- MAMMALIA, ~ 231 
[72.] — 1. Equus caparius. (Linn.) The Horse. 
The Horse. WarbeEn, United States, p. 234. 
Wild Horse. Lone, Jowrn., vol. ii. p. 3133 vol. iii. p. 107. 
_ Herds of wild horses, the offspring of those which have escaped from the 
‘Spanish possessions in Mexico, are not uncommon on the extensive prairies that 
lie to the west of the Mississipi. ‘They were once numerous on the Kootannie 
Lands, near the northern sources. of the Columbia, on the eastern side of the 
Rocky Mountain ridge, but of late years they have been almost eradicated in 
that quarter. They are not known to exist in a wild state to the northward of 
the fifty-second or fifty-third parallel of latitude. The young stallions live in 
separate herds, being driven away by the old ones, and are easily ensnared by 
using domestic mares as a decoy. The Kootannies are acquainted with the 
Spanish-American mode of taking them with the lasso. Major Long mentions 
that “ horses are an object of a particular hunt to the Osages. For the purposes 
of obtaining these animals, which in their wild state preserve all their fleetness, 
they go in a large party to the country of the Red Canadian River, where they are 
to be found in considerable numbers. When they discover a gang of the horses, 
they distribute themselves into three parties, two of which take their stations at 
different and proper distances on their route, which by previous experience they 
know the horses will most probably take when endeavouring to escape. This 
arrangement being completed, the first party commences the pursuit in the 
‘direction of their colleagues, at whose position they at length arrive. The second 
party then continues the chase with fresh horses, and pursues the fugitives to the 
third party, which generally succeeds in so far running them down as to noose 
and. capture a considerable number of them.” 
The domestic horse is an object of great value to the nomadic tribes of 
Indians that frequent the extensive plains of the Saskatchewan and Missouri, for 
they are not only useful in transporting their tents and families from place to 
place, but one of the highest objects-of the ambition of a young Indian is to 
" possess a good horse for the chase of the buffalo, an exercise of which they are 
passionately fond. To steal the horses of an adverse tribe is considered to be 
nearly as heroic an exploit as killing an enemy on the field of battle, and the 
