The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-11-25


and settlers by entIcIng away mares and
young colts, warfare has been syste-
matically waged against them until now
they are reduced to about ten or
dozen.
The Blackfeet Indians who, since the
days OF Lewis and Clark have been
celebrated for their splend d mounts,
obtained mos. of their stock from a
large body of land in Fiathead lake
known as "Wild Horse Island"
Nearly ninety years ago these Indians
who were at war with a neighborlng
tribe, came down Flathead river. and
following the trail around the lake saw
the horses on the island. Waiting
until the lake was frozen over. they
crossed to the island on the ice, and
rounding up the whole herd drove
them to their reservation in the north
where they kept them for their own
use. A few are still running wild in
the Rlackfeet country, but the bucks
keep careful eye upon them and ward
off all i.truders.
On the banks of the sand.bars in
North Carolina that divide the ocean
from Pamlico Sound and just inside
Cape Lookout Lighthouse, there is a
hardy race of wild PONIES known as
"bankers." These ponies have lived
there as long as tradition dates back.
Entirely surrounded by deep water at
all seasons, having no communication
with the mainland and barren of yege-
tation save the scantY growth of sedge
grass und scrubs, the bar Is practically
uninhablted except by these hardy
ponies. In storms and hurricanes, the
enterprising brutes, choosing the pro-
tected sides OF sands hilocks, stamp
out stalls for themselves, where they
take refuge. It is believed vessel
containing their progeuitors was
wrecked on the coast, from whence
sprang the tough little bankers. now so
numerous.
Not far distant, towards the north
east and off the coast OF Virginia, is
Chincoteague Island, wnere another
small band of "oankers" roam un-
checked and uncausht, as free and as
wild as their cousins of the plains.
They probably had their origin from
the same shipwrecked vessel which
cast its cargo ashore near Pamlico
Sound.
Our larger and better class of wild
horses, however, are 10 be found in the
West and On the eastern slope Of the
Rocky Mountains, although in Nevada,
among the Snake and Kawich hills of
White Pine and Nye counties, the.
are many small bands, numbering from
twelve to fifty, which are verltab!e
mountain, climbers and cliff-dwellers.
There is one group Of seven or eight
animals led ty an old gray stallion that
is seen every summer on the very top
OF Shacknasty Mountain. southwest Of
Corr, in Lander county. He is a
poly gamous brute, as rolhing but mares
are ever seen IN his company. Some
cowboys looking for stray steers once
gavechase to the band for two or three
davs, and when hotly pursued the old
stallion was observed to drop to tho,
rear ald vigorously bite the others to
make them accelerate their speed e
cowboys lost the race, and when last
seen the hardy bronchos were climbing
the precipitous side OF the mountain
and daring all sorts of risky leaps and
jumps that even mountain goat would
scarcely care to undertake.
The iavorite pasture ground of the
finest and best wild horses we have IN
the West is the Tenton basin, North
western Wyoming, on the southern
border of the Yellowstone National
Park. General Brlsbin and the writer
were once passing through this region
on horseback, when we came upon an
old ranchman named Steine standing
over an immense black stallion that was
diving OIL the hillside. The man held
in his hand rife, with which he had
just killed the horse. There, you old
rascal, he was saying, guess you
won't steal any more of my mares.
Steine, who was a prominent horse
raiser in the Big Horn Mountains,
explained that the magnificent stallion
lying there dead was regular old thief,
and that during the past summer he
had enticed away from the home
corral a dozen fine brood mares.
He's worse than an Indian, general,
and slicker as a horse thief than any
redskjn l ever knew or heard tell
of. I've been on this fellows trial
nearly a year, and at last I've got even
with him. He is the king bolt or 2
whole herd over in the Teton Basin,
and me and my neighbors have asked
the Legislature 10 offer reward for
their hides. That fellow I've killed
was a regular Mormon and used to 60
off on expeditions to the different
ranches prospecting and running of
our stock but he's nipped at last and
| don't think there'll be any more
trouble for while.
1t is true that these wild stc
really more inimical to Il
some parts of the We
animals fe1a nat
lar parties -
express
star