The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1895-09-28
ONE ON THE HORSE.
Civilization Downs the Lordly Cayuse on
His Native Heath. |

| His Native Heath.
The cayuse is rapidly passing over
| the great divide, and soon the last of
| his race will face the inevitable and
| expire to satisfy the cravings of the
human stomach. 1t is, perhaps, ac-
| cording to the eternal fitness of things
| that here in Eastern Oregon, where
the first horse, the eo-hippus, nipped
| the cenozoic herbage from the hole in
| the ground out of which our rolling
prairies have grown, the beginning OF
his destruction should occur. Truly the
cayuse is of royal descent, If length OF
pedigree can be taken as measure OF
nobility, for the first horse, though no
larger than a sheep with the tariff off
him, was cotemporary with the earli-
est vertebrates, and has seen the great
animals of the earth pass away. He
has survived them all, because he was
of all the innumerable types of animal
life, the fittest. The plesiosaurus
chewed grass for breakfast with him,
but The plesiosaurus vanished centu-
ries ago! The megatherium fed on the
top branches of the trees, beast so
large that the horse seemed to him but
microbe! The pterodactyl became
an iambic, shed his pter and wlnked
out! The sabre-toothed tiger with
head as large as water bucket and
paw like boxing glove devoured his
species. but the horse survived him.
Granivora, carnivora. omnivora all
vanished long ago from the earth leav-
ing but their bones to show their
types-types that printed their story
on the pages of the great geological
book of Nature. But the cayuse
stayed, because he was alwaysa slayer.
1t was long time ago, my friend, |
when the little horse rehearsed for his |
first bucking match! 1t WIS long
time ago that his little bones were |
turned to stone down on the fly leaf of |
the geological book! 1t is long ways |
down into the eocene formation to
where his petrified bones bear silent
but convincing evidence of his antiq-
uity! Down to where the clay beds
that covered his bones cons ago turned |
to stone! Down 1900 feet below where
his descendants now crop the bunch
grass from the undulating plains! Yes,
indeed! 1t was long time ago. Year
by year, century by century, the dust,
the sediment, the detritus from the
hills accumulated over those petrified
bones until they were buried nearly
half mile deep. Nor was that all:
after they were buried the John Day
river, year by year and with infinite
slowness, cut out a channel down
the rocks until after, no one
knows how many centuries of centu-
ries the little bones are again brought
to light. The cayuse grew up with the
1900 feet of it, and is at least
that much above his ancestors. But
his day is done. Nature could not
lown him, but civilization will. He
stood the saddle and the harness, but
5he slaughter-house, the tin can and
jhe hippophagous anthropoid called
nan have measured and marked the
circle of his existence. The rubber
ooted bike and the electric current
nave destroyed his usefulness, the ru-
animals require the grass and
ne must give way to the new condi-
ions. Behold the end of him.
Knocked in the head, hawser is fast
,ned to his hide which is stripped ruth
essly from him, the hawser being used
because it requires something horser
han the horse to peel him. The car
,ass is hung up by the heels and the
nsides and buck removed. But let us
race his career no further, for we are
lot disposed to eat him. Whence he
anne we know. but for the sake of our
tomachs let US not inquire into the
7hither into which he disappears.