THE WILD HORSE OF SOUTH AMERICA. 41 



Numerous herds of wild horses abound in the west of Louisiana, and of all 

 colours. They are, like those on the Pampas, the remains of the Spanish 

 horses, and are hunted, caught, and sometimes destroyed for food, by the 

 savage inhabitants of the back settlements. 



Mr. Low, in his beautiful delineations of the British quadrupeds, gives the 

 following account of the horses of North America : — 



" North America seems as well adapted to the temperament of the horse as 

 any similar countries in the old continent. The Mexican horses are derived 

 from, but somewhat deteriorated by, a less careful management. Mexican horses 

 have likewise escaped into the woods and savannahs, and although they have not 

 multiplied, as in the plains of the Plata, thence they have descended northward 

 to the Rocky Mountains, and the sources of the Columbia. The Indians of 

 the country have learned to pursue and capture them, employing them in hunt- 

 ing, and transporting their families 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 of the young Indian of these northern 

 tribes, is to possess a good horse for the chase of the buffalo. The Osages 

 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. To steal the horse of an adverse tribe, is considered as an exploit almost 

 as heroic as the killing of an enemy, and the distances that they will travel 

 and the privations they will undergo in these predatory excursions are scarcely 

 to be believed." 



The Anglo-Americans, the Canadians, and the colonists of the West India 

 Islands, have all acquired the domesticated horse. The Canadian is found 

 principally in Canada, and the northern states. He is supposed to be of French 

 descent, and many of the celebrated trotters are of this breed. Mention will 

 be made of some of these when the paces of the horse are described. 



These horses are much used for winter travelling in Canada, and in the 

 northern states. One of them has drawn a light cabriolet over the ice ninety 

 miles in twelve hours. Their shoes are roughened by the insertion of two or 

 three steel screws, instead of the common European method. The curry-comb 

 is never used upon them in the winter, for a thick fur has grown over them to 

 protect them from the inclemency of the season. They are animals never 

 refusing the collar, yet they are accustomed to bad usage. Those of the United 

 States are of every variety, but crossed by the modern English race, or the 

 Arab. The improvement of the horse, at this time, occupies much of their 

 attention. Horse-races are established in many places, and particularly in the 

 southern States; and they have adopted, to a very considerable degree, the 

 usages of the English turf. They have different varieties of useful horses for 

 riding, and for their public and private carriages. Habit, arising from some 

 cause or whim now not known, has made them partial to the trotting- horse ; 

 and the fastest trotting-horses in the world are to be found in the United 

 States. The breeds of the West India Islands are those of the parent states. 

 The horses of Cuba are derived from Spain, and retain the distinctive charac- 

 ters of the parent stock ; and those of the English colonies have been improved 

 by continued intercourse with the mother country. 



A much-valued correspondent, Mr. Rotch, of Louisville, in the State of New 

 York, thus addresses the author : — " From my own personal experience, I 

 should say that all our stock in America seems to possess a harder constitution 

 and are much less liable to disease than in England ; and that animals, but a few 

 generations removed from those actually imported, acquire much stronger con- 

 stitutions than their ancestors, and it, has been a question with me, and acceded 

 to by the late Rev. H. Berry, whether importations of sone of our pure-bred 



