abound, but these are not descendants of 

 horses that had never been subjugated to man. 



