Year: 1873

clan on the island. In great emergencies
surgeon was brought from Horntown or
Snow Hill, but ordinarily the people relied
on "home cures and the cold 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 a
hundred of them may be seen in 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 a boy. Probably they
were careering over the sand hills when
the first settler crossed the sound. There
is a 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
ponies 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 1840 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 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.
utivc 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 Chincoteague pony, what
sort Of an animal would they produce in a
million Of years?


There are about FIVE 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 . particular range.
Sometimes herd will migrate from one
quarter of the island 10 another, but this
does not often happen. There are about
thirty persons who own ponies, all Of
whom, with two or three exceptions, live
on the island One Of the large proprietors
owns hundred head, but person is
considered well off who has his brand upon
twenty or thirty. Each herd is governed
by male--a sort of equine autocrat-
whose authority is supreme. In former
times he 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
remorselessly expelled from the herd, and
il they we're not killed, they became bold
bandits, aud hung about the marshes,
capturing such unwary females as hap
pened to stray too far from their protec.
tors. With these they founded new herds
and became prosperous patriarchs them
selves. l-fl iat


Since the civilizing lasso and branding
iron have appeared on the island, the
patriarch has less difficulty in maintaining
his position, and his life is Comparatively
peaceful. The males of the herd are sold
when three or four years of age. Although
the mares are neater and more docile, they
are seldom sold Some Of them live to be
twenty years of age, and all of them
become the mothers Of numerous progeny.
The mother of ten colts brings her owner
thousand dollars in ten years, during
which time her subsistence has not cost q
single penny. 1t is not surprising, there.
fore, that they are seldom taken from the
island.
In the summer the ponies lead joyous
life. They crop the wild grass that grows
luxuriantly on the island, and when the
flies annoy them too much they take a
gallop through the bushes or bath in the
sea. If the winter happens to be severe
however, they have sorry time Of IL