192 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [ CHAP. Ix. 
he has several times found young foals dead, whereas he has 
never found a dead calf. Moreover, the dead bodies of full- 
grown horses are more frequently found, as if more subject to 
disease or accidents, than those of the cattle. From the softness of 
the ground their hoofs often grow irregularly to a great length, 
and this causes lameness. The predominant colours are roan and 
iron-grey. All the horses bred here, both tame and wild, are 
rather small-sized, though generally in good condition ; and they 
have lost so much strength, that they are unfit to be used in taking 
wild cattle with the lazo: in consequence, it is necessary to go to 
the great expense of importing fresh horses from the Plata. At 
some future period the southern hemisphere probably will have its 
breed of Falkland ponies, as the northern has its Shetland breed. 
The cattle, instead of having degenerated like the horses, 
seem, as before remarked, to have increased in size; and they 
are much more numerous than the horses. Capt. Sulivan in- 
forms 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 remarkable 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. Sulivan 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 interesting thus to find the once domesticated cattlo 
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. 
