SOJOURN AMONGST THE HORSES OF BRAZIL. 77 
horse; and deeming a few remarks on such a subject will not 
be uninteresting to the readers of the Veterinarian , I will at¬ 
tempt to sketch this noble animal of a tropical climate, both 
in his domesticated and wild state. 
I may here mention that on my voyage out to Pernambuco, 
when we were about twenty-one days under sail and steam, 
calling at Lisbon, St. Vincent, and the Cape de Verd Islands 
on our passage, I was entrusted with the care of six English 
cart-horses of great value, and was also engaged to attend 
them after their arrival in the country; but I was shortly 
relieved of my professional and other duties connected with 
the company I was sent out by, as the English horses, to 
make use of a familiar simile, melted away like snow before 
the sun. All of them soon found an early grave; affording 
ample proof that English horses, of the draught breed, at any 
rate, are unfitted for exportation to the Brazils. 
The height of the native horse of Brazil is about fourteen 
hands. He is light and cleanly made, docile with gentle 
usage, capable of travelling at a good speed, and enduring much 
fatigue. It is really astonishing, considering the poor nourish¬ 
ment and shelter afforded to these horses by their owners, 
what an amount of work they will do. They are fed chiefly 
on the native couch-grass, which is long and coarse, and 
given to them in its green state, accompanied with a pailful 
of treacle and water to wash it down. The great majority of 
these animals exist on this diet alone. Some favorites, now 
and then, get a feed of Indian corn as well. They have no 
regular stables, and no fenced pastures. One or two horses 
are usually kept tied up near the door of the dwelling-house 
or hut, or at other times, several may be enclosed in the corral, 
which is a circular space surrounded by posts driven into 
the ground. 
The Brazilian horse, in his wild state, is a beautiful 
animal, and most of them are either gray or bay in colour. 
They have no natural pace between the walk and the gallop; 
but when trained, they acquire what is termed carrago by the 
natives—a species of canter and trot combined. 
I remember, when going up into the interior of the 
country, seeing a large company of wild horses—nearly 100 
of them—silently grazing. I approached them very cautiously 
to within a very short distance, so as to have a good view of 
them, and I believe not one of them would have sold for less 
than twenty pounds in an English market. If they have a 
fault, it is a lowness in their shoulders, and being rather 
narrow across the loins ; but, with these exceptions, their 
symmetry is good. Suddenly I raised myself to their view; 
xxxiv. " 7 
