GENERAL HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 
419 
dence of the horse; but if this conjecture be correct, he 
must have widely extended his geographical range, for he is 
found in a wild state in Asia, as far north as the sixtieth 
degree, and to the utmost southern extremes of that vast 
continent, and also in many parts of Africa. 
On each side of the river Don horses are found in a wild 
state ; but these are supposed to be the offspring of Russian 
horses which were used at the siege of Azof, in the year 
1697, as many were turned loose upon that occasion for 
want of forage. In South America, on those immense plains 
extending from the shores of La Plata to Patagonia, immense 
troops of horses are found, sometimes to the extent of ten 
thousand individuals. These are the offspring of emancipated 
horses which were taken to that continent by the Spaniards ; 
for it is quite certain that the horse was unknown in America 
when that continent was first discovered. Indeed, the 
natives considered the horseman and horse as one animal. 
There great troops do not always feed in company, but are 
dispersed into smaller herds, and only congregate when they 
are alarmed. These animals are impelled by a natural 
instinct, which looks remarkably like reason, for they are 
invariably preceded by a leader in cases of alarm, and are 
sensible that their safety consists in united force, and a 
principle of subordination—the first things to be attended 
to, even by man himself. 
In a domestic condition the horse is found in every 
country, such being the pliability of his physical constitu¬ 
tion, that he thrives in very opposite extremes of tempera¬ 
ture, except within the limits of the arctic circle itself. But 
in Great Britain he seems to have acquired the highest 
legree of symmetrical proportions and powers of speed ; a? 
.‘ur race-horses are universally admitted to be the finest ^nd 
fastest gallopers in the world. 
