CHAPTER XL 



Feral Horses of America Indians and Gauchos. 



THE multiplication of horses in America, since their 

 introduction by the Spanish conquerors, has been pro- 

 digious. Innumerable herds, each consisting of many 

 thousand animals, roam over the plains of both conti- 

 nents, from Patagonia to the south-western 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 sultry plains, and then 

 the horses, tortured to madness, rush into the first 

 marsh or pool they can find, trampling 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 drowned, being too 

 much exhausted to crawl up the muddy banks. The 

 beds of many streams in the Pampas are paved with a 

 breccia of bones thus deposited. The periodical 

 swellings of the rivers are no less fatal to them. The 



