40 HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS 



after but three days' rest started out on the road again, 

 a good horse, rather hard gaited, but with spirit and endur- 

 ance. We borrowed a sulky, hitched him in and spent 

 the day driving from farm to farm to see other horses. 

 At night we had a team, "Betsey" and "Pet, " each weigh- 

 ing about 1050. They had been badly handled and had 

 a reputation for balking, but under Stein's hand soon got 

 over that and proved he had a good eye in picking them. 

 Then we picked up a pony called "Paddy," twelve years 

 of age, but experienced in all sorts of work and tricks. 

 Next morning we added "Blackie" as a saddle horse for 

 Turner. They all turned out sound and good; $55 was 

 the highest price we paid for any horse, and Paddy cost 

 but $25. These were typical prices for good horses, though 

 they can be bought for even lower prices, down to $5 a 

 head, which was the value put on the unbroken native 

 mares, used for breeding purposes. These are usually 

 bought in bunches and kept back in the mountain country 

 where there is good grass for feed. 



Many of the Welsh colonists, besides their farm, had a 

 league (nine square miles) of land back in the Cordilleras, 

 which had been given as pay to each man who served in the 

 Indian campaigns some twenty years before. At present, 

 now that the Republic aspires to be counted as one of 

 the military powers, all the young men when they attain 

 the age of twenty, must serve one year in the army or two 

 in the navy, the class of service being determined by lot. 



Our saddles were still astray, so we bought a couple of 

 the old Boer War army saddles, some hundreds of which 

 at the end of the war, the English Government had sold 

 to the cooperative stores, and which were retailed at about 

 $10 each. They made us very serviceable saddles though 

 jnot so easy for long continued riding as are our western 

 cow saddles. 



Wednesday was a holiday, but the Justice of the Peace 

 kindly made out our bills of sale for us. All through 



