Ti.ri
determined to render him for the future innocuous. It
was very interesting to see how art completely mastered
force. One lazo was thrown over his horns, as he rushed
at the horse, and another round his hind le g s : in a minute
the monster was stretched harmless on the ground.
After the lazo has once been tightly drawn round the horn.s
of a furious animal, it does not at first appear an easy thing
to disengage it again; nor, I apprehend, would it he so, if the
man was by himself, and he did not wish to kill the beast.
By the aid, however, of a second person throwing his lazo, so
as to catch both hind legs, it is quickly managed: for the animal,
as long as its hind legs are kept outstretched, is quite
powerless, and the first man can with his hands loosen his
lazo, and then quietly mount his horse; but the moment
the second man, by backing ever so little, relaxes the strain,
the lazo slips off the legs of the struggling beast, which thus
rises free, shakes himself, and vainly rushes after his
antagonist.
During our whole ride we only saw one troop of wild
horses. These animals, as well as the cattle, were introduced
by the French in 1764, since which time they have
greatly increased. It is a curious fact, that the horses
have never left the eastern end of the island, although
there is no natural boundary to prevent them from roaming,
and that part of the island is not more tempting than
the rest. The Gauchos, though asserting this to be the
case, are unable to account for the circumstance. The
horses appear to thrive well, yet they are small sized, and
have lost so much strength, that they are unfit to he used in
taking wild cattle with the lazo. In consequence, it is necessary
to go to the great expense of importing fresh horses
from the Plata. At some future period the southern hemisphere
probably will have its breed of Falkland ponies, as
the northern has that of Shetland.
- The rabbit is another animal which has been introduced,
and has succeeded very w e ll; so that they abound over large
parts of the island. Yet, like the horses, they are confined
within certain limits ; for they have not crossed the central
chain of hiUs ; nor would they have extended even so far as
the base, if, as the Gauchos informed me, small colonies had
not been carried there. I should not have supposed that
these animals, natives of northern Africa, could have existed
in a climate so extremely humid as this, and which enjoys so
little sunshine that even wheat ripens only occasionally. It is
asserted that in Sweden, which any one would have thought a
more favourable climate, the rabbit cannot live out of doors.
The first few pair moreover had here to contend against
pre-existing enemies, in the fox, and some large hawks. The
French naturalists have considered the black variety a distinct
species, and called it Lepiis Magellanicus.* They imagined
that Magellan, when talking of an animal under the
name of “ conejos,” in the Strait of Magellan, referred to this
species; but he was alluding to a small cavy, which to this
day is thus called. The Gauchos laughed at the idea of
the black kind being different from the gray, and they said
that at all events it had not extended its range any further
than the other; that the two were never found separate;
and that they readily bred together, and produced piebald
offspring. Of the latter I now possess a specimen, and it
is marked about the head, differently from the French specific
description. This circumstance shows how cautious
naturalists should be in making species; for even Cuvier,
on looking at the skull of one of these rabbits, thought it
was probably distinct.
The only quadruped native to the island, is a large wolf-like
fox,t which is common to both Fast and West Falkland. I
* L e s so n ’s Z o o lo g y o f th e V o y ag e o f th e C o q u ille , vo l. i., p . 108.
A ll th e e a rly v oyagers, a n d e sp e c ia lly B o u g a in v ille , d is tin c tly s ta t e t h a t
th e wo lf-lik e fo x was th e o n ly n a tiv e a n im a l o n th e is la n d . T h e d is t
in c t io n o f th is r a b b it a s a sp e c ie s , is ta k e n from p e c u lia ritie s in th e fu r,
from th e sh a p e o f th e h e a d , a n d from th e s h o rtn e s s o f th e e a rs . I may
h e re o b se rv e t h a t th e d iffe re n c e b e tw e e n th e I r is h a n d E n g lis h h a re , re s ts
u p o n n e a rly s im ila r c h a ra c te rs , o n ly m o re s tro n g ly m a rk e d .
t I liave re a so n to b e lie v e tlie re is lik ew ise a fie ld -m o u se. T h e com-
*1 I