corroborate this curious account, that he has several times found young
foals dead, whereas he has never found a dead calf. Moreover, the dead
bodies of full-grown horses are more frequently found, as if more
subject to disease or accidents, than those of the cattle. From the
softness of the ground their hoofs often grow irregularly to a great
length, and this causes lameness. The predominant colours are roan and
iron-grey. All the horses bred here, both tame and wild, are rather
small-sized, though generally in good condition; and they have lost so
much strength, that they are unfit to be used in taking wild cattle
with the lazo: in consequence, it is necessary to go to the great
expense of importing fresh horses from the Plata. At some future
period the southern hemisphere probably will have its breed of Falkland
ponies, as the northern has its Shetland breed.
The cattle, instead of having degenerated like the horses seem, as
before remarked, to have increased in size; and they are much more
numerous than the horses. Capt. Sulivan informs me that they vary much
less in the general form of their bodies and in the shape of their
horns than English cattle. In colour they differ much; and it is a
remarkable circumstance, that in different parts of this one small
island, different colours predominate. Round Mount Usborne, at a
height of from 1000 to 1500 feet above the sea, about half of some of
the herds are mouse or lead-coloured, a tint which is not common in
other parts of the island. Near Port Pleasant dark brown prevails,
whereas south of Choiseul Sound (which almost divides the island into
two parts), white beasts with black heads and feet are the most common:
in all parts black, and some spotted animals may be observed. Capt.
Sulivan remarks, that the difference in the prevailing colours was so
obvious, that in looking for the herds near Port Pleasant, they
appeared from a long distance like black spots, whilst south of
Choiseul Sound they appeared like white spots on the hill-sides. Capt.
Sulivan thinks that the herds do not mingle; and it is a singular fact,
that the mouse-coloured cattle, though living on the high land, calve
about a month earlier in the season than the other coloured beasts on
the lower land. It is interesting thus to find the once domesticated
cattle breaking into three colours, of which some one colour would in
all probability ultimately prevail over the others, if the herds were
left undisturbed for the next several centuries.
The rabbit is another animal which has been introduced; and has
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