The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-09-02
HORSES OF ALL KINDS.
Thousands of Them That Do Not Come
Under the Head of Useful Animals

| Thousands of Them That Do Not Come
Under the Head of Useful Animals
Very young students in their first at
tempts at composition often inform
us that the horse is a useful animal
This sweeping generalization is subject
to important notifications before it is
accepted in all communities There
are many thousands of horses that toll
not, like their progenitors, but go like
! the wind where it listeth and are looked
upon as intolerable nuisances in the
civilized regions they sometimes invade.
Our Australian friends, for instance,
are no lovers of the horse in his I'M
tanned state, and some of the colonies
set price upon his head and do all
they can to stimulate movements for
his destruction. Seven thousand wild
horses were shot in New South Wales
alone in 1875. These rovers of the
plain play the mischief with domestic
ated animals when they come among
| them, and the colonists are very much
disguised to observe that the noble
horse, relapsing into barbarism and
forgetting his oats and the other COM
forts of civilization, runs off with his
wild brethren who have not enjoyed
his superior advantages.
1t must be confessed that our horses
need the restraints imposed upon them
to prevent them from disgracing their
| ancestors, who were certainly domes-
ticated when they were introduced into
this country. Years ago IL used to be
the custom in our southwestern terri
tory to brand the young stock, and
even many work animals, and turn
them loose to shift for themselves for
year or two When they were wanted
they were always as wild as Mexican
mustangs. Mr.. Powell wrote a book
on the best methods of tanning wild
horses. The specimens on which he
eXerted his talents as tanner were, for
| the most part, formerly domesticated
animals who had forgotten all about
their restraints while wandering over
the plains of our southwestern terri
| tory.
Travellers in western territories are
no longer in danger of such an eruption
of horsehesh as Murray described in
his Travels in North America" He
not only witnessed stampede of thou
sands of panic-stricken horses, but the
living torrent swept along toward and
over his camp, trampling skins and
dried meats into the ground, knocking
down some of the tents and taking with
them all the horses except his riding
mare, who vainly struggled to break
her fastenings. They still range in
much smaller herds than formerly on
the plains of the upper Colorado; but
the wild horse like the buffalo, has
practically disappeared before the ad-
! vance of the white man.
In spite of the experience of the Au-
stralians, many people, chiefly savages,
have been able to turn the wild horses
to good account. Hundreds of thou
sands of Mexican mustangs have been
reduced to servitude. The wild horse
of the South American pampas, which
three centuries ago, only fif teen years
after the horse was introduced from
Europe, had spread to regions as remote
as Patagonia, has been tanned by thou
sands and has become the useful SER
want of Indian tribes.
Naturalists often discuss the ques-
ton whether there is now in the world
| such creature as an aboriginal, or
truly wild horse. We know very well
that the wild horses of the western
hemisphere are all descendants of
domesticated animals. Where, then,
is the aboriginal wild horse to be found?
The question will probably never be
settled. Mr.. j. H. Steel, who recently
read an interesting paper on wild
Horses" before the Bombay Natural
History Society, thinks the evidence is
in favor of the existence of the wild
horse in Central Asia. Gesner, the
great authority on zoology of the six
teenth century, was of the same
opinion, but the fact has often been
questioned, and the assertion cannot
positively be made that the wild horse
of the mountain region which the Rus
slams are now exploring and of which
they have secured some specimens is
not himself the descendant of ancient
| domesticated animals. -Goldthwaite's
Geogra phical Magazine.