80 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



pears an useless piece of cruelty to shoot a 

 wild horse, and so it would be unless the 

 skins were much wanted, and they inhabited 

 a country like the Pampas ; but in the forest 

 it is widely different, for there is no animal, 

 not even the panther, so mischievous as the 

 wild horse. If horses and mules are turned 

 out for a night to feed in the forest or on 

 the savannah, there is little dread of losing 

 more than one, and, that one rarely, by the 

 panther ; or the casualty of losing a beast's 

 services for six months by the bite of the 

 horse-spider on the coronet of the foot, when 

 the hoof falls off ; but if your animals chance 

 to fall in with a troop of Cimarron horses, 

 they follow them to all their haunts, soon 

 become half wild, and it is fifty to one 

 against ever seeing one of your own again, 

 but greater odds against catching one out of 

 the whole, and it is no joke to be left in the 

 woods without any beast of burden ; there- 

 fore, cruel as it may seem, the safest way, 

 when there are no means of catching wild 

 horses or driving them out of your country, 

 is to shoot them down wherever they are 

 met with. 



Having given a mere outline of the above 

 modes of hunting wild cattle and horses, I 



