CHAPTEE XI. 



FERAL HORSES OF AMERICA INDIANS AND GAUCHOS. 



HE multiplication of horses in America, 

 since their introduction by the Spanish 

 conquerors, has been prodigious. Innu- 

 merable herds, each consisting of many 

 thousand animals, roam over the plains 

 of both continents, from Patagonia to the south-wes- 

 tern prairies of North America ; and, notwithstanding 

 the warfare waged on them by man, by whom they 

 are slaughtered for their hides alone, their numbers 

 would increase to a pernicious excess, were it not for 

 the destruction caused among them by floods and 

 droughts. The supply of water often fails in the sul- 

 try plains, and then the horses, tortured to madness, 

 rush into the first marsh or pool they can find, tram- 

 pling each other to death. Rivers have been rendered 

 quite impassable by the stench of thousands that had 

 plunged into them to slake their thirst, and had been 



