The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-08-23
So PER ANNUM

clan on the island. In great emergencies
a surgeon was brought from Horntown or
Snow Hill, but ordinarily the people relied
on "home cures" and the "old women
doctors" am informed that the death
rate was less than it is now, although the
islanders have the benefit Of the skill and
experience of DR.. N. S. Smith, who is also
Deputy Collector Of Customs at Chinco-
league.
Wild ponies are abundant here, and
hundred Of them may be seen in a half
hours walk from the Atlantic Hotel.
Nobody knows how they got here. The
"oldest inhabitant" remembers of hearing
his grandfather say that they were on the
island when he was boy Probably they
were careering over the sand hills when
the first settler crossed the sound. There
is tradition that some great Virginia
gentleman, of two hundred years ago, was
bringing over pair of ponies from Eng
land, and that the ship which carried them
was wrecked off Assateague beach; the
p1aies were washed ashore, and were the
progenitors of the little animals that now
feed upon the salt marshes of Chinco-
league. In the last century they were con-
sidered of no value, and it is not known
that the proprietors of the island ever set
up any claim to those which grazed upon
their lands. When the herdsmen became
the owners of the soil they began to lasso
some Of them, and to put mark on them
by which they could be recognized after
wards. A few were domesticated and used
for riding. The marking process went on
from year to year, until forty years ago
there was no pony on the island that was
not claimed by somebody. Many of them
were tanned and taken over to the main
land. In 1910 well broken Chinco.
league pony was worth from twenty-five to
thirty dollars.
Under the ordinary conditions Of repro
duction, in the fifty or hundred years,
during which they had no owners, the
island would have been so stocked with
them that they must inevitably have
starved. But there were causes con-
stantly operating to kill off the weak.
Only the strong and healthy could stand
the rigors of winter. Prompted by hun
ger, the herds would wade into the marshes
for the salt-grass; the strong would return
to the shore, the weak would remain fast
in the mud and perish. Every year many
ponies are lost in this way. Before the
lasso and the branding-iron appeared on
the island there was perpetual war between
the males, and the strongest conquered /;
the weak were killed They have heavy
names and tails, and in the winter they
have long coat of hair When a chilling
northeaster blows, the animals of each herd
crowd together, and, facing the southwest,
stand motionless until the storm has spent
its fury. 1t is said that when there is
snow on the ground they never lie down +;
and if they sleep at all, they sleep while
standing ON their feet.
do not know how much truth there is
in the tradition about the two ponies that
are believed to have come ashore from the
wrecked ship; but if the island was stocked
in this way, | think it more probable that
the ancestral pair were couple of small,
well-bred horses that had no pony blood in
their veins. The great majority of these
ponies look like diminutive horses, and
most of the mares have heads as handsome
and bony as any thoroughbred. The
straight nose, thin, curving nostril, and
full, intelligent eye, are not characteristic
of the Shetland breed. There are some
low-set little fellows, with short, thick
heads and prodigious foretops, but am
told that Canadian pony was turned loose
upon the island some years ago, and it is
probable that the peculiar characteristics of
his speaies crop out occasionally in his
descendants. If these animals are descen-
ded from pair Of well-bred horses, then
the conditions under which they have lived
have reduced them to ponies The dimin.
utiyc size and the heavy names and tails
have resulted from the constant breeding
in and in, the rigors of the climate, the
hard struggle for existence, and the coarse,
scanty food, If these causes, operating
for hundred years, will reduce an Ara
bian horse to a Chincoteague pony, what
80, >J f'S ' u"
million oil years
Ihere are about hve hundred ponies on
the Island, including those on Assateague.
They divide themselves into herds, with.
out regard TO ownership and each herd
confines itself to q particular range
Sometimes herd Will migrate from one
quarter OF the island to another, but this
does not often happen There are about
tnirty persons VINO own ponies, all OF
whom, with TWO or three exceptions, live
on the island, One oil the large Proprletorrs
owns a hundred head, but person is
considered well oil who has his brand upon
twenty or thirty Each nerd Is governed
by male--a sort OF equine autocrat-
whose authority Is supreme. In former
times ne fought his way up to the position
OF patriarch by thrashing all his rivals,
sometimes driving them into the sea, where
they were drowned. All usurpers were
remorsclessly expelled from the herd, and
IT they were not Killed, they became bold
bandits, and hung about the marshes,
capturing sucn unwary females as hap
pened to stray too far from their pr0tec-