52 HORSES. 



Chap. II. 



species or natural races, these apparently have all become extinct 

 in the wild state. With our present knowledge, the common 

 view that all have descended from a single species is, perhaps, 

 the most probable. 



With respect to the causes of the modifications which horses 

 have undergone, the conditions of life seem to produce a con- 

 siderable direct effect. Mr. D. Forbes, who has had excellent 

 opportunities of comparing the horses of Spain with those of 

 South America, informs me that the horses of Chile, which 

 have lived under nearly the same conditions as their progenitors 

 in Andalusia, remain unaltered, whilst the Pampas horses and the 

 Puno ponies are considerably modified. There can be no doubt 

 that horses become greatly reduced in size and altered in appear- 

 ance by living on mountains and islands ; and this apparently is 

 clue to want of nutritious or varied food. Every one knows how 

 small and rugged the ponies are on the Northern islands and 

 on the mountains of Europe. Corsica and Sardinia have their 

 native ponies ; and there were, 17 or still are, on some islands on 

 the coast of Virginia, ponies like those of the Shetland Islands, 

 which are believed to have originated through exposure to 

 unfavourable conditions. The Puno ponies, which inhabit the 

 lofty regions of the Cordillera, are, as I hear from Mr. D. 

 Forbes, strange little creatures, very unlike their Spanish pro- 

 genitors. Further south, in the Falkland Islands, the offspring 

 of the horses imported in 1764 have already so much de- 

 teriorated in size 18 and strength that they are unfitted for 

 catching wild cattle with the lasso ; so that fresh horses have to 

 be brought for this purpose from La Plata at a great expense. 

 The reduced size of the horses bred on both southern and 

 northern islands, and on several mountain-chains, can hardly 

 have been caused by the cold, as a similar reduction has 

 occurred on the Virginian and Mediterranean islands. The 

 horse can withstand intense cold, for wild troops live on the 

 plains of Siberia under lat. 56°, 19 and aboriginally the horse must 



*7 « Transact. Maryland Academy,' of Researches.' 

 vol. i. part i. p. 28. 19 Pallas, ' Act. Acad. St. Peters- 



18 Mr. Mackinnon on ' The Falkland burgh,' 1777, part ii. p. 265. With 



Islands,' p. 25. The average height of respect to the tarpans scraping away 



the Falkland horses is said to be 14 the snow, see Col. Hamilton Smith in 



hands 2 inches. See also my ' Journal ' Nat. Lib.,' vol. xii. p. 165. 



