502 THE HOUSE. 



of the Columbia, in the 52d or 53d parallel of latitude. The 

 Indians of the country have learned to pursue and capture 

 them, employing them in hunting and transporting their fami- 

 lies from place to place ; the first great change that has taken 

 place for ages in the condition of the Red Man of the North 

 American woods. The highest ambition, we are told, of the 

 young Indian of these northern tribes is to possess a good 

 horse for the chase of the buffalo. The Ossages form large 

 hunting parties for the chase of horses in the country of the 

 Red Canadian River, using relays of fresh horses, until they 

 have run down the wild herds. The horses in these parts 

 are yet more precious in the estimation of the Indians, than 

 in the countries of the South, where they have multiplied 

 more. To steal the horse of an adverse tribe, Dr Richardson 

 informs us, is considered by the people as an exploit nearly 

 as heroic as the killing of an enemy ; and the distances they 

 will travel, and the privations they will undergo, in these 

 predatory excursions, are scarcely to be believed. So pre- 

 cious do they hold this new gift, that, in some cases, an In- 

 dian who owns a horse will scarcely continue to sleep after 

 nightfall, but will sit at the opening of his hut, with the 

 halter in one hand, and his gun in the other, the horse's legs 

 at the same time being tied with thongs of leather. Not- 

 withstanding of all his care, it sometimes happens that the 

 wearied hunter, suffering himself to be overcome by sleep 

 for a few minutes, is awakened by the noise of the thief gal- 

 loping off with his plunder. 



The Anglo-Americans, the Canadians, and the European 

 Colonists of the West India Islands, have all acquired the 

 domesticated horse. The horses of Canada, chiefly of French 

 lineage, are coarse and small, but hardy, muscular, and use- 

 ful. Those of the United States are of every variety, de- 

 rived originally from England, but crossed by the modern 

 English racer, and even by the horses of Syria and Arabia. 

 From this cause, and the great variety and extent of these 

 countries, the inhabitants of the States have a very mixed 



