THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 207 



seem, as before remarked, to have increased in size; and 

 they are much more numerous than the horses. Capt. Suli- 

 van 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 re- 

 markable circumstance, that in different parts of this one 

 small island, different colours predominate. Round 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 some spotted animals may 

 be observed. Capt. Sulivan remarks, that the difference in 

 the prevailing colours was so obvious, that in looking for 

 the herds near Port Pleasant, they appeared from a long 

 distance like black spots, whilst south of Choiseul Sound 

 they appeared like white spots on the hill-sides. Capt. Suli- 

 van thinks that the herds do not mingle ; and it is a singular 

 fact, that the mouse-coloured cattle, though living on the 

 high land, calve about a month earlier in the season than 

 the other coloured beasts on the lower land. It is inter- 

 esting thus to find the once domesticated cattle breaking 

 into three colours, of which some one colour would in all 

 probability ultimately prevail over the others, if the herds 

 were left undisturbed for the next several centuries. 



The rabbit is another animal which has been introduced, 

 and has succeeded very well ; so that they abound over large 

 parts of the island. Yet, like the horses, they are confined 

 within certain limits; for they have not crossed the central 

 chain of hills, nor would they have extended even so far as 

 its base, if, as the Gauchos informed me, small colonies had 

 not been carried there. I should not have supposed that 

 these animals, natives of northern Africa, could have existed 

 in a climate so humid as this, and which enjoys so little 

 sunshine that even wheat ripens only occasionally. It is 

 asserted that in Sweden, which any one would have thought 

 a more favourable climate, the rabbit cannot live out of 

 doors. The first few pairs, moreover, had here to contend 



