Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-01-14

Wild and Tame Animals in the CO.
lOniaI Continent.

Wild and Tame Animals in the CO.
lonia1 Continent.
From Ranken's Dominion of Australia"
The feats of the Australian race
horse are only beaten upon the best
is questioned if the colonial horse has
been excelled. No amusement is so
general as racing, no people so adj
dicted to it; nowhere is the horse in
such general use as in Australia. It is
not confined to one class or one dis
trict, as it may be elsewhere ;, it is the
amusement of the country. There are
cricket and all games scoursing, hunt
ing, yachting, and many sports; but
horse racing is the first and universal
iavorite. In the bush, every small
] village has its fastest q horse
nearly every. station INDUCES in
little racing ); for horses are
everywhere, and constantly used be
all the population as it is so easy to
keep any animal in this climate, horses
cost nothing. They are born and bred
broke in and worked all their lives
upon grass and in the bush, without
any shelter, or, we may say, any groom
ing. These are the ordinary horses of
the country. Race-horses and pet
hacks, or hunters, or heavy draught
horses are fed and stabbed, being for
special work but they are exceptional.
And, as grass is so plentiful. and as
horses, like cattle, require no looking
after beyond keeping them within some
limits, they have increased far and be-
You'd all limits of use or profit. They
are more than unstable, and worse
than useless. In many of the old dis
tricts of New South Wales they run
wild i'll thousands; they are not worth
looking after, and are very difficult to
c7llect in any way they eat the food
Of other profitable stock, and are only
a scourge upon the pastures. Hence
they have to be exterminated like YER
min. In many parts of the country
they are shot by hired men, for SO
much per head, and ere collected and
destroyed Systematically. They abound
in wild mobs upon mountains of the
most rugged and inaccessible charac-
ter, as we'll a. upon the widest plains
of the interior; always degenerating,
becoming smaller, weaker and wider.
The wild horse of the ranges becomes
very active and wiry, aud has hoofs of
iron, with the foothold of q mule. He
scrambles over rocks and gallops down
slopes which no other horse, under any
circumstances, could be made to face.
He can only be obtained by careful
stalking and coaxing into defles, or by
fences leading into yards, and run
through by one man after another; or,
if upon the plains, the wild horse gal
lops till he falls. Here he may not
only be got by coaching" like wild
cattle, but by another system of hunt
ing. Daylight is chosen for this,
as some galloping may be ex-
pected, and mob of quiet horses
taken as coaches, and drawn quietly
out as decoys. When the wild mob
first see the others they are very shy of
them of their choice. The old patri-
arch will round up his troop, and then
trot out and gaze upon the strangers
his head erect, ears forward and nos
trils dilated, his heavy chest lifting
long, tangled mane--he challenges the
intruder. They will take no notice
Then the wild horse goes around
his own, and drives them back
little. He again salutes the others;
and this time he examines them and
passes through the lot. The wild
troop then trot up, the foals frolicking
III front; they will gallop round the
others and wheel back again; their
''slre' goes out and steadies them.
And SO on for some minutes They
might break away at length, and per
haps leave the coaches. But stockmen
must watch their opportunity, and
round up the whole two mobs togeth-
er. A stampede is almost sure to en-
sue, and most of the wild ones be lost
they will break away, straight across
the plains, trusting to their speed
alone, but they cannot last long.
A stabbed horse will run them
down under any weight, and
them again and again; but they will
not stop; wild horses do not readily
steady and in attempts to get them
many are run until they drop dead on
the plain many foa]s are left; and The
whole dwindle by the boiling and
knocking up until perhaps only half of
the original mob reaches the yard.
Then even with that half the result is
unsatisfactory for, out of hundred
such wild ANIMALS there are not per-
haps three head worth breaking in;
possibly some "coach" has been lost
Or some stock horse injured The only
gain is the removal Of the lot from the
pasture they were occupying, which
they held TO the annoyance and risk of
The quiet horses, and to the loss of food
for all other stock.