Aug. 22, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
291 
H 
b- 
s 
ever, work from place to place for food, and 
down to the stream for water. The place for 
leaving horses tied in this way was necessarily 
specially selected, where there was no danger 
of their getting tangled up in the brush or fall¬ 
ing off a bank. 
The bands of wild horses were usually in 
charge of some large swift stallion, which 
ordered all their movements and followed close 
behind the running herd. These stallions acted 
as drivers to the herd, urging on by sharp 
nippings of the teeth any lagging animals, and 
also turning back to fight the pursuers. The 
Cheyenne have many tales about such stallions. 
There was one very large black stallion which 
ranged on the head of the Republican River. He 
was without ears, these perhaps having been 
frozen off when he was a little colt. He was as 
large as an American horse, had a full tail, 
which swept the ground and a very heavy mane 
and fore-lock. The Indians often pursued his 
herd, but never with success, for when they ap¬ 
proached too close to it, this horse would turn 
about and charge back on the pursuers, his 
mane, tail and fore-lock spread out like blankets 
swung in the wind, and the horses ridden by 
the Indians were afraid of him and would at 
once check their speed or even stop. The In¬ 
dians themselves were not afraid of the horse, 
but their horses were. 
Another famous stallion had charge of a 
band, all of which were light strawberry roans. 
This was the color of the horse as well, but he 
had on both sides a number of jet black spots 
as large as one’s hand. This also was a fight¬ 
ing horse, and on too close approach would 
rush threateningly back at the pursuers, whose 
horses would stop. It was once proposed by 
some Indians to shoot him, but others said, 
“No, we had better not interfere with him. He 
may have some strong medicine power and to 
kill him might bring us bad luck.” 
The wild horses are said to have had keen 
hearing and especially keen sight. The Indians 
say that if you merely put your head up over 
the top of a hill when horses were near they 
were likely to see you. 
The Cheyenne declare that at the watering 
places the old stallions always voided their drop¬ 
pings at the same spot, so that great heaps of 
dung were seen at such places. On reaching the 
water the stallion would walk about, smelling 
the ground, until he found a place that suited 
him, when he would turn about and dung. The 
habit is supposed to have been confined to the 
adult males. I have never heard of anything 
like it with wild range horses. 
The stallions were fierce fighters. Of course, 
old stallions commonly drove out of the herd 
all the young colts of two, three and fours years 
old, and these often remained by themselves in 
considerable herds on the prairie. 
If a group of such young horses was found— 
to be recognized of course by their shorter 
manes and tails, and by the fact that their 
frames were not at all filled out—it was a com¬ 
mon practice to drive out toward them some 
gentle mares, when the young horses would run 
toward and mingle with them, and after a short 
time the bunch could be approached, rounded up 
and many of the young horses caught. 
The Cheyenne tell of a few cases where 
rival stallions, each with a band of mares in 
its charge, have been seen fighting on the 
prairie, the two bands standing apart and 
watching the fight. On one such an occasion 
the Indians rode up to the horses, which had 
been fighting so long that they were wholly ex¬ 
hausted. Great strips had been torn from their 
hides and the nostrils of one had been torn off. 
The stallions were so tired that they could not 
run away. 
The southwestern Indians testify that the 
southern horses—that is, those found in Mexico 
—were small, while those found further to the 
north, as for example, on the headwaters of 
the Republican River, which was a great range 
for horses, were large. This may mean that the 
horses ranging on the Republican River had 
been bred up by stray American horses which 
had joined the wild herds. It does not seem 
probable that the difference in climate would 
have greatly affected the size of the animals in 
the presumably brief time that the breeding had 
been going on. 
It is said also that the horses of the Pawnees 
were especially good, large in size and unusually 
tough and enduring. 
As is well known, the Indians of the South¬ 
west commonly ate horses, not merely in times 
of starvation, but often by preference. A war 
party getting out of food frequently killed a 
horse, if buffalo could not be obtained. The 
Kiowa and Comanche were especially fond of 
horse flesh. 
k 
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The Passing of the Whale. 
BY FREDERIC A. LUCAS. 
Curator in Chief of the Museum of Arts and Sciences 
of the Brooklyn Institute. 
The New York Zoological Society at its an¬ 
nual meeting in January adopted a resolution 
relative to the protection of whales by inter¬ 
national agreement. 
The idea that the preservation of whales was 
necessary and desirable w T as new to many mem¬ 
bers of the society. This was perhaps natural, 
as whales and whaling industries do not come 
under the observation of the average citizen. 
Yet whales as economic animals have been and 
continue to be of immense value to man. They 
are of the greatest possible interest zoologically, 
since they are the largest of existing animals. 
One species—the sulphur-bottom whale—attains 
a length of eighty feet, being of greater size 
than the extinct dinosaurs, the largest of the 
wonderful animals of the past. 
From a strictly American viewpoint the whale 
deserves serious consideration, as it was half 
a century ago the basis of an industry which 
brought great wealth to the New England 
States. In the days when the whale fishery was 
most important there were over six hundred 
American ships and many thousands of men 
regularly engaged in that industry. 
During a period of nearly fifty years prior 
to about 1872 the value of whale oil and whale¬ 
bone landed by American vessels, amounted to 
more than two hundred and seventy millions of 
dollars. 
Subsequently the whaling industry as con¬ 
ducted from vessels gradually declined. The 
present method of whaling from shore stations 
is of quite recent introduction. 
It is a startling fact that nearly all species 
of whales are threatened with early extinction 
by reason of the destructiveness of modern 
methods of whaling, practiced chiefly from 
stations located on shore. 
The protection of whales is therefore neces¬ 
sary if any whales are to be left for future sup¬ 
ply. How rapidly whales of all kinds, save pos¬ 
sibly the sperm whale, are disappearing before 
the attacks of man, may be inferred from a 
glance of the shore whaling industry and par¬ 
ticularly at that of Newfoundland, whose statis¬ 
tics are most readily available and whers the 
effects of modern methods are most apparent. 
Before 1903 we have no data as to the num¬ 
ber of whales taken along the coast of New¬ 
foundland and can only say that the value of 
whale products rose successively from $1,581 in 
1898, to $36,428 in 1900, and $125,287 in 1902. 
Making a rough estimate, based on the value 
of the products of the whale fishery, one may 
say that this represents not less than 350 whales, 
more probably about 500, since prior to 1902 
the waste was very great. The first whaling 
station in which modern methods were adopted 
was established in 1897 and its success was so 
great that in 1903 four others had been erected 
and three more planned, although but three 
steamers were then employed. R. T. McGrath, 
in the report of the Newfoundland Department 
of Fisheries for 1903, gave it as his opinion that 
no more applications for factories should be 
granted for some years to come, saying, “Two 
factories are about to be erected, one at Trinity 
and one at Bonavista—during the coming year. 
This will make eight factories in all, viz.: 
Balena, Aquaforte, Snook’s Arm, Chaleur Bay, 
Cape Broyle, Bonavista and Trinity. In my 
opinion no further applications should be 
granted for some years. If licenses are given 
without restriction, it will result in complete 
depletion of this industry within a short time; 
while if judiciously dealt with, it will be a 
