THE MUSTANG, OR WILD HORSE. 471 



But the point I wish particularly to direct the attention 

 of our breeders to. is the importance of crossing the inares 

 upon our big-boned American stock. A great many facts 

 have come under my observation which would prove this to 

 be an exceedingly interesting field of inquiry. The experi- 

 ment has already been tried upon the western frontier of 

 Texas, and it is perfectly astonishing what a splendid animal 

 is produced by the cross of even a very coarse American 

 stud, so he has size, upon these high-blooded and fiery little 

 mares. A single cross makes the best saddle horse, take 

 him altogether, I have ever met with, and we have some 

 pretty passible hacks in Kentucky ! It could hardly well be 

 otherwise, when we look at the pure descent of these mares ! 



Yet apart from these considerations of utility, if a herd 

 of buffalo be the grandest and most formidable of our prairie 

 sights, certainly a drove of mustangs must be accounted the 

 most magnificently beautiful. No imagination can compass 

 the exceeding grace and airy freedom of the arched and 

 silken-tossing chaos, as it sways to and fro, glistening in 

 beamy mail beneath the sun, while sportively unconscious of 

 observation. How grandly they plunge, curvette and wrestle, 

 wheel like trained columns, charge, scatter and form again 

 in the swift change of magic convolutions, shifting like cloud 

 Bhadows eddied on an April breeze along the grass, as swift, 

 if not as fleeting ! 



So they appear from the distance, at which they can alone 

 be viewed, as in our sketch. Sometimes I have come upon 

 them suddenly amidst the motts of timber ; when the mo- 

 mentary, but nearer view, would disclose the mottled variety 

 of their coats to which I have referred ; but most usually 

 they are seen in swift battalions, scurrying across the plains, 

 and stopping for a moment, on the last undulation, for a 

 parting look at the intruder, cluster with flying hair against 

 the sky, and are gone ! 



